The Complete Guide to SMS Marketing

This guide will take you through everything you need to know to get your eCommerce brand started with SMS marketing and drive fast ROI.

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1 Why eCommerce Brands Need to Start Texting

2 Understanding the Basics of SMS Marketing

3 Getting Personal to Drive Engagement and Revenue

4 How to Launch an SMS Marketing Strategy in 3 Simple Steps

5 Maximizing the Power of SMS Across Your Marketing Strategy

6 5 Creative SMS Marketing Campaigns to Inspire Your Brand

Why eCommerce Brands Need to Start Texting Understanding the Basics of SMS Marketing Getting Personal to Drive Engagement and Revenue How to Launch an SMS Marketing Strategy in 3 Simple Steps Maximizing the Power of SMS Across Your Marketing Strategy 5 Creative SMS Marketing Campaigns to Inspire Your Brand

Chapter 1 Why eCommerce Brands Need to Start Texting

Consumers have gone mobile, and SMS marketing lets you reach them there. In this chapter, we introduce you to the mobile consumer — along with their shopping behavior and preferences — and outline the benefits of having an effective SMS strategy.

3 Lessons

Lesson 1 Meeting the Mobile Consumer (Wherever They Are)

Shopper behavior is changing, and it’s increasingly happening on smartphones. This lesson dives into how SMS marketing helps you reach them.

Lesson 2 Consumers Want You to Text Them

It’s true, consumers really want to receive text messages from brands. This lesson highlights what they’re looking for from SMS.

Lesson 3 11 Benefits of SMS Marketing for Brands

Still not sure if SMS marketing is for you? This lesson explores all the ways it can positively impact your business.

Chapter 2 Understanding the Basics of SMS Marketing

There's always a learning curve when starting with a new marketing channel, but we'll make it easy to craft an SMS strategy that gets results. This chapter dives into SMS lingo, factors to consider before your first campaign, and what you need to know about pricing models.

3 Lessons

Lesson 1 SMS Marketing Terms You Need to Know

Like any marketing channel, SMS has its own lingo and jargon. This lesson covers all of the texting terms you need to know.

Lesson 2 How Does SMS Marketing Work?

Brands have a lot of options when it comes to SMS marketing, but there’s a lot they need to consider. This lesson covers compliance issues and the questions to ask before getting started.

Lesson 3 Is SMS Marketing Worth It? Breaking Down the Costs & ROI

Before getting started with SMS marketing, it’s important to evaluate the costs and determine your budget. This lesson gives an overview on pricing and ROI.

Chapter 3 Getting Personal to Drive Engagement and Revenue

Today’s consumers crave personalized experiences. In this chapter, you’ll learn how SMS marketing empowers brands to go beyond the one-size-fits-all approach to drive long-term, revenue-driving relationships.

3 Lessons

Lesson 1 How Personalized SMS Engages Mobile Consumers

Consumers want personalized experiences, and SMS is an effective way to deliver them. This lesson dives into how you can deepen customer relationships with SMS personalization.

Lesson 2 Driving 1:1 Conversations to Deepen Relationships

Conversational commerce is the future of online shopping. This lesson offers tips for getting the conversation started.

Lesson 3 4 SMS Engagements That Increase CLTV

Focusing on customer retention is one of the best ways to boost your customer lifetime value. This lesson covers proven strategies for creating customer experiences that boost loyalty.

Chapter 4 How to Launch an SMS Marketing Strategy in 3 Simple Steps

We make it easy to get started with SMS marketing. In this chapter, we outline our winning 3-step formula to launching a successful SMS marketing channel, so you can see the most return on your investment.

3 Lessons

Lesson 1 Step 1: Collect SMS Subscribers

There are multiple ways to generate SMS subscribers. This lesson covers on-site pop-up windows, keyword messages, and how to collect subscribers on all your marketing channels.

Lesson 2 Step 2: Send SMS messages

Once your brand has generated a subscriber list, it’s time for the most important step of your brand’s SMS marketing strategy: creating the messages that will engage your customers. This lesson shows you how.

Lesson 3 Step 3: Understand your audience

Segmentation is important in any marketing strategy, but advanced segmentation is essential for SMS. This lesson explores how data drives better targeting and ultimately, conversion.

Chapter 5 Maximizing the Power of SMS Across Your Marketing Strategy

SMS marketing bolsters every marketing channel, helping to make your omnichannel marketing strategy the most effective. In this chapter, we break down how SMS works with loyalty, visual UGC, email, and help desk solutions.

4 Lessons

Lesson 1 SMS + Loyalty

Your Loyalty members want VIP treatment. This lesson shows you how to use targeted text messages like points balance updates or exclusive offers for increased engagement.

Lesson 2 SMS + User-Generated Content

Let your customers tell the story of your brand with reviews and visual UGC. This lesson offers tactics for collecting more reviews, and especially high-quality ones, via SMS.

Lesson 3 SMS + Email

Customers prefer to engage in different ways. This lesson explains how to send SMS and email marketing campaigns in tandem to drive the most ROI.

Lesson 4 SMS + Help Desk

Consumers expect more from customer service than ever before. This lesson covers how to integrate SMS with your help desk solution to provide direct customer service via text.

Chapter 6 5 Creative SMS Marketing Campaigns to Inspire Your Brand

In this chapter, you’ll learn from five brands who have created hyper-personalized and effective SMS channels. These brands tested SMS marketing first, so you can see the true value and find the motivation to reach your goals.