SMS boasts several unique advantages over email, especially given the prevalence of smartphones and the dominance of e-commerce today. It is the most optimal way to communicate with your ambassadors and deliver your rewards. To learn how to implement SMS for your new or existing ambassador programs, check out this article.
Mobile shopping is the new black
75% of young adults claim to use their mobile devices to shop and 45% of older adults say the same. Simultaneously, e-commerce sales amounted to almost half a trillion dollars in 2021 and continues to grow at a rapid pace. As a result, tons and tons of purchases are happening via mobile devices. SMS is the only truly optimized way to communicate with customers via their mobile devices. While emails have become increasingly more mobile friendly, there still exists several barriers in its form and deliverability.
SMS doesn't get spam filtered
Email providers are increasingly marking emails as spam, drastically impacting deliverability of messages. It is estimated that nearly 50% of all emails land in spam boxes. On top of that, providers like Gmail, are segmenting inboxes, making legitimate branded content easier to miss. With SMS, separate inboxes do not exist nor a spam inbox, making it easier for critical program messages to be seen.
SMS, by its nature, has higher open and click through rates
Four out of every five customers say they open every text message they receive. In general, this drives a 99% open rate for SMS campaigns compared to just 20% for email. Similarly, SMS boasts a 30% purchase conversion over just 3-4% for email.
Because SMS campaigns are must shorter in nature, generally limited to 160 characters, consumers are much more likely to reach and engage with the call to action. Click through rates on SMS campaigns hover around 20% whereas email reaches 3%. Intuitively, the lengthy and dense nature of emails fails to excite and induce engagement in today's crowded attention economy.
SMS is simpler to design and implement
Creating a program email requires design expertise, ample assets, brand guidelines, iteration, feedback, an ESP build, and several tests on a variety of different platforms. Anyone who has designed and implemented an email knows how cumbersome and time consuming the process is. SMS ditches most of the tedious email processes and requires a basic message and brand voice. Consequently, the iteration process is much simpler, freeing up important time to focus on program strategy and other comms.
So how does this all affect your LoudCrowd programs?
SMS's higher deliverability translates to more program sign ups, higher ambassador awareness, improved ambassador engagement, and enhanced reward redemption.
SMS's higher open and click through rates will drive more ambassador participation and an increase in reward redemption. We already know most people are shopping via their smart devices, so optimizing reward delivery via SMS will drive redemption.
SMS enhances the LoudCrowd virtuous loop: Higher reward redemption → more products to talk about in social → more UGC → more new buyer discovery
The simplicity of SMS drafting and implementation will drive quicker launch times and spare important time and resources for other action items comms. With the spare time, you can implement other supplemental messaging. Some examples below:
Activity statuses – “your 4th post this month has been approved! One more to earn your next reward”
Reminders – “one more week to get in your UGC”
Weekly/daily challenges & contests – “we’re running a special challenge this week”
Reward delivery – “Yay for you! You’ve earned our top reward this month”
Surprise & delight – “Special gift for our favorite story this week”