With the holidays rapidly approaching, your team has probably already begun thinking about how to maximize conversions from marketing campaigns. If you haven’t already started using a Business Texting Service, however, you could be missing out.
In fact, the click through rate (CTR) for SMS marketing sits at about 36%. If that doesn’t sound like much, consider the fact that the CTR for email is only about 6-7%. Now, that’s not to say that you should ditch your email marketing altogether- far from it. In fact, implementing SMS marketing through a business texting service could help you develop an omnichannel strategy optimized for success! (More on that later.)
The CTR comparison does illustrate, however, your business’ need for a business texting service in what is expected to be one of the busiest holiday seasons for ecommerce. According to a survey conducted by Wells Fargo, 70% of consumers are not planning on shopping in-person any time soon. As a result, there is a 50% projected increase in online sales from this time last year.
Unfortunately, many brick-and-mortar businesses have been hit hard as a result of the pandemic, but ecommerce is continuing to grow. In fact, Morgan Stanley Research predicts ecommerce will grow by 25% in 2020.
If you’re ready to make sure that your business is a part of that growth blogger outreach service, continue reading to find out how a business texting service can help to improve your ecommerce marketing strategy!
Table of Contents
How To Improve Your Ecommerce Marketing Strategy With a Business Texting Service
Integrate SMS into your email marketing.
Since we have already briefly mentioned this point, it seems like a good place to start. Using SMS marketing through a landline texting service in tandem with email marketing will all but guarantee success for your campaigns.
This is what’s often referred to as omnichannel marketing- not to be confused with multi-channel marketing. Omnichannel marketing is the approach that interrelates content across channels to ensure the best possible experience for customers. Businesses that successfully employ omnichannel marketing experience a 91% higher year-over-year increase in customer retention, compared to businesses that don’t.
One easy way to begin using SMS and email marketing together is simply by following up via SMS with email subscribers who haven’t yet opened your most recent newsletter. Shoot customers a simple, “Hey, did you catch our last email?” text to increase your email open rates by 20%-30%!
One of the benefits of using email when compared to SMS marketing is that email will give your business the opportunity to provide more long-form content to subscribers. Whereas SMS is typically limited to 160 characters, emails can be as long or as short as you want! You can also provide multiple links and photos to direct subscribers to your website, social media channels, landing pages, etc.
Like we said, email marketing is around for the long haul! However, your ecommerce site can also use a business texting service to support and enhance your email efforts for best results!
Use keywords for influencer marketing.
Many businesses these days are seeing great results from influencer marketing! Influencer marketing is a collaboration between trusted influencers and businesses. The goal is to leverage the influencer’s audience to increase sales for your business.
So how does SMS marketing play into this equation? Well, many business texting services offer ‘keywords’ as a feature included in your subscription. An SMS keyword is a word or short phrase that customers and potential customers can text to your business to trigger a specific campaign or discount.
Let’s look at an example:
Suppose your ecommerce store sells fitness apparel for women. Naturally, you would want to seek out a collaboration with a fitness influencer who shares the same target audience as your business. When that influencer posts about your product(s), they can inform their audience about their exclusive keyword. That keyword might be something like, ‘FITCHICK10,’ and you could offer first-time shoppers 10% off their purchase when they text that keyword to a specific phone number.
In addition to getting your ecommerce products in front of a new audience through influencer marketing, you can use keywords to enter interested people directly into your business’ sales funnel and start converting!
Remind customers of their abandoned carts.
On average, 75% of people add items to their online shopping cart without ever making a purchase. However, with a business texting service, you can cut that number down significantly.
When a customer leaves items in their cart, you can use your business texting service to shoot them a friendly reminder like, “Hi Beth! We noticed you left some items behind… Complete your purchase while supplies last!”
This type of message will be especially effective if you are running low in stock on the items in their cart or if one of those items has just gone on sale. Keep that in mind when strategizing how to implement these types of messages.
A reminder text about abandoned carts should be helpful and friendly- while also conveying a sense of urgency. This will prompt customers to complete their purchase in a timely manner, as well as ensure that your ecommerce site is not leaving money on the table.
Send personalized offers.
With advancements in technology and consequently, more tech-savvy consumers, people actually appreciate a certain level of personalization. According to the 2017 State of Personalization Report, 71% of consumers experience some level of frustration when their shopping experience is not personalized.
This benefits your business, as well. Using a business texting service to send personalized offers via SMS will boost your conversion rates and return on investment. Personalization will also go a long way in building brand loyalty with your customers. In fact, 44% of consumers say they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience.
Personalization can be as simple as including the customer’s name in your SMS greeting or as detailed as giving them recommendations based on past purchases. However your business decides to personalize SMS marketing efforts, you will be sure to see results!
The right business texting service will give your ecommerce site the ability to implement these strategies- and more!- to improve your overall marketing strategy this holiday season and beyond.
If you are ready to find out if Text My Main Number is right for your business, start your 14-day free trial today!