Some of the oldest marketing methods in the book still work today, with a modern twist. Did you know that even for an ecommerce business, SMS marketing can be a powerful tool to grow sales, build brand loyalty, and keep customers coming back?
Here’s a rundown on some of the ways you can use SMS marketing to give your ecommerce business a boost.
Sales & Promotion Alerts
The simplest way to start with SMS marketing is by sending out notifications to your subscribers about upcoming or ongoing deals, sales, promotions, etc. These are the kinds of notifications many people are looking for, so they can decide to make purchases at a lower price. Everyone loves a good deal and many people also like to get notified when a good deal is available.
The nice thing about SMS marketing is that it’s delivered directly to the person’s phone. Text marketing usually delivers a higher open rate than email marketing, with a greater chance that your customers will get the message.
Abandoned Cart Follow Ups
More than half of online shopping carts are abandoned before the sale is finished. One way to try to recover the sale is to follow up cart abandonments with text messages after a day or two. If the person abandoned the cart because they just forgot, a simple follow-up text might serve as the reminder they need to go finish the purchase.
If the person abandoned the cart because of the cost, a small discount might persuade them to go through with the purchase. Putting the items in the cart shows that the person already has interest in buying so they may just need a little push to get them to do it.
This strategy can help you recover lost sales. It’s a low-effort strategy with little to no risk, especially since the people you’re contacting have already interacted with your store and showed their buying intent.
Abandoned cart SMS messages work well in conjunction with emails. Whether they’re opening the emails on mobile devices or desktops, getting an SMS and a follow-up email helps remind someone in multiple
Personalized Messages
When you want to build brand loyalty, personalized messages go a long way. Messages to say happy birthday or send holiday wishes are a good place to start, if you have access to that data about your customers. Otherwise, you can send out personalized recommendations based on what they’ve bought or looked at from your store before.
With personalization, audience segmentation is key. Don’t send out the same message template with different names. Segment your recipients as well as possible based on the data you have, then write creative copy that’s targeted to each group specifically.
You can use AI to great effect for personalization. Get fresh copy written for each segment, or have an AI tool edit your writing to make it more concise before sending messages out.
Personalized SMS marketing works because your messages stand out. They don’t look the same as every other brand message out there. Put in the effort to make your customers feel familiar with your brand. The rewards are worth it!
New Product Announcements
What better way for your audience to learn about new products than to hear about it from you directly? Announcements for new products or services delivered right to your customer’s phone are a great way to build interest in what you’re offering and remind people that your store exists.
There’s a whole lot of noise in our lives today. People may be interested in what you’re offering but forget to check out when it will be available. A simple text to announce new products can build interest in what you’re selling and boost traffic for the launch.
These types of announcements work really well for merch drops or other limited-time offers. Because they’re limited in availability, an announcement by SMS helps customers who want the products to remember to purchase from you before it’s too late. After the initial announcement, send a follow-up near the end of the limited availability to draw in last-minute sales from forgetful buyers.
Welcome Messages
Surprisingly, welcome messages can have a huge impact on your sales. Giving new subscribers a warm welcome and offering an immediate way for them to engage with your brand can turn leads into customers quickly.
The first offer in a welcome message should be a low-effort purchase that they can make immediately. Think about low-cost impulse shopping at a grocery store. When you see something you want, the price is low enough that it’s not a hindrance. You can just grab it without having to consider whether you should or not.
A simple welcome message starts the interaction with that customer on a good note. Whether they make a purchase or not, you’ve initiated communication that can now continue in the future.
Availability Updates
SMS can be helpful for people who want to purchase something that’s out of stock.
It can also assist people with price tracking to make a purchase when the cost goes down, or before it goes up too much.
Prompt people visiting your store to sign up for notifications when an out-of-stock product will be available again. This is a good way to make a sale down the road. If the person hasn’t bought what they needed yet they’re more likely to come back and make the purchase from you, especially if you’re offering something unique in the market.
Price tracking works best for high-cost purchases. If you’re selling anything where cost can be an obstacle, offer a service to alert people if the cost changes for any reason, or if the product is at risk of selling out.
Both strategies help to put your products back in view of potential customers who have already shown interest. Because they’ve opted into the messages, they’re more likely to engage with what you’re offering, as long as it’s in line with what they expected.
Get Started with SMS Marketing Today
If you want to try out SMS marketing for your ecommerce business, it’s easy to get started! SMS marketing can easily be automated using a text marketing service.
While you can do it yourself, an SMS marketing service automates the process with a dedicated number, message templates, automated message triggers, mass texting, drip campaigns, and more. It’s far easier to manage a consistent texting presence when you use the right tool.
Try Simple Texting for an affordable way to jump into SMS marketing.
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