SMS marketing is perfect for reaching customers, but do all messages lead to sales? Like with any other marketing method, the answer is unfortunately “no”. So, you must find ways to drive conversions with SMS. Luckily, it’s not as difficult as it sounds.
With any text marketing campaign, you are already at an advantage in terms of consumer reach. 84% of Brits own a mobile phone and according to a study carried out by Nottingham Trent university the average person looks at their phones 85 times a day. The biggest pull is the 97% open rate. SMS enjoys click-through rates that are 15% higher than email marketing and 48% of people prefer to receive marketing communications by text to their mobile devices.
Take a look at our favourite ways to drive more mobile conversions with SMS marketing:
1. Limited-Time SMS only deals – create a sense of urgency!
SMS marketing campaigns that operate using psychological triggers can set off a speedy call-to-action from your subscribers. Text messages that alert for flash sales and time-critical coupons add a sense of urgency for the customer to complete a sale.
Create more of a buzz when you use fun images and emojis with your content to celebrate the deal. This is also an opportunity to inject some of your brand’s personality into your SMS messages
Delivery deadlines
Using SMS messages to let consumers know that shipping deadlines are coming up is also a quick way to drive conversion rates up. There are always delivery limits that occur around the holiday seasons such as:
- Christmas
- School summer holidays
- Mother’s day and father’s day
Customers will welcome reminders to complete their purchases in time.
2. Drive traffic in store
Footfall in stores is now a major issue in the UK and many of the brands we love have disappeared from the high street. For those brands who wish to retain a high street presence, it is important to strike a balance with your e-commerce marketing efforts. Because SMS campaigns can be geographically segmented, you can target local shoppers to encourage them to visit local stores.
For example:
- Offering a discount code to be used in a local store straight from your phone will drive traffic into your store.
- Offer free gifts or the chance to win a competition in-store.
- Send your subscribers invitations to live events at their nearest location.
Click and collect
Click and collect is becoming very popular to avoid delivery charges. It’s great for brands as it is cheaper than arranging delivery and it’s also an opportunity to bring people into the store. Many brands position their click-and-collect desk alongside tills towards the back of the store, for maximum exposure.
4. Engaging SMS Content
Flash sales and coupons are great but how will you keep your subscribers engaged for the rest of the time? Your marketing messages need to strike the right chord with your target audience. The consumers on your SMS database are all opt-in subscribers and they have chosen to sign up to receive text message marketing. On that basis, if they don’t feel that your SMS messages are providing value, they can opt-out too.
Take a look at our top tips for writing sms marketing copy for some great ideas. This is your chance to tell the story of your brand and show your personality. Some inspirational content ideas that are always popular:
- Product launches
- Limited edition products
- News and events
- Loyalty schemes
- Life hacks and product suggestions
Another bonus tip is to add exclusivity to some of your content and let your subscribers know that they can’t get this information anywhere else. Statistics show that over 75% of consumers want to receive promotional material via SMS.
5. Automated SMS and personalisation
Automated SMS
Automated SMS is a great tool for businesses as it keeps your hands free. It is particularly useful when using bulk SMS. Automated SMS allows you to instantly reply to your customers without even pressing a button and much more.
Abandoned cart reminders
With automated SMS, you can set up your database to send out reminders to your customers to check out the contents of their baskets. There are many reasons why busy people fail to check out. They may be shopping around for a better price. If the latter is true, then you will be putting yourself back at the forefront of their minds. It also shows that you are prepared to go the extra distance and make the sale easier for them. Make sure you get the right tone and text like a friend. Personalise it. For example:
“Hi Kate, we noticed you checking out these items (insert eye emoji). You have great taste BTW. If you would like to complete your sale, please click on the link provided”
You could also add a discount code to encourage the completion of the sale.
Personalisation
As you can see in our cart reminder text, personalising your SMS also helps to nurture leads and build a strong relationship between your customer and your brand. With automated SMS, your database can filter in information such as the customer’s name, dates, and details of a purchase. For cart reminders, you can even add the image of the item they have been looking at.
6. Segmenting and timing SMS
Segmenting
By separating your audience into categories based on their interests and demographics you can ensure that your messages are uniquely tailored for sms marketing. You must differentiate your customers so that you are not bombarding them with irrelevant information. For example, if you were a travel agent, why send a deal for an over 55’s holiday to all of your subscribers? With targeted messaging, you are much more likely to optimise your level of engagement.
This works well when sending bulk SMS. Providing your database contains the right information, the messages will automatically be sent out to the right people and at the right time. Targeting only those you want to reach will save you time and resources too.
Timing
There are good and bad times to send out SMS marketing messages. With the luxury of using automated SMS and bulk SMS, you can schedule your texts to arrive at the most sociable hours which suit your audience. For example, if you are a toy retailer planning to send out a bulk SMS to your target market – parents, it would be best to avoid school run times when parents are at their busiest. The optimum time to send out SMSmarketing texts is from 12 noon to 3 pm, but evenings might work better for those who are working long hours. In-store flash sales might work best on a Friday night or a Saturday morning to catch the weekend shoppers.
Try not to overload your audience with SMS marketing messages. Whilst they do want to hear from you and to benefit from your deals and alerts, there is a fine balance. To get the most out of your sms campaigns, send out your strongest content first, and make your recipients glad to hear from you so that they will stick around for more. Don’t over-schedule your messages, read your audience and try to gauge how often they would like to hear from you.
Start your journey today with sms (short message service) and call TextAnywhere! For a free trial, click the button below.