SMS Campaigns: How Can It Increase Revenue?

Posted on

September 22, 2020

Marketing is one of the best ways that you can increase revenue for your business. Yes, it requires some level of investment, but you can usually get that money back plus a whole lot more! This is especially true when it comes to SMS marketing campaigns. SMS marketing is only becoming more popular and useful in recent years as people continue to utilize their phones and texts rather than computers and emails. So how can your company properly leverage this to get more people in the door and more money in your pocket? We are here to tell you exactly what you need to do to increase revenue by using SMS campaigns.

Different Types of SMS Campaigns

All SMS campaigns are definitely not the same! And some tend to work better for certain businesses than others. That’s why it’s a good idea to go over all of the different types of SMS campaigns and how they might work for different types of businesses:

Promotions: Promotional deals are great for both eCommerce and brick and mortar businesses. Promotional SMS campaigns alert your customers of a special deal that they are offering for a limited time only. This is a great way to draw customers in and make them act rather impulsively since there is a fast-approaching deadline to act on this amazing deal! These types of messages should always include a link that will take you to a page detailing the exact terms of the offer.
Coupons: Coupons and promotions might sound like the same thing, but they are slightly different. Coupons are a way to offer customers a special discount, but the expiration date is farther out, so it’s not really as urgent. However, it’s still a great way to incentivize people to either visit your store or website in order to take advantage of the discount offered by the coupon. These messages usually include some form of multimedia to get the customer’s attention and promote the value of the deal.
Competitions: Competitions are a great way for any business to actually grow their contact list. Just give people a keyword and a number to text to enter and then choose a winner! The prize really doesn’t have to be anything too extravagant. In fact, a $100 gift card will do the trick just fine. However, the amount of people whose numbers you just gained is well worth giving away that $100 now.
Sales and Events: Sales and events are other things that you can advertise via an SMS campaign. For example, if you’re having a special “end of season” sale to clear out your merchandise, you can send out a message to let everyone know! You can also advertise about events like store openings, events like “ladies night,” or even a fundraiser!
Alerts: Gone are the days when we had to look for alerts and updates on purchases in our emails. Now, they can come straight to our iPhones thanks to SMS alert messages. This is a great way to keep customers updated on their purchase by sending them a confirmation text, a tracking number text, and a final text once it’s delivered.
Loyalty Programs: Finally, SMS campaigns are practically made for loyalty programs. Once they’ve opted-in, you can send out details about special discounts, events, and benefits that will keep your customers loyal and engaged.

How Can SMS Campaigns Increase Revenue?

Now that you’re well-versed in some of the different types of SMS campaigns that you can utilize, it’s time to get to the good stuff: revenue. So how can these messaging campaigns actually translate into increased revenue for your business?

Increase foot traffic/website traffic: When people see the attractive offers that you sent out via SMS, it will almost instantly drive them to your store/website so that they can take advantage of the special limited-time offer. People are less likely to visit if they don’t have a specific reason to. With increased foot traffic, maybe in the process, something else will catch their eye, and they will end up purchasing more as a result of the original SMS campaign.
Keep in touch with customers: SMS campaigns can increase revenue by keeping in touch with customers— this is key because it’s way more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is simply to retain an existing one. You can keep your customers in the loop about offers, events, sales, etc. so that they really feel connected to your business and are more likely to make a purchase.
Recover abandoned shopping carts: When a customer abandons their online shopping cart, reaching out to them via SMS to remind them about their items is a great way to save sales and increase revenue. There are even live abandoned cart recovery services out there like Cart Text that will personally text everyone who left a cart without purchasing and push them to finally pull the trigger. Cart Text can provide the customer with an extra incentive to make the purchase, like free shipping or a 10% discount.
Collect data: SMS campaigns help you obtain customer data that’s really invaluable. You can send out polls and surveys to see what your customers like and don’t like. You can then use this to improve your business and earn more money in the long run.

How to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck From SMS Campaigns

SMS campaigns are a great way to increase revenue, but it’s not necessarily a given. Sure, SMS marketing might seem easy enough...you send out mass texts, people act, you make money, and that’s that. In reality, it’s not quite that simple and does require a little bit more effort and finesse. At the same time, with a little bit of research, time, and practice, you too can become an expert in SMS campaigns and increase your revenue as a result. Thankfully, we are here to give you some tips on how to get the most bang for your buck from SMS campaigns even as a beginner:

Make it personal! The best way to create effective SMS campaigns is to personalize your messages and address each person by name. You also need to be sure to include your company name in each message so that people know who is messaging them! That way, they can then positively associate this personal message with your company. In turn, you can build up your brand image and reputation by consistent positive interactions with subscribers.
Get permission! Before you can send out any SMS campaigns, you need to get people’s permission to reach out to them in this manner. There are strict regulations in the United States regarding sending out unsolicited messages that can end up costing you money in fines. Obviously, you want to avoid this at all costs, so always make sure that people “opt-in” to receiving messages from your company before you start sending them messages.
Keep permission! At the same time, even though someone opts-in initially does not mean that they are automatically committed to receiving your messages forever. You need to frequently give people the option to opt-out of receiving future messages. We recommend that you put this information into every mass message campaign.
Make them want to stay on. It’s understandable that you’re hesitant to give people an out within every message. However, if you’re really doing SMS campaigns correctly, people won’t want to opt-out because they see your messages as having some sort of value to them. This means that you only send out messages that your customers will want to receive and have value to them. This determination is really more straightforward than it may seem. All you have to do is think about what kinds of messages you would want to receive from companies. From there, you can properly tailor your own messages and keep people interested by offering incentives such as special discounts, freebies, early access to a sale, etc.
Keep it short and sweet. Finally, you can get the most bang for your buck in SMS campaigns by keeping your messages short, sweet, and to the point. People won’t want to read messages that are too long. On the other hand, short, impactful messages are more likely to be opened, read, and even acted upon! Also, keep the overall number of your messages in the sweet spot of one to two messages per week. Based on the effectiveness of and response from these messages, you can choose to keep it going at that amount, send fewer messages, or send out more messages.

Conclusion

Clearly, SMS campaigns are a great way to increase your company’s revenue. However, increased revenue isn’t necessarily a given. In order to really see the desired results from your SMS campaign, you need to be smart about the content of your messages, who you’re sending them to, and how often you send them. It may take some trial and error to get into the zone with your content and customers, but the effort will be well worth the returns.

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