With a 98% opening rate, SMS marketing is a great strategy to fall back on. It’s a quick and easy way to engage with customers who, very quickly, grow to care about your business. And what better investment for enterprises in the retail industry? With ecommerce SMS marketing, you can shoot off instant notifications on sales, re-stocks, and more.
Texts are a powerful tool in retail, but especially for those with online marketplaces. It’s just such an engaging way to interact with customers, both new and old. Moreover, the high opening rates also mean you’re constantly building on your existing brand awareness. E-commerce relies on that reminder since it lacks physical location marketing; you don’t get customers to “just walk by.”
SMS marketing is a winning campaign choice for directing shoppers to your website (and reminding them it exists). In this guide, we’ll introduce you to all the fundamental knowledge you need to use SMS messages for your e-commerce store. Get ready for serious results.
What Is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing campaigns are smart strategies that use texts to connect with potential and previous customers. They’re a quickfire way of touching base and have a 160-character limit per text. Because of this, abbreviations and a snappy tone are commonplace. You’ll adjust everything to be as clipped yet engaging as possible.
Not all SMS marketing strategies are the same; you can use a range of formats for different purposes. Different types of SMS marketing messages range from promotions to transactional notifications and feedback requests. Here are the primary examples to note:
- Transactional messages are typically confirmations, like a notification that you’ve received a payment.
- Promotional text messages focus on sales, such as sending discounts and deals.
- Review requests are pretty self-explanatory (if you aren’t already, definitely ask customers for reviews).
- Loyalty program texts are usually snappy and informative — not unlike the newsletters you receive by email.
It’s worth noting that many companies, especially larger ones, automate texts like transactional messages to ping off immediately after purchases. This is a smart way to stay on top of your SMS campaign, regardless of your industry.
Some texts you manually create, like promotional texts, but bulk send will need specialized software. You can find plenty of templates online for ideas on phrasing sales messages. As one of the leading ways to market a business, SMS marketing is not short of software when you need assistance. Usually, it operates on a monthly subscription basis.
How To Use Ecommerce SMS Marketing
Ecommerce SMS marketing is great for things like transactional messages. You can sync software to automate text confirmations after each sale. In this sense, everything is digital, which makes automation even easier.
Because of this, when setting up SMS marketing for ecommerce, we suggest prioritizing finding solid software first. It helps to reduce your workload immediately. And, for guests, those clockwork messages bring a sense of reliability and trustworthiness.
You should follow the three steps below.
1. Use the Right Software
Research the best e-commerce software on the market, paying attention to automation features, reviews, and pricing. When selling online, having that perfect software sidekick can make or break your business. You want it to be compatible with your site and have all the necessary abilities.
If you’re unsure, ask for a free demo or trial period. Most companies are happy to oblige.
2. Transition From Automation to Creative Texts
When launching your software, initially focus specifically on automated messages like transaction confirmations. These are your foundations.
Once you establish your automated messages, brainstorm your target audience and potential promotional or loyalty program content. These are one-off texts you create and send at specific times, like when a new product launches. Take your time writing these texts, taking inspiration from SMS marketing examples, and proofreading them thoroughly.
When it’s ready, schedule your one-off message to send in bulk at optimal times. If your ecommerce business has an international customer base, you may wish to stagger the timings.
3. Review, Review, and Review Some More
Track your progress through an analytics dashboard (another important software feature), tweaking your e-commerce marketing strategy as necessary.
At the later stages of your campaign, consider sending out requests for feedback to help with your internal reviews. This is particularly helpful when automatically sent after customers receive packages. It reduces the likelihood of them leaving negative feedback to the public. But, in general, it can help direct your strategies, and most people are happy to oblige.
Top 3 Benefits of SMS Marketing for E-commerce
When it comes to SMS marketing, ecommerce is actually one of the best-suited industries. It (usually) entirely relies on online and digital features and functions anyway. This means that most of its operations are suitable for immediately syncing with SMS software. Let’s say it’s technology-friendly.
Aside from high compatibility, though, let’s take a look at the top three benefits of SMS marketing for e-commerce. If you aren’t already sold, prepare yourself to seal the deal.
1. High Conversion Rates
The conversion rate is the number of readers that become customers. It varies based on what you measure; there’s no set rule about what you need to “convert” readers to do. However, for ecommerce, you can assume this to be on a recipient-to-purchaser basis. That is the number of people who receive your text and purchase something from your store.
The average conversion rate for SMS marketing is incredibly high, at around 36%. You’ll really notice the difference in rolling out savvy texts, and it’s great for profit.
These high stats are likely due to the equally well-performing opening rates. After all, the more people read a message, the more likely they are to act on it.
2. Prompt Communication
Instant communication is a huge bonus of SMS marketing. It’s reassuring to know that you can send a text, and it will arrive seconds later in the right inbox.
Unlike email marketing, there’s also little to no danger of you ending up in a spam box. It’s just much easier for recipients’ software to mark you as spam via email. The whole process is much more A to B, resulting in better opening rates and slicker correspondence.
We all know how we react to receiving a text; you jump at that familiar sound. It’s almost a modern version of a primal reaction!
3. Boosts Brand Awareness
Because of the excellent opening rate and promptness of the marketing exchanges, it’s a guarantee to boost brand awareness. Even when you don’t get a conversion, your message is most likely read and will stick in that person’s mind. It doesn’t matter if that only lasts for a few minutes. After a while, that routine texting keeps you fresh in their memory.
SMS campaigns give businesses of all shapes and sizes an awareness boost, which is a leading benefit of this marketing channel.
For e-commerce businesses reliant on non-organic awareness building, especially without a physical store location, that opportunity is golden. It’s a purposeful little nudge for people who might make good customers.
Why Use SMS Templates for Ecommerce?
One of the smartest ways to upgrade your SMS strategy is through templates. You can see what worked for others and then emulate it for yourself. What better way to guarantee great results with minimal time and experience?
The best places to find these templates are online or through specialist SMS software, which often has prompts and automation.
Before you rush off, though, here are the four top benefits of using SMS templates for ecommerce:
- Templates improve your overall efficiency, producing better content at a faster pace.
- It’s helpful when scaling, so you do not have to worry about finding time to create ideas from scratch.
- They help you stay consistent in design or with your brand voice and approach.
- Templates let you make your mark; they are customizable and highly adaptable.
When investing in SMS marketing, ecommerce platforms are something you should weigh carefully. You could use specialist text marketing software built especially for online sales businesses. Or you could pick the best-rated SMS marketing companies; the choice is yours.
Regardless of which option you choose, there are some tricks you need to know. Here’s how to pick the best SMS marketing platform for ecommerce.
1. Keep Features in Mind
Your number one concern should be what features a platform has. You should especially check for automation because good software should make your life easier, not harder.
Things like templates are worth their weight in gold and will come in handy down the line. However, you can still find them online if the software does not offer them. Other features, like the ability to bulk send, are absolute non-negotiables. You do not want to be individually sending 500 text messages.
Analytical tools are another one not to scrimp on. You should also have a good dashboard with clearly set-out data. Selling online is a fickle business, and you’re often dealing with customers from all over the world. Having that form of data feedback for sms marketing ecommerce is beyond valuable.
2. But Balance That With Budget
Equally, though, don’t get carried away with features and commit yourself to software you can’t afford. Ideally, crunch your budget beforehand. This way, you don’t have any surprises later and can make more informed choices in the window shopping stage.
Another important thing to note is whether software will increase in price. It’s great that it’s showing a reduced rate now, but is that due to rocket backup? Double-check this.
If you opt for one of these deals because you can “cancel,” be wary. You’ll need to double — and then triple-check — their cancellation terms before proceeding. You are best setting an alarm or reminder to cancel in case you forget.
This isn’t always the most effective route to take, though; you’ll be shopping for software again in a few months.
3. Check Compatibilities
Finally, check compatibility. Is the software compatible with your browser, Windows, any other existing software you run, and all the like?
When running an e-commerce store, so much of your life is online. Because of this, compatibility becomes even more important. You must get the right software for the rest of your digital landscape. If it doesn’t sync, you’ll be back to square one, and you could foot some expenses, like non-refundable subscription fees.
Budgeting for an SMS Campaign
The good news is that SMS messages typically cost between $0.01 and $0.05 per text. In the grand scheme of things, that’s next to nothing. However, there is a caveat: as your email list grows, that can quickly add up.
One way around this is with texting bundles. Marketing companies sell these packages, giving you a set number of monthly messages for a fixed subscription fee. Expect to pay upwards of $20 a month for these types of agreements, increasing with the size of your email list. You get all the analysis and automation features with software-focused companies, too, so it’s a worthwhile investment.
It’s better to spend more on good-quality software that practically reinvents itself. You’ll make your life easier with automated transactional texts and the like — the extra dollars are worth it.
Of course, the good news is that SMS marketing boosts revenue, and with such a high opening rate, it’s cost-effective. This strategy is also applicable to small businesses sending marketing texts; they see great results for minimal financial output. If you’ve yet to build your contact list or are still building it, you’ll notice fantastic results through this method.
In summary, we’d budget around $0.03 per text or between $20 and $50 monthly for a software subscription. The final stat will depend on your text list size.
Beambox: Incorporating WiFi to E-commerce
Now, you might primarily run online, but if you have an in-person element, make sure you offer guest WiFi. This is the smartest way to collect phone numbers to boost your SMS subscribers. All you need is a working router and some captive portal software.
A captive portal is easy to set up. You simply purchase a subscription for the right software and enable captive portals in your router settings. And voila! You are up and ready to go. So, how does this system work?
Well, when guests click to join your network, they trigger a web page pop-up. This pop-up is a form of your creation. To proceed and fully access WiFi, guests must input the details of their choice. This could be email addresses, a request to follow the company on Instagram, or (you guessed it) a phone number.
Thanks to your swanky new software, all of these phone numbers are then funnelled automatically into a digital database. You then have a passively accruing mountain of contacts to use for your next SMS campaign. What a winning idea, right?
Not every e-commerce business has an in-person warehouse, let alone a physical store. But if you do, you know the strategy to use. It could be worth opening just a small pop-up shop in the future. And you can keep this in mind for temporary locations like trade show events.
At Beambox, we provide an incredible all-in-one WiFi marketing software that hands the power back to business owners like you. You’ll get access to a customizable captive portal system that collects the data you want.
Start your Beambox free trial today and take your ecommerce SMS marketing to the next level!
