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We want you to blow your KPIs out of the water when you implement Drip SMS into your ecommerce marketing strategy. To help get you on your merry way, we put together this quick-start guide to effective SMS.
Let’s start out by comparing email and SMS to highlight a few key differences:
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With email, you pay by list size. With SMS, you pay per message.
Learn more about SMS billing here.
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Fantastic email engagement still means less than a third of your list opened and 1/20 clicked. With SMS, you’ll routinely get 95%+ opens. No joke.
Effective SMS means more than integrating texts into your marketing strategy in a way that helps your customer and drives revenue for you. Effective SMS means scaling in a cost-effective manner. Customer acquisition cost is increasing and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is getting more difficult to keep healthy. Adding SMS to your stack, albeit at an additional cost per message, helps ensure you’re capturing the attention of prospects you may have paid a pretty penny to attract. Using SMS in addition to email helps ensure you’re getting your customer’s attention.
We want you to get up and running with SMS as quickly as possible, so we’re recommending the very first strategy you implement (after getting opt-ins) is to add SMS to your Welcome Series. We have other recommendations included below if you have more time to implement SMS in other automations and single campaigns, but start with your Welcome Series.
Welcome Series
After someone opts in to receive SMS from you, Drip will automatically send a confirmation text to verify the phone number and provide necessary opt-out instructions. This is the perfect time to follow up with a quick message that shows off your brand—otherwise, your recipient will have a pretty bare text string and will wonder when they’ll hear from you via SMS.
To add a follow-up SMS, add an SMS node at the top of your Welcome Series Workflow.
Additionally, we recommend sending another SMS toward the bottom of your Welcome Series offering VIP SMS subscribers a discount. If you don’t want to give a discount just yet—all good, we still recommend sending a text to remind people of your unique value.
Even though your Welcome Series won’t traditionally have a very sales-y call to action, it’s a high-converting automation because people who are browsing your website and opting-in to email and SMS are pretty far down the funnel. Oftentimes, all they need to convert is a well-crafted welcome message.
Grab a Welcome Series Workflow already set up for you with the SMS strategies mentioned here:
Abandoned Cart
Add value and convert more carts by adding an SMS message after someone abandons their cart. We recommend sending a text message about an hour after they abandon their cart.
In today’s world, distractions aren’t just commonplace. They’re inevitable. The fact someone got to the point of entering their information at checkout is a very good sign. Such a good sign, that it’s more likely than not they got interrupted rather than deciding at the last second they don’t actually want your product(s).
Solve for the forgetful consumer problem by sending an SMS shortly after they left the cart—it might just make their day. It’s also likely that they were browsing your store on their phone, so receiving an SMS that links back to the cart makes it all the more convenient for them to complete checkout.
Be sure to include the link back to the cart in your message! Use this Liquid to dynamically insert their unique checkout URL: {{ event.abandoned_checkout_url }}.
If they don’t convert via SMS, not to worry. SMS is great for immediacy and emails are great for information. Continue sending cart abandonment emails that reiterate your unique value proposition. Another common reason for abandoning a cart is a nagging question about the product, so use your emails to answer common questions and offer support.
Post-Purchase Thank You
Another great place to send a text message is in your post-purchase automation. You have a great chance post-purchase to build affinity towards your brand at a critical time of interest. Even if it’s just a message thanking the person for their purchase and building anticipation of the product’s arrival—that content is conversational and works to build a relationship with your customer.
By utilizing SMS here, you’re cutting through the noise of the inbox, staying top of mind, and getting people excited about their decision to purchase.
Want a more advanced version of post-purchase follow-up? Here are a few ideas:
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Send product-specific information that enhances the value of the product. For example, send a fan-favorite recipe that calls for the spices the person just purchased.
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Capture customer satisfaction with the product and purchase experience via survey.
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Offer a way of contacting your customer service team to solve any questions the customer may have.