Tip: Use SMS marketing to communicate more reliably with customers

Email marketing is vital but inboxes are increasingly cluttered these days. Consider communicating with customers via SMS as well to boost opens, engagement, and conversions.

SMS messages have an average open rate as high as 98% vs roughly 20% for emails. They also have a higher response rate (45% vs 6%) and a faster response rate (90 seconds vs 90 minutes). This makes them a big opportunity for marketers. So consider asking for phone numbers in your signup and/or checkout flows, and emailing current users inviting them to get text messages from you. Make it optional and be very clear about what you'll be sending. When you send text messages, provide value, keep them short, consider a more conversational tone, be extra cautious about send times, remember that less is more, and make sure it's very easy to unsubscribe. SMS is best used for time-sensitive matters and to make recipients feel like VIPs — special offers, first looks, launches, seasonal updates, events, and so forth. But don't ditch the email list — use them in coordination.