10 Simple Ways To Skyrocket Your Website Traffic Using SMS

As more and more businesses move online either exclusively or in addition to their physical locations, it can be difficult to draw users to your website. Nearly every market is oversaturated, so it’s more important than ever before to stand out and offer a unique online experience.

There are a number of ways to use SMS marketing to increase website traffic, including using SMS keywords, including embedded links, offering incentives, and more. These methods are suitable for both large and small business, work with long codes or short codes, and are compatible with SMS and MMS messaging.

Combined with the right SMS platform, these marketing methods will result in instant website traffic.

How To Increase Your Website Traffic Using SMS

The question isn’t whether you’re driving traffic to websites, it’s whether you’re driving enough traffic to your website. Perhaps your current marketing and communication campaigns aren’t returning enough value, or new competition has popped up in your industry. Either way, you need to know how to increase SMS website traffic.

Keep the Message Short

The last few years, we’ve all heard media outlets tout Microsoft’s 2015 study that says we have eight-second attention spans, which is less than that of a goldfish. Though BBC debunked this back in 2017, it is true that users don’t have patience for long or rambling messages.

Keep your text messages short and to the point. Directly state what you’re offering or why you’re contacting users. If possible, keep your messages under 160 characters.

But beware: don’t take shortcuts at the expense of readability. Keep jargon to a minimum and only use abbreviations that all users are familiar with, such as LOL or TGIF.

Use SMS Keywords

SMS keywords are words or phrases that users can text to take advantage of the incentives you’re offering. For example, a user may text MOVIE to be entered into a contest for free tickets. These keywords are a great (and concise) way to increase web traffic.

Users can send SMS keywords via text or enter them in your website, such as through a specific page or pop-up form. SMS keywords are an easy way to attract new visitors and strengthen your current customer base.

Request Feedback

Everyone has an opinion – and you can use that to your advantage! Send out an SMS directing users to your website to give feedback. Ask for general information about your website or company or ask targeted questions about a new product, service, etc. This is a great opportunity to find out if your website is meeting users’ needs, looks aesthetically pleasing, and is easy to navigate - all of which is essential to increasing web traffic.

In addition to increasing SMS traffic, you’ll also be able to gain valuable insight into how current consumers view you. In turn, you can use this feedback to create more targeted campaigns and improve your services overall.

Use Multimedia

SMS provides you with more than just written content to make your company stand out. Using multimedia such as pictures, GIFs, emoticons, and more, you can enhance your SMS messages and increase the likelihood of driving traffic to your website.

Bright colors and movement are better at drawing and keeping users’ attention than just text. Using them to help distribute your message makes it more effective and provides variety from past SMS messages.

Include A Call To Action (CTA)

Your SMS marketing won’t be very effective if people don’t understand its goals - that is, they don’t understand they have to go to your website. Your CTA needs to be clear and easy to follow. Explicitly tell users to go your website for sales, to enter an SMS keyword, to take advantage of a new service, etc.

The CTA should be concise, but clear, and include some sort of incentive to motivate people to follow it. After all, just telling people to visit your website isn’t very effective. But offering value in exchange will drive traffic.

Offer Incentives

When users subscribe to your SMS messaging lists, they expect to receive something of value in return. Whether that comes in the form of contest entries, free services, discounted products, or other offers, you need to uphold your end of this contract.

The more you consistently provide value and prove to users that your subscription list and website are worth their time, the more you build your company’s reputation as a worthwhile investment. This encourages customer loyalty and attracts new users.

Include Embedded Links

It’s hard to keep your text messages under 160 characters when you have to include long website URLs. Instead of sending out the entire URL, include embedded links in your SMS messages. These allow you to focus on your messages without worrying about going over the character count. They’re also more aesthetically pleasing for users.

Create personalized messages for different user segments. For instance, you can send promo codes to new subscribers or respond to their opt-in with a customized message, like “welcome to the x family.” For your loyal users, you can run text-to-win or other rewarding campaigns.

Combine With Other Platforms

Using SMS marketing to increase web traffic leverages the power of text on behalf of your website. To create even more traffic, you can do this with other platforms, as well. For example, you can use email campaigns to encourage subscribers to visit your website.

SMS is effective on its own, but can create even more web traffic when combined with other platforms. This also has the advantage of spreading value incentives for customers across various mediums.

Customize Your SMS Messages

While SMS messaging is already effective, subscribers respond even more to customized texts. Including their name in messages is an easy way to do this, as is providing birthday-specific incentives (such as a free dessert, 30% off, etc.).

You can also customize your SMS according to your industry. For example, a wedding planning company may offer couples congratulations on their anniversary and provide a keyword that redeems online for entry into a free honeymoon getaway. The anniversary well wishes create a personal connection with subscribers, while the keyword sends traffic to your website.

Choose the Right SMS Platform

It’s great to talk about how SMS can boost your website traffic, but none of the suggestions above are useful without a reliable platform. Research SMS APIs and other messaging solutions to find one that’s able to meet your company’s current and future needs. Check its SLA, features, pricing, and reviews.

Esendex's SMS Notify! API is an easy-to-use, programmable SMS API that provides you with fast, reliable, and global communication. Packed with features like MMS messaging, an extended 4,000 character limit, and messaging queuing (among others), our API is perfect for curating SMS website traffic.