The Complete Guide to Effective SMS Marketing Strategies for Retailers

What is SMS marketing (AKA text message marketing)?

SMS marketing is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: using text messaging as a marketing channel. It’s still relatively unused—only around 14% of businesses reported using text messaging as a marketing channel in a recent Podium survey. But it’s incredibly effective, primarily since it’s a casual interaction that almost everyone uses all the time. In fact, 98% of text messages get opened, almost entirely within 3 minutes of being sent. That’s pretty darn powerful. 

By using SMS marketing, you’re getting deals, promotions, and other messages in front of your most loyal customers. And not only is it welcomed by your customers—increasingly, it’s expected.

So how can your retail business take advantage of this marketing channel? Let’s dive in.

SMS marketing for retail

Emails vs. text messages

As stated above, text messaging shines because of its outstanding open rates and click-through rates. And it really shines compared to email. When you consider that marketing emails average around 15-20% with a microscopic CTR, texting looks absolutely stellar.

Why is that? It’s not that email is terrible—email marketing is a pretty important part of an overall marketing strategy. But part of the reason email doesn’t perform quite as well is that email is just so swamped with other marketing messages. If your customers wake up in the morning to a couple of dozen emails from stores and businesses, yours might end up right in the bin along with the rest of them. It takes a lot more effort to make an email shine. 

The other reason is that email is pretty impersonal and just slightly formal enough not to be super convenient. It takes just a bit more effort to check and read an email than a text message. (Some of that may just be perception, but the results support that perception.)

And besides that, when you send a marketing email to your list, that’s pretty much the end of the conversation. You send it, you measure the clicks, you make your reports, and you repeat. With text message marketing, there’s an actual opportunity to receive a reply. You can still gather valuable insights, but you can also get responses and turn a campaign into a conversation—more on that in the next section.

Business text messages vs. bulk SMS marketing for retail

Any time you’re texting your customers, technically, you’re using an SMS marketing channel. But there’s a difference between business text messages and bulk SMS marketing for retail.

With bulk SMS messaging, you usually have an opt-in list of customers who have consented to receive your text message marketing. You may also have subsets of customers so you can segment them and personalise the messaging a little more. You build your list, select your subset, and build your campaign—for example, a 25% off for a clearance sale, and send a text. “Come in this week to take advantage of low prices, as low as 25% off! Find out what’s on sale here: [url].”>>

• Set up the deal. Make sure you’ve got everything in place to make good on your offer.
• Write your message. Follow the guidelines to write a message that’s clear, concise, personal, and valuable. You may even try a couple of different wordings to A/B test what works best.
• Send. And then start conversations.
• Measure results. Evaluate what went right and what went wrong. Apply those lessons to your next SMS marketing campaign.

Best uses of SMS marketing for retail

Promote events

Whether your event is a limited-time sale or an actual event at your retail store, text messages are a great way to let your customers know how and when to participate.

Items back in stock off backorder alerts

Sending a quick text once a back-ordered item is back in stock is a great way to build loyalty and provide value to your customers.

Loyalty programs

Many retail stores use text messaging as a channel for their loyalty programs—or if you already have a loyalty program through an app, you can use this as a great opt-in point for existing customers. “Thank you for signing up for text marketing alerts! Want to join our loyalty program? Follow this link to download the app.”>