Text message marketing is quickly becoming one of the top ways for businesses to reach customers and it is easy to see why. Text messages have better open rates, click rates and are usually viewed within minutes of being received. How can college stores best utilize this great marketing resource?
How can SMS marketing help increase store traffic?
Text messages can be a great way to reach customers with important reminders, special promotions, or to even encourage buyback participation. Research into SMS text message marketing has demonstrated:
- 98% average open rate for text messages — 5x more than email
- 95% of text messages are opened within 3 minutes
- Recipients are 134% more likely to respond to text messages than emails
Growing your college store’s text message marketing list
If your college store is interested in text messages as a marketing tool, the next step you need to take is to start working to encourage customers to opt into the service. Here are some ideas for how you can start building your marketing SMS list.
Ask customers - Just ask customers if they would like to sign up to receive text message notifications as they are checking out — especially if they are purchasing books or renting textbooks. Let them know that with the text message alerts, they will receive important reminders when it is time to return books or even reminders letting them know the buyback value of their book at the end of term.
Advertise the option as a service – Make signs customers or students walking by can see. Explain why they should sign up to receive text alerts (a sign-up discount code, important reminders, etc.) and make sure it is easy to sign up.
Run a promotion to encourage shoppers to join the list – Give customers a percentage off their purchase with sign up, free shipping on their online order, or send them a coupon for signing up. Just make the incentive tempting enough to encourage more people to opt into the list.
Make it simple to sign up for text alerts on your eCommerce site - In your online bookstore, set up the option to opt in to receive email or text notifications during the online customer registration process and add a place to sign up on your homepage.
Tips for SMS Text Message Marketing
Once you have your list of customers who want to receive SMS text messages from your college store, it is important to follow a few simple guidelines. Text message marketing must follow the rules established by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the CAN-SPAM Act. In general, ensure with your marketing list:
- Customers have opted in
- The messages are concise and your business is identified
- The messages aren’t misleading or deceptive content
- The send times are respectful of time restrictions
- Customers have an easy and clear way to opt out
Does your store utilize text message marketing? Tell us in the comments.
