There are a lot of changes going on these days. Just look at the boost given by the global pandemic, giving rise to a new economy that has adapted to the current conditions. To adapt to the new conditions, retailers have turned to SMS Marketing, as it helps them to keep in touch with their customers and increase loyalty for their brand. Therefore, by using personalized SMS messages, companies are building a reliable two-way communication channel with the customer.
What is the advantage of SMS services for retail businesses?
The main trump card is that SMS marketing covers all stages of the sales funnel. The goal is to drive the customer to purchase and motivate a desire to buy again and again from loyal customers, something that SMS can successfully boast about. Once you apply this tool to your marketing campaign, your chances to increase a loyal consumer base will increase dramatically. A lot of retailers started using bulk SMS messaging services before it became mainstream, and are already making 50% more profit than before. By putting SMS Marketing on the back burner, you are leaving the opportunity to make money for someone else and catch a customer who wants a customer-centric service.
SMS Messaging Pros and Cons
The channel of communication through SMS is very personal and therefore it calls for the trust of the client. Alerting, reminding, and replying to customers via SMS messages is very convenient, especially if you have an integrated platform that allows you to quickly exchange SMS with customers. The only disadvantage of text messaging in this case, which is really hard to even call a minus, is that the customer expects a very quick response. It’s important that your customer support staff is trained to respond intelligently, quickly, and professionally. It is important not to delay any response, this could cause the client to feel neglected and it could affect your rapport.
The most successful options for using SMS Marketing in Retail Business
Below we will tell you about the most successful examples of the use of SMS in Marketing by the giants of trade. We will give examples to show how successfully companies use the customer base segmentation system to increase profit, as well as talk about tricks that help build a customer base.
- Loyalty program
A complex of marketing measures for development of repeated sales to existing customers in the future, sale of additional goods and services, promotion of corporate ideas and values, and other types of potentially profitable behavior. It is carried out mainly at the stage of product life cycle maturity.
Luxor Linens used personalized text messages to remind customers that they deliver on time and that customers get a discount when they place their holiday orders with them. After that, they got a 45x return on their advertising investment. It is very important to use a personalized approach for SMS messaging. Make sure you include a name or other information that makes the customer feel special.
- Sending out of coupons and discounts
MDK is a brand that’s been on the market for over 25 years and they’ve long embraced SMS messaging. The company specializes in selling leather goods and fur coats of different price segments.
Despite the fact that all their messages are not very personalized, they attract the attention of consumers with funny messages and discounts that competitors cannot match.
- Product update and Recent Acquisitions
SMS is a great way to let your customers know that you have a product in your cart that you haven’t bought yet, that you’re running out of stock, or that you have new arrivals. Grunt Style does this often by using text messages to notify customers of new products. It’s important to use your brand’s voice in these messages. This will help connect with customers, build loyalty, and ultimately get a nice boost in profits once the new product comes out.
- SMS notifications that the product is back on sale.
BombTech Golf was puzzled that their stock availability emails so often went unheeded. They sent them out to people who asked to be notified and saw very, very few sales. So through SMS Marketing, they got the attention their brand was missing and increased sales. The use of SMS notifications attracted 47% more customers than were previously attracted by email marketing.
- SMS for event promotion
Regardless of what kind of event you are holding (conference, a major PR-event, weekly special events, etc.) SMS Marketing will be extremely applicable to your case.
Buttercloth added a call to action and a brief description of who they are in order to get the most out of the SMS campaign. This solution increased both revenue by $72,000 and attracted new subscribers.
- Recovering abandoned carts
UMZU wanted to implement a unique approach to dumpster recovery, something unlike the competitors’ approach. Knowing their audience to perfection helped them think of this approach and use text messages with a short text from their blog that would talk about the product that was in the customer’s cart.
- Greeting SMS
Grunt Style created a series of welcome SMS messages that would help a new customer get to know their brand better and lead them to a purchase. They also sent out targeted messages with information about new products and promotions. A lot of customers signed up for their newsletter. This is an example of a very good strategy.
- Compliment Your Social Media Strategy.
Bailey’s Blossoms faced the problem of low openability of the mails they sent to clients, and it was difficult to keep in touch with clients through messengers, because they were constantly changing. To solve these problems they decided to apply SMS Marketing, namely they released a discount code that customers could only get when they signed up for SMS. To summarize, using email marketing and social media together is a good thing, but since email is rarely read and social media algorithms very often push you to pay to be seen by customers, SMS is the perfect solution.
- Customer Service
Customer service can be very varied. There can be a separate line for customer support in times of pandemic or a direct response to customer questions. One local nail salon sent out to its customers that they could buy hand sanitizers from the salon. This resulted in increased sales, not only of the hand sanitizers, but customer engagement in general.
- Reply to buy.
This automated campaign brings 310 Nutrition a very high return! The company has also set up leading text support and seven highly targeted SMS automation streams. This makes it easy for the customer to communicate with the company, the customer only needs to press a button to respond and it builds unbelievable customer loyalty to the brand.
What retailers need to know about compliance & SMS
One more thing for us to hide before you hit the bottom running with SMS marketing for your retail business, which is compliance!
SMS compliance and regulations are incredibly important, because they’re very strict and may cost your brand many dollars if you ignore them.
Don’t worry though! The regulations aren’t impossible. There are sense rules that help to guard the privacy of consumers since we are using their phone numbers, after all!
Here are a few things you should know before you start:
SMS Compliance & Risks of Violating TCPA
In order to send SMS messages, you want to get compliant opt-ins, and confirm those that opt-in skills to opt-out. Complaint opt-ins means that someone has given their phone number to you and agreed to receive SMS messages from your brand. You’ll have to have legal language clearly visible next to where they input their number. This is often a TCPA and carrier requirement.
The language and a place for the person to input their number can be put on:
- Pop ups
- Post purchase opt-ins
- Smart links for email and social
- Click-to-text opt in
The options are endless! You just have to make sure that the legal language is there, and if / when someone opts out, you take them off the list ASAP.
Now that you know all the advantages and success cases of other retail businesses when using SMS as a marketing tool, you can put your marketing strategy on going and start watching the immediate results your company will receive. SixFive is ready to help your business reach new sales records! Give our bulk SMS services a try! We can build your new SMS marketing channel in no time. Contact us now!
