Why adopting unified email and SMS solution is essential to engaging customers

Culture Kings has consolidated its email and SMS into Klaviyo’s single platform, which has already delivered a spike in conversions.

The post Why adopting unified email and SMS solution is essential to engaging customers appeared first on Inside Retail Australia.

SMS delivers brands a quick impact, a high traffic spike and higher sales according to research – so retailers who have not adopted it as a cornerstone of their marketing programs are likely losing sales to their competitors. 

Intelligent marketing automation platform Klaviyo teamed up with subscription and recurring payments platform Recharge to survey more than 8000 people across North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. According to Klaviyo’s 2024 SMS Consumer Trends Report, the results were eye-opening: 

• 65 per cent of consumers said they purchased something they had planned to buy “in the near future” or “in a few months” because of an SMS.

• 59 per cent of consumers said being offered a discount increases the likelihood of subscribing to a brand’s SMS messages.

• 35 per cent of consumers find receiving messages via SMS and email helpful.

• When consumers sign up to get SMS from brands, 72 per cent of them expect to receive a message at least once a week.

“A carefully crafted and well-timed SMS speeds the consideration period up, recapturing consumer attention and interest, and resulting in a quicker sale for the brand,” the report concludes.

Culture Kings walks the talk

Iconic Australian streetwear brand Culture Kings is translating experiential in-store moments into conversion-driving online experiences that foster engaged communities by consolidating its email and SMS into Klaviyo’s single platform, which has already delivered a spike in conversions.

Culture Kings head of e-commerce Jared Hinvest, who oversees the company’s Shopify storefronts across Australia, the US and New Zealand, is a staunch advocate of Klaviyo’s suite of solutions. He is a guest in an upcoming webinar that you can sign up here to watch first hand where he describes the company’s experiences in marketing to 8 million consumers via Klaviyo’s email and SMS tools. 

Culture Kings is Australia’s first American-style streetwear brand, with a flagship store in Las Vegas and seven other brick-and-mortar stores, as well as a burgeoning e-commerce business that now accounts for a major share of its sales. It works with some of the biggest brands in streetwear including Nike and Jordan, all the way through to Supreme. 

In the webinar, Hinvest will explain how Culture Kings consolidated its SMS and email management on Klaviyo’s single tech stack and how integrating SMS into the platform ensures the company speaks to customers in the format they prefer. “Klaviyo opens us up to different ways to target people and meet those customers with the communication methods they want to be spoken to with,” says Hinvest. “Our customers are really responsive to that.”

Why SMS is essential

“SMS marketing isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s essential for a highly profitable marketing program,” concludes Klaviyo’s report. “After all, consumer attention is what e-commerce marketers most need to increase conversion and grow their brands – and SMS messages do an excellent job of capturing consumer attention.”

What encourages consumers to subscribe most often? Discounts are the most popular answer, but conversational SMS, being offered a unique product or experience, and personalised SMS messages also increase consumer likelihood of subscribing.

There is a type of tone and message that resonates with SMS – an urgent message, for example, with perhaps a two-hour limit for 50 per cent off the shoes today only. “If you have that really poignant message that you really want to get through to customers quickly, SMS is the way to go.”

Three key strategies to implement right now

1. Implement A/B testing to improve the effectiveness of SMS campaigns

With A/B testing an important factor in list growth, Klaviyo counsels using Smart Opt-In for SMS which sends subscribers a one-time code that they can click to autofill their information at sign-up. Klaviyo’s AI form optimisation makes pop-up timing testing a lot faster. 

2. Deploy Klaviyo’s flow system and AI to optimise engagement with customers across both SMS and email

Culture Kings reports a huge uptick in revenue through flows, with lifetime value and repeat purchases as important metrics in e-commerce. The company’s 30-day return repeat purchases, and 90-day repeat purchases – two key metrics in the business – have shown significant uplift since the start of the year when it implemented SMS into its ‘win back’ and ‘abandoned cart’ flows to trigger conversions. 

The company uses Klaviyo’s AI to write subject lines most likely to optimise the open rate, saving valuable time on A/B testing.  

3. Make sure you personalise your SMS communications

In general, consumers see SMS marketing as a channel all its own – with different message preferences and frequency expectations than email. Like email, however, SMS users expect personalisation, access to real people when they respond, and targeted messages that are relevant to their product preferences.

Ready to power smarter digital relationships with unified SMS and email? Download a copy of the free 2024 SMS Consumer Trends Report today.

The post Why adopting unified email and SMS solution is essential to engaging customers appeared first on Inside Retail Australia.