SMS Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Success
Learn how you can automate your outreach, connect with customers, drive purchases, and boost revenue with Freshmarketer's pre-built SMS templates for marketing
in DTC e-commerce
How soon do you open your texts after receiving them? One in four customers clicks the link in a message they receive (Source). SMS marketing yields open rates as high as 98%, with a clickthrough rate of 25%.
We see examples of SMS marketing in our daily life:
SMS is a simple yet effective way to connect. It’s also straightforward to track. A win-win.
In this article, we’ll discuss SMS examples for marketing in the DTC e-commerce space, how you can automate your outreach, and more to connect with customers, drive purchases, and boost revenue.
SMS marketing becomes more relevant for e-commerce as three out of ten SMS recipients react positively to CTAs in messages.
The instantaneous nature of SMS marketing is crucial for e-commerce, especially when you’re running a flash sale or introducing a new product.
So how can you harness the power of SMS marketing for e-commerce? Let’s find out.
From promotional to transactional, there are multiple ways in which you can tap into SMS marketing for e-commerce. Let’s look at a few SMS marketing campaigns that have resonated with buyers.
You can use personalized coupons to target new customers or those who have not bought from your store in a long time. Research shows that 33% of SMS recipients react to CTAs in SMS marketing messages, and 47% of them end up making a purchase.
Let’s look at an SMS marketing example:
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Kinda Hot Sauce: Thanks for subscribing! Here's your coupon for 10% off: 9ABC76D. Shop here: <Link> |
In the above message, Kinda Hot Sauce offers a 10% off coupon when you opt in to their SMS list.
Why it works:
“HOTSAUCESAVE10” is easy to remember
By incentivizing users to opt in, you are growing your subscriber base for future texts and business
By checking which buyers used the welcome coupon and which buyers didn’t, you can immediately set up SMS journeys for each group
The list of situations where you use coupons is quite lengthy: You can use them for holiday sales or during a customer’s special day like a birthday or anniversary.
Here are a few of those in action:
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Aurate: Make sure the fireworks don't outshine you this Fourth of July. Use code FIREWORKS for up to 25% off <Link> |
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Happy birthday, Matt! To help you celebrate, enjoy 10% off storewide this month. Use discount code LIBRA at <Link> |
Timing is crucial when you’re sending out messages about abandoned carts.
You need the proper wording to bring back customers who didn’t complete their checkout process. Creating a sense of urgency is also an excellent way to go when you want your customer to complete your purchase.
Let’s look at an SMS marketing example below.
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Rue21: Pssst! Your shopping bag is waiting. Checkout now, before your favorite styles sell out! <Link> |
Here’s another example where you can offer an incentive for customers to finish their checkout:
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Dragons Wild: Hey James, we noticed that you added products to your cart but didn't check out. If you complete your purchase by <Date>, use offer code SAVE10 to save an extra 10% at <Link> |
SMS marketing can be more effective if turned into two-way communication. Use the right texts to ensure that buyers can reply with just a single letter from the palm of their hand. This ensures that you keep your buyers engaged and also capture their preferences for future campaigns.
Here's an example:
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It's red cup season! What's in yours? |
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43% of red cup fans are crazy for Peppermint Mocha |
Create a buzz around product launches with SMS campaigns.
You could start with a countdown to launch day. Let your buyers know about the new product line.
You could also use this opportunity to warm your buyers to the product by offering discounts. For instance, the first 100/500 customers will get 10% off on the new product line.
If a product is back in stock, you can inform your buyers, especially those who had added these products to their carts.
Why it works:
Here's the Bushbalm SMS marketing example:
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Bushbalm skin co.: Oh snap! |
Retention is crucial for any online store – customers already know your brand and know that you’re trustworthy. You can remind them that it’s time for their next purchase or when service is due.
An example SMS from an online pharmacy:
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PharmacyNow Rx: Your prescriptions are now ready for pickup. Call 885-xxx-1234 with questions. Text HELP for help. |
SMS marketing campaigns are expensive. So how can you maximize your RoI and ensure that every text hits the spot? Here are seven SMS marketing best practices you can follow in every SMS campaign.
“Grab them before they’re gone”, “Limited stocks”, or “Last day” kind of texts make the reader sit up and take notice, like the Bushbalm example in the previous section
Ensure a clear call to action that directs your buyers to pages where they can make a purchase or check out the latest offers. Don’t have more than one CTA, as this will confuse buyers and they may end up not clicking either of the CTAs.
Save the slightly more formal language for tech specs. SMS is basically like talking. For example, “What are you wearing today? How about giving your wardrobe a facelift with this beach top?
Don’t spam buyers with daily alerts. Target different buyer segments to ensure that the same buyers don’t get your texts each day. Going for a different demographic also enables you to track which segment works best.
A particular campaign didn’t get the desired results? Tweak the messaging, the occasion, or the demographic to get better results. Ensure you continuously iterate on your campaigns.
Do your research and ensure that you find keywords that trigger high intent with your buyers. For buyers who are almost ready to make a purchase, the right language could just be the little nudge they need to buy from you.
A buyer’s inbox is a sacred space that you need permission to enter. It’s crucial to always get the subscribers’ consent to send them messages from your brand, be it promos, discounts, or even delivery updates. You also need to mention that opting in is not a condition for buying from them. In several countries, conditions like these are part of the law. For instance, in the European Union, you should ensure that you are GDPR-compliant.
With SMS marketing, you can easily find out how many people opened the message and how many clicked on your link. SMS marketing lets you draw inferences quickly: For instance, if your clickthrough rates are low, you most likely need to up your CTA game.
But, SMS marketing isn’t just about blasting off messages and waiting for results. You need a simple and powerful marketing automation solution that can personalize messages and track metrics like conversion rates.
Enter Freshmarketer: A powerful all-in-one conversational marketing CRM that can help you automate your SMS outreach, save manual effort, and boost revenues.
Ideally, each SMS you send needs to be a part of a campaign. This way, you can easily track responses and club all the associated activities with this campaign.
It could be a nurture journey or one that reengages inactive customers.
An intuitive tool like Freshmarketer starts by first creating the journey and then incorporating SMS as a part of it.
If you want to ensure that your customers complete their purchase and do it with minimal effort, Freshmarketer offers you pre-built, ready-to-use templates tailored specifically for D2C businesses.
These range from cart abandonment recovery journeys to re-engagement with old customers and more.
By automating messaging journeys, you will save tons of manual effort.
Let’s look at the playbooks available on Freshmarketer.
The cart abandonment rate in the e-commerce industry is a whopping 70%. By sending timely SMS to customers, you can reclaim the revenue you are about to lose to cart abandonment.
With Freshmarketer, you can trigger an SMS for, say, two hours after the user has abandoned their cart. The SMS will ensure they get the required nudge to complete their purchase.
Freshmarketer has built-in templates with placeholders for most situations, and you can just build your abandoned carts SMS campaign in a jiffy.
You can use triggered or targeted messages in campaigns to convert prospects or drive your customers to specific offers.
Use triggered messages to personalize and target your customers based on where they are from and who they are
Use targeted messages to segment your customers based on product usage, behavior, or activity
The possibilities of SMS campaigns are continually growing.
For one, you can ensure a steady flow of new customers signing up by using the right campaigns on the right customers.
Second, you can nudge customers who have abandoned their carts to become customers with the right timing and messaging, thereby minimizing lost revenue.
Third, you can reengage with customers who have not bought from your online store for a long time, thereby increasing the customer lifetime value.
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