SMS Marketing Ideas to Generate More Sales

SMS marketing is a great way to engage with customers—especially when 95% of adults in the US own a mobile phone.

Still, not convinced? Consider these SMS statistics:

  • 82% of individuals keep notifications turned on for SMS messages
  • 95% of texts from businesses are read within 3 minutes of being sent
  • The average reaction time for a text message is 6,000% (60X) faster than email
  • The average SMS campaign conversion rate is 45%

But once you’ve got the phone number of your target customer and they’ve opted-in to hear from you, what do you send to them? If you’re trying to market your product to the planet and grow your business, you’ve got no choice but to plug to audiences on mobile devices. 

You don’t want to dive into their notifications just for the sake of it. .You need to give them value justified reasons to engage with you on a regular basis. Whether it’s mobile banner ads, ads that appear in video games, or QR codes, there’s no shortage of methods for getting the word bent mobile consumers.

Short Message Service (SMS) marketing, There are many reasons to try it out, from its relatively low starting cost to the fact that the vast majority of texts are actually opened and read to some extent. When used successfully, it creates an efficient platform for communicating with mobile customers. 

sms-cta

These are some of the most effective SMS tactics:

Personalize SMS campaigns

Just because you’re using an automated marketing tool to send your messages to your customers doesn’t mean you can’t make the experience PERSONAL.

Customers respond more to materials addressed directly to them, so insert your subscribers’ names when you can. You can also target your customers with more relevant texts supported their preferences.

Like any method of selling to your customers, the longer you spend honing your skills, the more interaction you’ll illicit from your community. If you’re ready to strengthen your response rates, SMS will assist you to learn more about where your company stands immediately. Your analytics should assist you with goal setting, understanding your business because it stands, and deciding where you would like it to be.

Jump onto national holidays

Another great SMS marketing automation idea is to look at upcoming holidays, and see if you can tie them in with your text message automation- even if it’s just a quick message to say:

  • “Happy Easter”
  • “Happy Valentines, we hope you have a great day”
  • “Merry Christmas to all of our customers. We wish you a great New Year!”

These little reminders can show you go above and beyond for customers, without making them feel like you’re constantly pushing them to a sale. They build your relationships, which build your brand.

Encourage social media engagement

Who said SMS marketing software has to stick within the “messages” app on your audience’s phones? You could encourage text audiences to engage with you on other social media platforms by sending a simple text like:

  • “Reply SMS to enter our competition, and like our Facebook Page for 3 extra entries!”
  • “On the fence about our services? Read this Twitter review of Casey, who hired five specialists in 2 weeks using our recruitment services.”
  • “Exclusive offer available to LinkedIn followers! Get your code here: [LINK]”

Remember, it’s always wise to give your audience an incentive to do the job you’re asking of them, even if the task is as simple as accessing free information.

If social media is part of your overall marketing strategy, this is a great way to improve engagement, because driving people from SMS to follow you on social media helps with your overall awareness on that platform.

Use interactive content to engage SMS audiences

Did you recognize that interactive content generates 2x more conversions than passive content?

Take advantage of interactive content in your SMS marketing campaigns by asking your audience to respond to messages with answers through quizzes or polls.

Send order confirmations

Order confirmations are typically sent by email, but inboxes can be crowded places for most people. The average person gets 88 emails per day, which is part of the reason why text message verification is 250% more effective than email.

Plus, customers can easily keep track of their order—especially when you send texts at each stage (shipped, with the courier, delivered.)

Here’s an example of how you could do that:

  • “Thanks for ordering! Your order #19439 is being prepared. Track shipment here: LINK”
  • “Your product is with the courier and expected to be delivered between 4 pm and 6 pm.”
  • “We’ve delivered your order! Reply to this text if there’s anything else we can help with.”

Upsell other relevant products or services.

Once someone has made a purchase, send personalized messages as recommendations for future products based on what they’ve already bought. You can do this by taking a look at your customer list, the item each customer has purchased, and other potential products that they might be interested in based on their first purchase.

Add Promos

Marketing your business no matter how big or small, can be tough in the competitive and ever-growing eCommerce world, but automated marketing with bulk SMS continues to crush other channels. An advantage of automated marketing is that you simply can quickly share real-time promotions. You can personalize the group messaging too by merging them. It’s pretty straight forward too. You’re simply doing a text blast to your subscriber list with some type of offer that drives people to your website eventually. Some use cases would be – get creative and draw from special events like holidays and big shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Service Updates

Each message brings value—especially if you’re including links with delivery status updates and since it is increasingly trending for large shipment and delivery companies to offer a complimentary SMS update to the customers expecting their parcel. This use of SMS improves the customer experience to a great extent as it conveniently alerts them of the exact time slot they need to be available at.

This could also be used in cases where your store has a new product just launched. Keep your customers informed with an SMS update

Send texts at the right time

Target timelines wherein your customers won’t be occupied, like before or after work, or during lunch hours. As a general rule, don’t send texts before 9 am or after 9 pm. Additionally, test your campaign success using metrics: such as open rates and click-through rates, in order to identify your top customers and regions. Send messages based on the specific area so your offers get to them when they’re most receptive.

Engage a younger audience

18-49 year-olds have grown up with various mobile devices, and are more active texters than baby boomers.

Integrate MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service)

If you’ve got a tough time with the 160-character limit, use MMS to send video clips or images to your customers. You can even include YouTube URLs, giving your customers a visible about your business.

Have a clear call-to-action

Two factors drive an SMS campaign: the keyword and a shortcode. If you would like customers to require part during a campaign that has them text your keyword to a five-digit number (your shortcode) confirm those two items stand out and aren’t buried in the message. 

SMS campaigns require powerful, concise messages with a call to action, that you want your customers to take. It allows you to measure the success of your targeting when the customer goes ahead in the exact workflow as you decided for them.

Remind customers about upcoming appointments

If you’re a service company or make appointments, you understand that no-shows have a huge impact on your business—especially if you’re:

  • A hairdresser
  • A service provider that goes to people’s homes (e.g. a pest control company)
  • A restaurant

Whether you’re waiting around for customers to show-up or turning down other customers because another appointment is already booked, you can reduce the chances of no-shows by sending appointment reminders via SMS.

Direct Customers With Links

In order to increase your store sales, you need to provide your subscribers with a link to your product in your SMS message. This will increase the chances of conversions because subscribers don’t have to go to your entire website to look for the product. Click-through rates on texts are around 50% and so it is also a great way to keep their interest. You can provide a direct link to the product or product category that you’re looking to push. Because you want to make things as easy as possible for your customers and not hard. Take that load of site navigation out and send them on to where they have to be.

Make contests interactive

When customers enter a contest or opt-in, don’t forget to incorporate the links to your website and social media in your automated reply. It’s a simple and quick thanks to connect customers to your various pages, enticing them to click on the links.

Keep It Conversational

Smartphone users are used to more casual, short written compared to other, longer-form mediums. Avoid coming off as too generic by using appropriate abbreviations and embrace a more playful, indulging and conversational tone. A customer’s text inbox is a very personal space to them, so craft messages that are similar to the other relevant texts that they receive. Keep the formal language for your website or other sorts of communication, like email marketing.

Keep it Short, Sweet, and to the Point

Not only should you keep your SMS campaigns numbered, but limits on characters are way too critical and of great importance for your campaigns to run smoothly and successfully. Your customers’ attention span means that you need to get to the point quickly.

If you’ve got a suggestion, if your message has important information about their order, include it within the message. Make it a regular practice to always include a link so the customers can get more detailed information about the offer/update you’ve sent.

Another great practice is to follow up with an email. If you’ve sent something important, make sure you’re sending a follow-up e-mail as well in case the customer needs any help.

Run competitions

We all want a chance to win something, which is why you can get your SMS audience engaged by running competitions through your text messaging strategy.

Even messages as simple as these can help you skyrocket engagement rates:

  • “Reply WIN to be entered into a chance to win a year’s supply of XYZ”
  • “Want to win a free product? Text ENTER to 582-045-3850 to enter our competition. – CompanyYouLove”

Or you could take it a step further and partner with another company to run a joint SMS competition. For example: If you’re a firm, partner with a receipt management company, and run competitions with one text that says – “Reply with WIN to get one years’ free consultancy, PLUS lifetime access to BRAND’s software!”

These joint competitions are a win-win for everyone involved. Not only can you borrow each others’ audiences (especially if you send the same text to both lists), but you’ll improve overall engagement rates when customers enter to win.

Create Urgency in Messages

Creating a sense of urgency pushes your customers to take advantage of deals before they expire. Cash in on your customers’ fear of missing out by creating a sense of scarcity in your campaigns and include phrases like:

  • Limited time offer
  • While stock lasts
  • Only For Today
  • One-time Deal

Conclusion

Are you ready to launch a text messaging campaign that engages, nurtures, and converts your ideal customers?

Say goodbye to scratching your head, thinking of things to send. With these SMS marketing examples, you’ll have months’ worth of content to engage your customers throughout the sales funnel and beyond! Now you just need a way to send texts.wigzo cta

Pritika Dewan

Pritika Dewan

Pritika’s bio is short and sweet but is packed with interesting information. She is a Web Content Developer at Wigzo. However, when she isn’t reading or writing, she’s probably dancing, cooking Thai food or binge-watching her favorite shows.

Related Blogs