Email campaigns can remain unopened in a subscriber’s inbox for hours or days. Sometimes, they can be sent directly to the “Promotions” tab or spam.
In contrast, 99% of text message marketing campaigns are read, making SMS a highly effective way for retail store owners to reach potential and current customers.
In fact, 78% of consumers say that text messages are the fastest way to reach them, which is why SMS is the ideal medium for sharing time-sensitive offers and alerts. It’s also a great way to welcome new subscribers with nurture sequences and welcome offers.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is a way to send campaigns or promotional messages to your customers using text messaging. Retailers use SMS marketing to communicate about updates, time-sensitive offers, and other business alerts.
Unlike email, texts are short, with a character limit of 160 characters. SMS campaigns appear on subscribers’ phones within seconds of being sent. Depending on the user’s phone settings, they may receive an immediate notification as soon as your message is delivered.
Some retailers, like Handheld Handmade, have built their entire business model on SMS marketing.
After subscribing to Handheld’s messaging list, users are asked to fill out a survey. The answers are used to confirm when they would like to receive messages, their budget, and the types of products they are interested in. This approach helps Handheld create tailored text message campaigns for their audience.
Text subscribers receive texts twice a week, based on their profile preferences. Once their account is activated, all transactions take place within their SMS app. All shoppers need to do is reply with “Buy”.
SMS is a great channel for you to develop relationships with your customers. You can send mass or personalized 1:1 texts to SMS marketing subscribers.
SMS Compliance: When Can I Text My Customers?
Compliance with SMS is crucial, as violating the rules can cost you. Regulations are simple and help protect your customers’ privacy.
In the United States, you must comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a federal law, and CTIA guidelines, which is a wireless industry trade organization.
Here is an overview of SMS compliance requirements:
- The customer must opt-in to SMS marketing, which must be separate from email marketing.
- You must explain to your customers the types of messages they will receive and clearly state how they can opt-out.
- You must honor opt-out requests.
- You cannot send marketing text messages between 9 PM and 8 AM in the recipient’s time zone – these are considered “quiet hours”.
If you violate TCPA regulations, you could face individual lawsuits and pay fines of up to $1500 per message. Failing to follow CTIA guidelines can lead to consumer complaints and message suspension as spam. Carriers may also review or cut your messaging campaigns.
Benefits of SMS Marketing for Retail
More people own a mobile phone than a toothbrush. Think about that.
Some people, including 78% of Gen Z, consider their mobile phones the most important device for accessing the internet.
Implementing SMS marketing for your retail business is a surefire way to meet your customers on the channel they prefer and increase sales.
Aside from the obvious ultimate goal of using SMS marketing to grow your retail business, there are numerous other benefits of SMS marketing to consider.
1.
Text message performance metrics are higher than email marketing
The average open rate for email marketing is 20%. While this isn’t bad, the open rate for text messages can be massively higher – reaching up to 98%.
The average click-through rate (CTR) for email marketing is 2.5%, while the CTR for text message marketing is around 19% on average.
Increased customer engagement leads to increased sales. For this reason, testing text message marketing is worth the effort for your retail business.
2. Customer communication and engagement increase
According to smartphone statistics, smartphone users tap, scroll, and click on their phones 2,617 times a day. On average, people spend 2 hours and 51 minutes a day on their phones, and 52% of the world’s population are mobile internet users.
Use text message marketing to meet your customers where they spend a lot of their time. On their phones.
According to this study from February 2020, 61% of Generation Z purchased a product via mobile in the past month.
Implementing text message marketing for your retail business is a no-brainer. You can increase engagement by reaching your customers quickly and conveniently where they already spend a lot of their time.
3. Text message marketing is not tied to the sales funnel
Use text message marketing to engage with your customers and prospects at various stages of their buying journey.
For those who have recently discovered your store, text message marketing is a way to communicate and develop them into customers.
For existing customers, text message marketing is a way to stay in touch, increase repeat purchases, and boost customer retention and loyalty.
4. Text message marketing can increase sales
According to MobileMonkey, consumers who receive marketing messages via text are 40% more likely to convert than those who do not receive them.
The same study indicates that engagement rates on text messages are six to eight times higher than the email marketing rates achieved by merchants normally.
These text message metrics from Hydrant prove it:
- 25x return on investment
- Average click rate of 21% in 2020
- Over $10,000 from a single message for product launch
5. Creating text message marketing campaigns is quick and easy
Text message marketing campaigns are typically short and concise and do not involve the creative assets required for email marketing. This makes it easier to plan, schedule, test, and iterate on text messages quickly based on previous campaign results.
You can test the message length and format to see what resonates with your audience. For example, do your customers like emojis? Do they respond well when you include their first name?
The key is to test, learn from each campaign, and iterate regularly.
6. Data helps you personalize and optimize your messages
Campaign data helps you understand when and how to communicate with your customers. Text message marketing provides actionable data to help you refine your strategy.
Text message marketing data is useful for determining how to segment your customers based on their interests and behavior. Segmentation helps in sending unique and personalized messages.
Depending on your text message marketing platform, there may be an abundance of ways to build different segments.
Consider five categories for segmentation:
- Location. Send personalized text message campaigns to customers based on their location.
- Customer behavior. Gather information about your customers’ specific interests, purchasing habits, and order frequency to personalize text message campaigns.
- Text message engagement. Use engagement data from previous campaigns to determine what types of campaigns to send in the future. This data can also tell you whether to send a follow-up message on a previous campaign.
- Information
- Order. You can customize text messages based on the customer’s order stage. Whether their order is confirmed, fulfilled, or on the way, SMS marketing is a great way to stay connected with shoppers.
- Customer attributes. Similar to email marketing, you can add details like tags, relationship length, and account status to your audience in SMS marketing. These tools can help you segment lists for targeted campaigns.
“Use the data to make decisions about sending frequency,” says John Sherin, founder of Hydrant. “The mistake I made early on was sending messages infrequently because I’m not the type who enjoys SMS marketing. I assumed people were annoyed by our messages. But you need to monitor unsubscribe metrics carefully. We had an unsubscribe rate lower than the industry average, at a level that makes it clear that 99% of our customers want to continue receiving our messages.”
7. Increase brand awareness through SMS marketing
This is achieved when customers check their phones 80 times a day, and 90% of SMS marketing messages are read within three minutes.
The high reach, high open rates, and low cost of SMS marketing make it a useful tool to keep your brand top of mind for customers.
8. Integration of SMS marketing with customer service apps
Many SMS marketing apps integrate with customer service platforms. This can improve your workflow and help you establish a two-way dialogue with your customers.
SMS marketing tools like Attentive and Postscript integrate with Shopify, as well as Gorgias, which is a customer service platform.
9. SMS marketing is not saturated (yet)
SMS marketing is a relatively new channel – about 61% of marketers still do not use text messaging, but it is an increasing trend.
It is not as saturated as email marketing or social media, so being an early adopter can help you gain a competitive edge in customer engagement.
“There’s less noise in text messaging for most people,” says Sherwin. “Fewer brands are given permission to send texts, so you get the person’s full attention. I also have a theory. For those of us who hate seeing those little red bubbles that appear when there is an unread item, you will always open a message and mark it as read. This makes open rates incredibly high compared to email.”
10. Use SMS to expand your overall commerce strategy
Omnichannel commerce helps you create a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. Add SMS marketing to your overall selling strategy to increase customer engagement and provide a continuous, convenient dialogue.
Email and phone calls are still essential, but SMS marketing can provide a better customer experience in some cases.
Today’s consumers are accustomed to texting and want to text businesses as well. Texting is easier due to its mobile-based nature and real-time notifications. You can respond to time-sensitive texts or simple inquiries faster than you can via phone or email.
Best practices for SMS marketing
According to these statistics, 97% of businesses found that communicating with customers is more efficient after launching SMS marketing. And 96% of marketers rated welcome messages via SMS as a very effective marketing tool.
Whether
be just starting out with text marketing or be in the thick of it, we’ve clarified the best practices to help you succeed.
1. Get Permission
Like email marketing, text marketing relies on permission. You can only send text marketing campaigns to someone who has opted in. The question is, how can you entice people to sign up?
Here are some tips:
- Include a text message subscription box on your email signup form to encourage people to join.
- Ask people to text a keyword or short code to subscribe to a mobile number.
- Promote your new text marketing channel through email marketing campaigns or on social media (like the picture above from Hydrant).
- Create a dedicated text marketing page on your website that outlines privacy policies and encourages people to sign up.
Pro tip: When asking for someone’s phone number, always ask for their email address as well. That way, if they opt out of text messages, you can still communicate with them through email campaigns.
2. When Should You Use Mass Texts vs. Personal Texts?
Mass texts and personal texts to customers require different strategies and have different regulations. Most retailers use both options.
Mass texts are usually used for marketing campaigns sent to a broad audience but can still feel personal. Personal texts are more commonly used for customer service interactions.
You can use text marketing in the way that you find most suitable for your retail business and potential and current customers.
Here, we’ll dive deeper into mass texts versus personal texts for customers:
Mass Texts
Retailers typically use mass texts to share new product releases, discount codes, events, exclusive products, VIP offers, and holiday messages. Mass messaging doesn’t mean the text message itself is impersonal. It just means that it’s sent to many people instead of one.
It’s akin to how you send an email newsletter to subscribers. It’s a list of many people, but each message can be tailored based on previous behavior and interaction with your brand.
Best practices for mass texting:
- Before they subscribe, inform people how often they will receive text messages, what type of content they will get, and how they can opt out.
- Provide detailed information about your terms and conditions for text marketing campaigns.
- Allow customers to opt-out.
- Make it easy for customers to request assistance by providing a long code or 1:1 number they can text.
Personal Texts to Customers
Personal texts to customers are a way to build a two-way dialogue with your customers. They are similar to how you text with friends and family.
A customer or potential client can text directly to someone in your company.
For personal texts, you can integrate them with a customer service platform to streamline communication. This way, the customer service or sales team can see messages and customer information and respond quickly.
The main challenge with personal texts is that you need to be ready to respond. And your messages need to be on-brand. If you hire someone to manage personal messages, making sure to train them is important. You’ll also want to set clear expectations about when personal text responses will be available to customers.
You can choose when you have “open” hours for texting, but common time frames are from 9 AM to 5 PM.
3. When Should You Use Short Codes vs. Long Codes?
Short codes and long codes are special numbers for receiving and sending text messages for your business. Promote your code through your website, social media, or email campaign so people can easily opt in.
You can
Choose either a short code or long code for your company. With both options, your text message marketing campaign will come from this number. This is the number that potential and current customers can send a word to if they wish to subscribe or unsubscribe.There are some differences between short codes and long codes:
Short Codes Long Codes What are they? A number consisting of five to six digits that you can use nationwide. For example, SHOPIFY (7467439). Acceptable Use Bulk texting and sms campaign links
Source: https://www.shopify.com/retail/retail-sms-marketing
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