Did you know that, on average, we send 27 trillion messages yearly? Further, 99% of the texts are being read and 45% get responses.

SMS marketing is a powerful eCommerce strategy to grow your business and convert more and more customers.

To learn more about how to build effective SMS campaigns, read this article and find out about the best SMS marketing strategies to engage more consumers.

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing is the most environmentally friendly strategy to bring your brand forward to an active audience. SMS marketing is one of the most practical methods for boosting conversions. Via this type of marketing strategy, you will always have direct communication with your customers. What is more, building an SMS marketing is very cost-effective, because there is no need for technical expertise or special software.

As has been noted, using SMS marketing will help you to increase and grow your brand. It is an unquestionable fact, that SMS marketing converts higher rates and profits than the other types of digital marketing strategies (like email marketing or display ads).

Nowadays, many brands, businesses, and companies prefer SMS messages over email letters. The foremost reason for this preference is, that text messages are faster, personal, and highly reliable in terms of delivery. Thus, the email letters are late in response, newsletters are very generic, and the ads can be unrelated to the receivers' interests. Hence, SMSs are a perfect fit with their real-time and related content.

Brief, SMS marketing is the right choice for your brand

  • Via the functionality of two-way conversions, this strategy provides higher speed, and immediacy, hence, a better customer experience.
  • It is time to provide your consumers with an easier and more convenient way of direct communication with your brand.
  • What is more, avoid any type of data privacy issues and own a trustworthy relationship with your subscribers.

How to generate a proper SMS marketing strategy?

  • Obviously, the first thing to do before running an SMS marketing campaign you will need your customers' contacts (phone numbers).
  • To engage your customers and turn consumers into potential buyers, you need to send the right promotional offer through your message.
  • One more thing you will need to generate a proper SMS campaign is personalized messages. Make your consumers feel special and keep your messages concise.
  • Also, most importantly, do not forget to always comply with SMS marketing laws.
  • Important to realize that for generating a proper SMS marketing Strategy, you will need the formerly mentioned steps and a proper SMS marketing tool to complete all the previously noted steps.

So, let's find out which tool, will help you to create an efficient SMS Campaign for your brand.

What do you need to build a powerful SMS marketing for your brand?

By the same token to have a profitable and effective SMS Campaign for your eCommerce you will need a properly developed SMS marketing tool. The BulkGate SMS Plugin for WooCommerce is one of the handiest solutions in this case. This WordPress plugin allows its users to send text messages and Viber notifications from their e-shops. What is convenient with this plugin, is that it allows sending messages to over 200 countries and regions. Hence, this is a great opportunity to bring your business to a global level. If you don't run your e-shop on the WooCommerce platform, you can use the BulkGate portal for your marketing campaigns.

As I have formerly mentioned, the SMS Plugin for WooCommerce allows sending messages via the Viber platform. This BulkGate WordPress plugin provides an advantageous and cost-effective way of communication. Via this plugin, you can easily generate a verified Viber Business account and make new opportunities for your company. You can get the advantage of sending Viber Business messages alone or together with just direct SMS messages.

Also, it is worth mentioning, that Viber messaging compared to SMS messaging will cost you 50% lower.

Get quick and real-time responses and reactions from your customers. With this plugin, it will be very unchallenging to communicate directly with your clients through the two-way SMS or Viber option.

Let's drive in further and find out about some of the useful functionalities within this plugin.

  • Customer and admin SMS and Viber notifications - Through this functionality, you can keep your clients on track by providing them with info about the different stages of their orders via direct text messages/Viber notifications. Furthermore, you can build your own custom notification templates.
  • Bring your business to a global level - This plugin allows its users to message their consumers in their native language with the help of built-in multilingual templates.
  • Always be on track with the process - You will be notified once someone makes a new order, canceled it, or even when the product is out of stock, and so on. Moreover, you can activate multiple admins for each message template.
  • Bulk SMS and Viber notifications - Make the process of promotion easier via aimed and personalized bulk SMS and Viber campaigns.
  • Keep it concise - Save more space in your text messages by automatically shortening all the needed URLs. Hence, get more valuable and better statistics.
  • Do Not Disturb - Provide your clients with DND (Do Not Disturb) option.
  • Have a more precise look at your marketing - Get a piece of useful information with the help of detailed and proper statistics and report charts.
  • Templates customization - Customize your own template. Furthermore, you can activate or deactivate the needed template for consumer and admin notifications any time you need.
  • Automatic number conversions - Via this functionality, all of your consumer’s and purchasers’ mobile phone numbers will be automatically converted into an international format.

As you can see the BulkGate plugin has all the features to help you build your own influential SMS marketing strategy. Now, let's find out what the best SMS strategies, will help you to bring your brand to a higher level.

Best SMS marketing strategies

1. Offer incentives

Text messages are an ideal way to tempt your customers by offering them various deals. Offer your SMS business subscribers coupons, sales, and deals and make them feel special. Furthermore, this method will make your consumers feel like they are a part of your business's secret community.

2. Have a clear call to action

A call to action on text messages is the right way to direct the customer to make a purchase. Thus, it is influential to have a clear CTA on your SMS Campaigns' text. Remember, two elements conduct an SMS campaign: the keyword and a short code.

3. Keep your message short and targeting.

It is a fact, that more than 90% of all text messages are being read in less than 3 minutes. Hence, it is important to make your text short and understandable to make a connection with your brand and your clients. For an engaging and captivating message, you have to make the idea of your message fully clear in just 160 characters. Within 160 characters define all the important points, make a clear call to action, and provide a satisfying customer experience.

4. Use a URL shortener

Do not forget to include a URL shortener in your text messages. Creating an engaging text message is another strategy to excite even more customers. Additionally, URL shorteners are great if a 160-character message is limited for you. Take full advantage of URL shorteners and add links to videos, images or other multimedia files to your text messages. Give your customers a visual representation of your brand.

5. Make contests interactive.

Interactive contests are proven strategies for bringing more visitors to your social media and boosting a higher level of user traffic. In your automated reply add your social media links or your website URL. This is one of the simplest ways to make your consumers connect with your other pages and brand content, and make a precise look of your company.

6. Create a sense of urgency

What can make your clients answer faster and provide a quicker response? Of course, expiration dates. Include to your SMS messages expiration dates and enhance the sense of urgency among your consumers. Thus, achieve your needed results and collect useful information as quickly as possible.

7. Make your consumers feel special via exclusive text messages

What can be more trusty, than being treated in a special and unique way? While texting your clients make your offer EXCLUSIVE. Provide your customer's personalized text messages. Most importantly, indicate the fact, that the current offering deal is only for SPECIAL customers (e.g. VIP clients), this makes your future purchase feel like they are a part of something special.

8. Collect a piece of useful information

Ask direct questions or include surveys while texting your buyers. Learn more about the customer attitude towards your brand products or services. For instance, ask about honest opinions about your product or business concept. Learn about your advantages and disadvantages. Improve all your errors and always have the most satisfied clients.

9. Choose the right time

Although mobile phones are an unseparated part of our daily lives, it is crucial to send texts at the right time. It is important to choose the exact time when your customers will not be busy (e.g before or after work or study). Please note, that it is a proven strategy to not send text messages before 9 AM or after 9 PM.

To conclude...

Well, it is time to wrap up. The effectiveness of this strategy is undeniable. Hope this article will help you to get your SMS marketing right from the start. Build your SMS marketing and convert more and more customers.