Table of Contents
Introduction
The modern consumer in our increasingly digital world expects more personalization and speed than ever before. Consumers expect brands to anticipate their wants and needs, and that means companies need to use emerging technologies to their advantage to provide timely updates and deliver personalized experiences in the moment. SMS marketing has proven to be one of the most effective routes to target audiences, and alongside other digital channels such as social media and email campaigns, it is an effective way to cut through the noise.
But not all SMS campaigns are created equal. With this focus on personalization (you’re going to hear that word a lot in this article) and speedy responses comes a real need for automation and adaptation, so it’s only natural that technology is emerging to adapt to customer needs in real-time. Dynamic SMS campaigns are superseding traditional SMS blasts in their effectiveness, especially for businesses looking to drive engagement, retention, and growth. Let’s take a look at what dynamic SMS campaigns are and how they can help enliven your marketing campaigns today.
What Are Dynamic SMS Campaigns?
A dynamic SMS campaign is a text-based marketing technique that can adapt its content based on customer behavior. Unlike traditional SMS blasts, dynamic SMS tailors its output, timing, and targeting to specific customers, relying on customer data to guide more personalized messages to the right places. It turns SMS marketing into a two-way, strategic, real-time engagement channel, rather than a one-way, generic one.
This solution has cross-industry relevance, and we’ll be delving deeper into specific industries later, but some examples include e-commerce, where reminders can be sent about abandoned carts, or discounts and bonuses offered to repeat customers based on prior purchases or browsing history. In terms of physical shopping, an SMS could be triggered when a consumer is near a store, offering information or discounts, or to provide live-event alerts about flight delays, sports scores, and more.
What’s Wrong With Static Campaigns?
There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ text message to suit every stage of the customer journey, and the lack of timing means a text will show up when a customer is not ready to make a purchase or engage with other marketing content. Basically, static campaigns lead to lower engagement levels, missed opportunities, and critically, fewer sales.
Real-Time Adaptation
The power of dynamic SMS marketing campaigns is that they can combine personalization with speed and relevance. Dynamic SMS is all about real-time adaptation, and this can be illustrated in numerous ways — for example, a coffee shop can identify and target those who go for their morning cup or those who prefer a post-lunch pick-me-up with offers and branded reminders. Contextual relevance is also a factor in the success of real-time adaptation; things like weather reports, traffic updates, and even website performance can be subjects of SMS content. Studies show that personalized, timely SMS campaigns can achieve open rates above 90% and conversion rates significantly higher than static texts.
SMS Analytics
Working in tandem with dynamic SMS marketing are SMS analytics, used to track the efficiency and performance of your SMS content. Are your customers reading your texts? Are they clicking your links, replying, or opting out? These are key questions for marketers, and the answers allow them to further tailor and target their content and focus on how best to use real-time adaptation.
Using SMS analytics to improve performance is a question of refining concepts we’ve already touched on and optimizing them. Timing and frequency of messages are crucial, so if you’re not hitting that sweet spot, you could be missing out on a conversion, and you can adjust your strategy accordingly based on opt-out data and other metrics. Marketing has no hard and fast rules, so you can use analytics to test different ideas for calls to action (CTA), wordings, or even the use of emojis in your communications.
Analytics reveal insights into customer behavior, also, once again detecting things like abandoned carts or at what point in the customer journey they drop off. Knowledge is power, and marketers can learn a lot about their customers through SMS analytics. Be sure, in such a competitive and crowded marketplace, your competitors are likely using dynamic SMS marketing, real-time adaptation, and working with SMS analytics to bolster overall performance.
How Dynamic SMS Campaigns Work
Dynamic SMS campaigns, at their core, rely on automation powered by real-time data. The process starts with data collection — customer behavior (website visits, app usage, purchases, etc), contextual signals such as location, time of day, weather, or inventory, and previous customer behavior in terms of preferences, demographics, or history. Customers are then segmented appropriately with defined triggers based on the data mentioned above. Segmentation means dividing your customer base into different segments to help drive the next step — that word again — personalization.
SMS content adapts automatically and dynamically to target customers based on their behavior. An abandoned cart could be encouraged to be purchased with a discount or bonus, or with a highly personalized message. The system sends the message as soon as it is triggered, meaning fast and timely delivery to the customer. The results are then fed back into the analytics system for further refinement.
Uses of Dynamic SMS Campaigns
The use of dynamic SMS marketing is a cross-industry one, and we’re seeing more and more sectors harness the marketing power of the system. Here are a few examples.
E-Commerce & Retail
When a potential customer abandons their cart, a personalized reminder can be sent out minutes later to try to recover a potential sale. If a flash sale is taking place, urgent SMS campaigns can be triggered by inventory changes and lowered prices. Post-purchase engagement is an area where dynamic SMS excels, and thank you messages with tailored upsell recommendations or special offers can be immediately triggered.
Travel
Real-time dynamic SMS can update travelers on flight delays or cancellations, hotel check-in times, or booking confirmations. They can also detect when someone enters a new location, offering discounted rates on local businesses and chains, as well as offering personalized recommendations, updates, and info on nearby attractions based on previous customer behavior.
Finances
Customers can get real-time alerts about suspicious behavior, such as new sign-ins, instantly on their mobiles, alerting them to potential fraud. Reminders can be sent at appropriate times based on billing cycles to ensure customers don’t forget to make payments. There is also potential for loyalty offers for frequent transactions.
Healthcare
Missed appointments can cost healthcare services lots of money and can inconvenience patients. Adaptive appointment reminders can jog the memory, or alert the patient to any appointment changes. Dynamic SMS services can provide updates when prescription refills are ready, and even offer personalized wellness content dependent on data-driven history.
Entertainment & Events
Dynamic SMS works particularly well in the sports and entertainment sectors. For example, SMS can give live score updates during matches, or changes in betting odds, etc. Concert tickets sell out quickly these days, so a reminder when they go on sale, if the customer has expressed interest in the event, is prescient.
Building a Dynamic SMS Campaign Strategy
Like all marketing campaigns, dynamic SMS requires a carefully worked-out, yet adaptable strategy in order to generate the most effective outcomes. Defining goals and metrics is a natural step — decide what you want to achieve and set clear, readable key performance indicators (KPIs), such as click-through rates, conversions, or repeat purchases.
Data sources need to be integrated, otherwise, real-time gateway automated SMS won’t be possible. Events that should trigger SMS messages need to be identified, such as cart abandonment or account inactivity, or more positively, repeat purchases or customer anniversaries. Then you can tailor your personalized content appropriately. Your content should be well-crafted, keeping messages succinct and to the point with clear CTAs, well-defined and snappy copy, and of course, personalized elements.
Post-Campaign
A relatively new kid on the marketing block, dynamic SMS marketing using automated systems has proven itself to be an invaluable part of any marketing campaign. Combined with other digital channels, it is a powerful tool that marketers everywhere should be using as part of a wider strategy for greater success in a crowded marketplace.
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