How to Engage Your Customers with SMS Marketing

With people tied to their smartphones more than ever, businesses have an opportunity to engage with their customers through text messaging utilizing various SMS marketing strategies. Consumers like receiving text messages from businesses they love. They also are spending more time shopping online from their smartphones.

How can your business engage your customers using SMS marketing? By using these great tips that can lead to successful mobile marketing campaigns and higher conversions.

Tip #1: Encourage SMS opt-in through various customer interactions.

Consumers all have their own preferred method of engagement. Some like to engage through social media, others online through your website, and others directly at your physical retail locations.

It is important to take advantage of your customer interactions to encourage them to sign up for text messages from your business. For example, you could ask customers to enter their mobile numbers to receive text messages during the checkout process online or in your physical store.

Most people are willing to provide their mobile number, which means it is easy to grow your SMS marketing efforts. For social media interactions, you could entice consumers to sign up for text messages through posts that also include a link where they can opt-in.

Tip #2: Personalize your text messages for every customer.

There are various tools that you can use to learn more about your customers shopping preferences and transactions. Using this data, you can tailor text messages to make them more personalized.

Personalized messages make consumers feel more appreciated. When they feel like you have tailored your messages just for them, it increases engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty. These same customers are just as likely to recommend your products or services to friends or family as a result of personalized text messages.

Tip #3: Deliver the right messages at the right times.

Timing is essential when using SMS marketing. Most of your customers will want to receive messages that offer discounts, special promotions just for them, and coupons. Using the right tools and apps, you can send the right messages to your customers at the perfect time to encourage them to convert.

For instance, you could send a targeted text message after a customer makes a purchase. The text message should thank the customer for their purchase. Your personalized message could include a discount on a related product with a link to that product.

Building Successful SMS Marketing Campaigns

Engaging your customers with SMS marketing is more than just sending them personalized text messages at the right times. It is about building brand loyalty and long-term relationships. How can you create personalized messages for every one of your customers? By using these tips to help you build successful SMS marketing campaigns.

Tip #1: Realize every customer is different with different objectives.

You want to avoid treating your customers the same. Each one will have their own reasons to buy your products or services, even if it is the exact same item or service. You need to develop text messages that take this into consideration.

Using various tools and apps, you want to target your messages based on your customers’ histories with your brands. To illustrate, a customer abandons their online shopping cart without completing the transaction. Why did they do this?

There could be multiple reasons. They may be thinking about making the purchase. They might want to compare a competitor’s pricing for similar items. They may not be familiar with your brand if they are a new customer.

If you have captured their mobile number and they opted into text messages, this your opportunity to invite them to return and complete their purchase. For a repeat custom, you could send a message thanking them for their previous business and reminding them of their abandoned cart. If they do not respond to this message within a few days, send another one that now offers a discount.

For a new customer, you would want to send a text message that thanks them for the interest in your brand. You should include links they can use to learn more about your business, your brand, and your products. To thank them for considering your brand, you could offer them a special discount on their first purchase.

If the discount is enticing, chances are they will return to their abandoned cart and complete the purchase. They may even add more items since you offered them a discount.

SMS marketing tools like Attentive, Emotive and Postscript are great for setting up these automated flows. Klaviyo, while primarily an email marketing tool, has made vast improvements to the SMS side of their platform as well.

Tip #2: Further tailor messages to loyal customers.

If you have a loyalty program, make sure your SMS campaigns send highly engaging messages tailored specifically for this customer segment. You could include special perks and offers, benefits they could gain by reaching the next tier in the program, current points, etc.  

If you do not have a loyalty program, consider rolling one out to further help identify your loyal customers. Another option is to offer special discounts for your existing customers that refer new customers to your business. For example, you could give your existing customer some type of reward while also giving their referral some incentive to make a purchase from your business.

 Tip #3: Use text messaging to engage in one-on-one conversations with your customers.

One of the best ways to develop successful SMS marketing campaigns is by know exactly what your customers want. To do this, you can ask them what they want through one-on-one text messages. You can use various tools and apps that automate conversations after customers respond to questions.

For instance, you could send a welcome text message to a new customer thanking them for their purchase. Your text message could state you would like to further tailor their shopping experiences by recommending more products by answering a series of questions.

For existing customers, you can use a similar approach but tailor the questions based on their previous purchase histories.

Tip #4: Develop different customer segments.

Customer segments are placing customers into different categories based on their interactions with your business. You could have segments based on location, gender, product preferences, purchase amounts, and so on.

The aforementioned SMS marketing apps you can help segment your customers into customer segments. Segmentation allows you to send text messages targeted just for the segment.

Let’s say for example, you are running a special on men’s workout attire. You would want to send the text message to your male customers that have expressed an interest in health and fitness, as well as customers that have made previous purchases of men’s workout attire.

By utilizing these tips, you can further create personalized messages to build even stronger personal connections with your customers. Customer-tailored customer experiences are becoming one of the most powerful ways for businesses to engage with their customers.

If you need help deciding what SMS marketing campaign tools and apps would be best to use for your business, or need help building an all-star team to manage your SMS marketing campaigns, please feel free to contact The eCommerce Quarterback for further information and to request a free consultation today!