The retail industry has always been important in people's daily lives.
According to Wikipedia, “Retail is the process of selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn a profit. Retailers satisfy demand identified through a supply chain. ... Retail markets and shops have a very ancient history, dating back to antiquity.”
This article is going to introduce how text messages can help this ancient industry.
How do text messages help retailers?
1. Get new customers
You can get the phone numbers of potential customers and send marketing text messages to get new customers. For example, offer a promotional discount to new customers or small gifts to attract new customers. The promotional content can be written in a text message and sent to people.
2. Send notifications
When the order is ready, the retailer will send the parcel accordingly. During the logistic procedure, you can send notification text messages to your customers. They will have a thorough knowledge of the parcel's status, like where it is and when it will arrive.
More than logistics, you can also notify your customers of the status of their accounts. When the money status change, send a text message to inform the customer.
You can always notify your customers when there is a necessity.
3. Increase repeat sales
When the good price in your customer's shopping cart decreases, send a text message to inform your customer. When there is a new product launched, you can inform your customers, too. Let your customers keep a close eye on your products with the help of text messages.
4. Do customer service
The retailers can use text messages to respond to the customer's questions or after-sale service. Remember, a text message is a tool to serve your customers.
Why use text messages for your marketing?
1. High open rate
According to the statistics, text message has the highest open rate among emails and social media. People are used to checking their phones constantly. This habit makes the highest opening rate of text messages.
2. High reach rate
The stability of mobile Internet is good. This characteristic makes the text message sending service stable. On the other hand, the text message is a built-in function of all the cellphones in the world. There is no additional app to install. Due to these two reasons, the text message has a high reach rate of more than 90%, according to statistics.
3. Low cost
In the US, you can send 100,000 local text messages for 7500 dollars. Compared to other marketing methods, like an advertisement, the budget of the text message is low, which can be used by both big and small businesses. Many small retailers or start-ups use text messaging as their marketing campaigns.
Tips on how to do text message marketing
1. Combine text messages with email and social media
Text messages combined with email and social media will have a better marketing effect. The email has an open rate of around 30%. Text messages can be a supplemental tool of email. Social media plays an essential part in today's business world, so it is a must in a marketing campaign.
2. Build a customer base
A text message campaign can only work with a customer base. As a retailer who wants to do text message marketing, you need first to collect the customers' phone numbers.
And then, you need to gain the customers' consent to send commercial text messages to them. You can invite your customers to join your text message marketing campaign.
3. Create a drip campaign
A drip campaign is like water drips inside a bottle. With enough time, the bottle would be full of water. A text message campaign can be like this. You send text messages to your customers of small and trivial things. Day by day, they will be loyal customers eventually. This is what a text message campaign is for.
How to choose a good text message marketing provider?
1. Many resources
The provider shall have rich resources among your business scope. You can be a local retailer in a small country or a big merchant across the world. If the provider has rich resources, it can provide you with different choices. Meanwhile, its service is reliable since it can provide supplemental choices when one choice is failed.
2. High-quality services
Choose providers that can provide high-quality services, which can be a high-quality sending ability or a good service during the cooperating process. Do not cooperate with companies with poor services. Text messaging can be technological sometimes. It is better to cooperate with providers that can fulfill this task.
3. Reasonable price
The cost of bulk text messaging is low generally. Considering the service quality, the pricing can be different. The pricing is also different based on different marketing proposals. No matter what, always consult more than 3 companies and compare the price and service before you make any decision.
4. Customized campaigns
Choose the campaign that best suits your current needs. Do not consider the price alone. Choose the provider that can provide you with the most suitable text message marketing campaign.
