One of the greatest challenges for retailers is determining how to turn one-time purchasers into return customers. Capture your clients’ attention with well-timed, personalized messages via their preferred channel – SMS. Text message marketing receives some of the highest open and engagement rates among all marketing channels, making it the best choice for prompting your customers and prospects to action. The best ways to increase your customers’ lifetime value is through rewards programs, tailored offers and promotions, and purchase surveys.
Give your rewards program the attention it deserves
Highlighting your rewards program can be a challenge – pop ups are easily closed and if someone is making a purchase, they’re probably missing your bottom-of-the-page callout. With email open rates so low – how can you be sure your customers and prospects know it exists? Enter SMS messages.
After their initial purchase, follow up with new customers via text message outlining your rewards program and how much they could have made in rewards points or dollars with their recent purchase. You could also consider detailing how close they are to their next reward, and offer bonus rewards points if they sign up within a certain time period of sending the message.
You can also send them timely messages for birthdays, holidays, and their account anniversary reminding them about any additional rewards points or discounts they get on this special day. And if they’re not already enrolled, you can highlight the rewards they would have received if they had been a member. Plugging your one-time customers into a program that rewards additional purchases or activity within the community will keep them coming back.
Ensure EVERYONE knows about your sales and promotions
It’s a universal truth that everyone has at one time stumbled across an old email promoting a sale or discount that’s already expired. Had you known, you would have taken full advantage of the sale, but now you think you’ll just wait for the next one. And the process repeats.
By leveraging a channel your customers are already familiar with, your messages are more likely to be seen and engaged with before the sale period ends. And by telling your audience about the promotion right when it starts, they know they’ll be the first in line for the next sale too. You can offer even more benefit to your SMS subscribers by putting them in a special “club” that gets early access to the sale or a steeper discount than the nonsubscribers.
According to an Accenture study, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations. So personalized, timely sale promotions are key.
Bring on the feedback
After your customer has made their first purchase, or perhaps just bought something for a discount, complete the circle by sending short surveys to get feedback on their purchases. This is also a great time to ask for a product or company review, which you can even bonus with rewards points as well. And with a response rate more than 209% better than any other channel for surveys, SMS messaging is key to getting the valuable reports you need.
Asking for feedback or improvements from your customers – and implementing if possible- can make your customers feel like they’re more plugged into your community. It also allows you to get ahead of any issues and seamlessly connect them to your customer service team via SMS for quick resolution.
Getting a customer for life
Implementing these tactics via SMS can help turn your one-time customer into a customer for life. Finding an SMS solution like Esendex that will grow with your business is essential to being able to leverage this powerhouse channel. Reach out to one of our experts today for more information on how Esendex can help you send converting messages.
Julia Applegate
Based in Charleston, SC Julia is a Demand Generation Marketing Manager with 6 years of experience in B2B technology businesses and an emphasis on growth and demand generation marketing. Julia is passionate about balancing data-driven marketing with creative campaigns and bringing agile methodology to new companies.