I don’t know about you, but my morning ritual looks something like this; I wake up and turn off my alarm (after I’ve hit snooze a few times), which is on my phone, I then take my phone and check my email, social media and any other alerts I have waiting for me. My email check is very basic at this time of the day; it’s a simple delete the spam, keep the interesting stuff. The spam email I’m talking about isn’t really “spam” but is generally emails from, and I’m sorry to say it, retailers or services I signed up for and haven’t yet got around to unsubscribing from. I might glance at the email, and generally I might still like that brand or like shopping at the shop, I’m just not interested in their emails. I’ll open them, and delete them if it doesn’t jump out at me. I have so many other emails that often I just ignore the content. Once opened, deleting these emails seems easier than unsubscribing, and is certainly quicker, albeit in the short term. I also think to myself, I’ll stay on the list, just in case something grabs my attention.The email channel is completely saturated. You’ve really got to do something special to break through the noise! And you need to consistently be on your game. Let your standards slip and you’ll fall victim to the instant delete.The thing is, I actually also open many of these emails, but delete them before taking anything in. Now as a marketer myself, I could look at my open rate stats, and think the campaign is doing okay, however, an open doesn’t mean anything, it certainly doesn’t mean that it’s been read or that the message has been heard.So next time you look at your open rate and wonder why nobody is buying anything, realise that to open and delete an email takes half a second. It’s not a good measure.So, how can you, as a marketer—and by marketer I mean anyone that is trying to promote their product—break through all this clutter? The answer is SMS! This market is far from saturated and people actually read the message because they are small, digestible and convenient. People can easily find the message, and recall it when they need to. On top of all this, with smartphones being so popular these days, people can action the message instantly, wherever they are. They can go to your online store, and if it’s mobile friendly, they can purchase what you’re selling. Here are some stats to back up those claims:
- 98% of text messages are opened compared to only 22% of emails (Frost & Sullivan)
- Mobile coupons get 10 times the redemption rate of traditional coupons. (Source: Borrell Associates)
- The average click through rate (CTR) of URLs included in SMS messages is 19%, compared to just 4.2% CTR for Emails (TextBoard and Mailchimp)
So next time you want a quick win give an SMS campaign a go. The success rate will surprise you and the ROI will be staggering. SMS in retail is fairly untapped, so get in now to see the biggest advantages, before all of your competitors figure it out too.Call us on 1300 764 946 for more information or take a free trial now.
