Effective communication is a two way street. And businesses that understand this are better equipped to improve customer experience and set themselves apart from the competition.
Two way SMS marketing refers to the reciprocal communication between brands and customers about promotions, news and updates. With this method, interacting with customers is easier for brands, allowing them to create strategies to improve customer experience.
What’s more, two way SMS is preferred by consumers. According to Twilio, 85 percent of people want to have the ability to answer text messages from a business they follow.
Conversational marketing, often in the form of text message marketing, is a flexible strategy that can be used in multiple ways. In this blog, we unpack text message marketing and touch on the following topics:
- Why you need SMS marketing
- How to apply SMS marketing
- Effective text message marketing strategies
- SMS marketing best practices for review generation
Let’s dive in!
Why You Need SMS Marketing
Billions of people use smartphones to learn about and experience the world. Phones are utilized to read the news, take photos, play games, socialize and shop. According to Outer Box, 79 percent of smartphone users have purchased online with their mobile devices in the last six months. So naturally, businesses should concentrate their marketing efforts on where users spend most of their time – their phones.
Amidst people’s dependence on the internet, text message marketing is a mobile eCommerce strategy that has never waned in popularity. Here are the reasons your business should embrace this approach.
Low-Cost Marketing
Compared to other types of marketing, two way SMS has lower fees in terms of setup and running costs while promising a higher return on investment (ROI).
The target audience of your SMS marketing campaign is your existing customers. They are already interested in your offerings since they voluntarily provided their contact information for updates about promos, sales and announcements. Therefore, these customers are more likely to make repeated purchases when receiving your messages.
Easy Response to Customer Review Requests
Reviews and feedback are essential elements in establishing your reputation and growing your business. According to Podium, 93 percent of consumers check reviews before buying. Hence, proactive generation of reviews is necessary to attract people to your offerings.
With two way SMS, responding to your feedback requests becomes quick and easy for your customers. You can send text messages asking for their thoughts on your product or service, and they can respond with their feedback This way, you make it easier for the customer to become engaged and provide their honest opinion about your brand.
Better Customer Interactions
SMS has an extremely high open and read rate. A Dynmark report states that the open rate of a text message is 98 percent, with a read rate of 97 percent. In addition, text messages are read within 15 minutes of delivery.
Customers can quickly reply to your messages to find out more information about what you have in store for them. They get the details they need almost instantly with just a couple of taps, making text conversational marketing an effective method to improve customer experience. It allows you to communicate with your buyers like no other strategy can.
Overall Greater Engagement With Customers
In recent years, businesses have dedicated more attention to creating methods that improve customer experience. And for good reason, since 89 percent of buyers are willing to pay more to get better experiences, according to SuperOffice.
Engaging your audience throughout their buyer’s journey forges stronger connections with customers. These connections keep your brand top of the mind during decision-making, when it’s time for customers to buy.
How To Apply SMS Marketing
Competition is steep for businesses on the internet. A robust customer engagement strategy means the difference between gaining a customer and losing them to the competition. When executed correctly, your SMS marketing solution will result in buyers actively seeking you out and recommending your brand within their social network.
Here are some ways you can use SMS marketing to boost your customer engagement strategy:
- Announce promotions and sales
- Conduct polls and surveys
- Run loyalty programs
- Customer service
SMS marketing platforms are flexible and can be integrated into any customer engagement portal, allowing you to manage numerous processes from a single touchpoint.
Effective Text Message Marketing Strategies
Two way SMS keeps your buyers involved in communication, and there are several ways you can utilize it to benefit your business. Below is a list of our top three:
Supplement Your Email Campaigns
Businesses can use SMS conversational marketing to supplement their email campaigns. Effectively combining email and SMS allows you to easily capture warm leads and drive them into your existing marketing funnel. According to Zapier, there is a 10 to 26 percent increase in revenue when SMS is added to the marketing equation.
However, as with any other campaign, tracking and analyzing the data is necessary to keep customers happy. Keep an eye on the open and response rates from both channels and segment your audience by messaging preferences.
Partner with email marketing experts to gain maximum results and optimize ways to improve customer service. Professionals know the best SMS marketing platforms to boost your existing email marketing strategies.
Gain More Reviews
Two way text message marketing can be used as an additional review generation method. Through SMS marketing platforms, you can send surveys to your customers. For example, with a “How would you rate our service, on a scale of 1 to 10?” text message, your customers can respond with a number. This simple method provides immediate feedback about how your business performed while making review response easier for your buyers.
Best Practices for the Perfect Review Generation SMS Marketing Campaign
Proactive review generation is the key to gaining a solid online reputation that beats the competition. Optimize your review generation processes with the following tips:
- Keep your messages short: SMS works because people get the main idea within seconds of skimming. Be concise with your review generation requests and tell your customers exactly what you need from them.
- Personalize your message: Personalization adds a human touch to your communication. It builds a closer connection to buyers, increasing the chances of gaining feedback.
- Send a link to the review form: With just one click, your customers are directed to your chosen review platform. You can also use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey format, where you ask your customers to rate your products or services from 0 to 10.
Improve Customer Service
A whopping 70 percent of consumers make purchases on their mobile devices (Outer Box). Given this incredible number, businesses need to leverage mobile marketing to provide the best possible service for their audience. Add a text option on your website, allowing your visitors to text whatever questions they may have about your offerings.
Providing customers with a way to quickly contact your business is one of the best ways to improve customer service. Elevate your customer engagement strategy and utilize two way SMS as a customer engagement portal to answer questions most effectively and efficiently.
Conclusion
You may have the best offering on the market, but you can’t retain buyers without effective, consistent communication. A solid, two way SMS marketing solution fills the gaps in customer retention and gives consumers reason to keep choosing your brand over the competition.
Make the most of SMS marketing with Rize Reviews. We help you gain control of online conversations surrounding your brand through our review generation and review response services. With our management software, which doubles as a customer engagement portal, you can easily manage several reputation management processes. So whether you need reputation management professionals, email marketing experts or SMS marketers to come up with ways to improve customer service, you can count on us to handle all your brand management needs.
Call 866-325-0303 or fill out our online form to reach out today.
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