Learn the in’s and out’s of SMS remarketing as well as some best practices accompanied by tactics in action!
SMS remarketing is a great tool for retailers who need to capture cold leads, upsell existing customers, or engage with their already active audience.
When it comes to the success of remarketing, it’s all in the personalization.
Learn how and when to try your hand at SMS remarketing with everything you need to know below.
SMS remarketing is a technique that uses texts as a way to reach consumers with things like:
There are a few types of people you can choose to retarget.
With existing and former customers, you probably already have their contact information which makes it easy to send them remarketing messages.
With visitors to your site, it’s a little trickier (but nowhere near impossible!). With something like a PPC ad, you could retarget your site visitors without asking for their number or email.
SMS remarketing, however, requires you to get phone numbers first. In order to legally send marketing messages, you also need express written consent.
So, why go through the trouble?
The short answer, because they’re just more effective.
The conversion rate for display ads is less than 1%. For emails, it’s 3%.
The average SMS campaign conversion rate is 45% with SMS open rates hovering around 98%.
If you want your messages heard, it’s worth it to take the extra steps to reach your leads by text.
As we mentioned above, the first step in SMS remarketing requires you to get your lead’s phone number and permission to text them. From there, you’ll start to send your messages and track your results.
There are a few easy ways to collect phone numbers:
Set up a widget
Our free click-to-text buttons, mobile sign-ups widgets, and web forms are easy set-it-and-forget-it methods that live on your website and continually capture new contacts.
Ask for their number at checkout
If you already collect phone numbers with orders, simply add a checkbox indicating consent to receive marketing messages to your checkout field.
Ask for numbers as an exchange
Does your site have gated content? You can ask for their phone number and permission to text them in exchange for the download! Even if you don’t have gated content, an offer to join a text club to receive discounts can be enticing enough.
Build a creative campaign around texting
Have an idea for a neat digital product or service to offer? Consider how you can incorporate texting into it. For example, the kitchenware brand Equal Parts offers a free text-a-chef service. Customers can text in a list of ingredients and have a professional chef text back with recipe inspiration!
There are three main tactics most marketers take to approach SMS remarketing.
The average shopping cart abandonment rates run between 70-80%. The good news is, if the customer who leaves their cart behind has shopped with you before, you might already have their phone number and permission to text them.
If that’s the case, you can connect with your online retail provider to automatically send texts when carts are abandoned, prompting customers to return and complete their purchase.
The conversion rate for abandoned cart reminders is over 10%, which means your chances are pretty good you’ll see some immediate ROI.
A great way to incentivize a remarketing sales text is to send a coupon or discount. In the sample text above, you could help drive a conversion by offering a discount for the customer to buy now.
This urgency placed on either an abandoned cart item, or items a customer has saved in the past, can be a great way to inspire action.
If you don’t have any data on your customer’s current purchasing habits, not to fear. Another excellent SMS remarketing tactic is to send a text blast when you have a flash or regular sale going on. It creates that same urgency from the previous example, with the added bonus of reaching more folks at once!
You’ll want to measure your campaign results to see what customers are responding to and where you may need to strengthen your messaging. Here are a few metrics to keep in mind.
As we mentioned earlier, the key to success with these tactics is all in how you personalize your messages.
The approach you take is the difference-maker from coming across like a stalker, and appearing attentive.
It’s the fine line between pushy and opportunistic.
Here are a few quick tips to help you land on the latter half of those scales.
Now that you know how simple it is to create SMS remarketing campaigns, the next step is to try it out yourself! Sign up for a free 14-day trial and send out 50 personalized texts, on us.
Meghan Tocci is a content strategist at SimpleTexting. When she’s not writing about SaaS, she’s trying to teach her puppy Lou how to code. So far, not so good.
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