90% of text messages are opened in less than three minutes, believe it or not. As a result, brands have a clear path to capture their target audience’s attention. As a consumer, you might have certainly experienced SMS Marketing – just check through your phone for offers and promotions sent to you by brands.
Brands have a whole new level of possibility to connect with their customers through text messaging. But, is SMS marketing yielding the same results for every business?
Not really!
The possibility to leverage two-way SMS marketing, the conversational component of SMS marketing, is something that many businesses overlook. They are effectively using a service that was created for a two-way conversation, as a one-way broadcasting service.
For the most part, SMS has served as a means of communication. Today, most marketers are sabotaging their operations by sending unwanted marketing SMS to clients and shoppers.
It’s time to start a conversation if you want to rework your SMS marketing approach and truly increase conversions.
What is Two-Way SMS Marketing?
Traditional SMS marketing focuses on campaigns. Two-way SMS marketing revolves around conversations.
Let’s put this into perspective.
Assume that you are a frequent purchaser from a Shopify store selling fashion sneakers. You receive an SMS marketing campaign from them announcing a 25% discount, sitewide.
Now, you are excited about the offer as you were going to buy a pair of sneakers for your birthday, which is six days away.
Naturally, your first instinct is to respond to the text message and ask something like, “Hello! If I order a pair of sneakers today, will it arrive in the next 6 days?”
And, yes, you’d want a response.
If the Shopify store selling sneakers isn’t using a Two-Way SMS, you’d be directed to an email support inbox or live chat to get an answer to your question. This is problematic for two reasons:
1.Slow responses result in revenue loss.
If you have to send a series of emails to find out if your pair of sneakers will arrive on time, you’re more likely to abandon your purchase. The majority of people do not have the time or patience to wait for hours for a response. Imagine this happening on a large scale for thousands of customers.
2.Outdated and inconvenient communication might contribute to a poor customer experience.
People expect quick answers through text. Daily life has made us think that way. The brands that fulfill this expectation are more likely to receive online shoppers’ attention.
And because you are being offered a two-way communication, all you have to do is write back and in minutes you get a human reply. It is just like conversing with a friend.
This positive experience also creates a stronger link between you and the Sneaker brand. It is likely that in the future you’ll buy more sneakers from them.
Leveraging Two-way SMS for Your Entire Marketing Funnel
You can’t schedule a text for days in advance since you never know what the world will be like when the text is sent.
Customers are well-informed. They are able to distinguish between personal interactions and marketing automation with ease. Taking a personal approach with two-way SMS can produce substantial benefits for your brand from the top of the funnel through conversion and beyond. So, let’s look at an example of how you can use two-way SMS to increase revenues across your entire funnel.
The pair of sneakers caught the customer’s curiosity in the scenario above. They added the item to their shopping cart, provided their email address and phone number, but did not finish the purchase.
Why? Because they had a question preventing them from purchasing.
Who knows if this customer would have asked the question if the brand owner hadn’t sent this text.
With two-way SMS, brands can now identify the sales barrier and provide the ideal response to close the deal. When compared to abandoned cart emails, abandoned cart texts for Shopify with two-way communication can recover twice as many carts.
Why Should You Start Using Two-Way SMS Marketing Campaign
Let’s take a look at how two-way SMS aligned with your current marketing strategy and why you should start using it.
But first, you need to take a look at a few problems that brands typically run into:
- Low conversions from SMS Marketing Campaigns
- A huge number of abandoned carts
- Fewer repeat orders
Here is how two-way SMS marketing can solve these problems.
Recover More Abandoned Carts with Two-Way SMS
Customers abandon shopping carts for a variety of reasons, including exorbitant prices, a better deal on a competitor’s site, a lack of trust in a new brand, and so on. Unless you ask, you’ll never know why a consumer didn’t finish a purchase.
When you can identify who has abandoned their cart and engage with them 1:1 via SMS, the possibilities open up. You can contact the customer and ask them what questions they have, highlight current promotions, or even sweeten the deal with a personalized offer.
You can develop trust with customers and give them confidence that they will be supported when purchasing your product by employing two-way SMS for abandoned carts.
Win Over Customers with a Human Touch
Customers don’t want automatic responses or broadcasted SMS. They need a human touch. When brands respond to customers’ SMS, it brings a positive experience. When a human responds with a specific personalized answer, customers feel heard and cared for. And when you add a personalized offer, it becomes difficult to ignore.
Remove Customer’s Purchase Anxiety
Customers are anxious when making purchasing decisions. Will the purchase be worthwhile? Will it arrive in time, or will they have to wait for weeks? What happens if they don’t like it?
Purchase anxiety is a psychological barrier that customers experience because they don’t know everything there is to know about your product or brand.
A two-way SMS marketing campaign can help alleviate this anxiety by responding to customer questions and clearing up any confusion. The key here is that the SMS response should be phrased correctly and positively in order for the experience to be fruitful.
Build Relationships – Leverage Upsell & Cross-Sell
SMS is the most direct way to communicate with your customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can send personalized messages to your customers that add value to their lives. It’s an excellent channel for easily developing long-term customer relationships. It’s also reasonably priced!
Consider this scenario: you send out a promotional SMS offering a discount on your most recent collection. A customer responds, inquiring whether the discount is also valid on other collections.
Instead of simply saying “No,” you could take advantage of this opportunity to upsell or cross-sell your other products. If you provide them with an incentive or an additional discount on your current offer, they may decide to buy.
Wrapping up: Is Two-Way SMS Marketing Right for You?
When customers are looking for a human connection, the answer is a resounding YES.
In the eCommerce world, there is fierce competition. Brands are continuously battling for the attention of customers.
To do so, brands must establish emotional connections with their customers. Furthermore, demonstrate that they have something valuable to offer. Both are available with two-way SMS marketing.
It shows your consumers that you’re a real person replying to them, resulting in a higher level of trust. It aids in the development of better customer relationships, resulting in increased conversion rates.
So, how can you get started with SMS marketing automation and two-way communication at the same time?
With SMSGo!
Install SMSGo today and see how two-way SMS marketing campaigns work.