Benefits of SMS marketing and text message marketing ROI

Why should you consider using SMS marketing? Is there an opportunity on this channel with your audience? Is it worth the effort to add text message marketing if you’re already seeing incredible results from email alone?

Keep reading to find out why businesses should invest in SMS marketing and whether it’s right for you.

SMS marketing: Benefits to the channel

For years, marketers have relied on email due to its huge user base, massive return on investment (ROI), incredible speed, stable costs, and the ability to own the relationship with customers instead of relying on third party channels or marketplaces. 

Over the past few years, SMS marketing has begun to show a similar positive trend on ROI. But not all marketers have adopted this channel yet. 

What is SMS marketing, basics and fundamentals

Why SMS marketing may be right for your business

Whether you’re still mulling over SMS as a channel or you’re ready to get started, here’s five reasons why you should consider texting message marketing for your business.

1. SMS Marketing creates better customer experiences

If you’re looking to better support your customers, SMS can help bridge the gap between in person and online shopping because of its speed, immediacy, and the ability to have two-way conversations. 

Not everyone will want to subscribe to your brand’s text messages, and that’s okay. But did you know that 54 percent of consumers would like to receive promotions via text message, and only 11 percent of businesses send them this way?

For those that do subscribe to SMS, you can deliver unique customer experience and drive brand loyalty. 

SMS and text campaigns that elevate your brand

2. You can communicate with customers faster using text messaging

Another benefit of text messaging marketing is you also answer incoming questions via text to get customers the answer they need fast. 

In fact, 72 percent of customers are more likely to purchase from a website if the brand can communicate with them about their products in real time, with a real employee, via text messaging.

By pairing SMS with your email program, you’ll give customers another way to engage with your brand in a way that’s easy and convenient to them.

SMS and email marketing differences and strategic similarities

3. Email and SMS marketing are a dynamic dynamo 

By combining SMS with your email marketing program, you can elevate your messaging to create unique customer experiences your subscribers won’t be able to find on other channels—or with other brands.

• People read 95 percent of all texts they receive, which means SMS can help you reach a highly engaged audience—and more engagement results in more of your audience entering your store’s sales funnel.

• Because text messages are highly personal and conversational, engagement doesn’t stop at excellent open rates. In fact, promotional text messages have an average click through rate (CTR) of 36 percent—that’s eight times email’s average CTR of 4.5 percent. 

• The text message audience is usually smaller than its email list, as people are more selective about which brands they’ll subscribe to receive texts from. That’s why marketers who use SMS marketing strategies have the most success when they use it to complement their email marketing efforts rather than replace it.

• The engagement brands receive from SMS leads to a high revenue per recipient (RPR). For marketers using services like Klaviyo, where text messages make up at least 30 percent of their total messages, their RPR increased 187 percent after adding SMS. 

Don’t take it from me—GhostBed is seeing a 200x ROI on their welcome series alone.

SMS marketing strategies and Ghost bed case study that underscores the benefits and ROI of SMS

4. SMS marketing can grow your customer base 

Another benefit of text message marketing is that you own the relationship with subscribers. But what does that mean? 

No data privacy issues.

The world is moving towards enhanced customer privacy by blocking third-party tracking (see Google and Apple’s iOS 14 update). Fortunately, this doesn’t affect SMS and email because they don’t rely on third-party data.

When you collect a phone number or email address, you own that information. You can communicate with your subscribers at any time, and there are no algorithms that decide when or how they’ll see your message.

Use SMS and email to reach the right customer at the right time without relying on third parties that dilute your message and prevent you from creating an exceptional customer experience. 

Data privacy and the growing challenge of third party data

5. Why businesses of all types are seeing success with SMS marketing

Ecommerce businesses of all sizes should consider testing text message marketing to see the benefit first-hand and understand if it resonates with their audience—and it’s easy to get started. 

• No matter what stage of growth you’re at, SMS can help you get to the next phase of your business. Whether you’re an entrepreneur just starting out, or you’re an established brand looking to add another profitable marketing channel to your arsenal, you can use SMS to reel in shoppers and build your customer base. 

• SMS can also help if you’re looking to drive multiple purchases during the customer lifecycle to increase average order value (AOV), or if you want to incorporate more touch points throughout the buying process to improve the customer experience. 

• For industries with higher value products such as jewelry or technology, you can use SMS to prompt prospects to ask questions that might prevent them from making a purchase. If they respond, you can quickly reply back to give them the answers they need. 

• SMS can also help if you rely on repeat purchases by allowing you to follow up with customers when it’s time for them to buy again, therefore increasing customer lifetime value (LTV). For those who market for apparel, consumer packaged goods (CPGs), and other replenishable products, this could change the game when it comes to customer retention.  

These are just a few ways the SMS marketing can help propel your business forward. But to truly understand what text message marketing can do for you, your customers, and your subscribers, the only thing you can do is test it yourself. 

Test SMS for yourself to see what it can do for your business.