Say Hello To Mailchimp SMS Marketing

Marketing automation platform, Mailchimp, has recently extended their services into the realm of SMS marketing.

But what is SMS marketing, how does it work, and what are the benefits of the practice? We’ll be answering all of these questions, as well as diving deeper into what the new services from Mailchimp have to offer.

What Is SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing is a marketing strategy that involves sending promotional messages, updates and alerts to customers via text message (SMS). The goal is to communicate time-sensitive information to those who have opted in to receive texts from your business. This strategy can be useful for building more personal relationships with customers, generating leads from consumers who have actively established an interest in your brand, and persuading recipients to engage with your product or service through real-time call-to-actions (CTAs).

To find out more information about SMS marketing, click here.

How Does It Work?

There are two main types of SMS campaigns – transactional and promotional. While each of these types has a different set of additional legal regulations applicable to them, both require opt-in consent and both can be personalised to drive engagement, generate leads and encourage loyalty to your brand.

Transactional SMS Campaigns

Transactional SMS campaigns are a method of informing your customers in real-time when something relevant to the sale of your product or service happens. For example, an order that has been dispatched or shipped.

Promotional SMS Campaigns

Promotional SMS campaigns are a way of alerting customers when there are offers, sales or other time-sensitive opportunities occurring in relation to your business. For instance, a seasonal sale or a promotional offer, e.g. free delivery on orders over £100, etc.

What Are The Benefits Of SMS Marketing?

SMS marketing is a fast, direct and real-time method of communicating your marketing strategy to the most relevant audience (those who have opted in and therefore expressed a genuine interest in your brand) in one of the most convenient and cost-effective ways.

1. SMS is a Direct, Immediate Channel

Time-critical marketing messages can be read instantly via SMS marketing. In fact, figures show that 45% of SMS campaigns generate a successful ROI, reaching over 50% when combined with other digital marketing strategies, such as email and social media marketing.

2. SMS Feels More Personal

A great channel for personalisation, SMS marketing can be used to engage customers with exclusive offers and content. This in turn will help to drive engagement, conversions and brand loyalty.

3. SMS Data Analysis Allows For Future Improvements

By analysing the performance of your SMS campaigns, your business can track delivery rate, bounce rate, unsubscribes and more. This will help your brand to create further targeted campaigns that feel the most relevant to your customers.

Mailchimp SMS Marketing

Email marketing and automation platform, Mailchimp, announced their new SMS marketing feature for customers in the UK on 13 June 2024.

They describe this new addition as a way to “unify your marketing under one roof by seamlessly integrating SMS into your email, automations, and social campaigns […] which will help you create personalised, effective marketing strategies – and drive results.”

But, what can you do with Mailchimp SMS Marketing?

Remarketing

Remarketing is a great way to ‘chase’ or ‘follow-up’ leads who have shown an interest in your products/services that could be converted into customers, but have not yet taken action. Mailchimp’s new SMS feature allows you to remarket by:

Sending pre-built ‘abandoned cart’ automations (for those who added a product to the basket but didn’t check out, for example).
Sending transactional follow-ups, customer support messages, etc.

Audience Targeting

Focusing on key demographics within your target audience is an essential aspect of any marketing strategy, as this ensures you reach the right people, at the right time, in the right way – to help drive results. With Mailchimp SMS marketing, you can:

Target customers by location.
Segment email and SMS campaigns based on the customer interaction to engage with contacts via their preferred channel.
Capture SMS subscriptions through pop-up forms, embedded forms/landing pages, etc.
Improve engagement with a branded link shortener and link tracking.

Analyse Reports

Analysing the data derived from your marketing efforts is fundamental to a successful strategy. This way, you can decipher what works for your brand, and what doesn’t – helping you choose the right channel, target audience, messaging, and much more.

Mailchimp SMS allows you to access real-time reports and audience analytics via a unified dashboard, for both email and SMS, that gives insights into revenue attribution, performance data, audience monitoring and SMS credit usage.

SMS Automation & Time-Saving

Finally, the feature that will save you the most time when it comes to delivering your SMS marketing campaigns – automation. Mailchimp offers the following automation/time-saving features:

Automate SMS marketing with Mailchimp custom triggers.
Save time with pre-built content templates.
Send automated notifications, promotions, inventory alerts, etc. (all personalised to the user).
Send bulk messaging, integrate calendars, manage shared inboxes, send multimedia messaging with personalisation, merge data, upload customer data in bulk and send targeted messaging.
Schedule messages, set up automatic responses based on triggers and use keywords to trigger automated responses or actions.
Monitor consent management, set up a 10-digit local phone number for messaging, easily manage consent opt-outs and customise quiet times according to your preferences.

SMS For Digital Marketing

To ensure your business is following the best SMS marketing practices, get in touch with us today to discuss how digital marketing strategies can assist you in achieving the goals most important to you.

Explore what we do for the wide range of clients we have worked with here.