SMS Marketing Strategy

SMS marketing is one of the most popular marketing strategies in digital marketing. As a direct communication method, it can effectively capture customers' attention and prompt them to take action, helping brands attract more potential customers and drive sales. However, SMS marketing is not a simple task, and many marketers often face difficulties in developing SMS marketing plans due to a lack of effective strategies and techniques. This article will provide some practical advice to help you achieve better results in SMS marketing.

Why is SMS marketing everyone's choice?

According to the 2021 SMS marketing data, SMS messages have higher open rates and click-through rates compared to email marketing. According to industry reports, the average open rate for SMS is 99%, and the average click-through rate is 36%. The reply rate for SMS is 45%, while the reply rate for email marketing is 6%.
60% of consumers will view SMS notifications within 1-5 minutes. Source: Simple Texting
⅓ of SMS recipients respond to persuasive language in SMS messages, and 47% of them make purchases.
Only 24% of businesses find it easy to get customer responses. Source: ZipWhip

Brand Cases

1. Pura Vida Bracelets: Pura Vida Bracelets uses SMS marketing to send personalized product recommendations and promotions to customers. By segmenting customers based on their purchase history and interests, they have increased their conversion rate by 10%.
2. Express: Express uses SMS marketing to send targeted messages to customers with abandoned shopping carts. They offer discounts and promotions to encourage customers to complete their purchases, resulting in a 29% increase in revenue.

How to conduct effective SMS marketing and improve conversion rates?

1. Obtain consent: It is important to obtain customers' consent before sending them any SMS messages, and this can be done through opt-in forms on your website. In the process of obtaining consent, ensure clear information about the types of messages customers can expect and the frequency of messages they will receive. If you do not have customers' consent and forge subscription information, we reserve the right to discontinue your service.
2. Personalize the messages: Personalized SMS marketing can help increase customer engagement and drive sales. Use customers' names and purchase history to tailor messages to their interests and needs, including personalized product recommendations and promotions. This type of communication can effectively enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby increasing sales opportunities.
3. Choose the right timing: Timing is crucial when it comes to SMS, so choose to send messages when customers are most likely to engage and interact. In most countries, telecom operators prohibit sending SMS messages to users between 9:00 PM and 9:00 AM. If you choose to send messages during this time, they are likely to be intercepted by spam filters, and even if they bypass the filters, they may be blocked by users. You can easily solve this problem by using Plexins for scheduled sending, as it will send messages based on the user's time zone.

Note: Avoid sending multiple SMS messages with the same content to the same number within a short time frame, as this may trigger spam filters.

4. Keep the content concise: SMS messages should be concise, highlighting the key information to make it easily understandable at a glance. Try to keep the message length within 160 characters and use clear language and a specific call to action. Messages with excessive content are more likely to be blocked by spam filters. Therefore, ensure that your SMS content is brief and concise to ensure the accurate delivery of information to customers.
5. Segment customers: Classify customers based on their interests, purchase history, and other demographic information to achieve more personalized messaging and increase customer engagement. You can send targeted messages to specific customer groups to ensure better attention. This approach helps you understand your customers better and improves the effectiveness of SMS marketing.
6. Monitor and analyze results: Regularly monitoring and analyzing the results of SMS marketing campaigns is essential. It allows you to identify which activities are effective and which are not. By collecting and analyzing data, you can make informed decisions and optimize future SMS marketing campaigns. It also provides deeper insights into your customers and how SMS marketing activities influence their behavior.
7. Use automation: By utilizing automated SMS marketing tools, you can automatically send relevant messages based on customer needs, leading to increased conversion rates. According to multiple verifications, automated marketing is a highly effective approach that can more than double conversion rates. In particular, it can effectively recover abandoned orders in the shopping process, thereby increasing sales opportunities.

Lastly, here are some additional tips to help you better engage in SMS marketing:

1. Optimal marketing frequency accepted by consumers: Once a week.
2. Most favored messages by consumers: Shipment notifications, welcome messages, and discount information.
3. 89% of businesses prefer automation for abandoned cart recovery processes.
4. Subscription welcome messages can increase user confidence in the brand.
5. Customer review invitations can increase genuine reviews and facilitate user purchases.
6. Customer anniversary reminders can increase brand loyalty and reactivate existing customers.
7. Shopify stores need to set up TCPA.

I hope these suggestions will assist you in conducting SMS marketing more effectively. Click here to also see how to improve your SMS delivery rate.