Nowadays, your clients may be found in a variety of settings. They’re going through their favourite social media channel one minute then surfing the web and Googling nearby retailers the next. After that, they may check their email before sending a short photo to a pal. They did everything on their phones.
Marketers have several possibilities to meet clients on their preferred channel at their preferred time in this multichannel environment. And it pays off, with multichannel consumers spending three to four times as much as single channel customers.
However, multichannel marketing requires some forethought. How can you keep people’s attention when they’re switching between stations so quickly?
Select your multichannel marketing channels carefully.
Investigate social media demographics to find out. Consider holding a competition or poll (hint: SMS is an excellent tool for small surveys like this).
Once you understand your consumers’ preferences, you can decide where to direct your efforts. Plan out each channel, including any communication quirks to be aware of. For example, each social site has various message length recommendations and image sizing requirements.
Create a journey for your multichannel marketing.
With your channel strategy in hand, it’s important to consider when, why, and how you’ll approach clients across various touch points. Assume you have a large sale coming up. First, you might want to develop hype on your social channels with a nice teaser campaign. A fast SMS with a discount coupon might entice more customers.
There are several routes to consider, ranging from sales and promotions to customer service and win-back initiatives. Here are some pointers to get you started:
- Examine one existing customer’s journey for gaps and possibilities.
- Consider a CRM or omnichannel management platform if you aren’t currently utilising one to avoid data silos and save administrative tasks.
- Choose an SMS solution that is simple to incorporate into your CRM system.
- Finally, include text messaging into your trip and test, test, and test again.
4 effective SMS use cases in multichannel marketing
SMS is quite successful at many points of the consumer journey. Here are four successful multichannel marketing use cases that leverage the power of text texts.
1. Retrieve lapsed customers.
Add another branch to your sales campaign to collect any clients who do not open or reply to a critical email early in the journey.
For online shop, sending a brief follow-up SMS to clients who did not check their emails improved conversions by 21%.
2. Make certain you don't pass on a good opportunity.
Bellarine Property, a real estate brokerage, was selling an off-market property. It sent “black envelopes” — as in, special marketing kits — to pique the attention of eligible consumers, which resulted in some positive response. The follow-up text message, though, clinched the deal. The buyer was abroad and did not get the black package, but they saw the text and scheduled an inspection within days of returning home.
3. Recognize and reward your most committed clients
Deals and discounts provide loyal consumers compelling reasons to return. However, providing these prizes by email alone will not produce the greatest outcomes because email response rates are lower than SMS response rates. Send both email and SMS to increase response rates and loyalty.
4. Give consistent help.
When it comes to customer service, rethinking the customer experience or journey can be extremely beneficial. It not only relieves the pressure on your contact centre, but it may also assist clients obtain the information they need right away.
For example, when Port Networks began employing text messaging in addition to the phone for customer care, the internet provider saw a 50% reduction in client wait times.