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
5 Reasons SMS Marketing is Ideal for Retailers
3 Tips on Making SMS Messaging an Integrated Part of Your Marketing
One of the key takeaways from the Salesforce 2015 State of Marketing Report was that when mobile is integrated into your marketing strategy, everything performed better. That makes sense when you think about it. Mobile is a unique channel that provides you a direct link to your customers.
B2B Needs to Get Mobile and Digital
Businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B) are having trouble keeping up in the digital and mobile age. That’s according to a couple of eMarketer articles. The reasons for it are varied, but it may be mostly because they’ve been slow to acknowledge a change in culture.
5 Reasons You Want to Use SMS Messaging in Your Business
Are you looking to grow your business? Get more customers? Have larger profits? Of course you are. Isn't every business looking to improve, grow and generate more sales? More and more businesses are realising how SMS messaging can help them do all those things. But it's nice to have some facts to back up what most people seem to assume is true.
Enhancing Two-Way SMS Messaging with Autoresponders
SMS messaging can be a one-way, or a two-way affair. Sending coupons, sale notifications, or event announcements are all one-way messaging. The recipient doesn’t need to reply in order to use the information sent. In two-way messaging though, recipients can reply to your messages. And that makes it much more interesting, engaging, and potentially a lot more work to manage.
3 Reasons Your Customers Want You to Use SMS Messaging
In my last blog I looked at five reasons you want to use SMS messaging in your business. In this blog we're looking at the same topic, just from the consumer's point of view. For example, how do you really know your customers want you to send them messages via SMS? Isn't email or a phone call good enough? Is it worth your time to learn how to use SMS messaging in your business?
Beginners’ Guide to SMS Marketing – July 2016 Update
If you've considered SMS marketing to new and existing customers by text message but dismissed it, it really is time to think again. SMS continues to outperform and outreach all the newer models of communication designed to replace it. The latest competitor to run into difficulties against business text messaging is mobile internet advertising.
SMS Marketing and Mobile Wallets
In one of my blogs last week, I talked about a marketing study by Vibes and what it said about SMS marketing. This week I wanted to take another look at it from the perspective of the mobile wallet industry, also covered in the report. It turns out there is a strong case for integrating your SMS marketing with mobile wallets. Let’s take a look.
3 Retail Predictions to Increase Footfalls This Holiday Season with SMS Messaging
Last year footfalls for some high street shops dropped during the Black Friday weekend. Even though the UK spent a record breaking £1.1B, some saw their in-store sales slump. Find out the three things retailers need to do to get customers to come back.
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.