Online brands face unique challenges in reaching, assisting, and retaining their customer base because connecting on a personal level with your audience is a struggle. What if we told you there was a way to engage with your customers that did not involve traditional marketing channels like social media or email?

Stand out from your competitors and cultivate brand loyalty by having personal conversations with your audience. Mass text messaging is the new strategy that allows your online company to talk directly with customers in a way that makes sense. Go beyond what email marketing can do by sending personalized messages and having real conversations with your audience. 

Nothing makes your brand more memorable to customers than being saved in their phones as a contact that they can text anytime.

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Why Your Online Brand Needs SMS Text Message Marketing

Text marketing resonates with a huge portion of today’s consumers. It offers convenience and directness that email simply can’t. Additionally, customers don’t even need a “smartphone” to participate since almost all cell phones provide SMS messaging. 

In addition to being a more personal method for your audience to receive communications, SMS texts can also help your brand provide a better customer experience. Optimizing customer experience is vital when your company doesn’t have a physical location for you to interact with people face-to-face. 

Here are some ways that text marketing can help make a difference for your online brand.

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Connect Personally with Your Audience

SMS marketing messages allow you to have personal conversations with your subscribers on an adjustable scale. You can sort your subscribers by demographics like age, location, and subscription date to send mass messages tailored to their specific interests and needs. Create your own demographic subgroups by sorting subscribers into Communities based on Keywords in your conversations, like “Dog Lovers” or “Coachella Attendees,” to craft personalized messaging at scale.  Ask your Californian subscribers how the weather is in the sunshine state, or send a photo of your new puppy to your dog-loving subscribers. 

With our Response Management tools, you can even cluster similar responses as a manageable way to send mass replies while maintaining a 1:1 conversation with your audience. If 80 people thank you for a message, you can batch these responses together and craft a mass response that is specific and relevant to your ongoing conversation. 

Connect with your subscriber lists and have real, back-and-forth conversations with them just like you would if you were in a physical store. Text messages leave the receiver feeling like you are talking directly to them rather than just shooting out an email blast to an anonymous list of contacts. This personal connection will deliver a better experience and increase the likelihood that they’ll stick with your brand as a repeat customer.

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Engagement is Key for Online Brands

The internet is saturated with online brands. Using SMS marketing software to facilitate engagement with your customers is one way your company can stand out among the crowd. Engagement helps breed brand loyalty and keeps you at the top of your fan’s minds. Your recipients can easily engage with your team via texting in a unique way that encourages higher response rates. 

With mobile marketing, you can notify your customers immediately when new products launch, ask their opinions, and give them the sense of having a real impact on the brand’s decisions. For physical stores, it’s all about location—for online brands, it’s all about engagement. And texting with your customers is the fastest and easiest way to keep them engaged.

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Not Another Email Buried in an Inbox

Email is no longer the only way to communicate with your online customers. In a 2018 study on text messaging, the research found that text messages are significantly more likely to be opened than emails. In the study, SMS messages had a 98-99% reported open rate, while the open rate of the email was about 20%. 

Consumers are getting their email inbox flooded with newsletters from every brand they’ve interacted with online, so much so that they couldn’t possibly spend their time opening every one and usually opt out, instead. But how many brands use an SMS marketing campaign that texts people directly to their phones? 

Stand out and stay in front of your audience by getting out of their email inbox and directly onto their mobile device.

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5 Ways You Can Use Text Marketing For Your Online Brand:

Text marketing is not just about sending bulk SMS messages out to your audience at scale. Use text marketing in a number of ways to have two-way conversations with your customers, get feedback on how they like your products and what you can improve on, contact groups by location or other characteristics you assign to a subgroup, and more. 

Here are five ways you can implement texting into your company’s marketing strategy.

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1. Send Images of New Products

Text marketing allows you to send anything that can be sent in a typical text message. That means photos, emojis, links, gifs—they can all be sent directly to the hands of your audience, personally from you. 

You can text images of your latest products just seconds after they go live, with a link for people to instantly access and purchase. Send links to any page on your website or offer a special promotional discount code for text members only. Special offers and instant access will encourage retention and provide the ultimate VIP customer experience.

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2. Take Polls and Get Instant Feedback

Get to know your audience’s needs and opinions by having a two-way conversation. Text marketing can be used for taking polls, surveys and getting feedback in real-time. Asking for feedback via text messaging—rather than a survey link in an email that needs to open up in a separate browser tab—shows your customers that you value their time and don't want to inconvenience them. Plus, you get honest and instant opinions on the questions you’re asking.

• Brainstorming what should be your next product? Survey your audience and ask what they need. 
• Wondering how a specific item is performing? Ask customers what they love and don’t love about something they've purchased. 

Texting makes for an easy and quick way to get the information you need to make better decisions for your brand. Customers will appreciate the touch of personalization and feel like their opinion is being heard by a real person, not a robot (because it is).

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3. Use Keywords to Track Exactly Where Leads Come From

A unique feature Community offers is its ability to use keywords to help track exactly where certain leads come from. Tell potential customers to text in a specific keyword to your phone number, and that will be able to both sign them up for your community and tell you where they saw your advertising. 

For example, if your company has a billboard or maybe a company truck that drives around, you simply have to assign unique keywords on those ad locations for people to type in when they text to your number. This will help you track specific marketing efforts or campaigns while also allowing you to segment those Members into automated subgroups. 

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4. Send Personalized Text Messages to Specific Locations and Subgroups

The beauty of using text marketing is personalization. You no longer need to blast out messages to your entire list that may only truly apply to a subgroup of your audience. By only sending relevant information to your members, you’re showing them that you respect their time and needs. This will allow you to build stronger brand loyalty and keep your customers happy. 

Segment your audience by location, gender, age, interest, and more. Create custom promotions or market specific products to only the subgroup that it would best apply to. Your audience will appreciate your efforts to send them only the news they care about, and they’ll never have a reason to unsubscribe. 

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5. Create a Better Customer Experience

A recent research study involving over 75,000 participants showed that customers care less about companies exceeding expectations and “delighting” them and more about the basics like communication and convenience. 

It’s easier than ever to communicate with your customers due to Community’s text-based messaging service. Subscribers will receive your text messages directly on their phones in the same way that they communicate with their friends and family. Not only will this encourage your customers to think of you as a friend, but it’s also an extremely convenient way to communicate for both you and your subscribers. Why choose between “delighting” your customers or communication and convenience when you can easily provide both?

With Community, you can show your customers that you care. Instead of feeling like one drop in an ocean of customers, your subscribers will be able to create a one-on-one, personal connection with you through ongoing text conversations. These conversations will help drive brand loyalty by fostering an emotional connection.

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Summary

Online brands face unique struggles. It’s vital to stay top-of-mind for your audience and be able to provide great customer service. Text marketing is the solution to many communication issues you’ll face as an online-only brand. 

Using text message marketing software to send bulk texts to the sections of your audience that need to receive them to show your customers that you care about them. Easily track and manage where your leads are coming from so you can see what’s working and what’s not, with the use of keywords. Connect with your audience in a unique way that email can’t offer and start building relationships with your customers today!

Sources:

Most Customers Will Leave Your Brand Over Bad Service | Businessnewsdaily.com 

JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLIED RESEARCH | JISAR.org

Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers | HBR.org