As a steadily rising number of shoppers turn to mobile, SMS marketing — better known as text message marketing — puts your brand directly into the palm of your target customer’s hand.
That means you have the ability to increase conversions and revenue by reminding shoppers via text about flash sales, upcoming promotions, abandoned carts, and other multichannel sales opportunities.
How?
We’ll discuss that, and more, below.
Table of contents
First, let’s look at the data behind its success.
What is SMS Marketing?
By mid-2021, US-based mobile purchases averaged $134 per sale, according to Statista. That’s the highest it’s been in mobile eCommerce history.
Although text messages have been around since 1992, it’s only become the standard as a preferred way of communication in recent years. Innovative brands knew there was potential for marketing communications, and SMS was born.
SMS, which stands for Short Message Service, can complement a variety of marketing efforts working alongside email, social, paid media, and more to increase brand awareness, traffic, and sales.
Buyers can track their purchases or use customer service via SMS, benefitting a merchant’s overall customer experience.
Benefits of SMS Marketing
Increase customer loyalty
Businesses have been incorporating SMS in their marketing strategies for years because you can connect with anyone, anywhere, instantly.
It’s delivered in a matter of seconds, so your marketing message will reach your target audience almost immediately which can greatly improve customer retention.
Better customer service
If you want to incorporate more touchpoints throughout the buying process to improve the customer experience, 2-Way SMS lets you connect and respond to customer service inquiries.
The faster you respond to an inquiry, the more your brand builds trust as a company that cares about its customers’ needs and wants
Increase sales and marketing ROI
See more of an impact on multichannel marketing efforts by sending text reminders of sales and promotions. Include links directly to your site to allow for on-the-spot shopping.
Personalized customer experience
By segmenting your customer data and sending personalized promotions direct to consumers’ mobile devices, you’ll increase engagement, brand trust, and the speed in which you can solve problems or answer questions for shoppers.
Boost other marketing campaigns
Marketers have the most success when they use SMS to complement their email marketing efforts rather than replace it. SMS broadens your overall communications strategy, serving as an added personalized touchpoint to reach busy customers who might have just skimmed or skipped over email.
Checklist of SMS benefits
Using SMS text messaging for your business can help to:
- Increase customer retention
- Develop greater brand loyalty
- Provide immediate communication
- Attract new customers
- Increase overall sales
- Provide a profitable ROI
SMS Marketing Statistics
Want more data on the Pros and Cons of SMS marketing? Here are some stats to keep in mind.
- It’s estimated that phone users send a staggering 23 billion SMS messages per day. That’s 16 million text messages per minute
- More than 90% of messages are read within three minutes of being received
- 80% of users prefer the simplicity of SMS over mobile apps
- 54 percent of consumers would like to receive promotions via text message, and only 11 percent of businesses send them this way.
- SMS Open Rates land around 98%
- When placing a query, on average, customers expect a reply within 60 minutes
- The average response time from businesses is still around 5 hours (SMS can help)
Marketing Tip: Avoid these SMS Marketing Mistakes
SPAM/Unsolicited messages
Just like with email marketing, sending unsolicited texts can not only hurt your reputation with customers, but it can also hurt your deliverability because of SPAM flagging. Allow customers to opt-in (or out) and keep your intentions transparent — if you’re sending text updates for promotions, company updates, or tracking and receiving, let the recipient know what to expect.
Last, avoid those SPAM filters by not sending too often and by not using a link shortener that may make your message look suspicious.
Content without strategy
Even if you’re promoting the same campaign across multiple channels, you should still change the content to fit the platform. Meaning, don’t send the same exact message on Twitter, email, and SMS.
Fit the platform, tailor the content to your recipient’s needs, and be aware of message length. SMS should be short, to the point, entertaining, and enticing.
Timezone differences
Sending SMS to a local audience has the benefit of your recipients most likely being in the same time zone as your business. But, if you have a national or global audience, you’ll want to stay aware of timing to avoid reaching one customer at dinner time and another in the middle of the night.
Time zones also make a difference in terms of product promotions — the holiday season in the US is a great time to promote sweater sales, but in Australia, December is the start of summer; not everyone should receive the same exact content.
Not having a clear call to action (CTA)
Unless you’re sending a welcome message, your SMS should have a short, clear, to-the-point call to action. Keep it simple; just one action is necessary whether it’s visiting a product page, signing up for a newsletter, registering for a loyalty card, etc.
Best SMS Marketing Platforms in 2022
The following platforms offer SMS marketing services for eCommerce stores:
1. Klaviyo
Klaviyo is one of our preferred marketing automation platforms that provides SMS and email marketing services. Setup is easy and automation is even easier: Features include a complimentary toll-free number, SMS conversations, SMS consent at checkout, A/B Testing, SMS profiles, SMS campaigns, single-channel revenue attribution, best-in-class deliverability and text compliance, and more.
2. Yotpo
Here is another one of our trusted partners who offer SMS marketing solutions, including segmentation, custom flows, A/B testing, SMS automation, campaign scheduling, and more. They are also known for their top-notch rewards program, which integrates with your SMS campaigns.
3. Postscript
With a focus on Shopify stores, Postscript features SMS automation, segmentations, conversations, campaign building, ROI tracking, and more. They also include text compliance. Plus, you can try before you buy with a free trial.
4. Omnisend
Omnisend is another SMS-email all-in-one provider that combines automated texts and email campaigns under a single pre-built workflow. That means easy flows for birthdays, cart abandonment, shipping and tracking, and more.
5. Attentive
Attentive features are aimed at triggering and nurturing growth through segmentation, list-building tools, triggered messages, revenue and ROI tracking, text compliance, and more.:
6. Avochato
Besides having a really fun name, Avochato also allows for a free trial of their SMS auotomation services which include campaign building, reporting and analytics, surveys, and templates that get you started faster.
7. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign brings SMS automation to your quick reminders and urgent campaigns. Sure, you can send follow-ups, use it as a customer service tool, and more, but it’s also easy to send flash-sale promotions and other do-this-now campaigns.
8. Drip
Drip’s automated workflow builder allows you to send messages with personalized product recommendations, quickly and efficiently. Drip’s campaigns are profit-driven to help strategically grow your eCommerce store.
9. Emotive
With Emotive, you can utilize AI to save time and resources while sending personalized SMS messages. Automation includes text compliance, pre-built conversation flows, revenue and ROI tracking, and more.
10. SlickText
Offering a free plan that builds into a low-price monthly plan, SlickText allows you to send bulk messages, schedule in advance, set auto-replies, and reach out with personalized SMS texts like birthday greetings.
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SMS Marketing Services
Did you know that Shero offers SMS marketing services as a part of our email marketing package?
SMS is in-demand and our team of Growth Services experts would be thrilled to work with you on developing a strategy to strengthen your marketing campaigns.
