The Rise of

SMS Marketing
5 Tactics to Stay Ahead of the Curve
 Table of Contents 02

Table of Contents

03 Introduction

04 Favorable Circumstances for the Rise of SMS Marketing

06 Statistics on SMS Marketing Performance

• SMS Performance in General

• Text Messaging Performance on Black Friday

08 The Benefits of SMS Marketing

• Top 5 Benefits of Using SMS in Combination with Other Marketing
Channels

10 5 Ways to Add Text Messaging to Your Existing

Marketing Strategy
• Reengaging Subscribers That Don’t Open the Initial Email Campaign

• Tweak Your Automated Welcome Workflow

• Launch an Automated Happy Birthday Workflow

• Up-sell at Shipping Comfirmation

• Start Re-activating Your Dormant Customers

15 Key Takeaways

16 Resources
 Introduction 03

Introduction

SMS text messages are experiencing

a renaissance. Although this
marketing channel has been
available for several decades now
and some retailers have been
sending promotional campaigns for
a while, SMS text messages have
never been as versatile as they are
now.
 Favorable Circumstances for the Rise of SMS Marketing 04

1. Favorable Circumstances for the Rise

of SMS Marketing
In the early 2010s, marketers were forecasting expen-
diture on mobile advertising for the upcoming
decade. Funds allocated to SMS campaigns were so
minor that they were almost invisible compared to
display, search, and other mobile marketing channels.

Once, Stephen King said: “Sooner or later, everything old is new again.”
Ten years ago, no one could even imagine that this would happen to SMS
text messages, and that they would bring such stunning results.

Bear in mind that text messaging has some of the highest reach as a
marketing channel around the world with more than 5 billion daily users.
SMS marketing has been underestimated for a long time without a
reason.

The spread of SMS technology

Out of 7.5 billion people in the world,

5 billion (or 2/3) use SMS daily

*Source: Techjury
 Favorable Circumstances for the Rise of SMS Marketing 05

So what has changed over the last decade? Several favorable

circumstances helped text messaging to rise.

1. Instant messaging and chatbots have fostered the texting

culture. Years ago, the main channel for companies to com-
municate with their customers was email. That has now
changed, and customers are eager to receive marketing
messages and interact with brands instantly via more personal
channels like chatbots, messengers, and SMS.

2. The rise of the omnichannel experience. Customers

navigate among different media while searching for informa-
tion, buying products, reach out to customer service and finally
use brick-and-mortar self-service to pick up what they’ve
acquired online. They expect a highly personalized, seamless
customer experience while interacting with a brand. That’s the
reason they’are so ready to share personal data, like their
phone number, to engage with brands.

3. Customers no longer respond to generic bulk messages.

Unlike a decade ago, they now expect personalized offers, and
brands are looking for ways to provide them.
In this context, SMS becomes a perfect fit to address custom-
ers’ needs and valuable addition to your overall marketing
toolkit.
 Statistics on SMS Marketing Performance 06

2. Statistics on SMS Marketing

Performance
Most statistics in the industry come from SMS service providers
that share their studies and survey results. However, the amount of
sent messages allows us to glean valuable insights and compari-
sons with other marketing channels.

2.1. SMS performance in general

DTC brands and ecommerce retailers invest heavily in SMS for a reason. According to
VoiceSage, over 90% of SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of receipt.

What’s more, text messages have a whopping 98% open rate. In comparison to the email
channel with an 18% open rate for ecommerce on average, your SMS has a significantly
better chance to be read.

About one-third of SMS recipients react to CTAs in the messages and 47% of those end up
with a purchase. So you can expect about a 13% conversion rate from your SMS campaign.

Quick SMS Statistics

98% SMS open rate

100%
90% read in first 3 minutes

75%

50%

29% engagement rate

25%
47%
purchased from
engaged users
0%

*Source: Techjury
 Statistics on SMS Marketing Performance 07

2.2. Text Messaging Performance on Black Friday

While SMS was on the rise in 2018, the channel absolutely exploded in
2019. At Omnisend, ecommerce marketers sent more SMS campaigns on
Black Friday 2019 than ever before, sending over 1 million campaigns
over the week of Thanksgiving.
SMS Campaigns Sent
Retailers were right to follow their instincts, as SMS campaigns earned Before Black Friday Earn
immense value in 2019. 75% Higher Order Rates
than Cyber Monday
On Black Friday alone, ecommerce brands earned a 14.03% click-through
rate and received a 592% higher order rate than email. In average orders,
SMS earned businesses 21% more orders per campaign than email on
Black Friday.

However, customers were already looking for deals by the middle of the
week – often purchasing during pre-Black Friday promotions. Surprising-
ly, omnichannel campaigns using SMS sent the Wednesday before
Thanksgiving were also successful, earning 150% higher order rates than
email-only campaigns that same day.

Wednesday was even more successful than Cyber Monday in order rates,
earning a 75% higher order rate via SMS.

SMS vs. Email Performance During Black Friday Week

31.12%

21.3%

13.9% 13.8% 14.0%

12.5%
9.9%
8.5%

2.5% 2.3% 2.5% 2.4% 2.1% 1.4% 1.5% 1.5%

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Black Friday Saturday Sunday Cyber Monday
(Thanksgiving Day)

Email Click rate SMS Click rate

*Source: Omnisend Data

 Benefits of SMS Marketing 08

3. The Benefits of SMS Marketing

As a standalone channel, SMS marketing has robust benefits. Wide

dispersion and great usability are only a few of them. What are
some other advantages and how can businesses benefit from
integrating SMS with other marketing channels?

Top 5 Benefits of Using SMS in Combination with Other

Marketing Channels

1. SMS marketing is cheaper than customer retargeting or social media marketing

Although sending text messages is more expensive than emails, overall SMS
marketing expenses are lower than boosting posts on social media or launching
retargeting campaigns.

If your customer base is extended, you can save some money and combine email
and SMS, first approaching customers via email and then sending SMS only to
those customers who have ignored your email.

2. SMS is fast

SMS campaigns are received instantly, and most importantly, they’re read almost
immediately as well. This makes SMS marketing campaigns great for hyper
time-sensitive offers.
 Benefits of SMS Marketing 09

3. SMS earns higher open rates than email

Where customers have to consult their inbox

for email messages, an SMS gives you an Marketers using three or more
instant push notification on your phone. If channels in campaigns enjoy a
customers don’t have push set up for their
inboxes, your email campaign will have to wait.
purchase and engagement rate
Moreover, with text messages, you don’t need which is 250% higher than those
to handle deliverability issues.
using single-channel campaigns
4. SMS gets a higher engagement rate

20%
SMS marketing campaigns are eye-catchers:
70% of customers say that SMS is an atten-
tion-grabber. 15%

An SMS is typically read even before it’s opened

10% 8.96%
with the notification that appears on the screen.
What’s more, SMS aren’t just opened more
frequently, they also earn more clicks over 5%
email on average. 2.56%

0%
5. You don’t need a graphic designer for an SMS
campaign Single-channel Three or more
marketers channels

At this point again, SMS goes hand in hand with

emails. It’s quick and easy to send the SMS
campaign because it doesn’t require any 20% 18.96%
concept or design. But it’s only text. We know
how powerful images are while shopping
15%
online, so by combining both channels for one
campaign you can get the promised synergy
and boost your campaign results. 10%

5.4%
5%

0%

Single-channel Three or more

marketers channels

Purchase rate
Engagement rate

*Source: Omnisend Data

 5 Ways to Add Text Messaging to our Existing Marketing Strategy 10

4. 5 Ways to Add Text Messaging to

Your Existing Marketing Strategy
There are multiple ways for a businesses to use SMS in their strategies.
Many of them send standalone SMS campaigns to boost sales. That’s
not the worst scenario, but there are more possibilities to employ text
messages. Bearing in mind that only 13% of merchants use this channel,
the following 5 ideas can help you take advantage of this gap.
Example of combining
Campaign Booster and SMS

1. Reengaging subscribers that don’t

open the initial email campaign

Usually, the email open rate for ecom-

merce is around 18%. During the
holiday rush, it might be even lower. So
every time merchants send email
campaigns, they have a lot of subscrib-
ers that somehow miss their emails in
their inboxes.

One of the ways to save the campaign

and improve its performance is to
resend it to non-openers and then
launch the SMS campaign to those
customers who ignored the email
channel.

This workflow is cost-effective because

a part of the audience is being reached
via email, which is the most affordable
of all channels. And merchants spend
on text messages only to those
subscribers that haven’t been reached
via newsletter.
 5 Ways to Add Text Messaging to our Existing Marketing Strategy 11

2. Tweak your automated Welcome

workflow

There is no doubt about the necessity of onboard-

ing messages for new community members. 74%
of all new subscribers expect to receive a welcome
message.

Nevertheless, welcome emails are good at

converting subscribers into customers. Especially
if businesses incentivize it somehow. Merchants
can become even better at this by enriching a
traditional welcome email workflow with a text
message.
Example of automated
Welcome workflow

Trigger Delay

New signup Immediately

Delay Email

5 days Subject line:

Welcome!

SMS

Sender’s name:

Basic Piece

Hey! Thanks again for joining

our crew! Your discount of 10%
off for the 1st purchase expires
tomorrow. Code: BASIC10OFF
Link: omni.com/hfeuei
End of workflow
 5 Ways to Add Text Messaging to our Existing Marketing Strategy 12

3. Launch an automated Birthday workflow

Personal attention to customers helps extend their buying life cycle.

Automated Birthday workflows are one of the most effective in making customers stay with
the brand for longer. Salesforce research revealed that 75% of companies that send these
kinds of emails assess them as very effective.

Example of automated
Birthday workflow

Trigger Delay

Special occasion (Birthday) SPECIFIC TIME OF THE DAY

09:00 AM
TRIGGER RULE(S):

Greeting time is on exact day

Delay SMS

Immediately Sender’s name:

Basic Piece

Happy Birthday! We at Basic

Piece are so excited for you and
hope you have a great day. P.S.
Email
There’s a little surprise waiting
for you in your email ;)
Subject line:

Happy Birthday!

End of workflow
 5 Ways to Add Text Messaging to our Existing Marketing Strategy 13

4. Up-sell at shipping comfirmation

Shipping notifications are critical for every ecommerce store. It’s an automatic message
with standard text sent just after the product has been shipped to the buyer.

A shipping confirmation email has a very high open rate. So why not use it for upselling?

Example of Shipping
Comfirmation workflow

Trigger

Shipping confirmation

TRIGGER RULE(S):

Order Fulfillment Status is fulfilled

SMS

Sender’s name:

Basic Piece

Hi there! Great news: your order

has just shipped. You can
expect to get it in 3-5 days.
Bonus: get 20% off your next
purchase with code BP2020. See

End of workflow
 5 Ways to Add Text Messaging to our Existing Marketing Strategy 14

5. Start reactivating your Example of Customer

dormant customers Reactivation workflow

The value of existing customers

is enormous, as they tend to buy
and spend more.
Trigger SMS

The problem is that sometimes 30 days inactive Sender’s name:

Basic Piece
customers stop buying for any
number of reasons. They become
Hey! We miss you! We have a
dormant. Every business has this surprise for you – check your
inbox.
happen, and while it’s hard to
measure, there are guesses that
dormant customers take about
30% of an online business data-
base. Delay Email

To address this issue, businesses 7 days Subject line:

We miss you…
are suggested to re-establish
relationships with their customers
by initiating customer reactivation
campaigns. Delay

Subject line:

Haven’t heard from you lately

Delay

7 days

Email

Subject line:

Please, come back

 Key Takeaways 15

Key Takeaways

SMS marketing has been reborn and created new possibilities for
ecommerce businesses. While it’s not a good idea to opt for SMS
over other marketing channels completely, ecommerce marketers
would get the most out of incorporating SMS in their bigger cam-
paigns.

1. There isn’t yet a lot of competition in SMS marketing, and

customers offering a phone number in addition to their email
address are showing an even higher level of intent.

2. SMS marketing is more effective than the majority of other

digital marketing channels so far. However, sending text
messages is more expensive than email. Businesses can get
the most out of SMS marketing by incorporating text messag-
es in their automated workflows and mixing them with other
channels.

3. Enrich your marketing strategy by sending SMS campaigns for

your best promotions, which will earn you higher click through
and order rates.

4. Using SMS on big shopping days like Black Friday is great, but
using them on days where there’s less competition is even
better. The Wednesday before Black Friday is an excellent day
for SMS campaigns because customers are already getting
excited about the shopping holiday.

5. The SMS marketing trend is expanding very quickly. More and

more ecommerce businesses are employing text messages in
their marketing. Take action not to fall behind. Talk to
Omnisend and start making the shift to an omnichannel
approach today.
 Resources 16

Resources

https://go.eztexting.com/hubfs/2019%20Text%20Communica-
tion%20Report-%20EZ%20Texting.pdf

https://techjury.net/stats-about/sms-marketing-statistics/

https://www.emarsys.com/app/uploads/2018/01/eBook-Mo-
bile-First-AU-English.pdf

https://www.omnisend.com/blog/black-friday-emails/

https://www.omnisend.com/blog/customer-retention/

https://www.omnisend.com/features/campaigns/cam-
paign-booster/

https://www.omnisend.com/resources/reports/omnichan-
nel-marketing-automation-statistics-2019/

https://www.salesforce.com/form/marketingcloud/con-
f/2015-state-of-marketing/?conf-redirect=true

https://www.statista.com/statistics/271980/mobile-advertis-
ing-spending-in-the-us-by-format/

https://www.voicesage.com/blog/sms-compared-to-email-in-
fograph/
Make Marketing Relevant
36. Triggered Emails: A form of marketing automation. Triggered emails

with Omnisend
are pre-scheduled by the marketer. They are sent whenever a specific
event happens or a specific period of time has passed. Birthday
emails would be an example of triggered emails.
37. Unique Clicks: This is how many individual subscribers have clicked
Omnisendon theis a robust
links all-in-one
in your emails. It is moreomnichannel
specific than the overall
click-through rate, which just shows how many times your emails
marketing automation platform that empowers
were clicked.
marketers
38. Unique toOpens:
improveSometheir ROI, will
subscribers increase theirmore than once.
open an email
sales, and
Uniqueimprove
opens showstheir
howcustomer relationships.
many individuals have opened your emails,
not just how many times your emails were opened.
39. Unsubscribe Rate: A percentage that shows how often people are
We help yououtstay
opting connected
of your to your
email campaigns. customers,
Unsubscribe rate is usually (but
not always)
no matter whatcalculated
channelonthey
a campaign by campaign
use: email, SMS, basis.
40. Welcome emails / welcome series: An email message or a series of
Facebookemail Messenger,
messages sent to WhatsApp,
new subscribers.and many
more. With Omnisend’s marketing automation,
you can integrate several channels into the same
workflow that will shave hours off your week and
keep your customers on the hook.

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on G2Crowd, Capterra, and GetApp,
our 50,000 customers love us,
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and we think you will too.

#omnisend