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How to get started with SMS marketing for eCommerce?
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These eCommerce SMS marketing strategy steps will give you a blueprint to act on in real-time.
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Let's understand them one by one.
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1. Set goals and understand legal requirements
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Setting clear goals before implementing SMS marketing for your eCommerce product is crucial. So, underline your fundamental goals when planning eCommerce SMS marketing, like;
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- Increasing X% of sales quarterly
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- Boosting customer engagement by X% in the next six months
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- Reducing cart abandonment by X% in a month
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Defining these SMS marketing objectives will help you measure the success of your campaigns.
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Further, understanding SMS compliance is crucial to avoid penalties and build customer trust. So, here are the regulations—the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)—to check. The TCPA mandates obtaining explicit consent from subscribers before sending them marketing messages.
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2. Choose the best SMS marketing platform
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Having the right SMS marketing platform for eCommerce business is one of the critical decisions for the success of your campaigns.
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The best SMS marketing software offers value features such as automation, segmentation, analytics, and integration with your existing eCommerce platforms.
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We will discuss the top texting software in the latter section of the blog, so keep on reading.
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3. Grow and segment your subscriber base
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To have a successful SMS campaign, you must first have a list of relevant subscriber bases. And, to build one, you can do the following strategies:
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- Collect phone numbers during the eCommerce checkout process.
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- Use website popups and sticky bars to prompt visitors to subscribe.
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- Promote your eCommerce business through emails and social media to win subscribers.
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- Place web forms on your website where customers can enter their phone numbers.
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- Allow users to subscribe by sending a text message to a short code.
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Once you have a list of SMS subscribers, segment them based on demographics, purchase history, behavior, or anything as a unique categorization that helps you build a targeted campaign.
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4. Plan and execute your campaigns
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This step involves two tasks:
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- Planning campaign - Define your campaign type, team members, target audience, and timing.
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- Crafting message – Make sure you craft a concise, personalized message with a clear CTA.
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5. Test, optimize, and integrate
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Top SMS marketers suggest testing your campaigns with some subscribers before shooting to the entire list.
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So, perform A/B testing (sending multiple campaigns to the same audience to determine which messages resonate best with them).
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You can test different elements, such as message content, send times, and call-to-actions, to optimize your campaigns for better performance. This will save you money and give you more clarity about the best SMS campaign to shoot.
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Additionally, determine the key metrics you will use to measure the success of your eCommerce SMS campaigns. The essential metrics for tracking your eCommerce campaigns are:
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- Open rates
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- Click-through rates
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- Conversion rates
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- Unsubscribe rates
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Analyze your campaign reports to understand customer behavior and preferences, refine your messaging strategy, and improve future campaign outcomes.
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