What are the two types of SMS marketing? And 5 types of automated SMS campaigns DTC brands can implement today to increase conversion rates and Boost Revenue
Email marketing has been one of the most vital channels for DTC brands to reach customers over the past decade and it has continued to remain one of the most popular channels marketers leverage, but it would not be wrong to say that email has been hit with more than one or two obstacles in the previous years. First with the Introduction of the New Tab Categories in Gmail, Open Rates went down as more and more branded emails were being categorized under the promotions tab. With the launch of iOS 15 data privacy changes in September 2021, the email unique open rate became artificially inflated from 25% to 55%.
With all these changes, brands and marketers started leveraging the SMS marketing channel. 6.65 billion people have smartphones in 2022, the CTR rate for offer messages is higher by 9.18% compared to any other digital channel and SMS has a 98% open rate compared to 21.5% for email marketing. making SMS the great frontier for reaching your customers, keeping them engaged, and getting them to convert.
Let’s say you have launched your SMS program, and you’re ready to start sending text messages that engage your subscribers and inspire them to convert. But if you’re not sure what types of texts you should be sending to your customers, consider these two types of messages that most brands focus on sending, one-time campaign text messages and triggered journey messages.
So what’s the difference between a campaign text message and a triggered text message? And what are the benefits of each?
Campaign messages
Campaigns are one-off messages sent on-demand, or scheduled in advance based on your brand’s marketing calendar. Campaigns are typically time-sensitive offers that you want subscribers to act on immediately. They can also be tailored to inform your subscribers about new products, or highlight your brand’s story, mission, and values and build brand awareness.
Triggered messages
Trigger messages or journeys are text messages that help drive ongoing engagement and loyalty by sending personalized messages at critical points in the customer lifecycle. They trigger based on specific behaviors or actions your subscribers take and include: website visits, product views, or abandoning carts.
Compared to single-send campaigns, the advantage of these journeys is automation opportunities. Once you set them up, they continue to work for your brand and build revenue in the background.
Here are 5 types of journeys that you can implement today to reach your goals:
1) Convert browsers into buyers with abandonment journeys
It is more than likely that some of the people visiting your store are looking at products -- or even adding them to their cart -- but aren’t completing the purchase. By creating browse abandonment or cart abandonment trigger campaigns you can entice customers to return to your website and place an order.
2) Welcome new subscribers with special offers
Similar to the email welcome series, when you reach out to new subscribers with a welcome message, it gives you the chance to further define your brand, send introductory discount codes and offers, and give readers a taste of what’s coming.
3) Send subscribers transactional updates about their orders
Research has shown that after placing an order, customers are anxious to remain date on the status of their orders and the shipping status. Transactional messages let you build journeys that notify subscribers when their order or subscription was confirmed, canceled, or refunded. You can also keep them informed whether their order has shipped, and the date of the delivery.
Transactional messages let you build journeys that notify subscribers about their order status.
4) Send follow up messages and offers after a purchase to boost revenue:
Post-purchase messages can be very impactful as now your customer has had a chance to try your product or offer and might be ready to return. If a subscriber hasn’t made a second purchase after a set number of days since their last purchase, send a discount code to encourage re-engagement. You can send this code either immediately after their purchase, or schedule it for a later time.
5) Improve conversions by adding special offers to journeys
You can add special offers to follow-up messages in your journeys to improve conversion rates. For example, provide an offer for their abandoned cart, and a link to the cart to resume their purchase journey. If your new subscribers have not used their welcome discount yet, you can send a follow-up reminder with a discount code to encourage coupon redemption.
Bonus journey: Have two-way conversations with subscribers
Many brands have yet to take advantage of conversational journeys, despite the vast potential they offer. These journeys let you build dynamic, two-way conversations between you and your subscribers. When subscribers reply to one of your messages with a keyword, conversational journeys automatically send them recommendations, additional product details, special offers, and more. You can fully customize both the keywords that trigger conversational replies and the content of each reply.
Considering implementing text marketing for your business? Contact us today for a free consultation
