3000% ROI Using SMS Marketing!

First-Party Data is the answer to new privacy laws - header image - 1200x627

As a marketer, there is nothing more important than maximizing ROI on your marketing campaigns. But with so many different channels available today, it can be overwhelming trying to identify the next channel for you to test.

Today, we want to talk about SMS marketing, discuss a few benefits of SMS as well as share a case study showing you the results brands are getting from their sms marketing campaigns.

The benefits of SMS

Text message marketing is gradually entering a more mature stage in its development. Major businesses like Facebook, Walmart, and Google have started gradually adopting this relatively new marketing channel.

Thus significantly smaller companies now have a better understanding of how to build a better strategy that will engage their audience and dramatically increase sales.

It all has to do with the importance of SMS messages in the communication hierarchy. We, as mobile users, will very often turn off notifications from social media, apps and emails, but people very rarely choose to disregard their text messages.

That’s why SMS messages have an astonishing 98% open rate!

Furthermore, over sixty percent of smartphone users unlock their phones immediately after waking up, and nearly eighty percent within the first 15 minutes of their day.

However, SMS marketing should be analyzed from the recipient’s perspective as well. Is it safe to assume that this type of marketing brings value to the end customer?

A survey conducted by OpenMarket suggests that three-quarters of millennials consider that SMS messages and reminders are helpful, but only less than a third of them are actually receiving them from the brands and companies whose services they use.

This is suggestive of the fact that businesses need to engage in a meaningful interaction with their customers via SMS messaging.

Raange SMS Marketing ROI Experiment

How we set up the experiment:

To start, we wanted to help grow a new customer database so as to ensure that: a) subscribers were properly opted-in to our client’s marketing program; and, b) all the mobile numbers were properly collected and validated -> no fake contacts accepted.

Our customer success team set up customized text-in Keywords and Interactive Signage at 1 store location. We left the signs up for 1 month to generate a good sample size for the test.

In 1 month, we collected over 3,000 verified, opted-in email and mobile contacts by targeting in-store shoppers on their mobile devices.

Next, we ran a side-by-side campaign over email and text messaging with the same offer and unique redemption codes in order to measure attributed sales.

Our clients ran the email campaign from their existing email marketing software and we ran the text messaging campaign from the Raange Marketing Engagement Platform.

The Results of our email vs sms test

In less than 24 hours, the campaign delivered the following results:

  • Email: 15 email coupon redemptions at the cash.
  • Text: 192 sms coupon redemptions at the cash.

As you can see, the text message drove nearly instant traffic and sales to their physical retail location.

Staggering Sales Results:

  • Email: Sales uplift of  $700
  • Text: Sales uplift of $9,000

For a $150 investment in a SMS text marketing campaign, our customer’s ROI (return on investment) was more than $9000 in sales. The text messaging campaign resulted a much better return on investment (ROI) than email.

You can also try our ROI calculator if you want to see how SMS marketing can help your business.

After the success of the program, our Text2Register technology was scaled to all 100 retail locations in one month. No expensive development required.

  • In one year, we added over 380,000 new subscribers to their customer database. 

ROI and beyond

Text messaging has shown impressive returns on investment for many businesses over the years.

However, given how diverse the implementation of SMS is for various industries and fields, it’s always best to have a more individual approach towards calculating ROI.

Furthermore, businesses that choose not to implement SMS marketing in their strategy aren’t simply missing out on additional revenue per se, they’re also falling behind their competition to ensure a holistic, multi-channel campaign with their customers.

SMS marketing can achieve wonderful results with a bit of creativity. One of the companies that have had an interesting approach to text message marketing, which in effect is Kiehl’s.

The company has reported that 73% of their customers that chose to sign up to their text message campaign have made a purchase within six months.

Other companies, especially retail businesses use SMS marketing to drive foot traffic to their E-commerce and physical stores.

Urban Planet, the department store chain has been growing its foot traffic and revenue for years by sending out SMS discounts to their customers, based on local sales, holidays, and new products.

SMS is worth investing in

The world of text message marketing knows almost no failed SMS campaigns, simply due to the fact that this type of advertising is incredibly efficient and provides businesses with an impressive return on their investments.

  • SMS messages feature a 98% open rate;
  • They are easily measurable;
  • There is no SPAM filtering that will interfere with your campaigns; and,
  • The delivery of the messages is immediate and direct.

Conclusion

SMS marketing is a powerful marketing channel that withstood the test of time. Businesses of all sizes have seen significant benefits from using it for customer support as well as well as advertising new products and promotions.

Considering the tremendous ROI that text message marketing boasts, every business should consider investing time, effort, and budget into this marketing channel.

Comments are closed.