The average person checks their phone about 110 times a day, and 90% of people read an SMS within 3 minutes. It’s safe to say we are well and truly attached to our phones, so it’s no surprise that SMS marketing has continued to grow in popularity. In fact, SMS marketing grew by 8.5% in March and 20% in April 2020, in response to the Pandemic.
Whether you are a new business or fully established, there are plenty of opportunities to incorporate SMS into your marketing strategy. So let’s take a look at some of the best ways small businesses can use SMS marketing to boost the bottom line.
1. Build trust with transactional messaging
Boasting the power of unmatched reach, SMS is the perfect channel to use for order confirmations, dispatch notifications, tracking information, and/or delivery updates. Not only are these communications essential in building loyalty, but your customers expect these messages in their inbox as it happens.
Appointment reminders are another great use-case scenario for SMS. They are convenient for customers, and they’re an easy way for small businesses to ensure that bookings (and revenue) aren’t missed. Plus, you can help to secure future bookings by sending out follow-up reminders after a certain period of time.
All you need to do is integrate your booking system, along with the text messaging solution Twilio, and you’ve got an easy and instant way to stay on top of your busy appointment schedule.
How To: Set up your text messaging account with Twilio.
2. Get fast customer feedback
Getting feedback from customers is essential for improving and growing your business. SMS allows you to send out quick links to things like customer surveys, polls, and feedback forms. Your customers know what they want and like so rather than playing the guessing game, you can just ask them.
By showing your customers that you care about their opinion, which in turn helps breed life-long trust and customer loyalty. They’re not just a number on a list, their opinion is helping to build your brand. Why is that important? Well, 43% of people spend more money on brands they’re loyal to. So making customers feel valued will increase your loyal customer base and your revenue at the same time.
All you need to do is create a survey using Vision6 forms, add a link in your text messages, and ask your customers to provide helpful feedback. A great time to do this would be shortly after they have made a purchase or used your services. You can even include an incentive for filling out the survey to entice people who might be hesitant.
3. Announce promotions or special offers
Your email inbox is a crowded space. So if you want an important message to take centre stage then combine the power of SMS with your email campaigns. This cross-promotional strategy is particularly useful for upcoming sales or limited-time offers.
Automation workflows are not just for emails. You can use date and time-triggered SMS automations for any number of campaigns, from Boxing Day sales, Mother’s Day specials, 24-hour sales, to birthday offers and anniversaries.
All you need to do is set up automation triggers based on the key dates of your campaign. Sending out personalized birthday offers? Trigger the messages to be sent a few days before your customers’ birthday. They’re likely to enjoy the personal touch and take you up on your special offer.
Want to get creative with SMS Marketing? Learn how you can build a better campaign with both email and SMS here.
4. Recover abandoned carts
Abandoned shopping carts cost eCommerce businesses about $18 billion a year in lost revenue. It’s a pretty staggering figure, but it’s a problem that small businesses can easily tackle.
If you want to close sales more rapidly then use SMS for your abandoned cart notifications. Unfortunately with SMS there are design limitations to what you can do. So employing urgent language or providing a special discount are easy and simple ways to reel them back in without using up too much of your word count.
But remember, it will only work if they’ve opted into your SMS business marketing list previously. If you’re a Shopify user, you can easily integrate SMS into your abandoned cart workflows.
Conclusion
SMS marketing is fast becoming one of the best marketing tools for small businesses. It is one of the most direct and effective ways to meet your customers where they are, particularly in our post-Pandemic world. The key is to be mindful of how you communicate by SMS, and, of course, don’t be spammy.
Want to learn more? Read our blog: What is SMS marketing and why it should be a part of your marketing strategy.
Learn more by creating a free Vision6 account or login and add SMS to your next email campaign.
