A few years back, SMS marketing was the only way to stay connected with customers before technology took a giant leap. And even today, it is as effective, especially if we talk about SMS marketing for Ecommerce. Here is a fact: the average open rate of an SMS is more than 90%!
SMS marketing is proven to get more responses than calls and emails. SMS are inevitable to ignore, and we end up opening them. SMS marketing channel helps your brand’s voice to stand out in the crowd in a personalized way. In addition, your brand is directly connected with customers via SMS marketing, making it easier to stay on top of their minds.
Coming to eCommerce, many businesses use SMS marketing to engage with their existing and potential customers to improve their sales. If you are a newbie to SMS marketing or thinking of enhancing your existing SMS marketing strategy. This blog is for you.
Before diving right into it, first things first.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing is a short text message to share with your customers. The messages are mostly about the offers like BOGO, discounts, Time-limited stocks, promotions, follow-ups, alerts, and updates. Its convenience, short characters, and more information make it a powerful marketing channel.
What is Ecommerce SMS marketing?
With over billions of people using mobile phones, SMS marketing has become a tried and tested hack for e-commerce businesses.
You can share a text message in a fixed template to 1000s of customers in one go. An easiest and most cost-effective method to inform and convert customers in no time.
SMS marketing targets the right customers and triggers customer pains. This helps e-commerce businesses boost customer engagement, enhance customer experience, and retain clients at low costs.
SMS marketing is an automated process as it has less dependency on any manual work and saves time.
Why should Ecommerce businesses use SMS marketing?
SMS marketing is a strategic way of approaching the target market. In today’s world, where information is overflowing, there is a high chance you can get lost in saturation. This is where SMS marketing finds a solid place to stay relevant, and this works too.
Studies show that consumers find it easier to communicate over text than any other communication channel. The persuading tone of SMS marketing is highly effective and increases conversion possibilities.
SMS marketing is specially designed for mobiles, where most e-commerce business happens. Mobiles are the most used device to shop online, and SMS marketing hits the right spot.
An average mobile user spends a good 6 hours a day on a mobile, and it is going to increase in the coming time; they are more likely to read a text and connecting with customers in seconds becomes hands down easy.
Digital marketers found that SMS marketing is effective and works at speed. The advantage of SMS marketing makes it the mobile-friendly marketing strategy of all time.
How does Ecommerce use SMS marketing?
Ecommerce businesses run to deliver the best customer experiences, and SMS marketing helps to achieve customer satisfaction on every level.
You can use SMS marketing in different ways; as a beginner, find some easy tactics below.
1. Offers and discounts
Highly promote exclusive deals, offers, discounts BOGOs, coupons, etc. via SMS marketing. Grab the customers by providing irresistible money-saving offers on valuable products.
2. Use SMS marketing as a reminder
Remind customers about special events, ask them to shop for gift options, and check out the order. Also, prompt them to order new products regularly. SMS marketing makes customers feel delighted and converts.
3. Keep following-up
When customers have enquired about a particular product, there is a high chance they want it. Use SMS marketing to follow up about the purchase of the product. When the customer reaches the buying level, they will consider buying from you over other vendors.
4. Quick updates
Deliver great customer experiences by giving timely updates about the product’s status, like shipping or delivery dates. Use SMS marketing to update customers and smoothen out the delivery process.
5. Boost website traffic
SMS marketing is a great hack to drive traffic to your website. Send a timely text to your customer to check out something new on your website and provide engaging content. Make more people visit your website and increase the spending time of every visitor.
6. Create urgency by promoting a flash sale
This is an ideal way to get repetitive orders. For the customers who already bought from you, a breezy touch of a regular reminder can make them buy again.
7. Provide exceptional customer support
Businesses face issues, and handling them with grace succeeds businesses. Make sure you make your customer feel heard in case of a refund, exchange, or return. Use SMS marketing to help customers with order issues and keep them updated.
How to do SMS marketing for an eCommerce business?
1. Define your goal
The foremost step to a successful SMS marketing campaign is to define your goal. Ask yourself what you want to achieve with this SMS campaign.
More awareness, boosting conversions, good engagement, enhancing customer assistance, driving website traffic, etc.,
Having a precise goal will set SMS marketing on the right track.
2. Design a clear CTA
Telling your customers how great your product is will not be enough. Show them what the further steps to be taken by instructing them are. E.g. You are providing them a coupon, you should show them how to claim it with a clear CTA.
3. Get into technicalities
Select an SMS marketing campaign tool and create a campaign. Add your recipients and choose an SMS template. Write your text message. View a preview of the SMS or send a test message. Schedule as per a specific time or send it off.
Best SMS marketing tools in the market
1. Avochato
A slack integration tool that is cost-effective and charges per month. It has top-notch features like live chat, plenty of templates, and a user-friendly interface.
2. Sender. net
The sender breaks down the complexity of designing messages into simple steps to create interactive message templates while executing SMS marketing. It’s an all-in-one merged view of messaging that also helps you create email templates.
3. Klaviyo
One of the popular names in the SMS marketing world is custom-made for e-commerce businesses. Create campaigns and send off messages and emails both with this one tool.
Getting all at one place
SMS marketing is effortlessly easy to get started with. Get clear with what message you are going to send and get a tool to automate SMS marketing.
Keep the content short, crisp, and on point with a clear CTA. Don’t spam customers’ inboxes by sending excessive amounts of messages.
Always keep an eye on what’s working and what’s not. Review the results regularly and make required tweaks to do better. Keep figuring out and making your SMS marketing more powerful than ever.
And that leads us to the end of our guide to SMS marketing.