Customer retention comes down to proper communication and consistent satisfaction. While there are many methods to reach out to your clientele, from email marketing to social media and more, SMS text messaging offers a low-cost alternative with the highest open rates of any marketing alternative. Once you receive an opt-in from your customers, the phone is your virtual oyster, opening up a world of communication possibilities.
Given that over 4 billion people in the world have mobile phones, you can use smoove’s SMS tool to direct your message to the right audience, create a sense of urgency with promotions, test timing, create automated messages, and personalize your content.
Here’s a look at some of the best practices to employ in your SMS retention strategy and how smoove can help you achieve your goals.
Segmentation and Campaign Types
SMS message campaigns come in many forms. You can choose to offer products and promotions, loyalty and rewards, or even post purchase follow up messages with surveys and incentives for customers who provide feedback.
Regardless of the kind of campaign you choose to employ, you must know your relevant audience, and that comes down to proper list segmentation. Using smoove’s list segmentation tool, you can easily divide your audience based on parameters like their purchase history, demographic, location and engagement levels. Then, when you set up an SMS campaign, simply enter the list you want to send the message to, and the rest is taken care of when you click send.
An example of how location can help is if you have multiple stores in different areas. During business hours, you can offer different promotions for different locations via text messages based on geography. You can always make the message relevant to events and cultural activities taking place in that specific location. Speaking of location, smoove’s Waze integration allows customers to simply click a button to direct them right to your storefront. It’s another simple way to make your customer’s journey easier!
Text With Urgency and Timing
You want your customers to take action when they receive your message, after all, that’s what retention is all about. If you’re communicating, but there is no transaction, you’re at risk of losing your customer. To help get customers to click through your message to the intended landing page or product, create a countdown with an offer that expires. Smoove allows for you to add a countdown clock directly within the message that plays upon the emotional response that time is running out.
Then, based on a user’s action, you can enable smart links and triggers to follow up with another automated message based on the action they did or didn’t take from the first message.
For example, you can create an automated journey. If the client redeems the first offer within the amount of time, you can trigger a second message with one of two follow ups. Either offer an additional, equally attractive and generic offer, or follow up and mention that previous purchase with another offer. For the customers who did not take the bait in the first message, you can offer a different promotion with an even shorter time frame.
Additionally, on the topic of automation, if you want to track a customer’s journey online and then move the messaging to mobile, you can set up smart links and automation there, too. For example, if a customer abandons a cart before finishing the check out process, you can set up a text message reminder for them to finish their purchase.
Smoove integrates with the biggest e-commerce platforms like Magento, Shopify and Woo-Commerce. Since so many people use their mobile phones to shop online, you’re literally putting the transaction in their hands and personalizing your messages in real-time to prompt an action.
Easy Testing Goes A Long Way
While it’s more likely for a customer to open a text message than an email, you can vary your timing more than you would with an email. It’s possible to have high open rates on weekends, when people aren’t at work, and for retailers, this may be the best time to send your message.
With smoove, you can use A/B testing based on different send times to see what time works best for your lists. Also, going deeper with list segmentation, you can send different messages in different time zones for your relevant customers. Smoove’s easy-to-use analytics will showcase your winning messages and inform you of the best timing to continue with your SMS strategy.
If you run an e-commerce site that never closes, you can use auto-response messages to send your text messages. If you run a brick-and-mortar store, it is recommended that you still send messages during normal operating hours so that if someone wants to call or come in, you’re open.
Deliver Clutter-Free Content
Like tweets, SMS messages should be short, sweet and to the point. Creating a clear call-to-action is a crucial part of establishing a successful SMS retention campaign. By employing smoove’s mobile landing pages, you can easily direct your customer to take the intended action with the click of a button. By driving traffic directly to a mobile responsive page, you’re keeping the message and the intention cohesive.
You can also use the Events & Reminders tool to send a message about a specific event or promotion. For example, if you have a summer sale coming up, you can automate message reminders to go out 2 weeks before, a day before and the day of to keep your customers informed. Smoove’s dashboard makes it easy to link to a specific landing page so that your customer can see all the event information when they click through to the landing page, which will allow your SMS message to still stay short and sweet, and free of clutter.
Wrap Up
While you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, adding SMS marketing to your retention strategy can only benefit your business. With the highest open rates and the fact that people tend to check their phones at least once an hour, you can deliver succinct messages directly to your customers at any time. You can also sync your email marketing messages with your SMS messaging to create a robust campaign with multiple touch points.
Smoove’s automation tools, events and reminders tracking, A/B testing, countdown clocks and list segmentation allows you to take your SMS marketing to the next level with little effort. Ready to send your first text? We’re here to get your thumbs triggering messages of retention! Open a free account today.
