Intro to SMS Marketing in E-Commerce
It’s easy to see why SMS marketing is one of the most cost-effective and proven ways to connect with your customers. Since it’s so inexpensive, it makes sense that you should use this medium to reach out to your audience. However, there are other benefits of SMS marketing as well: better engagement, higher conversion rates, high open rates (usually 20%+), and more sales than any other form of digital communication. In this article, we’ll explore how you can maximize your investment in this channel by creating an effective SMS campaign that converts leads into sales.
Why SMS Marketing Is the Best Way to Connect with Customers
SMS marketing is an extremely effective way to connect with customers. It’s also a cost-efficient, flexible and easy way to communicate with them. It’s fast, effective and can lead to real results in ways other types of digital marketing can’t match.
SMS marketing is the most direct form of communication you have with your customers—and it’s not just about sending them text messages. You can use SMS for everything from alerting prospects about new products or services to offering rewards for referrals and more; from sending appointment reminders or promotional offers to notifying customers when they need maintenance on their equipment through automated messages sent via smart watches—the possibilities are endless!
Why it’s Important to Budget For Your SMS Program
SMS marketing is a great way to reach customers on a personal level, and it can help you connect with them. It’s also an easy way to make sales. And if you want feedback from your customers, SMS marketing can be the best option for getting in touch with them quickly and easily. With SMS text messaging services becoming more affordable every day, implementing this type of marketing strategy into your business plan will allow you to get ahead of the competition and build valuable relationships with your customers.
How To Create An SMS Marketing Campaign That Converts
SMS marketing campaigns are an excellent way to generate new business and increase revenue. The best SMS marketing campaigns combine multiple messages of different types to create a compelling, personalized experience for the customer.
- Create a clear call-to-action
Remember that your customer is taking time away from their everyday lives to read your message. Make sure that you provide them with an easy option for following up on what you’re offering or taking action in some way!
- Use a single message – don’t send multiples!
Sending multiple messages can confuse customers who are interested in receiving more information about your product or service but aren’t ready yet (or don’t want) right now because they’re too busy doing something else like driving home from work/school/etc… Avoiding this mistake will help ensure that those who are interested receive all of the relevant details they need while simultaneously protecting against losing potential leads due to them closing out before reading all necessary content
- Spice things up with a relevant GIF that sets the tone or adds a pop of humor!
Which SMS automations do you use?
Automations are a great way to automate your SMS campaign, but it can be difficult to know where to start. There are three major types of automations:
- Reactive automations are those that send a message when something happens. This might be when someone completes an action on your website or app, or if they have not taken an action after a certain period of time (e.g., sending them an email).
- Proactive automations send messages based on certain rules you set up in advance (e.g., “if someone visits this page in the next 24 hours”).
- Passive/drip marketing uses both proactive and reactive automation rules so that customers receive messages over several days or weeks (e.g., “I’ll send an introductory offer today; then I’ll follow up with reminders at each stage of the sales process”).
The Best Tools to Use For SMS Marketing
There are many tools available to help marketers with their SMS marketing campaigns. The best tool depends on your needs, but here are some of the most popular:
- SMS marketing software – this is a piece of software that allows you to easily create and send out text messages to your customers. It’s usually easy-to-use and comes with features such as tracking message delivery, scheduling messages in advance, segmentation, analytics and more. Some also offer integrations with popular eCommerce platforms such as Shopify or Magento so that you can easily add an SMS feature into your online store for customer communication purposes (e.g., updating them about new products).
- Automatic response management – If someone sends an SMS message through one of your phone numbers then there will be a delay before they receive a response from you since your company would manually be responding. To minimize delays while keeping consistency across all staff members who respond via this channel, then automatic response management systems should be used instead — these allow users within teams who work remotely without needing any prior training beforehand on how exactly they function.
How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Spending on SMS Marketing
It’s important to measure how effective your spending on SMS marketing is. By measuring the effectiveness of your spending on SMS marketing, you can improve your return on investment (ROI). If you don’t measure the effectiveness of your efforts, then you won’t know if you’re getting a good return on what you’re spending.
You can measure how effective an SMS campaign or automation is by looking at certain metrics and results:
- The number of people who opt-in for more information about what you offer or want to buy from you;
- The number of people who purchase something after receiving an offer via text message;
- The open-rate/click-through rate(CTR) of your SMS campaign
- The number of times someone responds positively to a request for feedback; and/or
- The number of positive reviews left by customers after they’ve received excellent service from one of your employees (if this applies)
- The number of purchase conversions the SMS campaign yields.
SMS Marketing Strategy for E-Commerce Businesses
With a solid marketing strategy, you can make the most of your SMS campaigns.
A few simple steps will help you get started:
- Identify your target audience and understand their interests, demographics and psychographics.
- Create a business plan that outlines how you’ll execute your SMS campaign. This should include how many messages to send, how often they should be sent, who will send them and what they’ll say. It also needs to include clear goals for that campaign—what success looks like in terms of growth or retention or acquisition of new customers or clients.
- Develop a budget for each part of this plan so that every dollar spent on SMS is backed by something measurable (e.g., leads).
- Decide which SMS marketing software you will use. A few of our personal favorites here at Elite are: Avada, Emotive, and Textedly.
Conclusion
SMS marketing is an essential part of most companies’ marketing strategy. It’s a great way to connect with customers, and it can help you build a loyal customer base who will keep coming back for more. However, it’s important that you know what tools are available for doing this type of marketing before deciding whether or not SMS will work for your business.
