6 Key Benefits of SMS Marketing for Online Retailers
With the ever-changing digital landscape, retail companies are constantly searching for alternative ways to reach their target. Many of them based their strategy on SMS marketing, a unique form of communication that proved to be highly effective in driving sales and engagement. In fact, SMS messages have a 98% open rate compared to 20% for emails. Knowing this, it’s the perfect medium for targeting customers on the go. Today we will talk about the six benefits of SMS marketing that online retailers can gain by incorporating the tactic into their business.
Companies wrongly believe that creating a successful multi-channel marketing requires investing tons of resources. SMS is a simple yet powerful method to deliver personalized, targeted communication that requires no extra software and works on every device. By integrating it into your marketing strategy, you can further unify customer communications and boost your ROI thanks to incredible open rates. And when it comes to retail, it’s the perfect way to market your online platform.
How does SMS marketing work?
It is based on sending campaigns or promotional messages for marketing purposes using text messages (SMS). Online retailers use SMS to communicate time-sensitive offers, updates, events notifications, and alerts to people included in the subscription list.
Additionally, brands use texting for sales-related offers such as vouchers, discounts, promotions, or even customers’ birthdays. Depending on the user’s mobile phone settings, the texts appear on your customers’ smartphones a few seconds after being sent. It’s one of the benefits of SMS marketing - the instant delivery that drives high engagement!
What’s more, you can fully automate it
Messaging marketing campaigns are the ones that can be fully automated, thanks to Apifonica. Our technology enables online retailers to quickly set up the whole SMS campaign based on the provided subscriber list. After launching automated messaging, companies can measure the performance of every message sent. All you need to do is to create the communication scenario, and the mechanism will handle the sending process at the specified time.
Benefits of SMS marketing for online retailers
Adopting SMS campaigns into marketing strategy brings along a lot of advantages. All of them help retail businesses grow at an unprecedented rate.
Astronomically High Open Rates
SMS messages have a read rate like no other marketing medium. It has been reported that 90% of people read an SMS within 3 minutes of receipt. What’s more, while the average CTR for emails is 1.22%, SMS marketing CTR can reach up to 19%! As we know, increased customer engagement leads to higher conversion rates… which leads us to the next benefit.
A Significant Increase in Sales
The instant SMS delivery guarantees high customer engagement, which in consequence leads to an increase in sales. But it’s not the end. When you use SMS marketing, you can resell, which is seven times easier than new client acquisition. Besides, your business stays in constant contact with clients, using one of the most immediate communication channels.
Precise Targeting with Personalization
SMS marketing enables online retailers to collect data and determine how to segment their customers. Companies can personalize SMS sent to clients based on their previous buying history, demographics, or location. Another good idea is to segment them by the SMS engagement level, increasing the likelihood of closing the transaction. The strategy provides data that is useful in determining.
Expand Omnichannel Strategy
Omnichannel communication helps businesses to create a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. While you still need other means of communication (such as emails, phone calls, paid advertising), SMS marketing is the one medium that can be responsible for the massive percentage of closed deals due to successful customer engagement.
Lower Customer Care Costs
Your company can reduce the costs related to customer service by sending automated notifications to clients, informing them about the order status. It’s also a way to improve user experience by responding to their actions immediately. When a customer buys an item, a system can instantly send a message saying thank you, your order will be delivered within three days. There’s always something to improve in the customer care segment.
Increase Brand Awareness
Finally, a successful SMS marketing strategy will always distinguish your company from others. It’s a chance to create a unique communication flow that will make your brand stand out from the competitors, engage users and increase your page visits.
Develop your business into a worldwide brand
SMS marketing is a powerful medium for retail store owners to reach prospective and current customers. It’s a way to boost sales, increase brand visibility and improve customer retention. SMS is so effective that it can become your primary communication channel, ensuring that customers will (almost) always receive and read your message. Contact our team at Apifonica to set up your automated SMS campaign today!