Engaging The “Screen-Connected Consumer”

The mobile channel has allowed today’s consumers to instantly access a seemingly endless amount of information and share it through social media, email and short messaging service (SMS). In the recent webinar titled Beyond Transaction: Using SMS For Engaging Commerce, Gary Schwartz, President and CEO of Impact Mobile, and Kevin Skurski, Director of Marketing Communications for Bronto Software, suggested tactics for retailers looking to leverage SMS as the jumping-off point to a seamless and engaging multi-channel customer experience.

Schwartz emphasized the importance of the mobile channel as a primary means for retailers to form lasting relationships with customers. To maintain shopper attention during the mobile experience, however, the transfer across touch points must be fluid, frictionless and consistent. This is the key to unlocking revenue in a long-term strategy, he noted.

Although retailers can implement a variety of strategies within the mobile channel, SMS can ignite two-way conversations with consumers while providing them with news and incentives to encourage interaction. Conversely, quick response (QR) codes allow shoppers to easily access information, but are merely click-throughs that inhibit retailers from tracking and measuring campaign success rates. SMS is a marketing tactic retailers can deploy and easily tie in to current CRM systems to measure communication, click-through rates, and overall engagement.

“The goal is not to have a one time engagement,” Schwartz noted. “You want to ask the consumer if they will enter into a subscription-based relationship with you which will allow you to send them valuable information on an ongoing basis. In order to do that, you have to get double opt-in from the mobile users on their mobile phones using the Web to collect information.”

According to statistics Schwartz provided from InsightExpress, text messaging is the most frequently utilized channel, with 67% of all cell phone users tapping the platform to reach out to family and friends.

SMS As A Jumping-Off Point

Despite the clear benefit of SMS in activating relationships and engaging customers, Schwartz advised that retailers should not depend solely on mobile to increase sales. Instead, they should look at mobile as a tool to promote and drive shoppers to other platforms to further brand awareness.

“It’s about using mobile to drive your existing strategy,” Schwartz advised. “To use mobile to drive incremental value to business as usual.” In essence, mobile is merely a small piece of the multi-channel puzzle that allows shoppers to easily move across a variety of touch points, according to industry experts. Skurski explained that SMS and other strategies allow retailers to develop a plan for “engaged commerce,” to build a loyal consumer base and turn casual buyers into repeat buyers.

“We think [engaged commerce] is relevant to retail marketers who are especially challenged these days trying to find the right way to reach their audience, and then build bridges between the channels where people are already engaged and those they are not,” Skurski said. To develop an effective “engaged commerce” strategy, retailers must interact with consumers via the channels they frequent. Retailers also should focus on creating unique, interactive and entertaining messaging through email, mobile and social media sites, rather than sending identical messages across all channels.

“Engaged Commerce is considering the different touch points to interact with customers at different points throughout the buying life cycle,” Skurski said. “It’s interacting with customers in ways that already make sense to them and building bridges to other forms of communication. It is also reducing friction to drive revenue.”

To receive further insight from Schwartz and Skurski on how retailers can connect consumers’ mobile phone to their shopping basket and increase overall loyalty, click here to view an on-demand version of the webinar.