So much retail success depends on the experience of the consumer. It’s not just about the products you’re selling or the product you’re providing, but about both working together as well as a whole lot more.
Text messaging (SMS) can be the glue that makes them all stick, so I’ll walk you through five ways to use text messaging for retail marketing and sales.
These tips will help you build a great customer experience while also improving customer loyalty and profits!
How does text message fit into the experience of the customer?
- These days, people are using their smartphones for everything, particularly for shopping.
- They take out their phones to locate nearby stores, buy stuff from their sofa convenience, and even compare products online while inside a store (which is something about 82 percent of smartphone owners do).
- There are many ways to take advantage of this online shopping experience-and I will show you some of them – but texting is a great fit as there is no heavy lifting.
- You don’t need a developer, builder, or any other expert in engineering. You only need a phone number to receive messages and some suggestions, like the ones I’m about to share with you.
5 Ways of using SMS text messaging for retail and sales marketing
1. Build your subscription list with keywords (or build a customer loyalty program).
You want to grow your customer list, and you want to keep shopping with those customers. Keywords for this are good. What’s a password? A keyword is a word or sentence that you are making. Two things can happen when someone texts the word or phrase to your number:
You can automatically send them a response, such as a coupon code or URL That person would automatically be added to the subscription list of that keyword (opt-ins), to which you can send texts at any time in the future.
This user will immediately be added to the list of subscribers (opt-in) for that keyword, to which you can send texts in the future at any time.
So how can keywords be used? One choice is to position signs or displays that say:
You must automatically send them a coupon when someone gives you the keyword to use at checkout. You can send a coupon code or coupon image, and you can make things easy using your current business number.
2. By picture messages, share ideas and suggestions.
Most people are looking for guidance in choosing what to get.
Is this going to look fine? Have you got this in another color? These are common questions that people have before purchasing, and during the answers, a picture is worth a thousand words (or more).
You can use one of the lines below online, in-store, or even in a conversation that you start, depending on what products you sell:
You can use one of the lines below online, in-store, or even in a conversation that you initiate, depending on which goods you sell:
Give us a space image and we’ll give you ideas on how to fill it out!
People can text you from their couch or in-store, you can send a few ideas back-and-forth, and they can come to pick up the items they want in-store (or purchase online).
This is a customer experience retail consumers love.
3. Promote sales and new arrivals with campaigns.
99% of messages are read, usually within a few seconds, so messaging subscribers and past customers are a great way to boost revenue and loyalty.
4. By Click-to-Text, offer better customer service faster than rivals.
Many local Google searches come from mobile devices and people would prefer to write down your business rather than call-especially for customer service issues such as:
- What are your hours?
- Do you price match?
- Where’s my package?
A Click-to-Text option allows you to add a text message link to your Google company page, blog, Adwords advertising, or Instagram profile.
Anywhere from 50 percent -75 percent of local mobile searches turn into visits to the store, so this is a good way to drive sales (and rivals outcompete). And you can email them to ask for a report after you answer the questions of customers.
5. Get more reviews online (up to 18X more by text than by email).
Until they buy from you, people want to trust your company. The good news is that most people trust comments online as much as friends and family feedback-you just need to get more reviews online.
Organizations that demand online reviews receive better text outcomes than emails or spoken requests. For messages, the median click-through rate is 18X higher than for emails
How do I start texting for sales and retail marketing?
1: Start right now
Through Text Request, anything mentioned in this article can be done. Text Request is an online tool for messaging. By choosing a plan on our Pricing section, you can create an account and start texting with your current business number. It takes just a moment, and you don’t even have to talk to anyone!
2: Talk to someone first
If you want to talk through how texting would work for your business, or even see a demo of how Text
