The SMS Market has a huge potential that is constantly being overlooked. The SMS marketing stats for 2022 show that text messages have an average open rate of 98% and a clickthrough rate of 19% – knowing this you should definitely be thinking of marrying your Email and SMS marketing strategies (if you haven’t done so already). Our clients have earned an average of 10% of their overall store revenue from SMS alone. It’s the fastest and easiest way to take advantage of your database and increase your conversions and repeat buyers.
As with any form of marketing, both email & SMS have their own strengths and weaknesses. However, when combined they work perfectly together to balance each other out.
Some of the benefits you’ll get from combining both email and SMS marketing are:
Budget-optimization:
While Email marketing provides a great ROI, SMS marketing gives you a low-cost way to reach out to a large number of subscribers. By combining these two strategies you’ll be able to optimize your expenses.
Reach out at any time:
Mobile phones are rarely further than an arms reach away. There is less distance between an SMS and the recipient than there is when an email and the recipient. Which makes SMS an incredibly personal means of communication and means you can reach your target audience anytime, anywhere.
Get to know your audience:
When combined with feedback and analytics, through your SMS and email marketing strategy you’ll be able to get a better picture of who your customers are and what they are looking for. With all these insights you can now offer better incentives and tailored content.
Understanding SMS and Email Marketing Channels’ Differences
Now that we’ve addressed some of the benefits of aligning your SMS and email marketing strategy, you should also know that even though subscribers have shown interest in hearing from your brand on both channels, and they are now more receptive to the content you decide to share with them, there are still some differences between both of them that you should keep in mind when working on your strategy.
For example, remember that SMS’s are that much more instant and therefore that much more personal. And the copy needs to reflect this. Personal copy builds trust and creates engagement. It needs to be crafted in a way that makes the recipient feel as if the message is tailored specifically to them. Also, messages don’t necessarily have to have images – MMS – so, no need to worry about designing images for your SMS campaigns but, you do need to be more creative and assertive with the texts you send.
Aligning your SMS & Email Marketing Strategies:
Similar approach for SMS and Email Marketing
First thing first, just like with email, you need your customer’s consent to send them SMS messages. Make sure to double-check the laws that apply to your country and even consult with legal counsel if necessary.
Next – same as email – segment your subscribers as you normally do. There might be some differences but the approach is basically the same. You can segment those who have clicked in the last X amount of time, which are your most engaged audience, or even those who have opened or recently subscribed. Same as for email marketing, you can also personalize your message by inserting first names, birthdays, cities, or other relevant information.
Automate your campaigns for both channels
You can send triggered, transactional messages for your SMS marketing, just as you do with email.
With transactional messages, as you probably know, you can notify your customers about some events like: order shipments or confirmation, upcoming due dates for bills, payment method updates, and more. Transactional messages are sent based on your customers’ actions while triggered messages are based on your customer’s behaviour.
You can set-up the same flow automations for your Email and SMS channels
Welcome, Checkout Abandonment, Post Purchase, Added to Cart, Browse Abandonment and more. Just make sure you’re not actually spamming or overwhelming your audience and be wise with the times you use to trigger the messages for each. Pro tip: only text when you have something valuable to say and remember to schedule your messages for peak hours between 10AM and 1PM (work days), 3PM and 7PM (weekends). Have Quiet Hours enabled to avoid accidents.
Run A/B Tests
In order to fully understand your customers you should not only review your analytics but also avoid assumptions and always try to A/B test your campaigns but only testing one thing at a time so that you have clear conclusions on the shown results.
Some examples of strategies you can use to A/B test on SMS and get more insights are: personalized signature at the bottom of each message vs. no signature, showing the coupon code, adding a CTA, giving an incentive, the offer amount, and more. The number of things you can test will depend on what you’re able to do with what you have so don’t be afraid to try out new things, think out of the box, and boost your conversions!
Don’t forget to constantly track and analyze your campaign’s results in order to improve and optimize your marketing efforts based on reliable information that comes directly from zero-party data, this way you’ll guarantee better results that will help you boost your conversions.
If you are interested in SMS and Email Marketing, check out our detailed SMS marketing proposal and contact us to get an audit and take advantage of your database and make the most out of it. Engage, drive conversions and bring back old customers to increase your company performance and uplift your ROI.
