The loyalty of customers is something companies strive to achieve at all costs, and it comes as no surprise that, statistically, retaining existing customers can cost the company up to five times less than acquiring new clients. Yet, even a modest 5% boost in retention rates can contribute up to 90% to existing profit. Thus, it is worth going the extra mile to win your customer’s commitment.
SMS marketing is among the most underrated yet very effective drivers of customer loyalty. For the year 2023, only 4 out of 10 companies take advantage of SMS marketing to retain clients. The popularity of SMS marketing is increasing avalanche-like, and thus it is still possible to catch it as a golden opportunity to enhance customer engagement with the help of this tool.
What is Customer Loyalty?
The word “loyalty” is commonly associated with devotion, allegiance, or the bond between two entities. In the sales and marketing context, customer loyalty represents a consistent emotional connection between the brand and the customer. It’s demonstrated by the willingness of customers to actively engage with the company and purchase its products or services. Achieving customer loyalty is a complex objective that relies on the symbiosis of multiple factors:
- Emotional connection
- Intensity and quality of brand engagement
- Exceptional customer service
- Level of customer satisfaction with goods/services
- Product customization
- Personalized communication
The level of customer loyalty is a product of consistent efforts done by the company and is typically measured following marketing metrics: customer lifetime value, repeat purchase rate, net proposed score, upsell ratio, engagement, and more.
Loyal customers are key to the company’s longevity and development. In fact, dedicated customers are willing to spend 67% more on goods and services compared to new customers. The numbers talk for themselves: 20% of your loyal customers contribute as much as 80% of your overall revenue. So, their message is clear: drive customer loyalty to amplify profits.
The Role of SMS in Customer Loyalty and Retention
SMS marketing is a “cheat code” when it comes to engaging customers, and creating an invisible, yet strong bond between them and your brand, known as retention. Bulk text messaging reaches the whole 98% opening rate, the email marketing mailing reaches 20% at maximum. What’s more, text messages have a record-breaking 97% read rate within the next 15 minutes of delivery. Therefore, there is a strong ground base to consider SMS marketing a powerful customer loyalty driver.
How To Building Customer Loyalty through SMS
Now, the main question of how SMS marketing helps is driving customer loyalty remains. Right SMS marketing strategy opens the door to fast response time and customized and relevant messages with clients. So, make sure to follow these 5 simple SMS marketing customer retention tips:
- Learn your target audience. Start with the segmentation of your customers’ age groups, demographics, and preferences to set up the right ton of voice and relevant content.
- Aligning goals. It is a good idea to have a clear vision of your final destination whether it is increasing the conversion rates, gaining traffic, or increasing the engagement metrics.
- Create strategy-based content. An optimal length for an SMS marketing message is around 220 and 300 characters, so keep in mind that every word is of peace of gold and should be engaging and aligned with your goal.
- Don’t be annoying. Keep track of timing, you don’t want to spam your client with extra messages. Also, if working in a different timezone, make sure your messages come at a time when clients are most likely to be active.
- Analyze and improve. Marketing is about numbers, so make sure to keep an eye on critical metrics such as open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, and ROI.
And as for the last of SMS marketing customer retention tips: don’t be afraid to experiment and improve your SMS marketing tactics and adjust them as you get feedback from customers.
Strategies to Increase Customer Retention with SMS
As you defined the main unspoken roles of effective SMS marketing campaigns, you can go for the next stage, and implement strategies that have already proven to be key drivers of customer loyalty:
- New Customer and Post-Purchase Discounts. Offering discounts to new customers is an effective strategy for encouraging loyalty and retention. By expressing gratitude and providing a compelling reason to return, these discounts serve as a powerful incentive. When it comes to post-purchase bonuses, be sure to add a deadline to motivate customers to make a purchase.
- New Product Announcement. Short, attention-triggering SMS messages can be highly effective. And what could really ignite interest is if the product is hyper-personalized for a specific target group. Implementing such a strategy requires analyzing previous purchases and identifying the perfect target.
- Trigger Mailings. You can effectively capture and maintain your audience’s attention with trigger SMS. These include a wide variety of messages, from abandoned cart reminders and information about discounts and seasonal specials to alerts for previously viewed or added-to-cart items that are back in stock.
Best Practices for Successful SMS Loyalty and Retention
As experts in bulk text messaging, the BSG team has distinguished several effective SMS practices. These include offering SMS customer loyalty programs, providing rewards updates, utilizing cross-sell SMS, 2 ways SMS, and implementing SMS coupons. Our expertise in these areas positions us as a valuable resource for businesses seeking to enhance their customer engagement through SMS marketing.
Conclusion
As a final word, there is no doubt that SMS is valuable and often overlooked strategy for driving customer loyalty and increasing retention. By implementing effective strategies, businesses can harness the power of SMS marketing to drive customer loyalty, boost retention, and achieve long-term success while keeping an optimal cost-to-result ratio.
