- Do you wanna know the best way
to make thousands of dollars in sales
from the smallest investment?
Well, in this video,
I'm gonna show you a tool that a business used
to turn a $150 campaign investment
into a profit of more than $9,000 in sales.
Let me rewind that.
(tape squealing)
More than $9,000 in sales in less than 24 hours.
I'm Tory, and I'm gonna tell you everything
you need to know about that tool,
and it's called SMS marketing.
Short message service marketing is a form of marketing
that businesses use to send customers who've opted in
promotions through text message.
So, yes, you'll be living in those DMs,
trading email boxes for text fields.
But here's where that real value comes in.
This may be shocking, so prepare yourselves,
but customers want you to text them.
75% of customers opted in
when given the choice to receive marketing through SMS.
As a result, SMS marketing flexes some powerful upsides.
From somebody who has hundreds
of thousands of people in texts,
I'm getting a 98% open rate and 90% engagement.
The average response rate to SMS messages is 90 seconds.
For email, two days.
The average click-through rate for SMS campaigns is 80%.
Email, on the other hand, receives an average of 2.62%.
I know it sounds like I'm ragging on email right now,
but I'm really not.
I'm just trying to show you these significant flexes
that SMS marketing has over email.
While SMS marketing is absolutely
a great addition to any marketing strategy,
it's especially delicious when paired with e-commerce.
But do not worry if you're currently stressing out
about how to even get started with SMS marketing.
There are some great tools that can automate the process
to the point where collecting and sending out bulk messages
won't be as intimidating as it probably sounds right now.
So, don't worry, I got you.
I'm actually gonna show you some of those helpful tools,
and then I'll go into what types of messages you can send
to actually start up your campaign.
As always, if you wanna dive even deeper
into the world of SMS mobile marketing
check out our Marketer's Guide to Mobile.
It includes templates, best practices,
and how to grow your audience via mobile.
Click the link in the description if you wanna hear more.
All right, first up, number one, EZ Texting.
EZ Texting is a great entry-level choice
for small businesses.
Highlights include fair pricing
and a great selection of dashboard tools.
The cheapest plan starts at around $24 per month
with the most expensive plan costing $374 a month.
EZ Texting makes it easy
for your subscribers to feel special
by sending them personalized messages.
A new partnership with Shutterstock
also provides businesses with a convenient way
to send high-quality picture messages.
That'll be very important for a tip I have coming up later,
so stay tuned.
Number two, SalesMsg.
If you're a larger company looking for a service
that supports high-volume communication,
then SalesMsg is the one.
They offer fast delivery rates with little lag.
That means your subscribers
actually receive your texts in real time.
SalesMsg touts two monthly plans to choose from.
The Beginner Pro plan will provide up to 750 messages,
while the Premium plan includes a smacking 7,500 messages.
This is a perfect pick for businesses
sending high volumes of texts to a large contact list.
It gives great results, again, in real time.
Okay, so you're probably sitting there wondering:
Tory, this is cool and everything,
but where am I actually gonna find the people
to opt into my campaign?
Can I just buy a list of phone numbers
instead of actually having to, you know, collect them?
No.
Unlike other marketing channels,
to keep it, you know, legal,
you have to get permission
to actually send people text messages.
Here's how to do it.
Number one, set up short code.
A short code is a five-to-six-digit phone number
that's used to make opting into your list
a little faster and easier for customers.
Things like, "Text DEALS to 98320 to opt in now!"
Your short code is the backbone of your campaign.
Make it compelling to truly hook them in.
Host a campaign or sweepstakes.
This is a really fun and simple way to collect phone numbers
and get people to join your list.
Offer customers a chance to win a prize
or a special discount
if they subscribe to your text messages.
Speaking of messages, let's jump into some examples
of the type of messages you should be sending
once you've actually collected your phone numbers.
The welcome message.
The first and most important message your business will send
to start an SMS marketing campaign is the welcome message.
You don't get a second chance at making a first impression.
This message is the doormat that greets new SMS subscribers.
You can go with a simple,
"Thanks for signing up for the updates,"
or something a little more personal,
like including the customer's name
and targeting a specific product
that they may be interested in.
Whichever lane you choose,
be sure to include what kind of content they can expect,
how often messages will be sent, and how to unsubscribe.
You can set this message to be sent out automatically
with some of the services I mentioned before.
Two, the sales text.
Here's an example I found from fashion brand Jenni Kayne.
"We're offering our Jenni Kayne community
"20% off with code THANKYOU.
"It's our way of showing appreciation
"for you standing by us during this time."
Then there's a lovely link labeled "Shop Now"
ready to be clicked
to instantly turn this prospect into a lead.
Remember to include the fact that the deal is being offered
to all SMS subscribers only.
It'll make them feel like they're really being
a part of something special, which they are.
If the offer were available to anyone,
then being a SMS subscriber
would become a lot less appealing.
- This data is wrong every freaking time!
- Have you heard of HubSpot?
HubSpot is a CRM platform
where everything is fully integrated.
- Whoa, I can see the client's whole history!
Calls, support tickets, emails,
and here's a task from three days ago I totally missed.
- [Woman] HubSpot, grow better.
- Three, utilize multimedia messaging.
If you have a hard time with the 160-character limit,
use MMS to send video clips or images to your customers.
MMS messages provide the ability
to attract your audience visually.
Not that you can't create visually interesting SMS messages,
but you can take things to the next level
by attaching an image or a video
showing your product or service in action.
Number four, the nudge text.
This may be one of the most shameless,
but as shown in the business example I'll get into in a bit,
possibly the highest-converting
type of messages you'll have in your arsenal.
This is a reminder text that you'll send a customer
to complete a desired action,
like asking them to return to their abandoned cart.
By heavily investing in this tip,
a business out of Atlanta saw a 100% conversion rate.
Let's see how they did it.
Time for school!
4theCultr is a platform where people can find products
created, crafted, and operated by Black-owned companies.
They were very interested
in using SMS marketing to grow their business
and wanted to dive in
by collecting willing customers' phone numbers.
In order to generate opt-ins for their campaign,
they chose to attach a CTA to their checkout page.
Why?
Because a checkout CTA comes after consumers
have looked through your website
and decided to go ahead with a purchase.
They like you!
They really, really like you!
These are active subscribers that will keep coming back,
if given a reason to.
By adding that CTA, out of 100% of their subscribers,
86% opted in at checkout.
After opting in,
the brand sends an SMS to every new subscriber
letting them know what type of content to expect,
how often they'll receive these messages,
and how to opt out.
Sound familiar?
Hmm, yeah, somebody said that.
I can't remember who, though.
Someone, someone said that.
It wasn't that long ago.
They were very handsome, I remember that.
- The messages they continue to send include a nudge text
reminding customers when they left an abandoned cart.
This message proved to be ridiculously successful.
Its click-through rate was 18%
with a conversion rate of 100%.
That means every single person who clicked on the link
in the abandoned cart reminder text
ended up coming back and completing their order.
But just in case shoppers didn't act on the first text,
4theCultr sends out
a second reminder text 24 hours later
that comes with a small gift
in the form of a personal discount code,
again, ramping up the value of exclusivity.
4theCultr discovered that even a small discount of 5%
can help them recover sales
that would otherwise be completely lost.
No matter what you've heard here today,
SMS marketing is not a one-stop fix-all
to your open rate, click-through rate,
and response rate problems.
But if you stay true to who your brand is,
give subscribers exactly what they signed up for,
and don't overstay your welcome by sending tons of texts,
you'll see some serious gains.
As always, if you like what you heard
and you wanna hear more,
comment, like, and subscribe down below to hear more.
Until next time, bye-bye.
Go off.
(fingers tapping)
Hey!
Tory magic.