Sending Out Textable Coupons for Your Store

Who doesn’t love a good sale? You see those four letters in all caps, and your interest is piqued. You were just walking through the store, but you spotted that little word in big letters, and suddenly you’re sorting through a rack of shirts looking for your size. How did this happen?

Research has shown that customers who were not even thinking about buying will take a closer look when they learn that an item is on sale. As consumers, we understand that sales don’t last forever, and if we don’t buy it now, it might not be here for this value next time.

In consumers’ minds, everyday items tend to increase in value when they are discounted. On an ordinary day, a customer will buy an amount that they think meets their immediate need. When an item is on sale, customers tend to overbuy to meet their needs because they feel they’re getting a good deal.

Increasing sales

Conducting a sale is good for business, too, but for different reasons. A sale for a company can mean opportunity. It can turn a prospective lead into a likely buyer. Sales can drive repeat purchasing and provide an opportunity to move products that may have become stagnant on the shelf.

The right sale at the right time has the power to take the bottom line from red to black. If it didn’t, there wouldn’t be a need for stores to have multiple “Going Out Of Business” sales once or twice a year for literally decades. Simply put, sales work.

So, yeah. Who doesn’t love a good SALE? But, what if you already know that? You have all sorts of channels that are broadcasting that you’re having a sale, but you need an affordable solution that can do more for you.

Text message marketing can help

Using text message marketing allows businesses to deliver discount codes, coupon codes, exclusive opt-in loyalty rewards, and more directly to consumers in real-time. The real-time aspect can have a seriously fast impact on your bottom line.

For example, you may realize that the upcoming lunch hour is going to be a slow one. A simple 10% off coupon code text sent as people are deciding where to go on their lunch break can be enough to get them in the door and put you back on track within hours.

The beauty of a tool that can create such amazing turnaround times is doubled when you consider this lower-cost marketing channel’s affordability. Such direct and cost-effective marketing can lead to substantial gains in your market share.

Other marketing mediums work too. For example, you could send a promotional email or mail printed fliers, but their reach and effectiveness have limits. People have learned to block out ads as they see so many in a given day, and who wants to keep up with a printed coupon or search through the email on their phone? Why should they when a more convenient option exists in the messaging app on their phone?

A timely text from their favorite brand offering them an exclusive discount just for them feels to a customer more like a check-in from a friend than an advertisement. The exclusivity alone makes customers feel valued and special.

Consumers respond to coupon codes

A client is just going about their evening at home on the couch, scrolling through photos and videos on their phone, when they get a text. The text is from their new favorite brand of jeans, and then, they see it: S-A-L-E!

The average text is opened and read within three minutes, and this text is no exception. Immediately, the customer who wasn’t even thinking about buying another pair of jeans this week is browsing the website and searching for their size.

The customer switches back to the messaging app for a quick sec to grab the coupon code: JUST4U. Boom! “I saved 40%!” The part they aren’t thinking about is this: They paid 60% on a purchase they hadn’t even planned to buy.

The customer feels great about the money they just saved, and the company’s value just increased for that customer because they had a sale that was just for them. Did you notice what just happened?

Through the magic of short message service, a brand made it into a customer’s home, interrupted their evening, and still came away with a successful conversion. Also, that exclusive coupon was simultaneously sent to that entire targeted group. Even if it results in sales with only 20% of the targeted audience, that’s an increase in website traffic, brand awareness, and increased profitability for the evening.

Using your marketing resources

There’s no one unhappy from that experience, and for a significantly low cost, instant marketing occurred. This is great because, in this permission-based marketing, the consumer has asked or at least agreed to be marketed to on a regular basis. What business can’t use a marketing channel that does that?

Maybe this sounds like a one-off marketing fantasy. Consider this though, RetailMeNot conducted a recent survey that found that 67% of consumers have made a purchase they weren’t originally going to make solely because they received a discount or coupon code. A majority of millennials have admitted that they can’t even complete a purchase without searching for a coupon first.

By bringing the code to them quickly through a convenient and familiar application, like a text, you’ve added even more value to their experience because they didn’t have to do the legwork of finding the code, and it’s waiting for them in its own folder in the messaging app.

Texting – now more than ever before

Currently, retailers are using text promo codes and coupon codes more than ever before to reach customers, reward their loyalty, and encourage them to shop.

The whole world has experienced social distancing at this point. Some customers are even understandably to participate in traditional in-person shopping. If they’re not in-store, how do you stay relevant to traditional printed signage or effective when they notice your latest social media post?

Textable coupons for your store can reach your customer when you need them to — and wherever customers may be. The right nudge at the right time is often all that’s needed to encourage conversions, and texts are hard for people to ignore.

Over 70% of the world’s population owns a cell phone, and virtually all mobile devices are capable of receiving a text. Of the text messages sent daily, guess how many are opened. An impressive 97% of text messages are opened.

Of the messages that are opened, 90% are read within just three minutes of being received. If you send your target market a text message, they’re going to open it and most likely scan it.

OK! Let’s use textable coupons

So, you’re ready to admit that your marketing strategy could benefit from adding text message marketing, and you want to use textable coupons for your store. That’s awesome!

Now what? Right?

Well, there are some things to keep in mind as you begin strategizing and planning your SMS marketing campaign. Some of the major points:

• Always announce yourself. This prevents your messages from being seen as spam.
• Keep it concise. SMS means short message service. Likewise, your texts should be kept short.
• Caps lock is your friend. Remember the power of SALE!
• Readability is everything. Line breaks can help with this.
• Test view everything. You don’t serve food that you haven’t tasted. Don’t text what you haven’t seen.
• Timing is everything. Be willing to try different times to find what works.
• Provide exclusivity. Reward customer loyalty with discounts and coupons that can’t be found elsewhere.
• Don’t overdo it. The last thing you want is to take your customer’s attention and turn it into annoyance.
• Use existing marketing channels to help promote your messaging campaign.
• Use your messaging campaign to point to other marketing channels.
• Strive for seamless, fluid multi-channel marketing to give your customer substance

Keep your promises. Remember that this process works through consent from your audience, so respect them enough to do what you’ve told them you would do.

Summary

SMS marketing may sound technical and difficult, but the reality is that it can easily become a natural and affordable component of a healthy marketing strategy. Don’t be afraid to embrace the world of text message marketing.

There is not a market that doesn’t have a use for some form of sms marketing. For retailers and e-tailers, textable coupons can greatly improve profitability, brand awareness, and customer traffic. Textable coupons seek out the customer and initiate interest instead of waiting for organic searches to bring customers around.

The power of the sale for customers and businesses has been met with a new era of customer reachability. Textable coupons have the ability to create sales that otherwise might never have existed while also providing value to consumers and loyalty rewards.