More than an email or a social media post, you can grab your audience’s attention via an SMS or MMS. Texts aren’t only personal for landing directly in the hands of your users, but they’re also known to have an open rate of 98%. Something that has no parallel in the marketing industry.
However, when you use SMS marketing to reach out to your e-commerce users, you can’t go rogue and bombard them with promotional SMSes. Not like how the users encounter ads on every website they go after browsing your products. Not like those long and boring emails that sneak into your inbox even without a subscription.
Here is a rundown on how to use text marking in the e-commerce industry for better sales.
How to Leverage MMS and SMS Marketing for E-Commerce
- Build Your Subscriber Database
Without a user database at your disposal, you can’t grow your e-commerce business to the extent you imagine. So, build and grow your subscriber list first.
Seek permission from email subscribers to add their contact numbers to your SMS database. Ask users to (optionally) check a box while purchasing on your website. You can reach out to them on social media, too.
Make sure your users are aware of what they’re opting for. Not just transactional and delivery updates but also the occasional promotions and news updates.
- Segment Your Users
Segment your audience as finely as possible based on the demographics, hobbies, preferences, and buying journey. This helps you promote your products based on users’ preferences and needs.
For instance, some users might have shopped only for apparel. But they’ve been browsing accessories like watches and cufflinks. You can always push MMS with accessories after the clothes invoice is issued. But without a need, such MMSes are annoying. Imagine you SMS a link to a $500 watch to someone who bought sleepwear.
Not worth your time, right?
However, when you know who is looking for watches and what kind, you can send them customized suggestions and hook them for more buying options.
- Abandoned Cart Reminders
A user dropped out in the middle of a purchase. Because their internet connection dropped. Or the payment gateway failed. Someone called them, maybe. Perhaps they couldn’t decide to cross the moat.
Any reason is good enough for a user to step back and leave the products hanging in the shopping basket.
But that shouldn’t deter you from increasing your e-commerce sales. Use the power of SMS reminders and nudge your registered users after a day or two. If the products were from a time-sensitive sale, nudge them on the same day at an apt time.
- MMS Campaigns
MMS has superpowers packed in just a video or an infographic. MMS marketing can do wonders for sales. Imagine sending a 30-second how-to video to a user who’s browsed a gadget. Such content can potentially hook the audience immediately and might change their mind to buy the product.
You can share a product’s benefits that aren’t common knowledge in an infographic. Such messages can allure them to swipe that card again and help you surpass your e-commerce sales rate.
- Create Urgency and FOMO
FOMO—fear of missing out—is one of the emotions that pull users to purchase. Create crisp campaigns and personalize them. Let the users know what others are buying and what they’ll miss in the latest fashion or trend if they don’t bank on the chance.
Add a timer to create urgency. Tell them how fast a deal is running out. Add the end date of the sale. Even better if you can add a timer in your content to move them closer to making a buying decision.
- Customer Support
Not all customer support needs lengthy calls or back-and-forth email communication. Your users might have a complaint or a query. Let them know how your support desk is available round the clock to assist them with a purchase, a return, or an exchange.
You can use a chatbot by embedding a chat service through SMS. Let users know on your website, through emails, and social media how they can reach out to you over an SMS for a quick chat.
A fast and impromptu helpdesk is extremely effective in converting your prospects into users and new users into brand ambassadors. No wonder loyal customers contribute the most to a business’s sales.
- Track and Analyze the Campaigns
With a business partner like Textmunication, you can track the performance of all your SMS campaigns. Once you’ve data, you can learn what happened behind the scenes in your e-commerce stores.
Say someone abandoned the cart because their payment failed. If your SMS software tracks this event on the run time, you can immediately offer them a remedy. Send them an SMS with the link for repayment or ask them if they’d like a cash-on-delivery option. You can even remind them about their own wallet amount, which can cover the billing.
Such motivations can recover your losses immediately. And every nullified loss contributes to your sales, right?
What’s Your Most Successful Strategy With Text Marketing?
If you haven’t ventured into SMS and MMS marketing, ship your SMS-based campaigns with Textmunication today. When you choose us, you get more than 14 years of industry leadership and a tool with 25+ features.
But if you’ve been sending business SMS and MMS for some time now, book a free demo and give us a chance to change your marketing strategy for the better.