SMS marketing has long been a criminally underappreciated form of reaching out to potential clients and customers.
With multiple sources reporting SMS marketing reaching an opening rate of 98%, it’s a wonder there aren’t more businesses making use of this undervalued tool to boost sales, create rapport, and grow their brand.
Understanding how to leverage text marketing while remaining within the limits of national regulations is something every ecommerce business should prioritize.
Not only will it help your business grow, but it could also help supercharge your profitability while implementing only a few simple strategies.
What Is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is a form of advertising (or nurturing) that involves businesses reaching out to their customers across the country through text messages.
Most potential customers and clients are well-acclimated to scrolling past social media ads, skipping through video ads, and ignoring website ads as they conduct searches on Google. However, very few customers expect to be approached by a business through SMS.
If implemented properly, text marketing is incredibly effective at gaining and maintaining customer attention and can help you take your business to the next level.
Benefits of Text Marketing
SMS is one of the most direct ways to connect to or re-engage with customers. As an addition to an omnichannel marketing strategy, text message marketing can help you grow your brand on a more personalized level by reaching out directly to potential or repeat customers.
Using text marketing offers businesses unique benefits not typically found by other marketing strategies. These include:
Increased Reach
Most Gen Z cellphone users would like to be contacted by businesses via text. With Gen Z also being one of the demographics most inclined to shop online and participate in other ecommerce campaigns, using SMS marketing could increase your customer base, satisfaction rates, and affinity between customer and brand.
Simplified Customer Service
Using two-way text to deal with customer service issues is easy and convenient. With customer service standards being one of the most often complained about features of online businesses, making your company accessible via text can do wonders for perceptions of your brand and your customers’ eagerness to continue their support.
Increased Website Traffic
Using links in SMS marketing can help boost website traffic and possible sales, as clicking on a link inside a text is one of the most convenient ways to find more information on a brand or business. Use this to your advantage – SMS marketing can positively influence revenue from online sales, ads, and other online marketing tactics.
Creation of Long-Term Relationships
There’s a very personal aspect to receiving a text from a business or brand. Unlike social media ads, text marketing feels direct and more focused on the individual customer than simply a chosen demographic or population. This can help boost interaction between customers and your brand and online presence, ultimately benefiting your business.
How Is SMS Automation Regulated?
SMS marketing can seem daunting at first, especially since it involves a lot more regulation than other forms of digital marketing. However, understanding a few basic regulations can put you well on your way to mastering text marketing and its benefits.
Requesting written consent (such as on a website form) to receive SMS marketing messages and offering customers a way to opt out are all incredibly important to include.
Should you be interested in pursuing a text marketing campaign, our expert team at National Positions will be more than happy to help you navigate the fine print.
So with the red tape out of the way – let’s dive into the five best strategies to use to supercharge profitability.
1. Promo Campaigns
Promotional campaigns are one of the most commonly used SMS marketing tactics. Some forms of promotional campaigns include:
– Sending promos for holiday deals
– Informing customers of VIP or special rates they can access because they signed up for SMS marketing
– Introducing your business to new customers (that have opted in)
– Keeping customers informed about new products or services
– Encouraging repeat purchases or related items customers may be interested in
For example, offering a previous customer 15% off a product simply because they’ve signed up for SMS marketing can encourage a sale and reinforce their loyalty to your brand and marketing tactics.
With SMS campaigns achieving a whopping 29% click-through rate when combined with other marketing strategies, using SMS to keep your customers informed of your brand’s progress and keeping your services and products fresh in their minds is a great way to boost sales and profitability.
2. SMS Personalization and Feedback
Many businesses opt for a bland, generic text campaign that sends the same message to hundreds or thousands of their potential or past customers. Although this tactic can be successful, the best way to turn SMS subscribers into repeat customers is through a more personalized approach.
This can be achieved through:
– Sending customers surveys or asking for feedback on their purchase experience
– Initiating one-on-one consultations regarding the product or service they purchased
– Checking that your customers received their purchase and were satisfied
Collecting this information not only builds rapport between your business and your customers but can provide valuable feedback on how to make your ecommerce experience even more rewarding.
3. Custom SMS Alerts
Keeping regular contact with your customers through alerts effectively conveys that you care about their experience with your brand. Great ways to do this include:
– Sending event and appointment reminders for a service they purchased
– Sending shipping alerts from your business and not just leaving them to track their parcels by themselves
– Confirming subscriptions
– Informing them of flash sales on items they are interested in
Alerts are also a great way to remind forgetful customers of a new or repeat purchase they were planning and bring them back to the point where they’re converted to sales.
4. Cart Abandonment Follow-Ups
All ecommerce business owners know that customers can be inconsistent (or distracted) when it comes to checking out their shopping carts.
They may seem enthusiastic at first and fill their virtual shopping carts with products or services they genuinely want, but then often leave their cart and close their browser right before checking out.
Sending a quick SMS anywhere between an hour and a day after they abandoned their cart is a direct way to get their attention and interest and possibly get them to complete their purchase.
Adding a limited-time offer to their carts, like a small discount or free gift, if they follow the link and check out, can be another great incentive for them to check out.
5. Build Your Subscriber List
SMS marketing is one of the most commonly responded to forms of digital marketing.
Approaching potential customers through SMS can encourage them to engage or interact with your brand in ways that let you build your subscriber list and have more details at the ready for running promotions or discounts.
How National Positions Can Help
National Positions has a masterful team that’s highly experienced in helping business owners leverage a range of online marketing tools, including text marketing, to grow and expand their companies.
If you’re interested in taking your business to the next level, visit our contact us page to drop us a message or call (818) 918-5188 to get the assistance you need to start your next successful marketing campaign.