SMS Remarketing: What It’s All About
Have you ever visited a website, then realised you were seeing ads from that site everywhere else you went online? It wasn’t coincidence, it’s called “remarketing”. Marketers have been using it to get people back to their website for years. But the evolution of mobile marketing calls for something a little different. And that’s where SMS remarketing comes in.
The basic concept is the same, but instead of presenting ads to website visitors, you send them follow-up SMS messages. And you only do it in specific circumstances, like when they abandon their cart.
Abandoned Carts
While exact rates vary between industries and even countries, average shopping cart abandonment rates run between 70-80%. So, between 7-8 of every ten online customers leave their shopping cart prior to checking out. A SaleCycle.com survey of retail and fashion clients found the following reasons for abandoned carts:
- 34% Are just browsing or researching pricing
- 23% Shipping either costs too much or the delivery time isn’t acceptable
- 18% Prices are too high or they want to comparison shop to find it cheaper
- 15% Plan on buying the item in the store rather than online
- 6% Payment related issues
- 4% Technical issues
Many of these are hurdles that can be overcome, if only you can get the potential buyers attention back. As a retailer, you may already use email to reach out to these customers and try to get them to come back. But email is slow, and even if you contact them immediately, they may not see it. This is even more likely with Gmail addresses since they’ve added their “Promotions” folder. Anything Google determines is retail-related is filed away out of the inbox unless the user specifically tells it not to do that.
Email still has its place, but when you’re trying to reach out quickly, SMS is often the better option.
Using SMS to Get the Sale Back
The first consideration in using SMS is whether you have the mobile number of the person who abandoned their cart. If they are a regular shopper you might already have it. But if you don’t capture that information already, you may want to consider asking for it during your account creation process.
If you do have their mobile, and they’ve filled up their cart and left, you can contact them about it. According to the ICO guidelines this is a “soft” opt-in. You can send them SMS messages that relate to the items or sale they attempted to complete. It doesn’t give you cart blanche to send them messages about everything, but as long as you keep it relevant to their purchase (even if it was incomplete) then you are ok.
But why would you want to use SMS when you already use email? Well, why do you do social media when you do email? Or online advertising when you do email? They are different channels to reach the same goal. Some customers, especially if they’ve given you their mobile number, might respond better to getting an SMS message. In fact, almost every study that compares SMS and email reports that SMS receives higher open and click-through rates than email.
But you just won’t know if one works better than the other (or they work better together) for you unless you try it. If you still need some motivation to get started, here are some other numbers from a Salecycle.com study of SMS remarketing:
- 5% of people who got an SMS with a link to their cart, clicked the link to view their selections
- 7% of those that clicked on their cart link, completed a purchase
Those numbers translate into 4-5 sales for every 100 abandoned carts that received SMS notifications. That’s a pretty impressive conversion rate. According to SmartInsights, average online conversion rates in the UK ran between 4% and 5% in the last quarter of 2016. If you can get back another 5% by using SMS, isn’t that like doubling your conversions?
Of course, SMS can be used by online retailers for other purposes too such as order confirmations, shipping notifications, customer surveys, product announcements, and marketing. If you want to know more about it, you can download our Mobile Marketing Guide. You can also reach our friendly SMS experts via live chat, email or phone. They’d be happy to talk with you about using SMS messaging for online retail business.
Related Articles
How to Increase Website Traffic with SMS Messaging
Read some practical advice on how you can use SMS messaging to drive more traffic to your website. Include a shortened url in your SMS marketing message that sends the recipient to a special offers page or a how-to video or even a top-up page for consumables. But make sure the page is mobile friendly.
Retailers Can Use SMS Marketing For More Than Just Coupons
Discount codes, limited time sales, special exclusive pricing...you may have seen, or used, all of these in a text message campaign. For retailers, it is the most obvious and direct use of SMS marketing. It works and it's cost effective. But are there other ways you can put your SMS channel to work for you?
SMS Marketing – 4 of the UK’s Best Ever Campaigns
Discover how to come up with an SMS marketing campaign in this article which looks under the surface of some of the UK's most successful ever SMS marketing campaigns. Whether you are looking to boost revenue, improve customer satisfaction or help your brand stand out with a unique and memorable promotion, this article shows how a simple approach to SMS messaging can work wonders for your company.
The Role of SMS in Building Consumer Loyalty Programmes
The drive to earn and retain consumer loyalty is big business in the UK. Increasingly, companies are grasping the important role SMS text messaging can play in this. Customers’ mobile phone numbers are gold dust. The most forward-looking companies are developing systems to encourage customers to opt-in. Then, they are structuring SMS campaigns to build loyalty and reap maximum commercial advantage from it.
Get Your Health Food Business Off To A Healthy Start with SMS Marketing
7 Tips for a Successful SMS Marketing Campaign
SMS marketing is still one of the most effective marketing channels available to businesses but is often overlooked in the pursuit of newer, more digitised technologies. When you include SMS marketing as part of the marketing mix, you're in a far greater position to increase engagement with your campaign, helping you generate a greater return on your investment. As with all channels, there are certain ways you can ensure your campaign is more effective, by following these simple steps.
5 Reasons SMS Should be a Major Part of Your Marketing Mix
81% of mobile phone users use SMS or text messaging and 90% read text messages within three minutes of receipt. But it's not just a convenient way to chat with friends, fix a rendez-vous or remind people to do things; it has also become a powerful marketing tool for businesses large and small, national or global.
A Checklist for Your First SMS Marketing Campaign
This year SMS marketing is predicted to become an even bigger piece of the mobile marketing pie. Businesses of every size will be launching their first ever campaigns. If you’re one of them, take a look at our handy SMS marketing checklist below to help you do it right from the very beginning.
5 Creative Ways to Use SMS Messaging to Boost Your Marketing
SMS messaging can be a hugely productive way of developing your marketing strategy. Text messages are read - on average - in less than 5 seconds. That means you only have a short period of time in which you can impress your potential customer. People are starved of concentration thanks to hundreds of digital and offline distractions, along with the many other companies all reaching out to them through SMS. In order to be effective and get the most from SMS text messages, you need to be creative with your SMS marketing. So here's how...
Why SMS Marketing is Like Facebook Marketing, But Better
Facebook is a popular place. According to Statista, they had 1.44 billion active users in the first quarter of 2015. It’s no wonder then that businesses are flocking to advertise there. But big isn’t always better. SMS marketing is similar in many respects to Facebook advertising, and for some uses it is actually better. Let me explain and see if you agree.