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With our connectivity at an all-time high, marketers need to take advantage of SMS marketing to build lasting relationships with your customers. In fact, according to a survey, an average American spends 2 hours and 54 minutes on their phones each day. It indicates in nearly a month and a half on their phones in 2022! By staying top-of-mind via text messages — an attention grabbing medium — you’ll prevent your business from getting lost in the shuffle of filtered app notifications.
Moreover, SMS marketing could also be used to offer customers gifts, discounts and other rewards, thus creating a sense of loyalty and appreciation among them.
Let’s explore how SMS can be your secret weapon for long term ROI and sustainable growth!
What is SMS and eCommerce Stats You Should Know in 2022
SMS or “short message service” is a form of communication brands can utilize to interact with their customers and drive more revenue. Brands can see substantial growth benefits by using the pervasiveness of mobile devices that have gained control over the lives of customers.
eCommerce growth continues to soar, with online retail sales hitting $359.32 billion in 2021, an increase of 15.2% compared to 2020. Over the next 3 years, sales are projected to reach $728.28 billion by 2025.
SMS is a great tool to help improve online customer service. In fact, 75% of Gen Z or millennials use their phones to shop online. And 45% of adults believe mobile devices are the most important shopping tool in the world today, where consumers rely on it more than anything else. This can be shown through e-commerce sites that have integrated natively into social media channels and made posts shoppable across these channels, like how Instagram has incorporated the ability for users to buy items with one touch over their phones.
SMS provides an exclusive customer experience that increases the average order value and overall retention. 75% of consumers want to receive texts with special offers and they’re 4.5X more likely to respond. It’s the most friendly and optimized platform for communicating with a highly engaged customer segment since texting is very personal.
Its flexible delivery and high attention rate drive action, responses, and loyalty making it a successful tool for time-sensitive promotions, rewards, and updates that can be easily shared.
Most brands haven’t started their SMS strategy yet, be on the cutting edge to adopt this into your business as 64% of consumers think brands should contact them via SMS more often.
SMS Marketing VS Email Marketing Benefits
SMS is a supplement to help boost program communications, increase sales, promote a product, and build brand awareness. Because SMS campaigns are much shorter, and generally limited to 160 characters, consumers are much more likely to reach and engage with the call to action. Plus it’s more efficient to implement than an email campaign.
Email providers are increasingly marking emails as spam, decreasing deliverability. Unlike 50% of emails getting filtered out of the inbox, this isn’t a problem for SMS. With SMS you have higher deliverability and open rates for program messages and rewards.
SMS wins over email open rates – the front door to purchase conversion and program activity. Open rates have an average of 90% compared to 20% for email and a 19% click-through rate vs 3.2% for email.
SMS can outperform email on both click rates and conversation rates with a 30% purchase conversion to email’s 3-4%. Overall SMS marketing is changing customer engagement rates.
The Best Time to Send SMS Updates to Your Customers
Just as brands can be strategic about the timing of their marketing messages, SMS marketers should pay close attention to the channels and times during which they push out messages. While some customers might be ready to engage with a brand at any time of day, most people act differently depending on the time — and lead generation text messaging is no different.
When actively using their phone, 90% of mobile users will open a message within three minutes of being sent. 82% of customers say they open every text message they receive when sent at an optimal time.
Leverage a flexible time to deliver messages using built-out workflows depending on the customer’s actions with automation. Automations can be enabled after a purchase, after receiving an order, after items have been sitting in their cart, or offer a reward after some time between their last purchase as a kind reminder of your brand.
3 Examples of Successful SMS Marketing Campaigns
Chipotle and the NBA partnered together to reward the first 10,000 members of its Chipotle Rewards loyalty program who texted a keyword to an SMS featured on a television ad during the game, to unlock a buy-one, get-one-free offer. In less than 30 seconds all the offers were gone.
Dunkin Donuts boosted in-store foot traffic by 21% during a monthly SMS promotion. They targeted high school and college students in the Boston area to try their 99-cent hot lattes for the whole month of October. The offer was sent to those that had opted into their SMS program and promoted other customers to sign up when the news got around with 17% of participants forwarding the message to their friends.
The Hilton Hotel Group used SMS to get higher property bookings and more guests generating a 10-25% update of offers over previous marketing methods. Hilton continues to use SMS to send over rewards, offers, and promotions to contact potential customers at their preferred most convenient times to drive action and loyalty.
How to Get the Conversation With Your Customers Started
SMS enhances the virtuous UGC loop of customer loyalty for your brand. With higher reward redemption it leads to more products bought and talked about on social = more UGC → new buyer discovery. The simplicity of SMS will help you drive quicker launch times and optimize reward delivery for better awareness of program briefs, challenges, and contests.
Your brand website probably collects customer phone numbers when they place an order already. Ask them to opt-in to SMS marketing and rewards with a welcome message or discount code when they sign up to receive personalized updates to keep the conversation going even after the delivery of their order or viewing your site.
Klaviyo is a great place to start collecting phone numbers and build a flow. Your Klaviyo can then be implemented into the LoudCrowd platform for SMS to use for your brand ambassador program. We can help you build out your SMS program and support your brand through the process to be successful in your marketing strategy.
Rewards are set up just like they would be in an email and LoudCrowd is here to provide the automation for effective delivery to reach consumers where they shop the most.
Examples of SMS triggers in the program flow to converse with your community include:
- Activity statuses – “your 4th post this month has been approved! One more to earn your next reward”
- Reminders – “one more week to get in your UGC”
- Weekly/daily challenges & contests – “we’re running a special challenge this week”
- Reward delivery – “Yay for you! You’ve earned our top reward this month”
- Surprise & delight – “Special gift for our favorite story this week”
