21 Reasons Why SMS Marketing for Shopify Is Here to Stay
We’ve seen the recent rise of SMS marketing as many Shopify retailers started spreading the word about this powerful tool to the community. And as more people have joined in on the trend, the power of SMS marketing has multiplied.
In broad terms, SMS marketing works similar to email newsletters; you give your customers the option to opt-in via an SMS key code. Once they’re in, you can send promotional messages, and the users can always opt out whenever they want.
We believe that SMS marketing for ecommerce isn’t a fad but rather a new standard in the industry. And in this article, we’ll justify this belief with 21 reasons why SMS marketing is here to stay.
1. SMS Is More Popular Than Email
Although email marketing has been around since the internet’s inception and remains one of the most popular forms of communication, SMS remains the most popular feature among smartphone users despite the emergence of social media messaging.
2. Texts Create More Engagement
For a marketing campaign to be successful, your customers have to open your message to read it. And when it comes to open rates, SMS dominates with a 98% open rate. By comparison, email has an open rate of 22%.
3. Texting Feels More Personal Than Email
Most people feel a more personal connection when communication is one-on-one in their direct message inbox instead of via email. This connection can make your customers more attracted to your brand as well.
4. SMS Is More Accessible
Many people don’t think about their emails much beyond the one or two times they check them every day for important messages. However, SMS is easily accessible via phone anywhere, and messages are easily checked and read regularly.
5. You Can Automate SMS With a Chatbot
You can automate SMS to create a personalized experience for your customers by sending them relevant calls to action, updating them on the status of their purchases, notifying them if there’s a payment error, and so on.
6. You Can Reach Your Customers Quicker via SMS
Not only are SMS texts opened 98% of the time, but they’re also opened within an average of just three minutes and a response time of 90 seconds. By comparison, it takes users an average of 6.4 hours to open emails and a response time of 90 minutes.
7. SMS Texts Are Easier to Draft Than Email
Since SMS texts are short and quick, usually limited to 160 words, they’re faster to draft than a relatively lengthy email that many busy customers may find too obtuse to read.
8. SMS Marketing Can Increase Your Sales
According to a research, nearly 50 million consumers opted in to receive SMS texts from brands by the end of 2020. Of those consumers, 33% reacted to CTAs, and 47% of them ended up making a purchase.
9. SMS Lets You Learn More About Your Customers
Since SMS creates more engagement with your customers, you can expect them to respond to your surveys. And research backs up this claim, suggesting that 31% of customers respond to a survey via SMS.
10. SMS Can Generate Relevant Data for You to Analyze
Based on the responses you can get when surveying your customers and the data you can collect from SMS, such as response time, customer behavior, ROI, and so on, you can analyze the data to create a more personalized experience for your customers.
11. SMS Marketing Tools Easily Integrate With Shopify
Popular SMS marketing apps like Attentive, PostScript, SimpleTexting, and Gorgias (customer support app) easily integrate with Shopify.
Related content: What You Need To Know About Amazon-Shopify Integration
12. Most Shopify Marketers Haven’t Jumped on the Trend Yet
Is well-known that jumping on trends early on gives you an advantage before they become saturated. And luckily, SMS marketing is still largely untapped, as 61% of marketers haven’t used it yet.
13. Everyone Is More Familiar With Texting
Unlike emails, which most people don’t often think about, texts are a significant part of our lives nowadays, and most people frequently read and respond to texts.
14. SMS Feels Less Formal Than Email
When drafting an SMS text, you don’t need a greeting, a signature, or any form of formality. Instead, it’s more casual and friendly, which further attracts customers to your brand.
15. You Can Support Your Other Media Through SMS
You can boost your other media by notifying your customers about them. For example, you can shoot them a message like “Check out our new post for more details” or “Have you read our recent email?”
16. SMS Is Everywhere
Unlike email or even social media, SMS is universally agreed upon as it comes with every phone model, and it doesn’t require installing an app or keeping it updated.
17. SMS Is More Private
An SMS sender doesn’t see the recipient’s name, profile picture, location info, or other information that the recipient may value.
18. SMS Is More Versatile Than Email
You can use SMS to send anything, be it a simple greeting, a flash sale, promotions or discounts, or even a simple fun fact.
19. You Can Ask Customers for Reviews
Reviews are essential for your industry, and you can ask your customers to leave a quick review about your product in an SMS. You can send them something along the lines of “Thanks for picking our service. Please take a minute to share your experience on XYZ.”
20. Remind Customers About Abandoned Carts
It’s common for customers to fill up a shopping cart then leave it there. With SMS, you can remind them about their abandoned cart using a call to action or an incentive and even link them to the cart.
21. SMS Marketing Is Easy for You
Lastly, SMS marketing makes life easier for you as well. Getting everything set up and running is already relatively easy, but if you’re on Shopify Plus, you can even get an account manager to do this for you.
About the Author
Michael Lazar is the Director of Growth at ReadyCloud Suite, a shipping, returns, CRM and Shopify text message marketing software solution.
The post 21 Reasons Why SMS Marketing for Shopify Is Here to Stay appeared first on AMZ Advisers.