Welcome everybody to Omnisend’s marketing tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less each day, I’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and help you increase sales.

This week I want to talk specifically about a topic I’ve already alluded to — SMS. 

Today, I want to explain why SMS is so important for ecommerce brands today. Last year I was saying that if you’re not using SMS by this time net year you’ll be behind. Well, that time is now. 

In 2020, there was a nearly 400% increase in SMS sends from the year prior. Last year, that number increased nearly 100%. When it comes to automated SMS, as I already spoke about, last year ecommerce brands increased their automated SMS by nearly 260%. The growth is incredible.   

The numbers are one thing, the reasons for those numbers are another. Here is the biggest reason you need to know — EVERYONE TEXTS!

Texting is not only used by Gen Zers. It is not only used by Millennials. It’s not only used Gen Xers like myself. And here’s a secret … Baby Boomers also text, and as my mother proved to me, do sign up marketing SMS. 

Ignore the generational cohort narrative — it’s not true. Everyone texts because it is a permanent form of daily communication. And from a marketing perspective, like email, it is an opt-in channel — meaning only those who WANT to receive them will.

As I mentioned in the daily tips around list growth, begin collecting mobile numbers on your opt-in forms. This will serve multiple purposes.

First — doing so will allow your customers to tell you whether they want to receive text messages from your brand. 

Second — If you begin collecting them but are not quite ready to use them when you do become ready you’ll be able to hit the ground running. On a similar note, while you may not be ready to use them in mass, you can begin by adding them to automations.

And third, an often overlooked component of SMS marketing is it can help offset email unsubscribes. Think about it. 

When a user unsubscribes to your emails, companies often resort to paid retargeting to “win-back” the customer. Having another 1-to-1 opt-in channel to communicate through can help reduce your retargeting costs.   

SMS is not a young person’s game — it’s an everyone’s game. And the impact can be huge. 

On a previous episode of the Cart Insiders Podcast, I spoke with the owner of DIvatress about their SMS program. Their owner Rob was initially skeptical of SMS but figured he’d add the field to his pop-up and see what happened.

In 8 months he grew his SMS list to 70K, 13K of which are SMS-only contacts — no email. They’ve generated 123K in sales through the SMS channel and it makes up 7% of their marketing revenue.  

Want to grow your sales? Start by growing your SMS program.

Join me tomorrow where I’ll explore types of messages where SMS can be a great fit. 

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and be sure to check out Omnisend and let us prove how we can help you double your conversions. 

Until next time, happy marketing!