Text messages are one of the most popular channels for marketing communications due to their effectiveness. Consider this: 

• Text messages have over a 90% open-rate, compared to just 20% for email communications.
• Response rates to text marketing are 7.5x higher than email.
• Branded vanity links sent via text get 39% more clicks than generic short links.
• Seventy-five percent of shoppers say they don’t mind receiving texts from brands they like.
• More than 50% of customers prefer contacting support through text messaging.

By 2020, 45 million customers had opted into mobile text communications. It’s no surprise, considering Americans look at their phones an average of 80 times per day. Mobile marketing is the ideal way to reach prospects these days, as the messages get through, they’re read quickly, and they inspire action. Incentivizing consumers to opt-in to mobile messaging is an easy way to build your communications list.  

Interactive Emails

Interactive elements invite subscribers to actively engage with your marketing emails in some way. Audiences are surprised and delighted by these opportunities to engage. Examples include:

• surveys and polls
• rollover effects
• product carousels
• incentivized games
• video product demos

Rather than passively scanning email text, shoppers are clicking and engaging. 

User-Generated Content

Storytelling with user-generated content is a hot trend on social media, but can easily be incorporated into the email channel as well, since people look to email as a source for reviews. 

• Share fan images and videos.
• Create reviews-driven ads.
• Leverage polls to collect data.
• Add thumbs up/down buttons.
• Share the most popular items.

User-generated content engages fellow shoppers using authentic and trustworthy supporting voices.

Personalized Segmentation

Simply personalizing the subject line can increase email-generated revenue by 760% compared to one-size-fits-all. Creating targeted lists upon signup lets you connect with audiences in a more relevant way. You can segment based on:

• age, gender, location, profession
• type of benefit sought
• occasion for shopping
• brand loyalty status
• buyer readiness stage

Personalization in marketing grabs consumer attention and can lead to loyalty.

If you’re looking for a unique mobile marketing channel to promote customer engagement, consider Shopkick. Shopkick users (“Shopkickers”) begin engaging with a partner brand by viewing in-app content and checking offers during the consideration phase of a shopping trip, whether at home or on the go. Once in-store, Shopkick utilizes a gamification strategy to drive shoppers to products on the shelf, encouraging physical product interaction in exchange for reward points (“kicks”). Shopkickers redeem their kicks for gift cards of their choosing, which creates positive brand affinity. Shopkick makes a great addition to your marketing mix, in addition to your text campaigns, email communications, and retargeting ads.