What is SMS Marketing & Why is it Important in Ecommerce?

SMS marketing can help brands establish genuine relationships with their customers. When you understand the types of text message marketing that are available for brand communication, you can optimize the channel and target your most engaged segments.

What Is SMS Marketing?  

The act of sending promotional materials via SMS is called SMS marketing. Send a text message to your subscribers saying, “BOGO only today in store!” You’re doing SMS marketing.

SMS marketing is a way to communicate offers and other information to existing customers who have given you consent to send them text messages.

Why Use SMS as a Marketing Tool?

Get your product or service in front of your target audience is one of today’s biggest marketing challenges. Our inboxes are overflowing with information, and ads on social media are so common that we barely notice them. In these situations, SMS is an invaluable tool.

Millennials always have their phones 

SMS can be a helpful marketing tool for reaching any age group, but it’s beneficial when marketing to Millennials and Gen Z. In 2010, nearly 80% of people aged 18-44 carried their phones with them 22 hours a day; we’re guessing people didn’t take their phones to the shower.

Today, young adults and the youngest Millennials may not even remember a time before smartphones were a part of their everyday lives. Today’s smartphones are not simply tools for communication. They’re an extension of each person.

People open texts faster than emails

Compared with emails, text messages are more likely to be opened – and opened faster. Gartner estimates that SMS messages have an average open rate of 98%, while email scores around 20% on average. It takes an average of 90 minutes or more for someone to open and respond to an email. Average time for SMS message responses? 90 seconds.

Rewards of Using SMS Marketing

With SMS marketing, you can improve engagement, boost conversions, and increase sales and revenues. Below are eight compelling reasons why you should integrate SMS marketing into your campaign?

Get a higher open rate than emails

Gartner’s data, which shows an average SMS open rate of 98%, illustrates the power of this communication channel. You increase your return on investment for your marketing efforts when you get more opens.

Achieve higher ROI with spend

Based on how many SMS messages you send and which SMS marketing provider you use, you will have a different cost for SMS marketing. Prices for thousands of text messages, however, usually range between $30 and several hundred dollars per month. Since 98% of those messages get opened, marketing to each consumer can cost pennies or less, which is very affordable. 

Target your audience on mobile devices

The majority of internet usage in 2019 is on mobile devices, making mobile marketing an essential component for businesses. Since SMS messages are designed to be read on mobile screens, they make that easy.

Reach a wide demographic

According to Pew Research, text messaging is the most common activity people do on a mobile phone. Texting might be associated with younger generations, but it’s a form of communication that crosses generational lines. Sports and news information via this format is primarily consumed by those between 35 and 44 years of age.

Almost everyone texts today, so SMS marketing lets you reach a broader audience. That’s especially true compared to channels like Instagram or Snapchat, primarily used by younger audiences.

Deliver your message fast

Text messages are open on average within two minutes of receipt, as previously stated. SMS marketing makes sense for end-of-day deals and flashes sales as it can be utilized for time-sensitive offers.

Integrate with other types of marketing

There is no one marketing channel that is best for every purpose. The good news is that SMS works with various channels, making it easy to integrate it into your marketing efforts.

Strengthen customer engagement

People like to be in the know, and they want to feel like they matter to brands. Customers feel cared for and part of the process when your business uses SMS messaging to inform them about offers, events, and other news that matters to them. This leads to stronger customer loyalty as a consequence.

Enable customers to opt-in and out

You can easily opt your customers in and out of receiving SMS messages using SMS. On the surface, that may not seem like a positive. But do you want to send text messages to people who don’t want to know about your products, business, or offers?

It wastes your time and alienates potential customers in the future. Your SMS marketing efforts are more likely to succeed when you allow your customers to easily manage their preferences.

Rouse audiences with event-based SMS marketing messages

When a text message is sent after an action, it is called a transactional SMS. You can automate text messages to send when customers take certain actions, such as signing up for communications, placing an order online, or attending an event.

Sending SMS marketing messages requires subscribers’ permission, just like sending emails.

Complement email with a welcome SMS

Automated email programs are proven to drive ROI. Customer experience can be improved, as well as brand recognition and affinity can be increased. SMS marketing will boost your marketing success exponentially. Remember to emphasize any benefit of signing up in your email as well.

Send speedy order updates after a sale

The majority of smartphone users worldwide do not use Facebook Messenger or email. But every one of them (plus another 1.28 billion people) has a working mobile number.

You can anchor your SMS strategy by sending order updates by text. Informed customers are happy customers. Keeping customers up to date on the status of their orders, including shipping and delivery timelines, is part of a first-rate customer experience.

Automate date-triggered SMS marketing messages

Take advantage of the moments that matter to your customers – from appointment reminders to birthdays and abandoned carts.

With the right omnichannel marketing automation platform, you can automatically pull in names and personal details and watch your engagement levels soar.