Customer Retention via SMS: Strategies to Keep Your Audience Coming Back

SMS marketing is a potent tool for connecting with customers and retaining their brand loyalty. It enables you to send timely, relevant, and personalized messages that can increase engagement, customer retention, and sales. But how can you use SMS marketing to accomplish these objectives? Here are some pointers and best practices to guide you in developing an effective SMS marketing plan.

Stop relying only on tried-and-true techniques or hoping for a lucky break. It’s time to change the narrative and transform your account of ephemeral customer loyalty into a compelling, enduring connection. SMS service becomes your most effective weapon in the fight for customer retention because of its ability to directly reach customers and create individualised, compelling experiences. 

Decoding Customer Retention

Customer retention is simply the act of keeping customers and preventing their churn. It is a gauge of how many customers use your product or service repeatedly over time. Building relationships with existing customers, providing memorable experiences, making every interaction count, and going above and beyond to meet customer expectations all contribute to brand loyalty, which in turn encourages customers to make repeat purchases of goods and services. The goal of all these initiatives is customer retention.

Know Your Audience

You must understand your audience, what they want, and how they prefer to communicate before you start sending SMS messages. You can segment your customers based on their demographics, behaviour, interests, and preferences using data from your CRM, website, email, social media, and other channels. As a result, your SMS campaigns will be more valuable and relevant and will be tailored to different groups.

• Individual Recommendations

Everyone enjoys having that cosy sense of understanding, don’t they? Prepare to give your clients the impression that you have a sixth sense of what they like. Use customer data to your advantage and send specialised SMS messages with customised product recommendations!

You can send customised SMS messages suggesting related products that are so accurate it feels like you’re reading their minds based on a customer’s purchase history, browsing behaviour, and preferences. This degree of personalization encourages cross-selling opportunities while also increasing customer engagement.

• Omnichannel Strategy

Both channels are efficient and direct ways to communicate with customers, with 48% of Australians using emails and 28% using texts or messaging apps to get in touch with a small business. An omnichannel experience can be a potent tool for customer retention as well, so don’t just think of it as a strategy to attract new customers or communicate with them. Through SMS and email, you can interact and communicate with customers in a conversational or automated way. Continue reading to learn 3 easy ways to create an omnichannel strategy.

1. Keep the customer informed: A brand can send email and SMS updates about the status of an order placed and shipment/delivery updates automatically by implementing an automated email and SMS strategy. This helps the customer develop trust and confidence in the brand.
2. Contact information: It’s incredibly convenient for customers to get in touch with the brand if they have any questions about shipping, payments, or deliveries by including the customer care number and email ID in the post-purchase SMS and email that is sent out to them.
3. Confirmation: After the order has been delivered, send an SMS and email to the customer offering a special discount on their next purchase, a referral code to share with friends and family, or an incentive to interact with your brand more and make more purchases.

Your after-sales team will find it easier to respond to customer inquiries if you use an omnichannel strategy to keep all of your email and SMS communications in one place.

• Back in Stock 

Nothing is worse than learning that your favourite product is sold out. Your customers have the same sentiments, but now you can give them something you’ve never done before, a timely message informing them that their desired products are once again available. They will remain interested and eager to click the “Add to Cart” button as soon as their items return if you demonstrate that you care about their needs and keep them informed. 

• Create Interesting Content

Because SMS messages are brief and to the point, each word must be important. You must create compelling content that draws readers in, communicates your value proposition, and motivates them to take action. To make your SMS messages sound friendlier and more conversational, you can use emoticons, acronyms, and slang. To make your SMS messages more persuasive and appealing, you can also use personalization, urgency, and exclusivity.

• Updates on order confirmation and shipping

It can be frustrating to wait while the paint dries. But with SMS, you can send out timely SMS notifications to keep your customers informed every step of the way. Send them order confirmations, which will reassure them about their purchase, shipping updates, which will heighten their anticipation, and delivery notifications, which will let them know when their package has arrived. 

Don’t forget to include tracking links so that recipients can follow the progress of their packages at any time. Also, here’s a sneaky hint: motivate them to post about their excitement on social media. By doing so, you not only keep them informed but also increase the visibility of your brand and generate a buzz that is impossible to ignore!

Final Words

We currently live in a time when we are constantly inundated with information, new brand launches, and promotional information. The possibility of losing business to rivals is greater than ever. Brands must stand out from the competition and have an impact. Although gaining new customers is crucial, keeping your current clientele is not only better for your long-term success but also less expensive than generating leads and acquiring new clients.

Use every communication channel at your disposal as a business, but especially the tried-and-true ones like SMS and emails. If you had the right approaches, the results would astound you beyond your wildest dreams.