How to Increase Sales with SMS Promotions & Discounts
Reach customers and boost sales with promotional text messages that work!
Is your business in a sales slump or seeing static revenue? It may just need an infusion of SMS marketing tactics that can boost engagement and drive purchases—and that’s where promotional text messages come into play.
Learn how your company can achieve the sales numbers it needs and keep its customers happy with the right incentives and the perfect promotional SMS texts.
Why SMS Promotions Are Effective for Boosting Sales
Before we dive into how to increase sales with SMS, let’s first touch on the benefits of SMS over other channels. For starters, the open rate of text messages is much higher than that of email: 98% versus 18%, respectively. A higher open rate means better chances of your audience interacting with your message. According to our SMS Marketing Consumer Texting Report, over 40% of consumers will likely engage with businesses via text upon receiving promotional messages.
However, the benefits of SMS aren’t just proven by metrics. Consumers increasingly want a mobile-first experience with brands—and 50% feel more connected to businesses that send SMS texts. To nurture customer connections and move them through targeted purchase journeys, businesses must fulfill customer needs by offering convenient communication channels. And that starts with SMS.
Types of SMS Promotions to Increase Sales
With SMS promotions, the world is your oyster. There are several types of text message promotions you can send that will help to drive sales:
Flash sales
Have too much stock or want to motivate purchases during a slow season? Share limited-time offers that entice people to impulse buy—because they know they only have so long to take advantage of your great deal.
Exclusive discounts for SMS subscribers
Increasing sales with SMS requires you to expand your contact list (more subscribers = more potential sales). Boost subscribers and purchases with SMS discounts for new opt-ins.
Seasonal and holiday campaigns
You likely already incorporate seasonal/holiday campaigns into your marketing strategies, but ensure you’re spreading the news via text.
Abandoned cart reminders
Set up automated texts that are triggered in the event of someone abandoning their online shopping cart. These reminders can create a sense of urgency and keep your business’s products and services in mind.
Loyalty and referral programs
Reward repeat customers with a loyalty program and/or attract new customers through referral programs, which can be shared via text.
Product launches and announcements
Create excitement and drive sales by sharing new product launches or updates with your SMS audience. Highlight exclusive first looks or early access to boost engagement further.
Customer appreciation texts
Surprise your loyal customers with a special thank-you text with a discount or freebie. Showing appreciation can lead to repeat business and positive word-of-mouth.
Event promotions
Whether it’s an in-store event, virtual webinar, or pop-up shop, use SMS to get the word out quickly and boost attendance with exclusive incentives.
Time-sensitive deals
Urge customers to act fast by promoting offers that expire within hours. These short-term campaigns can create a sense of urgency and drive immediate action.
Cross-sell and upsell offers
After a customer makes a purchase, follow up with related products or upgrades. SMS is a great way to personalize these offers and increase average order value.
Feedback and surveys with rewards.
Encourage engagement and gather insights by sending quick surveys or asking for feedback. Reward participants with discounts or special offers to drive future sales.
EZ Texting Features to Supercharge Your Promotions & Discounts
Once you’ve decided on the types of promotions to send, EZ Texting has the tools to make creating and managing your campaigns effortless and impactful. Here are some powerful features that can help you drive sales and streamline your SMS marketing efforts:
Campaign Calendar
Plan and schedule your promotions in advance, ensuring you never miss a key date or event.
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AI Compose
Craft compelling messages in seconds with the power of AI, perfect for saving time while maintaining creativity.
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Two-Way Texting
Build stronger customer relationships by enabling direct real-time conversations through text messaging.
Mass Texting
Send promotional offers to large audiences with a few clicks, keeping your message consistent and reaching everyone at once.
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Content Segmentation
Target specific customer groups with tailored offers, making your campaigns more relevant and effective.
Click-to-Text Button Generator
Drive engagement by adding click-to-text buttons to your website or emails, making it easier for customers to reach out.
Keywords
Create memorable keywords for customers to text, unlocking exclusive promotions or discounts effortlessly.
MMS Messaging
Enhance your campaigns with eye-catching images, videos, or graphics to grab attention and boost conversions.
With these powerful tools, EZ Texting transforms your promotional efforts into a breeze, empowering you to focus on scaling your business while delivering unparalleled value to your audience.
Crafting the Perfect Promotional SMS
There are a couple of best practices to remember when crafting the perfect promotional text.
Write Engaging and Concise Messages
Make sure that you’re writing to engage your audience. After all, a bland text won’t garner the level of interaction you’re hoping for. Here are some tips:
- Don’t beat around the bush: Clearly state why you’re sending a text message.
- Communicate the value.
- Avoid too much—or too little—detail.
- Use a friendly, approachable tone of voice.
- Incorporate graphics and gifs with MMS.
And don’t forget to keep promotional text messages short and sweet. Your contacts’ time is sacred, so don’t make them work too hard to read through your content or try to understand why you sent the message. Concise texts are key.
Use Clear CTAs
Drive action with a clear CTA. What do you want your customers to do? State it clearly at the end of your promotional message to guide them toward the intended action.
Add Personalization
Personalization shows that you understand your customers' preferences, purchase histories, demographics, etc. By incorporating tactics such as using their first name, sharing relevant information, or providing two-way communication, you’re helping contacts feel seen and heard, nurturing them through their journey with your business.
Bulk SMS Promotions: Maximizing Reach Efficiently
To increase sales quickly and with less effort, use mass texting for bulk SMS promotions at scale.
Benefits of Bulk SMS for Sales Campaigns
Bulk SMS is a boon for brand awareness, convenience, and saving your team time. Instead of sending promotional texts manually, utilize mass texting features, which allow you to send one text to your entire contact list or specific groups, not only freeing up your team to work on other high-priority tasks but also enabling tens, hundreds, even thousands of SMS contacts to view your promotion.
How to Segment Your Audience for Targeted Bulk SMS
But mass texting doesn’t necessarily mean you’re sending the same exact text to every contact. Make sure your text marketing solution provides a contact segmentation option for enhanced relevance.
Once you have created contact groups, insert parameters for the mass text, where certain criteria in the SMS message are adjusted depending on the group.
How to Measure the Success of Your SMS Promotions
It’s important to continually monitor the performance of your promotional SMS campaigns to ensure that your messages are resonating with customers and driving them to action.
Track Metrics
Use your SMS platform’s analytics tools to view the following metrics:
- Click-through rates
- Conversions
- Opt-ins and opt-outs
All of these provide insights into how your texts are performing. For example, if you notice low click-through rates, perhaps you need to adjust the CTA in the next campaign.
Using A/B Testing to Optimize SMS Campaigns
A/B testing is another method that you can use to optimize campaigns. With this tactic, you’ll send two promotional text messages to contacts to understand which one is higher-performing. Ensure they are similar texts for the same promotion, with only slight variations, such as a different CTA, a friendly vs. professional tone of voice, and so on, as this provides a clearer comparison.
Launch your next SMS promotion and watch your sales increase. EZ Texting helps your business scale with powerful SMS tools. Start your free trial today.
Nurture Conversations and Drive Sales with SMS Promotions
Launch your next SMS promotion and watch your sales increase. With EZ Texting’s powerful SMS marketing features for promotions and discounts, you can fine-tune every campaign for maximum impact and connect with your audience like never before.
Ready to take your business to the next level? Start your free trial today and see the difference!
FAQs
The rate at which you should send SMS promotions to customers depends on the type of promotion. For example, an abandoned cart incentive and a loyalty program text message might be sent on the same day because one is triggered by an event and one is scheduled. However, a good rule of thumb is to send no more than one to two promotional messages per week to prevent customers from feeling spammed by your business.
Some common mistakes to avoid with SMS promotions include not ensuring that they’re relevant to your audience or audience segments, not keeping them concise, not personalizing them, and not using a clear CTA.
Yes, there are legal requirements for sending promotional SMS messages, including identifying your business, providing a way for recipients to opt-out, obtaining their consent before sending messages, and not sending texts during “quiet hours.”
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