SMS Marketing: Best Practices for Ecommerce Business

If you're reading this, I'll bet three things are true.

First, you're an ecommerce entrepreneur or marketer. Second, scaling your business has grown tough. Third, you've been hearing about SMS marketing but haven't yet tried it.

Good news: You're not alone.

Despite the noise around SMS marketing, a lot of businesses haven't executed it.

Now, the wake-up call.

While you are thinking, your competitors are way ahead. The big guns of the ecommerce business have already been using it extensively.

But here is the good news: you still can bridge the gap. In this guide, I will show you exactly how you can power up your SMS marketing for your eCommerce business—straightforward and actionable, just what you need to stay ahead of the competition.

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing is an excellent way to reach customers directly via text messages; nearly everyone owns a mobile phone. This is in contrast to email marketing, which gets drowned by the sheer number of messages in one's inbox. With SMS marketing, the chances of your message being read are almost instant. This type of mobile marketing for eCommerce offers an opportunity for businesses to send targeted, timely, and profitable messages to their audience.

By integrating SMS marketing into your larger strategy, you'll be able to send personalized offers, order updates, and reminders straight to customers' phones. 81% of consumers will view their text notifications within just five minutes of receiving a text.

Plus, it's not all about the promos with eCommerce SMS marketing. You can improve customer experience through real-time order updates, shipping notifications, and follow-up messages post-purchase.

What are the benefits of SMS marketing?

SMS marketing offers several key benefits for ecommerce businesses:
High open and response rate: Some of the most important benefits of SMS marketing for any eCommerce business are that it enjoys high open and response rates. The open rate of SMS messages is amazingly high, at 98%, with 90% opened within just 3 minutes. This makes SMS perfect for time-bound communications like cart abandonment reminders or flash sales.

Direct and immediate: SMS is a direct way to reach customers for fast communication and engagement in real-time—perfect for running timely promotions.

Higher customer engagement: With a 98% open rate, as opposed to only 12-25% for emails, SMS messages seem more personal and conversational, hence getting better engagement.

Mobile-first approach: With mobile commerce gaining even more traction, SMS marketing aligns squarely with how customers shop on mobile devices.

Cost-effective: Compared with traditional marketing techniques, SMS campaigns are pretty cheap and stand a chance to realize higher ROIs.

Versatility: From welcome messages to order confirmations, appointment reminders, and promotional offers, not to mention customer feedback surveys, SMS has it all.

Personalization: It allows the creation of customized texts based on customer information and preference data to help improve the overall customer experience.

Reduces customer service calls: SMS can effectively process basic customer inquiries, eliminating the need for customers to call customer service.

How to start your ecommerce SMS marketing? (Definitive Guide)

These are the major steps to follow in setting up and running your eCommerce SMS marketing strategy most effectively:

1. Clear goals and obey the law: You need to clearly define what you want your SMS campaigns to attain, whether it be increasing sales or boosting engagement. Educate yourself on the laws of regulations, specifically the TCPA and WhatAPP.

2. Choose the appropriate SMS marketing platform: Overt features in this category include automation, segmentation, analytics, and integration with eCommerce systems. AfterShip SMS is a good choice!

3. Build and segment your subscriber list: Capture phone numbers through checkout processes, website popups, email promotions, or social media. Use this list for segmentation based on various factors such as demographics, purchase history, or behavior for focused campaigns.

4. Develop an opt-in strategy: Emphasize incentives at the step of opting in by offering Welcome Discounts, Early Bird Sales access, or any special content subscribers can expect.

5. Plan out your campaigns and execute them: Whether it is the campaign type, target audience, or time, figure it out. Then, draft short, personalized messages with clearly measurable calls to action.

6. Use real-time updates: Be sure to utilize SMS for any kind of timely communications, like order confirmations, shipping updates, or flash sale notifications.

7. Create SMS-exclusive promotions: Offer special deals or early access to new products so customers will sign up for these flash sales.

8. Keep messages concise and clear: since SMS has a character space limitation, so keep them short, impactful, and easy to understand. Use customer data to customize messages about individual preferences and behaviors.

9. Set up automation: Welcome messages, abandoned cart reminders, and post-purchase follow-ups—automate these flows.

10. Track and analyze results: Keep checking on the performance of the performance of your campaigns and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Recent challenges of SMS marketing and ways to figure it out

Though this is an effective tool, SMS marketing for eCommerce doesn't come easy. Knowing the obstacles and how to beat them can give your eCommerce store a real boost. Here are some common challenges and practical solutions:

1. Reaching the Right Audience

The major challenge in SMS marketing is how to get the right message in front of your customers. If you are sending generic messages to everyone, that can very quickly result in opt-outs and decreased engagement.

Solution: Utilize SMS trigger filters to send targeted messages. You can divide your audience into smaller sections based on areas of signup source, cart value, and status, among other things. This alone ensures that you're automatically dispatching more relevant and engaging messages. This uncovers less spam and increases the campaign's effectiveness.

2. Creating Personalized Experiences

In the crowded space of digital marketing, personalization has become crucial. However, delivering unique and personalized experiences through SMS can be challenging.

Solution: Within SMS, use conditional splits to create different paths depending on what they're doing and who they are. This will allow you to personalize your messages and offers to their preferences and activities, so your campaigns are more relevant and engaging. Provide each consumer with an experience that is unique to them, building stronger relationships and driving higher engagement.

3. Optimizing Campaign Performance

It's difficult to determining the best time to send messages, the right content and the optimal frequency. Without proper testing, your campaigns might not achieve their full potential.

Solution: Try out different variables with SMS A/B testing, like time delays, message content, the number of messages, and discounts. By comparing a few different results, you can see which version works best and helps you reach your business goals. This data-driven approach helps you make your strategy even better and get the most out of your SMS campaigns.

4. Increasing customer engagement

Keeping customers engaged over time is another significant challenge. You will have to communicate with them regularly and relevantly if you want to keep them interested and loyal.

Solution: Use SMS Newsletters to keep customers updated on the latest business events, new product launches, and other offers. Drip text messages at scale can help in maintaining better visibility and ongoing engagement with your audience. This regular update will assist in keeping your brand at the top of your mind and in long-term relationships with your customers.

5. Targeting Specific Customer Segments

Identifying and targeting specific customer segments can be difficult, especially as your customer base grows. Without proper segmentation, your messages might not resonate with all recipients.

Solution: Leverage Customer Segmentation to define precise segments such as VIPs and repeat buyers. By tailoring your SMS campaigns and timing to these specific groups based on their attributes and interactions, you can deliver more relevant and impactful messages. This targeted approach helps in maximizing engagement and driving conversions from your most valuable customers.

Top SMS marketing platforms like AfterShip SMS offer comprehensive tools to address all challenges. By leveraging advanced features for automation, segmentation, and testing, you can create more effective SMS marketing campaigns that drive results for your ecommerce business.

Ecommerce SMS marketing best practices with examples

Keep Messages Concise

• SMS has a 160-character limit
• Get straight to the point
  Example: "Flash Sale! 30% off all shoes today only. Use code SHOE30 at checkout. Shop now: [link]"

Include Clear Calls-to-Action

• Tell customers exactly what to do next
• Use action verbs
  Example: "Shop now", "Claim your discount", "RSVP today"

Sales Text Message Examples

• Limited-time offer: "24-hour sale! 50% off all winter coats. Shop now: [link]"
• Exclusive deal: "VIP members only: Get early access to our Spring collection. Use code VIPSPRING for 20% off"
• Abandoned cart reminder: "Your cart misses you! Complete your purchase now and get free shipping"

SMS Opt-in Message Examples

• Clear and compelling: "Get 10% off your first order when you sign up for SMS updates! Reply YES to join"
• Value proposition: "Be the first to know about sales & new arrivals. Text JOIN to 12345 for exclusive SMS offers"
• Double opt-in: "Thanks for subscribing! Reply Y to confirm and start receiving our amazing deals"

How to customize your SMS content

Our guide of customizing SMS content has completely include everything you want to know. You can check it through the link.

⚠️ 4 ways of texting will annoy your customers

Texting too frequently

If you send too many texts, not only will customers stop opening them, but they may also unsubscribe or develop a negative opinion of your brand.

Sending texts at inappropriate times

Avoid messaging too late at night, too early in the morning, or during typical working hours to avoid becoming a hassle and a nuisance to your clients. Make sure to respect people's time and schedules.

Too much jargon or marketing speak

Never use jargon or marketing speak. If you fill your texts with industry jargon, buzzwords, or overly promotional language, you can be sure to confuse and annoy customers. The messages should be clear, concise, and informative, aiming at providing value.

Ignoring customer preferences

Not respecting customers' communication preferences, such as frequency of messages or opt-out requests, can quickly sour the relationship. Always provide an easy way to opt out and honor those requests prompt.

Conclusion

SMS marketing is a great way for ecommerce businesses to connect with customers, get them engaged, and drive sales. That said, to really make the most of SMS marketing, you need a solid, dependable platform to manage your campaigns effectively. This is where AfterShip SMS comes in. AfterShip SMS is easy to use, lets you group your contacts in different ways, and shows you lots of useful information, so you can make your ecommerce SMS marketing even better!