Let’s face it: Most of us believe that SMS marketing doesn’t work anymore. If you’re a marketer, you probably pay more attention to channels like mobile app marketing, email marketing or social media marketing. After all, these are the channels preferred by millennial. But don’t give up on SMS marketing just yet. Because, done right, SMS marketing can actually help you grow your business and boost your conversions, especially if yours is an e-commerce business.
What’s more, you can actually use SMS marketing to take your mobile marketing strategy to another level. But before we go into how to use SMS marketing to grow your business here are some statistics to show why it’s still worthwhile your time:
- Americans look at their phones 52 times a day on average; for young people, it’s 82 times. (Deloitte)
- Consumers are more likely to open text messages before any other form of mobile communication.
- 83% of millennials open SMS messages within 90 seconds of receiving them.
- 78% of US consumers say receiving a text message is the fastest way to reach them for important service updates and purchases.
Here are 7 tips to grow your business with SMS marketing:
1. Create a SMS marketing strategy
SMS marketing works but only if you have a strategy. Before you start sending SMS campaigns, you should analyse, plan, and then start sending.
Gain consent of sending SMS campaigns: SMS marketing is a permission-based marketing channel. GDPR and other data protection policies protect users from unnecessary messages by allowing users to stay on the DND list. Therefore, your first priority should focus on getting the users to opt-in to your SMS marketing.
2. Segment your SMS marketing users
To get good results from SMS marketing your campaigns need to be relevant. Because if they’re not relevant, they aren’t valuable. To make your SMS campaigns relevant, it is imperative to segment your subscribers according to their interests, location, and behaviour. Segmenting your list can instantly help you in sending personalized SMS campaigns.
But when it comes to SMS marketing, there are very few marketers who are actually segmenting their list, as figuring out the best way to categorize your contacts is tough. To make it a little easier for you, given below are few ways to segment your SMS marketing database:
- Gender
- Geographic area or Zip code
- Engagement
- Past behavior Response rate
- Buyer loyalty
- Age
3. Pay attention to your SMS campaign send time
When it comes to SMS campaigns, timing is the key to success. No matter how good your SMS campaigns are if they land in your customers phones on the wrong time you won’t get results from them.
To get good results pay attention to your SMS campaigns send time. Here are some helpful questions you should ask yourself before deciding the send time:
- Does a certain time of day make sense to reach out to users?
- What time zone your customers are located in?
- What time of the day did users prefer receiving your SMS campaigns (Look at your data to find the best time)?
Customize your SMS campaigns send time for better conversions, and don’t forget to localize your send times for customers’ specific time zone.
4. Pick the right SMS campaigns frequency
No matter how good your SMS campaigns are if the frequency is not right all the hard work you have done in creating good SMSes will go wasted.
Now the question is how many SMS campaigns should you send?
Well, there is no fixed number. The frequency which will work for one business may not be right for another one. As it varies depending on the type of industry, business model, etc. and it should also be influenced by engagement.
Ultimately each company has to determine the right SMS frequency for them, but the short answer to this questions is:
Send as many SMS campaigns as you want, as long as you are adding real value to your prospect or customer.
How do you know if you’re adding value? Simple. Watch key metrics such as,
- SMS campaigns open rate
- SMS campaigns click through rate
- SMS campaigns opt-out rate
- Conversion rate
- Revenue generated from SMS marketing
5. Personalize SMS campaigns
Personalisation work we all know that – still there are very few brands who personalise their SMS campaigns. But you certainly should if you want a good ROI from SMS marketing.
Now the question is how to personalize your your SMS campaigns?
Well, to begin with, use the basics, such as the person’s name and location. Then, get more advanced. You can use information such as behavioural data and profile data to create highly targeted SMS campaigns. Also, use the words “you” and “your” in your SMS copy (especially if you don’t have the data). Speaking directly to your audience makes them feel important, and it creates the sense that your SMS campaigns are personal – and it allows you to create a friendly and personal relationship with your list right off the bat.
6. Use all the SMS campaigns space
SMS campaigns give you 160 characters – maximize your SMS marketing power by packing all the information you can into this space.
Don’t forget to include a URL, as you want the reader to take an action. But, do not overwhelm the reader. Stick to just one URL.
Given below is an example from Forever New, a clothing and accessory retailer to show you how to effectively utilize the space:
7. Do double-check your SMS campaigns
Before hitting send do check your SMS copy for spelling and grammatical errors. These errors make your SMS campaigns look unprofessional and will reduce the chance of readers acting on them.
Now that you are aware of what to do, it is the right time to start creating SMS campaigns.
Here are a few SMS campaigns which almost every ecommerce company should be sending in to instantly increase their sales:
a. Sale or discount SMS alerts
SMS campaigns are an excellent way of announcing flash sales. Why? Because they grab your customers attention in real-time as they are usually opened within 3 minutes of being sent. You should use SMS campaigns to send alerts regarding time-bound sales, discount coupons, and exclusive deals.
Do not forget to add urgency in the SMS copy otherwise the recipient may leave it for later. If this happens there is a good chance they could forget about it and you won’t be able to drive traffic to your sales campaigns.
b. Abandoned cart recovery notifications
Do you know on an average e-commerce store loses over 75% of its sales to cart abandonment? These are the people who have shown some interest in your products but have not completed the purchase. As these people are already interested in your products, there is a high chance that if you nudge them they will become your customers or repeat customers. Targeting them with some personalized SMS campaigns can help you in converting these abandoners into sales.
Do not forget to add a direct link to their abandoned checkout URL to increase your purchase rate.
c. Cart or wishlist on sale notifications
Sometimes people add products’ in wishlist or cart if they don’t want to buy it at the current price. As a retailer, it’s your duty to remind them when these products go on sale to ensure that they come back to make a purchase. One of the most effective ways to remind these people is sending them SMS campaigns. As SMS campaigns have a high open rate it increases the chance of your SMS messages getting seen.
d. Offer reminder notifications
Every online retailer offers discount coupons and promotional codes to prospects and customers to increase their sales.
However, if you want to generate sales, offering coupons is not enough. You need to repeatedly give prospects reminders and opportunity to avail these offers. And SMS campaigns with its 98% open rate is a great way to do that.
Wrapping up
SMS is one of the best marketing channel, but don’t forget that SMS marketing is a process rather than a one-time action. That means you’ll need to test and refine your messaging. Doing so will improve your ROI from SMS campaigns.
Test the offer, as well as the SMS copy and the best day and time to send an SMS message. By tweaking your SMS campaigns, you can boost their effectiveness and see better ROI. SMS marketing can generate a lot of revenue for your business, but your SMS campaigns need to be thoughtful and tailored to hit their mark.
Schedule a personalized demo to get started with SMS marketing using Netcore Cloud
