Instead, modern advertisers target customers at every touchpoint. from email marketing, pay-per-click on google, organic (SEO) marketing, newsletters, and even email signature marketing is now a thing. And at the center of this multichannel strategy is SMS marketing—one of the most effective ways of reaching customers.

So in this guide, you’ll learn how to make the most of SMS marketing. You’ll learn what it is, why it’s important, and its best practices.

Plus, we’ll show you the most effective SMS marketing tools available.

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing is the process of sending marketing messages via text.

It’s an opt-in service, meaning contacts need to subscribe to receive messages. Like B2C email, SMS marketing targets people on your contact list (and further down the lead funnel by extension).

SMS offers engagement that no other channel does. One-third of consumers check their phones within a minute of getting texts, which have open rates of up to 98% (with response rates as high as 45%).

Examples of SMS marketing messages include:

When you send a marketing email to your customer, you compete with who-knows-how-many other emails for their attention. Add this to the fact that your message probably won’t even land in the primary inbox, and you understand why the average open rate hovers around 21%.

• Sales and promotions. Ex. “Get free shipping with promo code FREESHIP.”
• Welcome messages. Ex. “Thanks for signing up for SMS messages! Opt out at any time.”
• Booking confirmations. Ex. “Confirmed! Claire will cut your hair on 1/22/23 at 4 PM.”
• Birthday. Ex. “Happy birthday, Jenna! Send wishes your way with 15% off your next order.”
• Back in stock. Ex. “They’re back, Jimmy! Get our velvet ties while they last!”
• Black Friday. Ex. “Our Black Friday deals are on now—get up to 90% off!”
• General promotion. Ex. “It’s been a blowout year. Explore 2022’s best-selling products now.”

Because of anti-spam laws, you can only send SMS messages to subscribers. If you send unsolicited marketing messages to people, you can face thousands of dollars in fines for each message sent.

Why Is SMS Marketing important and is it good for your business?

But the benefits of text marketing don’t stop there. Here’s what else it gives you:

1. It’s Direct

Text message marketing skips to the front of the line, reaching the customer on the device they use 58 times a day.

2. It’s Adaptable

Message marketing can be used for anything. Promotions, welcome messages, flash sales, and feedback surveys are just the beginning.

3. Low Competition

Despite text message marketing’s benefits, only 42% of businesses texted their customers in 2021. It’s much less saturated than email or social media, so you’ll stand out a lot easier.

4. High Customization

SMS marketing tools connect with CRM software to let you tailor your message to each customer. Use names, rewards status, upcoming appointments, and other data points to enhance their experience.

You can even deliver texts based on preference data, like how often they want to get texts and the type of messages they want.

5. Convenient for Customers

SMS marketing is even more convenient for customers as it is for brands. Texts save them from needing to scroll through their emails, and allow fast, easy responses through yes or no text prompts.

6. High Click-Through Rates (CTRs)

When crafted for maximum appeal, texting promotions can get phenomenally high CTRs. One company scores click-throughs were as high as 47%.

Is SMS Marketing Still Effective in 2022\2023, or Does It Annoy Customers?

Not only does SMS marketing not annoy customers, but they actually like it—61% of consumers want the ability to text businesses back. On average, 70% of consumers are subscribed to receive business texts in 2022, up 12% from 2021.

And SMS marketing is highly effective. 69% of businesses get CTRs of over 20%, with the top 12% getting CTRs higher than 50%. And out of an analysis of over 10,000 text campaigns, one study found the SMS CTR benchmark to be as high as 30%.

This isn’t a huge surprise since over half of the consumers check their texts at least 11 times a day (with only 29% checking their emails as often). Text marketing is so effective that 60% of businesses increased their SMS budget in 2022.

What are the main use cases for SMS Marketing?

Message marketing is incredibly versatile, having a massive number of functions. Responding to a survey, here’s what 1,314 business owners and digital marketers said they used SMS marketing for:

1. Special offers & promotions (38.2% of Respondents)

With text marketing’s high open rates and CTRs, there’s no better place for promoting a special offer. Use those high metrics to power sales on blowout deals, as shown below:

2. Billing (37.9%)

Chasing customer invoices can be one of the most frustrating parts of running a business. In the worst-case scenario, non-payments can lead to cash-flow issues.

But non-paying customers aren’t necessarily bad actors. Like other obligations, it’s likely they simply forgot to pay.

Thanks to its direct access to customers, SMS reminders are the best way to nudge customers to pay their invoices. You can use marketing tools to send automated text reminders whenever bills are overdue, massively reducing the hassle of chasing down bills.

SMS marketing lets you automatically:

• Remind customers of due dates
• Ask customers to pay overdue bills
• Inform customers of the penalties of non-payment
• Offer discounts for early payments

For best results, personalize billing messages with the recipient’s information, and frame the message politely—even with overdue payments. It’s a touchy issue for many, and framing your message right can make all the difference.

3. Booking reminders via SMS (31%)

Throughout your life, you’ve likely forgotten several engagements you would’ve held if someone had reminded you. With SMS reminders, your customers will never have that issue.

Messaging lets you send friendly, automated reminders to clients whenever an appointment approaches. This greatly reduces the chance they’ll miss their booking, saving you and the client the trouble of a missed reservation.

Be sure to allow clients to respond to messages, as shown above. Over 50% of consumers want to be able to respond to text appointment reminders—the highest of any SMS type.

4. Contests and sweepstakes (26.3%)

Sweepstakes texting promotions are a fantastic way to grow subscriber lists.

You can get customers to sign up for your email list in exchange for an entry into your sweepstakes. Once the context’s over, those people will still receive your other SMS promotions.

5. Shipping updates (25.6%)

In an era of one-day Amazon deliveries, customers have grown increasingly impatient about when their orders arrive. But text marketing makes the wait easier by giving customers easy access to order updates.

46.5% of consumers want to be able to respond to shipping messages. Letting customers ask about order estimates and tracking information is massively helpful to a positive experience.

6. Customer support (24.4%)

Think of traditional customer support channels like email and phone. Getting a response from these avenues can take a long time, frustrating customers.

However, SMS can turn your customer’s phones into accessible, fast support channels. And when customers know a brand has accessible support, they’re more likely to buy from it.

In fact, 68% of consumers say they’re willing to pay more for products from brands with good customer service.

Best practices and rules for SMS Marketing

Both brands and consumers benefit from text marketing, but those effects only happen when the brand does it right. So next, we’ll review the best practices for making the most of SMS marketing.

1. Give a clear call to action (CTA)

Even though text messages are short, you must clearly communicate what you want. Your CTA should be immediately visible—no need for fancy language or unnecessary jargon.

Most messaging apps display only the first few words of a text message, so the first sentence needs to tell the recipient what the text is about. Otherwise, you risk them swiping away before they’ve even read it.

2. Use A/B testing

In SMS marketing, A/B tests send two versions of a message to a small audience and report the best result. This lets you tweak your messages to get the best results possible, something that’s especially important in large-scale bulk SMS marketing.

Running an SMS A/B is simple:

1. Create a new message with a single change
2. Test both options against a small sample size
3. Record results
4. Send out the version with the best metrics

It takes little time and effort but makes a massive difference.

3. Personalize messages

A robotic, impersonal tone can kill the effectiveness of an SMS campaign by making the customer feel like another cog in the wheel. But if you personalize your message, you can make each recipient feel special.

Personalization also makes your messages more functional, enabling you to send specialized campaigns like appointment reminders, birthday discounts, and payment notifications.

4. Stay compliant with marketing laws

Keeping your SMS marketing messages compliant with privacy laws is vital to your business’s future. Authorities have fined companies hundreds of thousands for sending unsolicited messages to a few hundred people.

But don’t freak out—staying compliant isn’t difficult. It’s mostly about following common sense as described below:

5. Get informed consent

All SMS campaigns start with the recipient fully understanding what they’re signing up for. Both parts of the phrase “informed consent” are crucial:

• Informed. The user clearly understands what the SMS campaign entails.
• Consent. The user gives explicit consent to receive messages according to the terms.

Users should know who’s sending the texts, what’s in them, and how often.

6. Keep content appropriate

Keep conscious of the content you include in your marketing messages. You could easily run afoul of content laws and your customers’ sensibilities with some edgy humor you think is innocent.

Avoid these types of content:

• Hateful and disparaging content
• Sexual content
• Content related to regulated goods, such as alcohol, firearms, and tobacco (with possible exceptions for merchants within those industries according to local laws)

7. Send during appropriate times

You should only send texts during certain hours of the day to comply with marketing laws, which usually allows between 8 AM and 9 PM.

It’s best only to send texts during normal business hours since that’s when customers are most accustomed to receiving them. While staying compliant with marketing laws is important, the most crucial concern is not annoying your customers and causing them to unsubscribe.

8. Make opting out easy

Your text messages need to have an opt-out option. Like how marketing emails have “unsubscribe” buttons, your texts should have instructions on how to stop receiving them.

Businesses usually let customers opt out of texts by replying “STOP.” However you do it, let users know before they sign up and remind them regularly.

And whenever users opt out, don’t send them any more texts outside of an unsubscribe confirmation.

9. Let customers text back

61% of consumers across all age groups want the ability to text businesses back. Even 52% of Gen Z want the ability to text businesses back, even though they’re the least likely to do it.

Customers want a two-way conversation, especially for appointment reminders and customer service. This plays into the larger marketing trend of brands becoming more grounded and approachable.

When customers know they can text a business from their phones and get a thoughtful response, your brand image gets a huge boost.

What is SMS blasting and how does it work?

SMS blasting involves sending a large number of SMS messages simultaneously.

Bulk SMS marketing is a quick and effective way to get a message across to a large audience. It’s great for sending emergency notifications, raising brand awareness, or running a flash sale.

Collaborate your digital marketing & brand strategy with text marketing

The pure versatility of text marketing lets you combine your entire brand and digital marketing strategy at once.

For example, you can send birthday discounts to customers, which both improves your brand image and drives sales. Text message marketing lets brands reach customers where they’re guaranteed to see them, and gives them the true omnichannel experience.

More on this topic:

• How to build a B2B sales funnel: 6 essential steps
• What is a B2B sales funnel? How is it different from B2C?
• What is video marketing and how can it benefit my business?
• 11 best tools for content creation (2022)
• Digital marketing & how to start doing it?
• Business storytelling marketing: 4 winning examples & analysis
• Mail funnels optimization: create a near-perfect email customer journey
• High-ROI customer acquisition strategies (2022)
• What is the buyer pyramid & how to use it to your advantage?
• How to use Fogg’s behavior model to increase conversion

Top five text marketing tools

To be successful with SMS marketing, you’ve got to use the right software. So next, we’ll review the top five text marketing tools and explain the benefits of each.

1. TextMagic (4.4/5 G2 Rating)

TextMagic is a simple yet robust SMS marketing platform. With two-way conversations, Zapier integrations, and text scheduling, it’s more than enough for most businesses.

Key Features

• Import from spreadsheet
• Virtual mobile numbers
• Email to SMS
• SSO for organizations
• Email and number validation
• SMS surveys
• Two-factor authentication
• Service to over 190 countries

Pricing

A TextMagic account is free, but you pay a fixed rate for the country you’re messaging. For instance, each message to the United States is $0.04.

Inbound messages are free.

2. Twilio MessagingX (4.4/5 G2 Rating)

Twilio is a broad-scale marketing platform with extensive SMS abilities. Using its visual workflow builder, you can create powerful automated SMS campaigns with no coding.

Key features

• Autoresponders
• Drip texting
• Third-party integrations
• WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Business messaging compatibility
• Lower sending prices than other platforms
• Toll-free numbers
• Customizable, developer-friendly APIs
• Send to 180+ countries with 1500 carriers+

Pricing

Like TextMagic, a Twilio account is free with pay-as-you-go texting. And while sending messages is cheap, Twilio charges for receiving messages too.

Messages sent to a local US number cost $0.0079, and messages received cost $0.0075. It’s even more expensive to send and receive pictures.

3. SlickText (4.8/5 G2 Rating)

SlickText lets brands create and send MMS campaigns with advanced marketing automation. It’s famously easy to use and perfect for small businesses just getting started with MMS marketing.

Key Features

• Highly personalized messaging and segmentation
• Streamlined automation
• 15+ native integrations
• 4,000+ Zapier integrations
• Advanced analytics
• Excellent customer service

Pricing

SlickText pricing is slightly confusing, consisting of nine different plans. These plans include:

• Free: 50 texts/month
• Basic ($29/month): 500 texts/month
• Step Up ($49/month): 1,000 texts/month + Basic features
• Lil Bro ($79/month): 2,000 texts/month + Step Up features
• Big Bro ($139/month): 3,600 texts/month + Lil Bro features
• Boss ($189/month): 5,000 texts/month + Big Bro features
• Albatross ($350/month): 10,000 texts/month + Boss features
• Whale ($750/month): 25,000 texts/month + Albatross features
• Monstro ($1250/month): 50,000 texts/month + Whale features
• Enterprise: Custom plans for the largest brands

4. Klaviyo (4.6/5 G2 Rating)

Multichannel marketing platform Klaviyo offers powerful SMS capabilities. With a robust feature set and simple pricing calculators, Klaviyo is the go-to SMS marketing solution for many brands.

Key Features

• 200+ integrations
• Extensive template library
• 24+ built-in automation
• Automatic optimization

Pricing

Klaviyo has a free plan with 500 emails and 150 SMS/MMS credits each month. For their paid plans, Klaviyo estimates prices based on the number of contacts you have.

For example, 1501 to 2500 contacts have an estimated cost of $510/month. The exact price depends on your exact messaging needs, which you can adjust manually.

5. Sendinblue (4.5/5 G2 Rating)

Sendinblue’s SMS platform goes beyond basic functionality, offering businesses automation, CRM integration, and more. It’s not just for messaging customers, but for engaging them across every channel.

Key Features

• In-depth performance analysis
• Message personalization
• Message Scheduling
• Sign-up forms
• A/B testing

Pricing

Sendinblue’s SMS pricing is included as part of its email plans:

• Free: Unlimited contacts, 300 emails per day
• Lite: No daily sending limits, A/B testing, analytics
• Premium: Lite features, marketing automation, Facebook ads, landing pages, multi-user access, and telephone support
• Enterprise: Premium features SSO, 20+ landing pages, priority sending, dedicated success manager, and priority support

The exact total varies depending on your monthly email volume.

Start SMS Marketing now

As seen above, SMS marketing is an incredibly effective way of reaching customers in their daily lives. It’s also underrated, given that barely half of the businesses use it.

And getting started isn’t hard either. You need to know the rules, find a suitable SMS marketing tool, and start sending your campaigns.

The post The complete guide to SMS Marketing in 2023 appeared first on WiseStamp.

What is an autoresponder?

Everyone has an idea in their head what auto-response looks like. You are most likely familiar with out-of-office or vacation notices sent back to you. These utilize the same scripting principle but are not like the autoresponders used for email marketing.

An autoresponder is simply a script that sends an email in response to a trigger. For the auto-responses you’re used to, the trigger is an email hitting the inbox. However, that’s not the only possible trigger, and that’s what makes automated email marketing so powerful.

When using automated email marketing, actions serve as triggers. People signing up for your email list, buying products, or hitting an anniversary are all possible options. You can then customize the emails that are sent as well.

The example of an out-of-office notification is likely a bland text that only conveys the minimum of information. With a dependable automated email marketing provider, you can brand the email, add images, include surveys, and more. These features make the experience fun for your customers.

Autoresponders also let you build sequences. These standardize your customers’ experience, help you sell uniformly, and give you back time to spend in other areas of your business. These sequences range from welcome to holiday specials to upselling.

While autoresponders do make email marketing more manageable for you, it’s important not to overdo them. You will still need to provide a genuine passion in your emails and answer customers who reach out directly to you. Email autoresponders are not entirely set and forget, despite the convenience.

Setting up automated campaigns

Automated email marketing sequences are also referred to as campaigns, and an individual email may be called a campaign. Each campaign should have a specific goal as you’re creating it, which will shape the email you write. An email marketing campaign without a purpose will wander and may even cause people to unsubscribe.

Triggered email funnel

Triggered email funnels begin when a specific action is taken. The customer typically takes this action rather than by you, but you can also start sequences in your automated email marketing provider.

For example, you could set up a sequence that starts on a specific date for a holiday promotion. Reaching that date would trigger the email funnel, which would then let people know about the promotion. If someone buys, that moves them deeper in the funnel. If they don’t buy, they continue getting sale notifications from you.

1. Welcome and onboarding

“Welcome” and “Onboarding” email sequences are the first sequences most businesses create. These are often triggered the minute someone provides their email on your website. Using a welcome series helps you make a consistent first impression.

Content for these should involve introducing your company, answering common questions, and convincing the customer that being on your list is valuable to them. Otherwise, people may unsubscribe.

If you’re running a small company, the welcome sequence is an excellent opportunity to build personal relationships and trust that support your business. Use photos, and introduce yourself along with the company, for the best impression.

3. Abandoned cart

Globally, the average abandoned cart rate in 2020 is around 88%. That’s a lot of potential revenue for companies. The abandoned cart sequence is designed to convert at least some of those carts into orders.

The contents of an abandoned cart sequence should speak to why people want your product or service. It’s less about the specific cart contents and more about what dream they’re missing out on by not purchasing.

Using Analytics

Analytics are powerful, quantitative tools. Every automated email marketing platform presents them in a slightly different format. However, four basic statistics tell you how well an email is doing and whether you need to try another tactic.

Open Rates

• Open rate simply indicates how often an email was opened from an inbox. It does not tell you whether the subscriber clicked anything in the email, though, which means it is not a measure of sales. You should treat the open rate as an indicator of whether you need to alter the email subject line.

CTR

• CTR is short for click-through-rate. This analytic is a ratio between how many people view the email to how many clicks the link in the email garners. This statistic is a good measure of the email copy’s persuasiveness. Still, it does not tell you how many people followed through with the buy.

Engagement Rate

• Engagement rates indicate how many people interacted with your content, though it’s not necessarily clicking the link. Engagement rates can also refer to social media sharing and clicking other links in the email, which can be a bit misleading.

Conversion Rate

• The conversion rate is where the money comes in. This measures how many people read your email, followed the link, and completed the purchase your email encouraged. Generally, this is a favorite metric for email marketers.
  

Best Email Autoresponders for Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves building up trust with the audience to use the affiliate links you provide to another product or service. That means you need to do a lot of nurturing.

1. Active campaign autoresponder

Price: $25 per month for 1,000 contacts on the Lite plan

Main features:

• Powerful tagging
• Lead scoring
• CRM integrations

Pros:

• Active Campaign is an all-in-one
• Numerous integrations
• Templates
• Thorough reporting

Cons:

• Features overwhelming for new users
• Pricing as your business grows

2. Get response autoresponder

Price: $11 per month for 1000 contacts on the Basic plan

Main features:

• Advanced list management
• Lead and sales funnels
• Landing pages

Pros:

• Visual email and funnel builders
• Easy to setup

Cons:

• The integration list is still growing
• Statistics may lag real-time

3. AWeber autoresponder

Price: $26 per month for 500-2,500 contacts on the Pro plan

Main features:

• Sales tracking
• Wide template base
• A blog to email option

Pros:

• List management tools
• Support availability
• Integration list

Cons:

• Pricing as you grow
• The interface is a little old-school

4. Zoho autoresponder

Price: $8 per month for 1,000 contacts

Main features:

• Integration with Zoho CRM
• Solid reporting features

Pros:

• Ease of campaign building
• Social integration

Cons:

• Pricing as your business grows

5. Sendinblue Autoresponder

Price: $25 per month for 10,000 emails

Main features:

• Automation range
• Transactional email features
• SMS marketing capability

Pros:

• CRM functionality
• Easy interface

Cons:

• Some templates are older looking
• Limited integration list

6. MailChimp

Price: Free for up to 2,000 contacts, $20 for 1,500 contacts on Essentials plan

Main features:

• Wide variety of triggered campaigns
• Freemium package
• Built-in CRM

Pros:

• Easy template editing
• Integration list
• Detailed analytics

Cons:

• Pricing as your company grows
• Limited automation options
• Updating customer profiles is tedious

Free autoresponders for affiliate marketing

While free services are tempting, it’s essential to consider your long-term affiliate marketing goals. Transitioning between automated marketing services can be difficult, especially in a time crunch.

1. AWeber

Price: Free up to 500 contacts, $19 per month for pro features up to 500 contacts

Main features:

• Sales integration
• Template base
• List management

Pros:

• Support availability
• Video landing pages
• Google Analytics and Facebook Pixels tracking

Cons:

• The free plan lacks behavioral automation

2. Convertkit

Price: Free up to 1,000 subscribers, $29 per month for 1,000 subscribers for pro features

Main features:

• Digital product sales integration
• Landing pages

Pros:

• Easy-to-use interface
• Design your own emails
• Segmentation

Cons:

• The free plan excludes automation and funnels

Final thoughts

Using automated email marketing ultimately saves you time while providing your customers with a consistent experience. Designing emails, handling the analytics, and managing the system may seem daunting at first, but in time and with the right tool, your business will benefit immensely.

The post Automated email marketing: Save time & grow your income appeared first on WiseStamp.

Businesses are wary of chatbots for a variety of reasons beyond cost. Some think of it as an overly technical feature they don’t have the know-how to operate, or they believe it might interfere with the relationship they have with their customer. Of course, the reality of chatbots varies from system to system and company to company.

I am here to tell you that, for the most part, a virtual chatbot is an easily implemented solution to overwhelming customer service needs. They can help you satisfy more of your customers AND free you up to work more closely with the most important requests.

What are Chatbots?

Chatbots are computer programs that mimic human interaction. The most popular use case now is for automating customer service, in the form of man-to-machine chat interfaces. They’re designed to answer simple questions, give product information, and record feedback, satisfying the majority of customer demands. As a result, they are not a wholesale replacement for a customer service team; they are tools to be used by and in conjunction with qualified and dedicated employees.

What are chatbots used for?

Chatbots are used to automate simple and repetitive communication between clients and that businesses. Such things as, common support questions, replacing chat flows with form submissions, and qualifying prospects for sales. This allows businesses to reduce costs and improve productivity by reducing workloads for their Support, Sales, and Marketing teams.

Now that we know what chatbots do, let’s get into details about what your business can specifically use chatbots for.

1. Streamlining Customer Service

Some aspect of your business is likely dedicated to customer service, and, if you’re just starting, you may be relying on external agencies and call centers to help manage your customer queries. Even if you do have in-house staff, your team will likely be limited and may already be stretched between various other responsibilities. This means that customer service, the backbone of any successful business, is either costing you money or it’s not getting the attention it needs.

In these scenarios, a chatbot is a great option. Having an automated response system to reply to customer queries will reduce the need for external call centers and ease pressure on internal staff, giving you more money and time to grow your customer offering. Of course, a chatbot will not replace a human customer service team — there will always be questions a chatbot can’t answer — but it will give you time to properly address these more difficult queries.

2. Streamlining Sales

More powerful chatbots can even take on sales responsibility and move customers seamlessly from customer service interaction through the purchasing process. Bots can begin by providing instant responses on products, then ask if the customer is interested in purchasing, and continue by creating an account, taking payment details, and finalizing a transaction all within the chat window. This means every chatbot interaction is a potential sale, at no extra cost to your sales department.

Chatbots are especially useful for returning customers or repeat orders, as the system can store data of regular customers and suggest a repeat of their last order with a few clicks. If the customer doesn’t have to go through the whole sales process, again and again, they’ll not only purchase from you more often, they’ll thank you for it.

3. 24-Hour Service

Beyond their ability to help your current customer service and sales efforts, chatbots can also expand your capabilities by operating around the clock. Rather than having to wait until business hours to call an agent, customers can now ask a chatbot for help at night or on weekends, when you’re not likely to be available.

This is particularly useful for companies that operate around the world, as customers in different timezones to your customer service staff otherwise be unable to seek help. In addition, according to studies private messaging and emailing is the most effective way of communicating with potential customers.

4. Personalized service

Data is the greatest ally of automated chatbots, and putting that data to use can give customers a more personalized marketing and customer service experience. A chatbot that has access to user data can be used for targeted marketing that’s just as effective as a human marketer but much faster and more cost-effective.

Say, for example, a user indicates they are interested in a certain product but you’re currently out of stock. A chatbot can instantly suggest other related products, or sign the user up for an alert when the item comes back in stock. All of this without the need for human intervention.”

5. Personal connection

Since Facebook has opened up its Messenger feature to business chatbots, companies have seen a significant increase in engagement, sales, and ROI, just from allowing customers to engage directly with sellers.

If you currently can’t deal directly and individually with each of your customers (and who does?) then a chatbot is the next best thing. It may not be a perfect human connection, but it shows that you’re willing to make the effort to give customers a somewhat personal connection to your brand.

6. Engage on social media

Facebook’s examples also highlight the importance of social media engagement for modern businesses. More and more customers are living the majority of their online lives on social networks; it’s where they engage with their friends and families, find their news and product recommendations, and more importantly for us, where they engage with companies.

Having a chatbot operate on your company’s social media pages will help you field customer queries faster and in greater numbers than if you relied entirely on human staff, freeing up customer service representatives to take calls and respond to email requests.

7. Learn about your customers

Chatbots are a two-way street: they’re not just there to give your customers information about you, they can also give you information about your customers. Customer research is as old as business itself, and for years it’s generally been pursued with surveys and questionnaires sent to customers about their experiences with your company.

With a chatbot, however, you have access to a natural way to engage with your customers and find out who they are and what they think of your products and services.

Customers generate a significant amount of data about themselves even (and perhaps especially) if they don’t even know it. When you’re getting to know a friend, you don’t do it through forms and surveys; that would provide you with an overly formal and much less natural picture of the person you’re talking to. You do it through conversation, through picking up on cues in their language, and that’s what Chatbots are best at.

Takeaways

These are only a few of how chatbots are being used now, and as the technology gets more sophisticated there’s bound to be a whole lot more. Investigate chatbot solutions for your website and you may find they’re a great match for your company’s customer service needs.

The post What chatbots are & what they’re used for appeared first on WiseStamp.

What is dynamic email content?

Dynamic email content allows you to adapt your email to individual recipients and audience segments so that it’s more personal. The more you personalize emails, the better your conversion rate. This might sound similar to email segmentation, but, dynamic content is different and much more efficient.

What kind of content can I make dynamic?

The most common type of dynamic email content that we’ve become familiar with is pretty basic, such as the recipient’s name. “Hi [Name], thanks for joining our email list!” The dynamic content populates based on the recipient’s personal data. But you can get more creative with dynamic content. Here are several examples of how to use dynamic email content that will boost conversions.

1. Add a dynamic email signature

Your email signature—whether as an individual or company—is a powerful marketing tool. One of the easiest and most efficient ways to add dynamic content to your email is simply to create an email signature that dynamically displays content.

A great example is an email signature that dynamically displays your latest social media content. With WiseStamp’s email signature add-ons, you can seamlessly display your latest Facebook page status, Tweet, Instagram photos, Youtube video, and LinkedIn status. In the signature examples below, a photographer dynamically displays his latest photos while a blogger dynamically displays her latest blog post.

To

Subject

Make it yours

Genrate an email signature

2. Add a survey, event registration and more!

The dynamic email content is becoming more and more sophisticated and one of the pioneers of dynamic email content is none other than Google. What’s to come for dynamic email content? Imagine creating an email newsletter that allows your recipients to take action right within the email instead of linking them to a landing page? For example, registering for an event, changing a reservation, or making a purchase right within the email.

The Takeaway

Expect dynamic email content to continually evolve. In it’s simplest form, dynamic content allows you to automatically personalize emails with data about your individual recipients, like their name or location.

But, as it develops, dynamic email content will allow recipients to complete actions seamlessly within their Inbox like responding to questionnaires, booking travel, and browsing product catalogs. Containing all of this dynamic, interactive content within the email itself —as opposed to linking out to a tab or mobile site—will certainly boost conversions.

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What is email onboarding?

“Onboarding” is a customer relations strategy that is designed to welcome new customers or employees to your business and familiarize them with your product or service. There are many ways to onboard customers, but one of the simplest, most efficient, and most scalable ways is to create a short sequence of onboarding emails.

A sequence is like a series. And like a series (TV shows, sports, lectures), your onboarding emails need to develop as they move along, and continuously provide value to your customers. They also need to take your customer on a journey, so to speak, from point “A” to point “D.” Luckily, there is a formula for developing this series, and we have broken it down for you!

When creating your onboarding email campaign, you want to chronologically focus on the following: Welcoming, unboxing, content, support, feedback, and upselling.

Email onboarding sequence

1. The Welcome email
2. The Unboxing email
3. The Content email
4. The Support email
5. The Feedback email
6. The Upselling email

How to create each email in your onboarding campaign

Now that you know what onboarding is and have seen a general outline of the sequence you need to set up, let’s look at what needs to be done in each step of the sequence.

1. The Welcome email

When you acquire a new customer or client, your next step is to welcome them. The goal of this email is to make the customer feel confident in their decision to do business with you and to give them some useful information about your company. The tone of the email should represent your brand’s voice and personality, but make sure to convey a message of gratitude and excitement.

Provide some useful links so they can learn more about your business, but do not overwhelm the customer with too much information. Keep the email friendly and concise, as we see in the example from Moz below.

 2. The Unboxing email

After you’ve welcomed your new customers and shared some information about your business, now it’s time to give them a little tour of your products or services, i.e. “unbox” the goodies! The goal of this email is to help new customers become familiar with the product or service they have purchased. It’s a great opportunity to let your product or service shine and give more details that your customer may not have known. Highlight the most important features of your product or service and contextualize it for your customer. In other words, help your customers imagine exactly how and when they will use your product or service to its fullest potential.

Here’s an example from Typeform of how to “unbox” your product. Notice how they invite customers to “get started” and include a tutorial video to walk through building a Typeform survey for the first time.

 3. The Content email

When you onboard your customers, make sure your email campaign isn’t only about your business and product or service. You should also send an email with useful content related to your customer’s interests and your business.

At WiseStamp, we regularly produce and share content on marketing tips, tools and trends to help our community of users grow their businesses. We make sure to find, test, and recommend the best marketing products for our users’ needs to help them attain their marketing goals.

Of course, we mention our products when relevant. But, when we share content, our goal is to offer marketing advice, not to simply promote our tools. Here’s an example of how we do it:

4. The Support email

At this stage in your customer relationship, it’s wise to check in and ask if your customer has any questions or needs support. Point your customers to all the support resources you have for your business, for example, your FAQ page, user guide, support contact form, or any other resource you provide. Before you send the “support” email, make sure you are prepared to handle the response.

5. The Feedback email

Imagine having a friend who did all the talking and never allowed you to talk. It would feel like a very one-sided friendship. The same goes for business relationships with your customers. One of the best ways to build customer trust and confidence is to give your customers a voice and welcome their feedback. So, later in your onboarding campaign, invite your customers to voice their opinions. It will give them a chance to be heard, and will also give you give your valuable insight on what is working well and what you can improve.

6. The Upselling email

After you have properly welcomed your new customers, guided them around your main product or service, providing them with useful content, offered them support, and invited their feedback, now is an appropriate time to spark their interest in more of your products or services or “upsell” them.

Do your research for the upselling email. Look at the performance of your onboarding email campaign thus far and analyze which emails performed the best and why (open rates, click rates, reply rates). Use these insights to determine how you’ll present your new product offer. For example, this email is a wonderful opportunity to offer a “sale” for new customers.

Overall tips for your Onboarding Email Campaign

As with any email campaign, you should strategically plan the timing of your onboarding emails. No one wants to be bombarded with a series of emails in a short period. We recommend to distribute one email per week and checking the performance of each. Look carefully at the open and click rates of each email and adjust the next scheduled email accordingly. For example, perhaps you have a higher open rate at noon instead of 9 AM.

It’s also important to personalize the emails at every opportunity you have. Take all the information you know about your customer and find ways to incorporate it into your email content. This could be something as simple as addressing your customer by name in the email subject line, “Dave, here’s a discount code for you!”

Remember, welcoming your customers to your business and familiarizing them with your products and service is no different than welcoming a guest into your home. It makes a huge difference between whether or not your customer will ever visit again.

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