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Running out of ideas how to drive traffic to your e-commerce? When standard tools and activities (Display, Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) are not enough, I suggest turning to simpler yet effective solutions. All you need is a good contact database. Discover SMS marketing — a practical method of boosting traffic on your brand’s website.

If you manage a contact database with the customer’s telephone number, you can skip straight to SMS campaign analysis. Just keep in mind, according to the GDPR you are obliged by the law to ask for consents. Luckily for you, it sounds harder than it actually is. As a reminder, here are some basic tips:

GDPR 101

• When collecting data you should keep in mind lawfulness, purpose limitation and confidentiality and accountability principles.
• GDPR points out seven main rules: fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation and integrity.
• Include all the above in company’s information policy.

Your database is the key

There are many ways of collecting contact details. You can use ready-made solutions like our SMS Newsletter widget or add a form on a shop’s website using components of your CRM. If you are running a retail shop, you might as well ask for them during the checkout.

No matter if you are selling online or offline, consider merging data collection with loyalty program – it’s exceptionally effective. But if you decide to do so, don’t forget to take care of your loyal customers and keep them up to date with new promotions and discounts.

And let me put it straight: yes, clients are willing to share their personal data. According to our latest survey conducted on 1000 Poles, 35,4% will share telephone number with a company they trust. It’s even easier to acquire e-mail, gender, and interests information. It also means that from the owner perspective, the phone number is more valuable but at the same time, these customers expect more of your communication, so use this privilege wisely.

How to do it?

It might be tempting to spam your audience with the newest promotion, especially if you take into consideration an exceptionally high OR (Open Rate) and CTR (Click-Through Rate) of text messages. Both are considerably higher if compared to e-mail communication.

You shouldn’t assume your branch cannot profit from mobile communication. After all, not all SMS have to sell. That’s why I recommend limiting sales-oriented messaging to a minimum. Remember about customer care e.g. purchase confirmations via SMS or smooth and easily after-sales services. Examples below will show you that less indeed means more.

1. Gino Rossi

Gino Rossi's Google Analytics data after SMS campaign

• website traffic increased by 100%;
• increased number of new users and sessions by 60%;
• increased number of visited pages and approx. time of the session;
• and… increase of sales volume by over 88%

2. Auto awa

Simple Easter greetings sent to 1166 customers allowed the company to increase the number of orders by 40% which resulted in a 51% increase of revenue in April 2018. It’s worth mentioning that the greetings were sent without marketing messages. Simple, heartwarming SMS campaign turned out to work better than sales-oriented one.

3. Golf Channel Polska

Every golfer received a personalized message with a timetable which made the communication really easy. After the event, all participants will receive a thanks SMS with an invitation to watch the TV coverage.

Marta Rosłaniec – Golf Channel Polska

4. Cardio Watch

CardioWatch was on air for roughly 10 minutes. During the show, the number of received messages increased rapidly. In the end, Cardio Watch gained 1200 new users willing to test the app thanks to the Short Code presented during the talk show.

5. TEDxKatowice

The new communication channel and a clever way of using the limited availability principle made fans waiting for tickets. The SMS campaign (98% OP) with a short link to the event website generated 88% CTR and boosted the ticket sales up to 30 minutes after the campaign’s start.

Conclusions

As you can see, these companies come from different branches. In all the cases though, the SMS communication positively changed the brand’s image, its range, and revenue.

If you’d like to see more examples of business applications of SMS, visit our YouTube channel. SMSAPI Friends playlist has videos in which our partners talk about how and why they decided to rely on SMS marketing.