Gone are the days of using a single platform to market your product and offers. Today, brands are leveraging unique multi-channel marketing strategies to get solid bang for their buck. However, as the number of marketing channels increase, it’s difficult for consumers to differentiate what’s good from a pool of competitors offering similar products.
So, there’s a greater need than ever to build relationships with your customers in a place where they’re most active. Yes, social media and email are great options.
But you know what’s better than that? SMS messages.
In fact, 82% of consumers say they open every text they receive, and 64% think businesses should contact them via SMS more often. SMS also has a proven CTR of 19% as opposed to 2%-5% for emails and 1.3% for social media.
These stats show exactly how much power and potential SMS marketing holds today.
In this article, we’ll talk about the different types of SMS messaging marketing you can use to give your eCommerce revenue a facelift and take your business to the next level.
What are the different types of SMS messaging marketing?
If you’ve ever shopped online, you’ve probably received transactional messages, order update messages, sales announcement messages, and new product launch messages— which show the different ways you can use messaging marketing.
Let’s look at the top five ways, and examples of brands doing this right:
1) Promotional SMS messaging for new products & campaigns
One of the most critical aspects of product success, and even your product launch, is how you market it. There are multiple channels to put the word out, but why not do it through SMS that has a 45% conversion rate—one of the highest conversion rates by any marketing channel?
“SMS is the ideal channel for eCommerce brands that want to build deeper relationships with their customers via two-way conversations. When it comes to launching new products, brands can leverage SMS to give those subscribers first access, creating a feeling of exclusivity.”
-Stephanie Griffith, Chief Evangelist at Drip
You can use text messaging to promote the launch of a new product, create buzz around it and even drive conversions through a simple, crisp, yet super compelling SMS.
This can be a product teaser, product introduction, waiting list invitation, countdown, and even UGC-inspired messages to nurture your customers till they give in to the CTA.
See how Wandering Bear uses this beary-great (no pun intended) SMS to encourage customers to join their waiting list for the new product—that too, with an early access discount.
2) SMS marketing to retain existing customers
You don’t just want to use SMS to promote your products and offers all the time. Yes, text messaging is a great way to get conversions but it’s an equally great channel to nurture your audience and retain them through an excellent customer experience.
“If you’re selling protein powder, you can promote a recipe using your protein powder first, which can lead to a sale on its own. Next, when there’s a limited offer opportunity, such as a holiday sale, you can send a direct promotion SMS and build up on your educational message to retain customers, drive recurring sales and sell through value.”
-Danavir Sarria, Founder, SupplyDrop Media
Glow Recipe, a cruelty free skincare brand is a great example of using SMS to retain customers. In this message, they asked their customers about their most pressing concern, and segmented their SMS list to send educational content + product recommendations to customers with a specific concern. This helped them express concern and tailor the message for their existing customers to build retention.
3) SMS messaging for subscription eCommerce
If you’re selling a subscription-based package to your customers, SMS can be an excellent channel to remind them when their subscription needs renewal or when their preferred product is back in stock. With a subscription service, there’s a greater need for your customer communication to be streamlined and efficient. Here SMS automation can help take the load off and ensure your customers get all orders updates and product alerts to shop easily.
“Removing friction from subscription is so imperative to keeping customers around. Part and parcel of that is giving customers the ability to swap, skip and cancel easily. With management via SMS, customers no longer have to login to their account to make changes.
Since enabling sms on our subscription platform, we’ve seen a 70% decrease in monthly churn and 30x growth at OLIPOP.”
-Eli Weiss, Olipop
Building on this belief, Olipop does a great job at sending reminders to their customers via SMS every time a product gets restocked or launches a new product with quirky language and interactive emojis.
4) SMS messaging to improve customer experience
Want to provide a better customer experience and know precisely what your customers want? Leverage SMS to request feedback, ask the customer what they liked or didn’t like about their purchase experience, which product they would want to see next, etc. You’ll get first-hand intel about what you need to work on next, and well, let’s be honest—it’s fun for the customers.
You can also add an incentive to this SMS to encourage more customers to leave feedback. This can be a special discount coupon or a small freebie to appreciate their time.
You can take it up a notch and make your SMS series a conversation with your customers by playing a quiz game where you ask them to guess which product you’re launching next, as Muddy Bites does here.
Or, if you want to promote a special offer on your products—but with a twist, you can take inspiration from what Dr. Squatch does here and turn your offer reveal into an exciting game. This will enhance the conversation factor, increase open rates, invite better engagement, and increase your CTR.
5) Upselling via SMS messages
If you want to scale your business and revenue, upselling is an extremely powerful tool that can enhance customer retention.
Besides, upselling is 68% more affordable than acquiring new customers and since 79% of mobile users base their purchasing decisions on SMS opt-ins—it makes SMS the perfect channel to upsell and retain your existing customers.
But you can’t just explicitly promote an upsell offer to your customers. You need to nurture and educate them about the problem they're facing and how your product can solve it best. You can also conduct a survey or seek customer feedback and understand what upsells your customers would be more inclined to purchase, which can add the most to your bottom line.
“An empathetic SMS upsell strategy focuses on the message timing, copy, and relevance of the offer. I recommend sending the first upsell text 7-14 days after the product has been delivered. Use conversational keywords to allow customers to reply back with what they're interested in. Based on their reply, they can receive a text with a dynamic code that links back to a hidden custom landing page, which displays the offer and it's expiration time.”
-Joseph Siegel, eCommerce email and SMS marketing expert
NaturAll Club is a case in point. They validated their upsell by highlighting how it can help protect the customer’s wash ‘n’ go look. To add to this, they also spotlighted a discount code to push the customer further towards clicking on the link.
Enhance your eCommerce conversions and engagement with SMS messaging
SMS marketing is a great way to strengthen the connection with your customers through a more intimate channel than social media or email. There are different ways to lead your SMS strategy forward and engage your subscribers, but start with the top five mentioned in this article and work your way up with more evolved and innovative SMS strategies.
Ready to start your SMS marketing journey? Blueprint helps eCommerce brands in the US and UK retain their customers and supercharge revenue. Book a demo today.
.png)
