What Is the Most Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy for Retailers?
Reducing the cost of advertising while maximizing market reach is critical to the survival of all retailers. While some remain loyal to traditional marketing strategies, many are taking advantage of innovative approaches. Your customers now spend most of their time on their phones, so it's not surprising that text marketing is one of the most cost-effective advertising methods for retailers.
Text Marketing Service vs Email Marketing Affordability
Email inboxes are now overflowing with promotional messages, resulting in a measly 22 percent open rate for the average email campaign. Compare that to an open rate around 99 percent for SMS text marketing.
Lower open rates translate to less engagement from a retail promotion, which makes email marketing the costlier advertising option in the long run.
Most consumers are fast to delete email messages from retailers if they aren't already planning to make a purchase. They may not even look at the subject line if they don't need anything from the retailer in the short term. This is another factor reducing open and response rates, which drives up the cost of email marketing.
If you consider only the cost of producing and distributing text messages and email messages, both retail marketing opportunities may seem comparable in price.
If you consider the time spent creating messages and the amount of engagement produced from a marketing campaign, SMS marketing is often the more cost-effective option. This is due to greater ROI that comes from the higher open and response rates produced by an effective text blast campaign. It's also much faster to create a text message than a full email message with html and graphics.
SMS Marketing vs Television and Radio Advertisements ROI
Television advertisements require significant time and technical resources during the creation phase.
- You need advanced graphics and sensory details plus live human talent.
- Retailers may spend thousands of dollars producing one advertisement for television, but SMS marketing services only require short written messages that require no media, no human talent and no expensive technology.
Retailers must spend even more money purchasing time on television networks.
- Prime spots can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and then many viewers will fast forward through those advertisements.
- Those watching live television are likely to use commercial breaks as opportunities to use the bathroom or get refreshments, so they aren't captive audiences as they were years in the past.
Radio advertisements are also more expensive than marketing by text because they require more time and money to create.
- Retailers must then purchase air time to ensure members of their target market hear their radio advertisements.
- It costs significantly less to use a text messaging marketing service to send out bulk text messages to the same target market.
Text Blast vs Direct mail Promotions Cost Effectiveness
Direct mail advertising requires a significant amount of time creating eye-grabbing graphics and headlines that stand out in a thick pile of mail.
- Text messages require only short written messages and perhaps a link or coupon code, so retailers can create them in much less time.
Text messaging services allow retailers to send out a text message with the click of a button, and responses are often received in seconds.
- This is much faster than the process of printing out a direct mail promotion and waiting for consumers to receive the mail and hopefully respond.
Open rates for direct mail campaigns are around 5 percent or less.
- That means retailers must mail out more marketing materials to increase engagement and sales.
- That makes direct mail so expensive that it will never compete with SMS text marketing in terms of cost.
Response rates are much higher for SMS marketing services because it's more convenient for the consumer.
- Most shoppers don't want to carry printed material into a store when they can click a link from a text message or show their phones to a cashier for in-store discounts.
- Convenience equals greater participation, which in turn makes text marketing the more affordable option with greater ROI for most campaigns.
How much does it cost to send out a text blast for a retail promotion?
An SMS promotional text blast will cost just pennies per message. The larger your contact list, the more you will pay for a given text blast, but your engagement rate should also increase with a longer contact list. More engagement typically means more sales conversions, so you should increase ROI when you send out more text messages.
Are text marketing customers likely to show loyalty to a retail brand?
The value of a retail marketing campaign goes far beyond the cost of production and distribution.
- Response rates and repeat purchases are just as valuable because retail businesses thrive off repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising.
- Research has shown that the lifetime value of a customer increases when they subscribe to SMS text blast campaigns, which puts this form of marketing far ahead of other retail marketing opportunities when cost and ROI are considered
You can also use a bulk SMS service to run campaigns that are focused on loyalty and brand recognition.
- While those campaigns may not deliver immediate sales, they can increase repeat sales by making current and past customers feel like VIPs.
- That should increase engagement and response rates when you send out a text blast intended to bring in instant revenue
Try Retailers Most Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy for Free
If you are not yet reaching 95% of your target audience, we are offering retailers the opportunity to try using the best marketing strategy in text messaging for free. To take advantage of the offer, simply call our team of Client Success Managers and tell them that you would like to try our free trial texting plans.
One of our friendly team members will answer any questions you may have about using SMS text marketing, explain how to set up your online account and guide you through getting started with sending out your first marketing text messages. If you encounter any difficulties, our team is always on hand to help you out.
There is no need for you to provide your credit card, sign a contract or commit to any long-term relationship between yourself and EZ Texting. Your free trial account will be ready for you to use as you wish (subject to our Terms of Service) within minutes of setting up your account.
When you call, don't forget to ask about our sign-up tools for your websites and social media channels. With these tools, your visitors and followers will be able to opt-in to receive your SMS marketing texts, increasing your promotional reach further still.
