The time that we would have been spending wandering around shopping malls, browsing the aisles and chatting with customer service assistants has been replaced with time spent scrolling through our phones, trying to find discount codes and investing in next day delivery plans.
In 2021, the number of worldwide digital buyers stands at 2.14 billion. One thing is for sure – ecommerce is definitely booming, and that has led to millions of pounds being invested in improving customer experience.
But as advanced as online shopping has become, the connection that comes from visiting stores in person has been lost, and customers are becoming less engaged with their favourite brands.
Cue text-message marketing. If I’ve ordered from a website, or signed up to a newsletter, it is quite pleasant to be contacted by a brand about my order, or about a product they think would work for me.
A recent survey found that 55.9% of consumers are already signed up to receive text messages from their favourite brands, and 91% said they’re interested in signing up for text messages, however lots of businesses don’t yet offer the service.
It’s definitely something to consider; text messages, especially personalised ones, can aid in customer loyalty and retention and repeat purchases. Using data about customer’s previous purchases to provide them with links to items that may be suited to them is a great strategy.
Brands using text messages
Brands are starting to recognise the need for that personal experience, and it seems influencers are too. Influencers have begun using text message marketing to drive affiliate marketing sales, as it gives them a chance to engage with, promote and receive feedback from their followers.
It’s just as simple as sending out an email campaign, but can reach consumers at their fingertips via text messages, a service they likely use a lot more than their emails.
Equal Parts, a kitchenware company, started their ‘Text A Chef’ campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic. They took into consideration the fact that a lot of their customers would be cooking at home, and designed the campaign around that. The involved text messaging recipes to users, and also provided the option of sending a text message reply. Users were encouraged to get in touch with questions surrounding food shopping, recipe ideas and ideals for meal prepping. This created a conversation between the brand and the consumer, and users responded well.
Affiliates could find huge success in adopting this tactic. Keeping in touch with consumers via email is still an effective way to do things, however, can a personalised email compare with a personalised text message?
Paired with email campaigns and generally keeping in touch with consumers, SMS marketing could work for affiliates and drive up sales.
What do you think? Is text messaging something your company has decided to adopt? We’d like to hear your thoughts about this and other trends within affiliate marketing, so feel free to send any ideas in for us to review via our Typeform.