If you’re like most retailers, you’re probably always worrying about churn. No matter how dazzling your product is, research shows that consumers are constantly looking for alternatives. And really soon, right after the holidays, customers are more likely than ever to stop interacting with your brand. Maybe they’ll just be worn out from all the holiday shopping and eggnog.

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But, don’t be discouraged. With a few adjustments to your marketing strategy, you can get customers re-engaged with your product in no time.

Using SMS is a great place to start. Text message marketing actually has the best open rate of all marketing channels. It’s low-cost, fast, and has a much higher response rate than email (45% vs. 6% respectively).

Here are some best practices:

1. SMS loyalty programs

Offer SMS discount coupons to your most frequent customers. Make sure that the deal is only available through text messaging to give the coupon added value.

2. Send back-in-stock alerts

Remind your customers about the sold-out item they wanted to buy a few weeks ago. Send them a quick SMS when it’s back in the warehouse and see if you can’t regain their interest. You might even give them the option to reserve the product with a quick SMS reply back to you.

3. Follow up with SMS surveys

Send a simple text survey to your customers after a purchase — to figure out the positives and negatives of their experience. Also, because SMS messages are brief and to-the-point, you have a better chance of getting your customers’ attention.

4. Promote your products

One of the easiest ways to fight churn is to give customers a reason to come back to your store. Think about texting them special offers or informing them about a sale. Plus, once customers opt in to receive messages from you, you have the potential to build your mobile database, by as much as 41 percent.

5. Increase store and website visits

With an SMS message, you can suggest special, seasonal promotions that can only be redeemed in your store or website. These can be especially effective in drawing users back to your brand.

6. Purchase and delivery notifications

However, if you want to keep more customers with you in the first place (and of course you do), start personalizing your service with SMS. You can improve your buyers’ experience by sending them ‘thank you’ texts after purchases, or by keeping them informed with delivery notifications.

In short, SMS is the way to go. If you start sending SMS messages instead of email, you can fight churn and really power your marketing campaigns.

Find out more about how you can use SMS, and other CPaaS solutions, through MessageBird today.

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