Millennials love texting. In fact, during last week’s post, I mentioned that 77% of consumers aged 18-34 have a positive perception of brands who text. This insight by itself should lead any brand to look into SMS marketing. And as an artist, so should you! During last week’s post, I looked into ‘what not to do’ with SMS marketing, so this week I will go into some of the ways you can start building your text campaign no matter if you are a musician, photographer, writer, graphic designer, filmmaker, gym instructor, yoga teacher or a creative in similar areas.

So, here are four effective ways of using texting for marketing:

1. Texting fans/audience/students ahead of an event. A great way to get in touch with your audience is to text them to let them know the date and location.  Even a simple note of “Hi, I have an event 7pm at X location, would love to see you there!” would suffice! It is easy for people to forget about an event that they saw on Facebook or Instagram, but texting is not only much more personal, and for that reason also less forgettable. Just keep in mind that when you are texting people, make sure that they have consented to receive texts, as the opposite would surely defeat the purpose and would come off as invasive for people’s privacy.

2. Merchandising. As one of the biggest sources of revenue for artists, you can reach your fans via text to introduce new merchandise in stock. Moreover, you can combine these with discounts for your fans. You can go up a level further to make some of the merchandise exclusively available for purchases via text. This would not only add an aspect of exclusivity to your store, but it also would reward your fans for following you.

3. Exclusive content: You can preview brand new songs, paintings, a new book, a new yoga video to your text subscribers before it gets released publicly. This way, not only you would reward your fans for sharing their personal texting space, but also make a nice gesture for making them feel special with an exclusive release.

4. VIP Events. SMS marketing is a very effective way of inviting loyal fans to secret concerts, last minute events and especially events at special locations such as castle concerts! According to this article, in 2016 rapper Ryan Leslie played in a special concert located at a castle in Vienna. He invited guests via sms and charged $1700 each, where he sold 200 tickets in 48 hours. So, SMS marketing can also be a great tool to reach high-end customers who are looking for exclusive and secret events in extravagant locations.

Have you ever done an SMS marketing campaign before? What was your overall experience like? Feel free to comment below!

Alper Tuzcu is a Berklee College of Music and Denison University alumni, and a Boston based guitarist, songwriter and producer. His debut eclectic album ‘Between 12 Waters’ featuring 8 different vocalists is available on Spotify, and you can follow him on Instagram or Twitter @alpertuzcu, or visit his website http://www.alpertuzcu.com