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Introduction to SMS Marketing for E-Commerce

No matter where or what you sell, text messaging will help you grow your e-commerce business and your bottom line. Our e-commerce customers have seen:

• A 1,668% ROI from SMS marketing
• A 38% click-through-rate (CTR) on their text messages
• A 15% coupon redemption rate

Chances are you already know this, and that’s why you are reading this guide. You want to know everything there is to know about e-commerce text marketing. Rest assured, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ll cover all the basics of text marketing, including its benefits, specific use cases, as well as how to grow your subscriber list.

1. E-Commerce SMS Marketing Examples
2. How to Get Started With SMS Marketing
3. The Importance of Compliance
4. Try It for Free

The Benefits of Text Marketing for E-Commerce Businesses

E-Commerce SMS Marketing Examples

Let’s dive straight into specific examples of how e-commerce marketers use SMS daily to reduce abandon cart rates, drive sales, and improve CX.

1. Broadcast to an Audience

Easily send a text message to your entire text subscriber list.

Drive Sales

Are your Facebook ads and emails not driving interest in promotions or events? Send this information directly to your customers’ phones, where it will be read 98% of the time.

With SMS marketing, you can create a unique SMS keyword that your subscribers can text in to receive a discount code. When your subscribers text this keyword, they’ll immediately receive an exclusive discount code that they can apply to their next purchase.

2. Send Notifications Related to a Specific Event

SMS notifications are text messages that are sent when an event occurs.

Communicate Key Order Details

Since customers typically read text messages within 3 minutes of their sending, SMS can help you instantly communicate key order details.

For example, you can send your customers text messages to confirm that their orders have shipped. Not only will this lead to happier customers, but it will also cut down on unnecessary and time-draining support interactions.

Rescue Abandoned Sales

A whopping 74% of customers abandon their carts. Recouping these sales is a top priority for the majority of e-commerce marketers. Instead of relying solely on automated emails, send them a text message reminder.

Thanks to our integration with Zapier, you can easily automate this process. For example, Shopify, one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, works seamlessly with SimpleTexting to automatically generate abandoned cart text messages.

Drive Post-Purchase Reviews

70% of customers consult reviews or ratings before they decide to purchase. The problem is that generating these reviews is difficult.

SMS marketing allows you to follow up with your customers after they make a purchase. Text them a poll, asking if they’re satisfied with their items, then if they are satisfied, ask them for a review.

E-Commerce SMS Marketing Examples

• The Internet’s Most-Loved Baby Carrier Uses Texts to Increase Sales
• Why This Clothing Boutique Announces New Products By Text Message
• How Rimpy Sahota Dominates The E-Commerce Space With Text Alerts

3. Conduct Two-way Conversations

You can enable customers to ask questions and resolve issues via 1-on-1 conversations.

Provide Instant Customer Support

More and more people are choosing texts over phone conversations, so consider implementing an SMS customer support experience. Text messages have a reputation for being more instant and personal than emails or webchat, so make sure you’re prepared to respond promptly.

Getting Started with SMS Marketing

Your e-commerce store can start using SMS today. Here are the steps you need to take.

1. Choose the Right SMS Marketing Platform

This step may sound obvious, but the first thing you’ll need to kickstart your SMS marketing efforts is a phone number and a platform capable of sending and receiving text messages.

Cue shameless plug: With SimpleTexting, you get both: Try us out completely free for 14 days by signing up for a free trial today. We also have a shared code (900900) just for e-commerce.

Here are other features our e-commerce customers love. For a full rundown of our capabilities, check out our features page.

2. Choose a Keyword and Set up an Automated Response

A keyword is a word or phrase that people can text to your number to sign up for future messages. (E.g. Text SHOP to 900900.) Already have one? Move on to the next section. If you don’t, visit this article first.

After you create your keyword, you need to set-up an automated response that subscribers get once they text your keyword. Take this opportunity to:

• Confirm their subscription
• Craft the perfect welcome message
• Offer a discount or incentive
• Share other important information

3. Build Your SMS Audience

For those of you who are just getting started with text marketing, we can’t stress the importance of growing your subscribers’ list enough.

In plain speak: More subscribers mean more people clicking on links that you send out, which means more purchases, which means more revenue.

There are a ton of ways to quickly scale your list, from utilizing web sign-ups to paid acquisition to email communication to existing subscribers. Here are three great articles to help get you started:

• Turn Your Email List into SMS Subscribers in Just 10 Minutes
• Turn Your Target Audience Into Text Message Subscribers
• How to Combine Your Social Media with SMS Marketing

We also built three SMS tools that anyone can use to develop their text marketing channel while maintaining SMS compliance.

1. Mobile Sign-Up Widget

Make it unbelievably easy for visitors to your site to sign up for your text messages.

2. Click-to-Text Button

Add a button to your website that launches your customer’s native text messaging app.

3. Graphic Generator

This tool enables you to design eye-catching promotional images for your keyword.

4. Schedule and Send a Campaign

It’s time to launch your first e-commerce text marketing campaign. For the nitty-gritty do’s and don’ts of sending e-commerce marketing texts, we recommend you read our tips for SMS marketing success.

We typically see our customers stagger the roll-out of various types of text marketing campaigns, layering in text-to-win competitions, VIP clubs, and SMS customer support. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

More E-Commerce SMS Marketing Resources

• How To Improve Your E-Commerce Shop’s Customer Support With SMS
• Find out How Much Money SMS Is Making Your E-Commerce Store
• How To Rescue Abandoned Carts Using SMS—Without Bugging Customers

Don’t Forget About Compliance

Given the revenue-generating possibilities of SMS, it’s easy to get caught up and forget about compliance. You must ensure that you’ve received permission from your customers.

To learn more, you can read our full comprehensive guide on SMS compliance and text message regulations. We’ve also built automatic confirmation messages into all campaigns to ensure you send new subscribers all the necessary disclaimers.

Try It for Free

Still not convinced that SMS text marketing is right for you? We understand. After all, there were once people who thought combining chocolate and peanut butter was a bad idea too.

To help make the decision easier, we offer a free trial for businesses to experience our services in real-time. We’ll provide you with a special keyword and 50 messages to send. No payment information is required, and switching your account from free to paid is easy.

We’re here to help you get started!