5 Creative SMS Marketing Campaign Ideas

With 98% open rates and 30% click-through rates, SMS marketing has become a hugely successful marketing channel for brands across the globe. Looking for ways to innovate on your existing SMS marketing strategy beyond the generic text message blast? Check out these five creative SMS marketing campaign ideas.

1. Abandoned Cart

Abandoned Cart SMS campaigns are a great way to gently push your customers through the last steps of your desired action, or in this case, completing their purchase. They’ve already shown interest in your brand as well as purchase intent, and all it may take is a small nudge to get them across the finish line. That final nudge could take the form of a 20% off exclusive discount code sent via text message, or even just asking if there are any outstanding questions that you can clarify for your customer. As a general best practice, make sure you listen to what your customers are telling you and tailor your messaging accordingly.

2. Link Click Offer

Unlike Abandoned Cart campaigns, Link Click Offer campaigns are designed to incentivize shoppers to convert immediately before they even have a chance to abandon the process. Let’s say you just launched an SMS campaign announcing a new product drop with a link to the product. Want to take your campaign to the next level? Personalize the experience for your highest-intent customers by offering those who click the link a follow-up text discount immediately after they land on your website. Make the conversion process impossible to resist, and reward those who take action! Your customers are guaranteed to recognize and appreciate the value of subscribing to your text messages.

3. Re-Engagement

Just like you want to reward your high-intent customers, you’ll also want to incentivize your non-engagers to come back. For example, if you’ve noticed that a certain segment of your customers haven’t opened, clicked, or responded to your past several text messages, think about how you can draw them back in. Offering this segment a discount is a great incentive, but it’s also not necessarily your only option–be creative! Maybe they need to be warmed up a bit more before you can expect them to make a purchase. Is there any interesting and relevant blog content you can share with them instead? It’s possible that they need to understand your brand or value proposition better. Based on their behavior (or lack thereof), these customers need to be nurtured differently than your superfans.

4. Reviews

If you aren’t already taking advantage of post-purchase campaigns in your SMS marketing strategy, you’re losing out on a ton of incremental value. Not only are Review campaigns valuable when it comes to generating social proof from your customers, but they can also enable you to further segment your contact list and gather both positive and negative feedback. Again, remember to treat your customers differently based on their behavior. Let’s say one customer responds positively to your Review SMS message. Incentivize this customer to leave a positive Google review with an exclusive 10% off discount as a special thanks. What about a customer who responds negatively to your Review SMS? Route this customer to a human customer service representative to follow up for additional feedback. Whether your customers respond positively or negatively to your Review SMS campaign, you’re still able to gain valuable insights and improve your existing relationships. Either way, they’ll appreciate the authentic interaction.

5. Referrals

Referral SMS messages are another example of post-purchase campaigns. Referral campaigns should be targeted towards your best customers, or the ones who are most likely to champion your brand. 92% of consumers believe suggestions from their friends and family more than advertisements–so take advantage of this knowledge! Leverage your SMS marketing strategy to encourage your superfans to share their positive feelings about your brand with all of their friends. Once they do, reward them with a special offer. In turn, you’ll be rewarded with a growing contact list.

Tying it All Together

While SMS marketing has proven itself to be a lucrative channel for marketers, a combination of personalization and creativity is what can really take your SMS marketing strategy to the next level. SMS marketing platforms like Voxie enable brands to personalize the text messaging process at scale. Schedule a demo to learn more!