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You must have received SMSes like these at some point or the other.
It is a mobile-first world. Communication is no more restricted to simple calls and emails.
And who doesn’t text these days?
Your friends and colleagues text you, and more often than not, your boss texts you too!
And now, even brands and companies send you text messages. A bank texts you when the salary is credited to your account.
When you place an online food order, you receive a confirmation text message, and e-commerce businesses send you messages announcing offers and discounts.
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Role of SMS Marketing in E-commerce Customer Acquisition
SMS marketing is not new; it has been around for a while. While it’s hard to believe that a technology invented decades ago still holds such relevance, it has become even more popular in e-commerce. And for all the right reasons.
Marketing through SMS or text provides businesses with a platform to communicate with their customers and effectively promote themselves.
According to a report by Campaign Monitor, SMS open rates are as high as 98% compared to just 20% of all emails. People read text messages. VentureBeat states that more than 90% of people read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it.
Although there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creating an SMS marketing strategy, there are some ways in which e-commerce businesses can use text messaging for better outreach.
Also Read: How Free Phone Numbers Are Great Tool For Increasing Customer Engagement
1. For customer acquisition
Ever wondered if you can acquire more customers and sell your products through text messaging?
SMSes have a global reach and help establish lasting connections with customers. Push promotions help brands catch the attention of their target users and increase visibility. And since it’s easy for your customers to interact through SMSes, your brand appears accessible and available.
Shopping cart abandonment messages are one of the most profitable SMS automating techniques to retain your prospects and convert them into buying customers.
Let’s walk through an example. E-commerce business Grunt Style, which delivers high-quality patriotic apparel straight to customers’ doors, wanted to establish a personal conversation with potential customers. To build a mobile revenue channel, they decided to test SMS marketing as an abandoned or unused store credit tool.
Forty-five days in, Grunt Style had driven $650,000 in additional revenue and gained 50,000 new subscribers.
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2. For sales and special offers
Businesses can build their subscription list and boost sales by effectively deploying SMS marketing techniques. Joining this club is the brand JC Penny which immediately sends customers a coupon worth 25% off for online or in-store orders by texting ‘Join’ to 527365.
Integrating your SMS software with a CRM tool also helps deliver personalized customer messages. It is also a great way to bring back prospective customers who haven’t visited the website.
Consider an example, “Alex, we miss you here! You get 15% off on your purchase on your next visit. Go to bitly.x.com (Expires 10.11.19)”
This is a typical customer retention practice for many well-known websites, be it Shopify, Gorgias, CartHook, etc.
3. For promotions and rewards
Customers want to hear about new products, offers, discounts, and experiences from their favorite brands through their preferred communication channels.
SMS offers, when timed right, enhance customer engagement. Promotional discounts and offers that can be availed via messages are even more impactful.
Text messages are a great way to communicate urgent brand messages to customers. They’re short, concise, and to the point. What’s even better is that via messages, customers are just ‘one tap’ away from the purchase window.
4. For conversational text messaging
Conversational SMS marketing, built into your entire funnel, lets you answer your customers’ queries. It narrows your sales cycle and enables you to deliver a more interactive experience to purchasing customers.
This type of marketing uses chatbot technology to deliver customers a natural and humanized experience.
Take, for instance, Verb Energy’s conversational SMS marketing campaign. The energy bar manufacturer mentions their number on all the packaging.
So, if you want to try out their services sometime or want to talk, you can text them. The best part is they don’t sound overly pushy.
What’s more––they have integrated the entire buyer’s journey through text messaging. They carry out all the conversations through texts, from the first order to offering discounts later in the journey.
Using conversational SMS marketing allows you to impart more product knowledge to your customers and build better relations.
5. For post-purchase reviews
Do you ask your customers for reviews? Gathering product and service reviews is an essential part of your customer service. While you might send emails asking for customer opinion, it is equally important to send text messages for the same.
Ask customers if they are happy with their purchase, and then ask them to leave a review on your website. This post-purchase automation is an excellent way to receive constructive feedback and improve your ranking.
Wrapping Up
Customers prefer text, and SMS marketing has witnessed high engagement rates. With quality monitoring and analysis, you can ensure that your text messaging campaign is effective.
Keep the tone conversational, or keep it short and crisp––the choice is yours. Use SMS marketing to build personalized customer connections and witness your sales graph skyrocket.
