How 2-Way SMS Marketing Can Change the Way the eCommerce Works

SMS marketing is the act of sending promotional content via text message. If you use a bulk sms service to send a text to your subscriber list saying, “BOGOF only today on the website! Don’t miss it,” that’s SMS marketing. How can 2-way SMS marketing help?

SMS marketing is basically a tool you use to convey information to your existing customer base who subscribed to getting text messages from you. 

What is 2-Way SMS Marketing?

Whereas traditional SMS marketing is about campaigns and reach, 2-way SMS messaging is about conversations. It incorporates inbound and outbound text messages into one central service

Without a two-way SMS as a strategy, your customers would either have a lot of their questions go unanswered or be directed to an email support inbox or live chat to get an answer to their question. This can be a problem for two core reasons:

1. Slow responses mean lost revenue. If your customers need to go through a series of emails to find information or resolve issues, there’s a good chance they won’t come back. Most customers do not have the time or patience to wait hours for a response. Now imagine this happening at scale for hundreds of customers.

2. Communicating in an old-fashioned and inconvenient way can lead to a bad customer experience. Your customers expect to get quick responses via text and tech has conditioned us to think this way. Brands that deliver on this expectation are more likely to gain and retain the attention of online shoppers.

What are the Benefits of Using Two-Way SMS Communication for eCommerce Businesses? 

The benefits of developing texting relationships with customers is why a lot of brands are moving away from traditional one-way SMS toward 2-way by using an integrated communications platform. A couple of benefits include:

• Grow your subscriber database

By using a dedicated number, you can spur customers to opt-in to your content. Encourage opt-ins by giving your customers updates that they can only receive via text.

• Gain valuable insights in real-time

SMS is a great way to receive quick feedback as it makes it easy for customers to respond to surveys and reviews. 

• Encourage engagement

2-Way SMS gives your customers the freedom to have a conversation with you via keyword triggers. You can map out a conversational flow and quickly resolve common problems. 

Ways How 2-Way SMS Can Change eCommerce Industry & Drive eCommerce Sales

Increase website conversions with a dedicated textable number on your page

When you can properly answer simple questions like shipping times, size, pricing, or product information via text, you get more conversions. 

With more than 70% of shoppers now making purchases through their mobile devices, people barely have the time to search through your website to get answers (bye-bye FAQ page 🥲). 

Customer Support

For simple support queries, 2-way SMS is a great way to improve your customer experience. 

Customer call centers are quite costly to run and with 2-way SMS, your customers get a quick and easy way to get the answers they need, your support team achieves more efficiency and every touchpoint is an opportunity to build a stronger relationship with your customers.

2-way SMS can be the new channel that helps you scale

As more brands continue to pour money into Facebook and Google ads, the competitiveness and the cost of those channels are only going up. A lot of those brands are not paying enough attention to SMS marketing and that can be your niche.

2-way SMS can support your conversion optimization efforts and here are some ways you could integrate 2-way SMS into your conversion optimization strategy:

• Test a landing page with a text-for-answer number in the top banner.
• Tap into SMS subscribers with timely campaigns that improve your conversion rate.

Order Tracking and Confirmation

Everyone loves to track their orders and we feel secure knowing that it’s on their way to us. 

One of the best ways to keep your customers up to date on their orders is via SMS. The order notifications are short and time-sensitive, making SMS the perfect channel for sending them as no one really misses an SMS notification on their mobile device.

You can send out updates to customers whenever you ship their order and they can get real-time status of the package up until it is received. 

They would also appreciate a link to track their package within the text(I know I would), as it adds an extra level of comfort. This way, SMS updates can improve trust in your brand, improve customer satisfaction and drive brand loyalty.

Getting Started With 2-Way SMS

To get the most out of 2-way SMS, you need to have a strategy that strikes a perfect balance between your business goals and your customers. 

BSG is designed to help you seamlessly manage your communications across all channels and you can get started today.