SMS Remarketing Explained & How to Use Its Power

SMS is the most reliable way for business owners and marketers to reach their clientele. With a 98% open rate and the vast majority of users taking just 90 seconds to read and respond to messages, no other method of client communication competes. 

SMS is also a superbly salient remarketing medium. SMS remarketing—or retargeting—is the process of sending previously engaged customers and contacts relevant ads and offers to quickly convert on sales. 

SMS retargeting provides a cost-effective means of netting conversions by skipping irrelevant ads and drawn-out sales processes in favor of direct, pertinent communication. Let’s explore the ins and outs of SMS remarketing and lay down some key strategies for successful retargeting.

What Is SMS Remarketing?

Remarketing is an advertising technique that targets previously engaged users and clientele with highly appealing, relevant ads. Previously engaged refers to various users, including those who’ve:

• Visited your website
• Contacted your company on social media
• Signed up for your mailing list
• Purchased your products in the past
• Interacted with your brand in another way

SMS remarketing is the process of using text messages to reach out to this group of previously engaged consumers. Generally, retargeting texts will include extremely relevant and personalized offers—such as enticing discounts for the exact products a given user browsed on your website.

SMS remarketing campaigns prove vital for any business hoping to drum up interest in their products and convert clientele on the fence about purchasing. 75% of targeted consumers pay attention to remarketing ads, and in conjunction with SMS’s stellar open rate, that means the majority of these campaigns reach interested, engaged eyes.

SMS remarketing can be especially beneficial to e-commerce businesses. Abandoned carts continue to be the bane of e-commerce businesses, with 70% of customers never completing their online purchases. However, carefully catered retargeting messages help marketers recover some of the $260 billion lost to incomplete orders in the US and EU alone. 

From retail businesses to brands of all stripes, SMS remarketing techniques can be adapted to promote whatever you’re serving, servicing, or selling.

SMS Retargeting’s ROI

One major reason retargeting is popular among marketers is its cost-effectiveness. In some cases, remarketing has led to returns on investments (ROIs) of over 1,300%. This strategy garners such a high ROI because it directly ties into the old business adage: it’s simply more effective to close deals with current prospects or increase sales to existing customers than to fish around for new leads.

For instance, retargeting individuals demonstrates a 70% better conversion rate than first-time site visits. By reaching already interested users, retargeting increases the likelihood of clicking through and converting. 

With an effective SMS remarketing strategy, your business can:

• Close lingering deals by keeping your brand and products at the top of your customers’ minds
• Promote even more products by cross-selling interested clients on other offers that pique their curiosity
• Upsell to loyal clients with exclusive deals, reminders about product drops, and early access to new offers ahead of the general public

Benefits of SMS Retargeting

If you want to elevate advertising engagement, spend your marketing budget more efficiently, and convert more clientele, SMS retargeting powers your ambitions. This one strategy:

• Enables personalized marketing experiences – More than two-thirds of consumers expect personalized communications from companies. Since remarketing only targets known individuals—such as past purchasers or people opted in to text messages—you'll already have the information (e.g., name, location, preferences) and data privacy permissions necessary to send personalized, relevant offers. 
  
  

• Boosts ROI – As mentioned, remarketing campaigns can boast staggering ROIs of $13 in revenue for every $1 spent. SMS blasts are highly cost-effective in comparison to other forms of communication, such as emails, phone calls, and physical mail.
  
  

• Recover abandoned carts — Nearly three of every four online carts go abandoned, but that’s not always because of a lack of purchase intent. Sometimes, visitors simply forget to finish the transaction or are waiting for a deal. Reinvigorate these stalled sales by reminding customers that they’re steps away from checking out, and if you really want to seal the deal, offer a small percentage off the purchase. 
  
  

• Increases customer lifetime value – One loyal customer is worth dozens of one-off sales. Simply increasing customer retention by 5% can elevate company revenue from 25 to 95%. Remarketing messages remind customers that you appreciate their patronage and can foster brand loyalty for years to come.
  
  

• Enhances brand exposure — Consistent messaging reminds consumers of your brand and all the exceptional offerings you have in store for them. Keeping that top-of-the-mind awareness is crucial, but texting too often runs the risk of annoying your base. Be sure to practice commonly accepted texting etiquette when implementing your remarketing campaign. 
  
  

• Instantly engages consumers – It’s much quicker to send off a mass text than call customers up with offers or wait for them to check their email inboxes. As mentioned, the majority of text messages are read within 90 seconds—making them the perfect medium to advertise surflash sales, time-sensitive discounts, and last-chance deals on dwindling products. 

4 Examples of SMS Remarketing

There are countless ways to utilize SMS remarketing to your advantage, with those techniques depending on the specifics of your business and customer relationships. Nonetheless, some of the most popular ways to leverage SMS remarketing include the following strategies.

#1 Shopping Cart Reminders

As mentioned, SMS remarketing can recover over 16% of abandoned purchases. To entice errant customers to return to the checkout process, try sending them a message like:

“Hey (name)! You’re so close to completing your purchase and getting your goods from (company)! Go to (link) to finish up and start the shipping process! Reply STOP to STOP”

#2 Exclusive Offers

SMS is the quickest and most effective way to deliver discounts and deals to your clientele. Whether it’s to convert on that abandoned cart, drum up sales, or reward their loyalty, extend offers to your base via SMSs such as:

“Just for you (name)! Get (x%) off everything in (company’s) online store by using (code) at checkout. Go to (link) to begin shopping now! Reply STOP to STOP” 

#3 Surveys

Surveys can help you learn more about your customer base, their interests and preferences, and how to market to them more effectively. To encourage them to take your survey, you can prompt your customers with a message like:

“Hi (name), (company) wants to know what you think about us. To help us serve you better, please take this quick survey at (link). Thanks so much for participating! Reply STOP to STOP”

If you want to garner as much participation as possible, consider offering incentives to anyone who takes time to complete your survey. 

#4 Business News

From fresh product launches to new locations and more, there are plenty of reasons you’ll want to keep your base updated about what’s going on with your business. Obviously, news messages will vary depending on what’s happening at your company, but they may look like:

“How’s it going, (name)? (Company) has a new (product) launching this Friday, the (product name). To get yours, head to (link) on (date) while supplies last! Reply STOP to STOP”

SMS Remarketing Best Practices

Enjoying the benefits of SMS remarketing requires properly implementing your campaign and utilizing effective messaging techniques. To make the most of your SMS retargeting efforts, consider these best practices when communicating with your audience:

• Create an SMS remarketing plan – Start by building out a marketing list of your most interested and engaged clientele. Then, identify the products you want to promote and the strategies you’ll utilize to earn customers’ interest. Finally, consider what other strategies—such as deals, discounts, and exclusive events—you’ll use to draw buyers in and convert them. 
  
  

• Reference your brand name – It doesn’t just help keep your brand at the top of consumers’ minds; it’s also the law. Be sure to identify your company in every message to maintain SMS legal compliance. 
  
  

• Provide opt-in and opt-out options – Just like identifying your company, you must first get consumers to opt-in to receiving messages or potentially face stiff legal penalties. Likewise, each message must allow them to opt-out via texting STOP or similar means.
  
  

• Keep messages short – Basic SMS messages support a maximum of 160 characters. This can be extended to 300 characters, but you should aim to express everything you need to communicate within the confines of a standard message.
  
  

• Create urgency – If a sale or offer isn’t immediately impending, customers may put their phones away and forget about your message. Advertise flash sales that end in a few hours, coupon codes that expire at day’s end, and other similarly time-sensitive offers to get your base to react immediately.
  
  

• Use link shorteners – A basic link may take up the majority of your standard 160-character limit. Use link shorteners to ensure the bulk of your message advertises your brand, products, and offers rather than link text.
  
  

• Craft compelling messages – Keep them brief, keep them informative, and keep them engaging. Get straight to the point, don’t include any unnecessary details, and, above all, write in a way that appeals to your users and their sensibilities. 
  
  

• Utilize effective Calls to Action (CTAs) – No remarketing SMS is complete without an effective CTA. Directly compel recipients to browse your site, complete their purchase, or check out a certain product—whatever is most relevant to the goals of your message and campaign. 
  
  

• Track performance metrics – You’ll never know if your campaign is performing as intended unless you track key performance indicators (KPIs) after launch. Modern marketers say click-through rates, opt-out rates, monthly opt-ins versus opt-outs, and opt-in sources rank among the most important SMS campaign KPIs.
  
  

• Rethink and refine your strategies as your campaign grows – Your SMS remarketing strategies might not immediately drum up the expected conversions—but that’s nothing to worry about. Identify what works from your plan and what could use improvement and, as you learn more about your base and their connection to your products, rework your messaging efforts to better reflect their preferences. 

Use Mozeo to Efficiently Manage Your SMS Remarketing Campaign

SMS remarketing involves targeting engaged, interested consumers with relevant offers that boost conversions to increase your ROI, bolster advertising engagement, and maximize your marketing budget. 

And to make managing your SMS retargeting campaign a breeze, use Mozeo, the leading authority on business texting. Sending messages from a cellphone is tedious and personalizing each SMS takes time your marketers simply don’t have—eliminating the strategy’s benefits. Instead, Mozeo makes it easy to customize messages, send mass text blasts to different audience segments, and even automatically respond to your client’s queries.

Simplify all manners of SMS marketing with Mozeo. Click here to get started today.