Did you know 96% of marketers use marketing automation? Either it can be email automation or SMS automation; over 76% of companies have seen ROI within the first year.
In simplified terms, email and SMS automation are the two automated communication systems businesses use to communicate with their customers on time.
What is Email and SMS Automation?
SMS automation is the pre-written text that brands or businesses send customers or subscribers. It can be a discount, transactional, purchasing, or shipping details.
Email Automation is the pre-written emails that brands use for their businesses to communicate with their customers on time. It can be a welcome email, abandon cart, product suggestion, review request, etc.
How can both Email and SMS Automation work together for your Business Growth?
According to Zipia, 81.6% of Americans, that is 270 million people, will own smartphones in 2023, with the average time calculated to be 5 hours, and 24 minutes were said to be spent by them on mobile daily. So this is a clear insight that businesses can rely heavily on email and SMS automation for business growth.
Unfortunately, in today’s highly competitive world, only Email automation doesn’t help to achieve your business goal; instead, combining email and SMS automation works more effectively. A strategic way to communicate with your customers smoothly.
The world is your Oyster.
Emails work great for sending longer content and newsletter, but SMS is much better for sending time-sensitive messages. The time-sensitive campaign gleams well if it is bridged perfectly with Email and SMS.
There is no guarantee that your emails will be read entirely by your audience, but the average text response is recorded to be less than 90 seconds.
How does it help the Growth of your Business?
Email and SMS automation are powerful tools that streamline your business’s marketing efforts and drive growth.
- With marketing automation, the team can set up campaigns in advance and save time and resources.
- It helps businesses build brand awareness and drive sales by segmenting and sending personalized messages.
- Automating repetitive tasks like welcome emails and follow-ups increases efficiency and allows you to focus on other things.
- Automated campaigns improve audience targeting and remind consumers about sales.
- Moreover, it gives a complete picture of email and SMS automation so that you can tweak it.
1. Welcome Email:
After you registered with an ecommerce site, purchase website, or service website, you might have come across this email.
2. Promotional Email:
A brand never fails to inform customers about upcoming discounts/offers. In addition to providing the customers with a sense of value, these emails keep them informed about the event.
3. Transactional Email:
Another email that customers would like to receive from a brand is all about transactional if the order is confirmed, shipped, and out for delivery or not.
Some practical use cases of SMS Marketing Automation:
1. Order Shipment SMS:
I’m sure many of you would have received such messages from the ecommerce platform you made the purchase. As ecommerce platform is interlinked with our daily life, customers scroll through the website or app to purchase online anytime.
It is also said that 72% of the customers like to receive such messages regarding order shipment SMS.
It is said that 70% of the consumers abandon their cart, but as a brand, it is also said that if you send an SMS to your customers within an hour of abandonment, then there is a 20.3% of conversion rate.
Customers usually abandon their cart for various reasons, and also these trigger SMS can work as a reminder of the cart that is left and make them come again.
According to EZtexting, 26% of businesses send promotional SMS to their customers to inform them about the running and upcoming promotions.
Why use it for Business?
Though both have their own solid and valid point, they both still justify balancing out the comprehensive marketing effort. SMS fills in the gap of Email marketing and Vice versa.
- Better Audience Understanding
Undoubtedly, both email and SMS automation have data reports and customer feedback. Combining them gives you a broader picture of your customers or subscribers to frame a customized approach for your business growth.
- Better Engagement
End of the day, every business requires better customer engagement with their company. In this way, bridging email and SMS automation works for better results.
For example, you are sending your audience an automated email regarding the Big Sale! And again, an automatic SMS reminder is set one day beforehand for them to boost their engagement.
- Cross-Compatible
Use the data productively from one channel to another to shore up the success of your business’s automated campaign and even for segmentation.
For example, when you send automated SMS to your customers regarding the flash sale of baby products, it is reported by EZTexting that 53% of consumers respond to a text within 3 minutes; you can add the audience under baby products sale in your email segmentation.
- Effective Outreach
Combining both email and SMS automation for promotional outreach helps you to reach larger audiences. Both channels track open and engagement rates, which enables you to determine your customer engagement rate.
This satisfies your customer with your brand marketing strategy because, according to Granter, 98% of SMS gets opened, reducing the chance of being marked as spam or do-not-call-list.
- Less Abandoned Cart Rate
Generally, emails are commonly used to reduce the number of abandoned carts. Those automated emails are set a day or a week after your customers leave the carriage.
Brands saw a low open rate for such emails, but linking automated SMS strategy to it that can work more effectively because, according to Granter, SMS has a 90% open rate compared to the rate of 20% of Emails.
How to Implement Email and SMS Automation for Your Business Growth?
SMS and email automation serve the same purpose, communication between the sender and receiver about brand and business updates.
According to Opinium research, both email and SMS automation platforms have a balanced race, with the precise stats of 37% of the consumers like to receive emails from the brand while 21% dislike it. In the same way out for 32% of consumers wanted to receive text messages from the brand, while 27% opposed it.
Customers always like to be seen and valued by brands. Both email and SMS Automation supports the omnichannel marketing effort made by businesses to increase sales and brand loyalty.
- Right automation platform:
Choose an email and SMS automation platform that matches your business goals, target audience, and budget.
- Get the Contact:
Collect customer contact information through signup forms, lead magnets, etc.
- Segmentation:
Segment the Email and SMS lists based on customer activities and engagement with your business.
- Templates:
Create effective Email and SMS templates based on the message to your audience.
- Automation Flow:
Put the flow into the automation mode based on the events like discounts and offers, abandon cart, transactional, signups, purchase history, etc.
- Analyze and Optimize:
Continuously analyze and optimize the campaign based on the open rates and click-through rates, and conversion rates.
Here are the Types of SMS to Automate for your Business Growth:
- Sending Reminders SMS:
Sending reminders to your customers about pending payment actions, upcoming events, etc.
- Order Confirmation SMS
Once your customers have made some actions on your website, it can be an order confirmation sending them increases customer satisfaction with your brand.
- Shipping Tracking SMS
Keep customers informed about the shipping and provide them with the tracking link of the product.
- Promotional SMS
Sending a customized promotional message to your customers about what is new with your product or service with some discount coupon for them to try out.
- Welcome SMS
Customers always like to feel unique with the brand; automating welcome SMS and birthday SMS can increase your brand loyalty among the audience.
- Getting Feedback SMS
Once your customers have shopped with you or used your service, SMS is an easy way to collect customer feedback by providing a link.
Adding some Types of Email to Automate your Business Growth is,
- Welcome Email
First impressions are always important, and best, set up triggered automated emails to your customers to make them feel personalized and valued.
- Abandoned Cart Email
Many customers leave their cart mid-way for various reasons. You can send a reminder email to your customers to make them finish the purchase by creating a FOMO.
- Promotional Email
Always inform your customers about your newly added products, services, upcoming sales, or events. This also helps you to cross-sell and even upsell with your customers.
- Follow-up Email
This type of email is usually sent to make the users complete their actions or even to express gratitude for subscribing to your newsletter or purchasing from you.
- Re-Engagement Email
When your audience hasn’t taken action with you for a while, you can email them by suggesting a product or offering some coupon to make them get into action.
Summing Up:
Businesses can streamline their communication process using email and SMS automation, reducing human error, increasing sales, and driving growth in terms of revenue and profitability. Automated campaigns allow businesses to target and nurture leads, improve conversion, and retain customers.
Moreover, SMS offers companies even more ways to connect with customers and sell to them in the future. According to estimates, SMS marketing will grow by $12.6 billion by 2025, while email marketing will grow by $13.26 billion.
When you send an effective Email and SMS, you connect with customers positively.
