Text is one of the most powerful marketing tools for patient communication. Many people use WhatsApp for group chats with new messages pinging throughout the day, or your mobile phone rings and it is pretty normal. But when an ‘old fashioned’ text message comes through, it is difficult to ignore it. It could be a text from your husband to say he’s late from the gym, or from your daughter telling you that she’s got netball practice after school.
You’ll love these stats. On average SMS has an open rate of 98% – this is significantly higher than emails, which only have a 20% open rate. It takes a person around 90 minutes to reply to an email, compared to just 90 seconds for a text message.1
This gives you a good idea of how efficient text messages can be in getting people to see your message and re-engage those old and lapsed customers. Texts are short and sharp and typically stand out over the noise of other marketing delivery methods.
Advantages - The pros and cons
Many of us are joined at the hip (almost literally) to our mobiles, so text messages and being able to immediately be seen by our patients is hugely powerful. However, like any other marketing tool, they also come with certain trade-offs. Here’s how we see the pros and cons:
- Be seen: Texts are almost a ‘direct line’ to reach your customers, which makes them more likely to read your offer and respond to it.
- Converts old contacts: If you notice some dormant contacts in your database, text messages will be a great way to nudge these people and bring them back into the fold and through your doors again. Sometimes, all it takes is an enticing message or offer to regain their interest, especially after a long time of not coming to your clinic.
- Leverages big data: You can leverage data by monitoring results of engagement and response rates to identify customers who are most likely to convert. With these insights, you can adjust your campaigns to improve results.
- Builds high engagement at a low cost: Gaining a new customer is around five times more expensive than keeping your customer.2 While attracting new customers is vital for the growth of your clinic, engaging with your patient base is more cost-effective for revenue generation. By doing this, you encourage repeat purchases and build long-lasting relationships, increasing average lifetime spend.
- Increases conversions: Aside from having high open rates, texts are also effective in boosting conversions. Text messages have an average conversion rate of 29%, but of course this is impacted by the offer, the copy used and of course who you are sending them to.3
Disadvantages
Of course, as effective as text marketing may be, it also comes with some drawbacks. The main disadvantages include the following:
- Limits message length: You have up to 160 characters within one text message, which can be restrictive, compared to an email or social media post. However, this is not necessarily a dealbreaker as you can find creative ways to write the copy to be short and snappy with your message or offer. Less is more!
- Can be overdone: While texts are not technically spam, they can come off as spammy if you send too many promotional messages at once. As such, you need to limit the number of texts you send to contacts at a time. If not overused, this marketing brings about a thankful response that they are happy to hear from you.
Case Study: Beyond Skin Clinic Reconnects with Customers with a Reactivation Campaign Using Text Messages
Now that you better understand the benefits of text messaging and its power as a marketing tool, here is a case study on how it was used to help drive sales.
Beyond Skin Clinic is an aesthetics clinic offering a wide range of treatments like injectables and laser hair removal in Belfast. Already working with YBA PPC on their Google Ads, managing director Jennie was looking at how to re-energise their database so discussed a reactivation campaign using text messages.
Within minutes of sending the text to the clinic’s database of around 1,000 customers, the clinic was inundated with replies! The time-limited offer on its laser hair removal was very popular. The team had people taking up the offer, as well as people getting in contact about other treatments too. From the campaign, the clinic booked 15 consultations and generated well over £1,000 of additional revenue.
“It worked really well for our clinic. Not only the immediate revenue we loved, but it worked on many different levels. It allowed us to reconnect with customers after the pandemic where they were a little cautious; those that wanted the offer, as well as bringing back people we’d lost touch who had maybe not seen our emails. I think people do appreciate a ‘hello’ every so often. It is productive to reconnect.”
- Jennie Wallace, Beyond Skin.
Steps to build a reactivation campaign with text messages
No marketing tool is without some caveats, but with text messaging, it is clear that the pros outweigh the cons. With their high open rates and versatility, texts are undoubtedly one of the best channels to re-engage with inactive contacts. Now, to help you out, here are the critical steps involved in building your reactivation campaign:
Identify inactive customers
The first step will be to filter your database to identify inactive customers you can re-engage with. To start, you need to decide on the inactive time threshold to determine which contacts you will classify as inactive. For example, those that have not used you in the last 12 months for lip fillers; and those that have.
Once you have your criteria, it should be easy to segment your database by exporting the CRM and carving up the list.
Select your SMS campaign
After identifying inactive contacts in your database, you can choose what type of SMS campaign you want to implement. There are so many ways to design your campaign, so here are just a few ideas.
- Discounts and offers: One of the most popular SMS strategies is to offer customers discounts or offers to encourage purchases. You can also create a sense of urgency by adding a time limit or limiting the number of customers who can use the discount to convince recipients to respond right away. Be aware of advertising guidelines around this though; discounts and offers are only recommended for certain types of treatments.
- Surveys: Say, for example, you want to know more about your customers to provide more personalised messages or offers in future. If so, you can ask them a quick question to find out which treatments they are more likely to take next.
- Product or service launch: If you are set to launch a new product or service soon, you can use text messages to inform your customers about it. Doing this will be a great way to pique customers’ curiosity, especially if they have lapsed for some time.
- Birthday offers: Another great way to re-engage inactive customers is by giving them a birthday offer. Send them an SMS to let them know that they can get a discount or freebie during their birthday month. If you make the offer compelling enough, it can get customers interested in your products or services again.
Regardless of what type of campaign you choose, here are some general tips you can follow. Create a smart and engaging copy, Add images, emojis, or GIFs whenever appropriate, include a call-to-action (CTA).
Review your stats
Like with all marketing, it is so important to review the success of your campaign – how many responses did you get, how many appointments, what turnover was generated. Without this you cannot gauge success. Also you can compare and contrast results to improve for next time.
Ask for feedback
Aside from driving sales, text messages can also be used to collect feedback. While this is not necessarily designed for reactivation, it is a great way to retain customers and gain their feedback on the treatment. For example, you can send a follow-up text an hour after the treatment is completed to collect feedback. Ask them about their experience on a scale of one to five.
Summary
Text messaging is a strong way to re-engage customers and re-activate your database. This channel allows you to reach more customers quickly since people open and respond to texts faster than they do to emails. By designing a robust SMS reactivation campaign, you can leverage the untapped opportunity in your database to convert dormant contacts into paying customers.
References
1) Kenect, Why Text Messaging gets Far Greater Open Response and Engagement Rates than Email <https://www.kenect.com/blog/why-text-messaging-gets-far-greater-open-response-and-engagement-rates-than-email>
2) Outbound Engine, Customer Retention Marketing vs. Customer Acquisition Marketing <https://www.outboundengine.com/blog/customer-retention-marketing-vs-customer-acquisition-marketing/>
3) Simple Texting, What are SMS Conversion Rates? <https://simpletexting.com/what-are-sms-conversion-rates/#:~:text=From%2520a%2520variety%2520of%2520sources,3.26%2525%2520for%2520email%2520marketing>
