With the right customer experience and data platform (CXDP), SMS becomes a versatile tool helping you achieve a myriad of goals and engage audiences across the globe, and across any industry. So, how could SMS become the superhero in your marketing toolkit? 

Achieve your business goals, one character at a time

SMS marketing messages are short but powerful, with some marketers seeing higher engagement when using mobile channels alongside email. Many consumers say that SMS feels like a more personal channel, and as a result, sees average open rates of 98%. With your messaging being seen, you can focus on driving the results you want. We’ve seen the channel used to:

Propel sales and revenue

With impressive open rates and a conversion rate of 45%, you’ve got a much higher chance of getting your brand in front of the right people. So whether you’re announcing a sale, showcasing new products, or offering personalized discounts, SMS ensures your message lands right where it counts – in the hands of your audience. One Dotdigital customer London Lash, earned an impressive £114K revenue from SMS in the first six months of their campaign, with an ROI of 7:1.

Drive app downloads

Have an app that deserves more attention? Looking to deepen your customers’ mobile experiences? SMS is the best place for you to encourage your audience to download your app due to the uninterrupted mobile experience. You can send short app download links with SMS or offer incentives, such as exclusive discounts for app purchases, seamlessly directing your audience to the right place without them leaving their phone.

Gather customer feedback

Want to understand your customers better? Send them a simple SMS survey. Fast and easy to complete, SMS surveys typically have a response rate that’s 3X higher than traditional email surveys. Understanding your audiences’ needs and preferences has never been so straightforward, helping you refine your customer experience. Ipsos, a Dotdigital customer, made the most of our Communications API and broadcast feature to handle feedback from over half a million customers.

Universal appeal: SMS in every industry

SMS offers unmatched flexibility, making it a powerful tool that can be adapted to the specific needs of virtually any industry. Its ease of integration into existing marketing strategies makes it a universally appealing option. Here’s a glimpse into how diverse industries leverage SMS for success:

Retail and ecommerce

• Promotions and flash sales: Create a sense of urgency and exclusivity with limited-time offers sent directly to customers’ phones.
• Abandoned cart recovery: Gently nudge customers to complete their purchases with personalized reminders and special deals.
• Loyalty programs: Foster customer engagement through points updates, exclusive offers, and birthday greetings.

Finance

• Two-factor authentication (2FA): Enhance security by sending one-time codes for logins and transactions directly to customers’ phones.
• Fraud alerts: Notify customers immediately of suspicious activity on their accounts, allowing for quicker intervention.
• Balance updates and payment reminders: Keep customers informed about account activity and upcoming payment deadlines.

Healthcare

• Appointment reminders: Reduce no-shows and improve patient experience with automated appointment confirmations and reminders.
• Lab results and prescription refills: Provide patients with convenient access to important information via secure text messages.
• Public health campaigns: Send crucial information about vaccinations, disease outbreaks, and preventative measures.

Hospitality and travel

• Mobile check-in and boarding passes: Streamline guest arrival processes and eliminate the need for physical tickets.
• Hotel promotions and upsells: Offer guests exclusive discounts on upgrades or spa treatments during their stay for customer satisfaction that beats the competition every time.
• Flight status updates and travel tips: Keep passengers informed about delays, gate changes, and valuable travel insights.

Education

• Emergency alerts and school closures: Deliver critical information to parents and students during unforeseen circumstances.
• Homework reminders and class updates: Keep students and parents on track with important reminders and announcements.
• Parent-teacher communication: Facilitate easy communication between teachers and parents regarding student progress or upcoming meetings.

Non-profit and events

• Fundraising campaigns: Enable convenient donation options via SMS, increasing participation and boosting fundraising efforts. SMS outreach for nonprofits has shown to be highly successful, with Action for Children generating hundreds in donations with just one SMS campaign.
• Event promotion and ticketing: Disseminate event details, generate excitement, and allow for mobile ticketing for a seamless experience.
• Volunteer recruitment and management: Mobilize volunteers by sending updates, reminders, and expressing appreciation via text messages.

These are just a few examples, and the possibilities are truly endless. With its high open rates, conciseness, and affordability, SMS can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and across all industries.

Go global: Reach billions with the right CXDP

You already know that SMS is a global channel, which means it’s perfect for businesses that want to expand into new markets and demographics. However, not every marketing automation platform supports SMS sending in multiple countries. Make sure you choose a platform that has global support so you can confidently connect with your audience without borders. 

Dotdigital empowers you to send to 220+ countries and territories and is ready to scale with you. If you’re already a Dotdigital customer, talk to your Customer Success Manager to get started today.

If you’re not a Dotdigital customer yet, you can request a demo of the platform.

Add SMS to your marketing strategy

SMS marketing empowers you to connect with your audience on a personal level, enhancing the customer experience with impressive open rates and global reach. This versatile tool cuts through the noise, offering a direct line to your customers’ pockets across industries. Leverage SMS marketing to drive sales, increase app downloads, gather feedback, expand your market, and achieve a multitude of goals – all through the power of texting. Start your journey to marketing success today.

But, what is complex commerce?

Businesses that experience complex commerce usually cater to multiple markets, a variety of customer demographics, and several product lines simultaneously. As you grow and expand, so do your commerce needs, often leading to an intricately connected web of requirements and workflows.

Businesses often evolve into these scenarios when their customers’ demands and expectations diversify, or when moving into new markets requires products that cater to multiple demographics and markets around the world. However, while complexities might be challenging at times, it’s a natural indicator of growth and innovation. Just as the best songs have layers of harmonies and gourmet meals require numerous ingredients and steps, complex commerce signifies a drive to stand out so you can cater to an array of customers worldwide.

Rather than viewing complex commerce as an obstacle to marketing, it’s essential to understand that the limitations are likely due to your provider falling short in supporting your growth.

Going global without limits

Most marketing automation platforms aren’t equipped to handle complex commerce. They may lack global reach or aren’t able to support multi-store arrangements, restricting growth for businesses with multiple brands across the world. This can cause issues in a marketer’s day-to-day life which can turn drive and passion into frustration and aggravation.

Inadequate platforms can lead to the inability to manage multiple stores cohesively, creating disjointed data, poor decision-making, and time-consuming reporting procedures. These issues are frustrating and can ultimately hinder long-term growth.

To successfully scale and navigate the world of complex commerce, businesses would benefit from a customer experience and data platform (CXDP) that offers support in these five key areas. 

1. Go big, go global: multi-store and multi-brand support

Seamless engagement with customers shouldn’t have to be a challenge just because you have different brands or accounts. Your ideal marketing automation platform would be able to support this with several essential features with lots of different options that aren’t going to restrict you. 

Let’s say you have multiple regional stores on your commerce platform of choice (e.g. Shopify), and within that, you have multiple brands to manage. Unlike other marketing automation platforms, Dotdigital supports multi-store and multi-brand options with a number of our ecommerce partners. We also offer parent and child account structures which make marketing a breeze when you need to have different subscribe lists for different brands, for example. With Dotdigital, you can mix and match these features however you like so that you can be sure that your platform is a perfect fit.

Parent and child account structures will simplify management for multi-brand businesses. For those with multiple stores globally, catering to international customers is made easier with multi-currency and auto conversion features, as well as the ability to communicate using multiple languages. At Dotdigital, we help you create seamless journeys for your audience in 20+ languages, and easy reporting that supports 35+ currencies. 

There’s no doubt that siloed data across different accounts will be making your life incredibly difficult, and you’re not alone: 98% of businesses state data silos as being a problem. If you’re currently managing all your customer bases in different places, and reconciling data from multiple sources because your provider doesn’t accommodate your needs, it could be time to look for one that does.

2. Cohesive commerce: integrations, commerce modules, and APIs

If your ecommerce brand is built on a headless platform such as Shopify Hydrogen, Shopware, or Commercetools, then your customer experience platform will need to support this setup. If it doesn’t fully support it, you’ll struggle with creating a truly unique customer experience through custom programming. At Dotdigital, we support headless commerce integrations so that complex commerce businesses can customize shopper experiences with full flexibility. 

B2B expectations are rapidly evolving so we support those businesses too, integrating with tech partners like Adobe Commerce and your chosen CRM. Our Adobe Commerce modules mean that you can sync customer, order, product, and quote data to truly leverage prospect and catalog data. Whether you’re B2C or B2B, you can rest assured that we integrate with your tech stack so you’re getting the right data to scale your business.

Your platform should also boast a wide range of API capabilities so that your full tech stack feels right at home with your provider. Dotdigital API lets you do exactly that. Built with developers in mind, our open API and an extensive list of webhooks let you connect your data seamlessly so you can deliver real-time messages.

3. Powerful reporting at your fingertips

Reporting needs to be easy and accessible. No matter how fancy your reporting dashboards look with your marketing automation provider, it’ll be meaningless if your data can’t be reconciled in one place. Without the multi-store and brand capabilities mentioned above, you’ll probably just end up with a headache when tasked with cross-account reporting. With Dotdigital, your reporting will look and act the part. Our cross-account analytics works across multiple stores and our retail and commerce dashboards can be filtered by single or connected stores.

4. Support for your business anytime, anywhere

We all strive for perfection, and the easiest way to achieve that is with the help and support of real-life teams of experts. That’s especially the case if you have complex needs. A helping hand could be the difference between a faulty campaign and a record-breaking month of sales. Most marketing providers only operate 9-5 in their local time zones – and even then it can be impossible to reach a human being. If you’re a commerce business looking to scale, you’ll need to be up and running 24/7. We believe your provider’s support team should do the same. That’s why you can reach Dotdigital’s award-winning support teams anytime, anywhere.

We also have deliverability experts with over 100 years of collective experience, and specialized teams to help you onboard, train, and optimize creative campaigns. They’re even in your region, so it doesn’t matter where you are in the world.

5. The boundless tech that helps you scale

To confidently step into a bright future as a complex commerce business, your chosen platform should have tech that adapts to your needs for continued growth, which you can’t guarantee without a platform that has scalable architecture in place. At Dotdigital, we foster excellent relationships with our technology partners who have built dynamic app blocks in our platform to ensure the smoothest possible experience with your tech stack. What’s more, we’re always working with our partners to make sure we’re evolving at the pace that our customers need us to. Along with robust APIs and custom program extensions, there really are no limits to what you can do to delight your customers as you continue to grow. 

For complex commerce, the solution is simple with a CXDP

To truly prosper in complex commerce, you need to embrace it. That means choosing a robust CXDP like Dotdigital, to support your growth no matter what challenges are thrown your way. Get started with a provider that understands complex commerce to see how you could scale and reach new heights anywhere in the world.

Today, machine learning and artificial intelligence have joined forces with data science to help us see into the future with predictive analytics. Marketers can use insights to boost revenue, generate sales, and prevent shopper churn.

What is predictive analytics?

Predictive analytics is powered by machine learning models that analyze past behavior to identify patterns that predict what’s next. In other words, you can predict the future from today’s data.

According to a Venture Beat report, an impressive 44% of companies are embracing the power of data-driven insights by integrating predictive analytics into their marketing strategy. 

This growing trend highlights the widespread recognition of predictive analytics as a game-changing tool for businesses. Insights into the future are key to helping brands stay at the forefront of customers’ minds. This is done by identifying opportunities ahead of time and mitigating risks before they happen. 

Dotdigital offers four predictive insights: next order date, customer lifetime value (CLV), number of purchases, and churn probability.

Spot opportunities a mile away with Dotdigital

The best thing about seeing into the future is that you have the upper hand. Imagine a world where you could get intel on your customers before they even knew it themselves. Well, you don’t need to imagine it.

More revenue when you need it most

More revenue is always good. But seeing where and when it will come from is even better. Marketers can create campaigns that push people over the sales line with predicted next-order dates. 

Let’s say it’s been 21 days since a customer last placed an order, and they’re predicted to place another one in seven days. Here’s what you could do within the next week to increase the likelihood of them making a purchase:

• Send them personalized product recommendations
• Offer them a discount code
• Notify them of any active sales you’re running

Better yet, create a segment of customers who meet similar criteria to maximize campaign ROI. That way, anyone orders in the next seven days could be nudged to the end of the purchase funnel. 

Delight your most valuable customers

It’s likely you already know who your biggest spenders are, but that only looks retrospectively. Predicted CLV lets you see the overall value a customer could add to your business. That means you know exactly who to reward, expanding the longevity and value of your most engaged contacts. What are some ways to reward brand champions at scale?

• Remind them to join your loyalty program
• Give them exclusive or early access to sales or products
• Offer them VIP deals to expand their purchasing power with your brand

Foresee, expect, and avoid the risk

In the fast-paced marketing world, staying ahead of the curve is crucial. With predictive analytics, you will see potential risks and make data-driven decisions. 

Keep customers shopping with you over competitors

No one likes losing a customer. When churn happens, it‘s often too late to do anything about it, especially if you’re looking at customer data retrospectively. If you can foresee churn, it’s easier to craft experiences that re-engage because you have a key tool on your side: time.

Don’t spend too much or too little on a lost cause

The most effective retention campaigns take a lot of time and resources to create; in fact, they can be very expensive. When you have access to churn predictions, you know where to spend your energy. For example, why spend a week crafting a retention campaign for customers with a 95% churn probability? If they’re already uninterested, the last thing you want to do is push them away with another email.

Target those with a lower probability

Equally, those with the highest predicted churn rates will likely need a much harder sale to get re-engaged—for example, a hefty discount. To avoid reducing your profit margins, it’s best to only send this message to customers with a high probability of churning.

Hyperpersonalize to avoid brand erosion

We can all admit how easy it is to become fatigued by boring emails that don’t offer much value, particularly when they’re not personalized. The last thing you want to do is send an SMS campaign aiming to increase loyalty to a customer whose churn probability is high. You also don’t want to advertise a premium offer to someone with a low predicted CLV. It’s crucial to make sure that your messaging resonates with your audience to safeguard your brand. Otherwise, it may come across as insincere.

Easier customer profiling

If you want to know more about your customers, you can do it at a glance with the Dotdigital predictive diagram in the single customer view. Not only can you access all contact data in one easy location, but you can spot similarities seamlessly. Let’s say you discover that your customers with the highest predicted churn rates have not opened an email in over two months. 

You can then determine a customer profile that shows a correlation between engagement and churn. Better still, Dotdigital lets you generate a lookalike segment, which kickstarts your re-engagement campaign in just one click. With Dotdigital, profiling your customers for re-engagement or offering promotions is a few clicks away. This can help prevent customer churn and keep them interested in your brand through different channels.

Step into the future

Predictive analytics has revolutionized marketing. Marketers can now seize the opportunity and navigate risks before they arise. In the age of technological advancements, the potential of predictive marketing will only expand. This will reinforce the need to embrace a future-ready approach for a competitive edge. In today’s world, making data-driven decisions is crucial for success, and predictive analytics is leading the way in this transformation toward a bright future.