Online business – Content Hub

WordPress is a popular CMS platform that is carefully designed to cater to all users. No matter if you’re designing your first website or your hundredth, the design of WordPress aims to offer a suitable platform for you.

A big part of why WordPress works so well for so many different skill levels is the availability of so many various features. For instance, according to CodeinWP, WordPress offers more than 11,000 different pre-made themes to users.

These themes offer a variety of different benefits:

They’re easy to use
They provide a quick route to designing a WordPress website for you or your company
Both individual developers and WordPress development services can use these themes during the development process

Benefits of WordPress themes

Pre-made themes are ready to go

One of the most significant advantages of using pre-made WordPress themes is that they’ve already set up and ready to use. With a few quick clicks, developers can use these to set the basis for their site design. This saves a lot of time compared to a developer or WordPress design agency, taking the time to build a custom base theme for the website.

Themes are user friendly

Not having to code a custom theme not only saves time for advanced developers, but it also makes WordPress very accessible to new website designers. After all, users don’t need to possess any programming skills to choose a theme and apply it to their site. However, working with a more experienced service can give even a website using a pre-made theme a unique edge.

Website Design / Source: Sombrilla Digital

Themes come with tech support

Another advantage of themes is something that WordPress does well – tech support. This is mostly thanks to the huge community that WordPress boasts. Since many users are using a similar theme, other users have experienced the issues you might run into. As such, it’s much easier and quicker to find answers than to try and go through and find problems that might come up when creating a completely custom website design.

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Themes often feature demos

In the same vein as depending on reliable tech support, if you run into a problem, WordPress themes guide you through the process from the beginning and get you started right away. To ensure that developers understand their purpose, many have demos that they can watch to get an idea of how the theme runs and supports a website. These are also handy in determining if a theme fits the design that a developer has in mind for the site they’re building.

Easy to update themes

Much like developing a custom theme, updating a custom theme design is often a complicated process because developers have to build the updates themselves. WordPress themes, on the other hand, typically entail periodic update releases. From here, all individual website developers or services need to do is ensure that they periodically update their website.

These updates also often target important features about the site as well, such as added security and functionality. They may also generally improve upon flaws that existed in the previous version of the theme.

WordPress themes are handy and help developers create a quality website with less hassle and in a shorter time frame. Themes allow developers to get the groundwork for a website set up immediately without having to commit to any coding and even update them later in only minutes. If you’ve given it a go and you can’t seem to get your website right, speak to a professional web designer to find out how much their design and developing services can cost you.

According to Finances Online, 48% of customers prefer receiving brand updates through SMS — making it one of the best channels for your marketing efforts. It’s great for offering upfront value to customers, therefore, eliciting interest and engagement — which ultimately leads to sales. If you plan to use SMS marketing to grow your online business, then this guide is what you need.

But first…

What is SMS marketing?

It’s a strategy that uses permission-based text messaging to engage your customers on their mobile devices at a personal level. SMS marketing requires explicit consent from recipients before companies can start sending them messages. There can be severe legal consequences if you send unsolicited texts to people.

Why you should start using SMS marketing

SMS marketing takes you where your customers are, giving you opportunities to connect with your target market on smartphones they look at for hours. Plus, mobile devices are direct and immediate channels, making them one of the best touchpoints to send customers targeted marketing messages. Whether you’re running a content marketing campaign or using webinars to bring in website traffic, SMS marketing can help you build a subscriber database to increase brand loyalty. Consider these other reasons why you need to use SMS marketing.

Increase customer engagement

SMS marketing can enhance how your brand engages with your target audience throughout the customer life cycle because they allow instant interactions. Sending sales-related offers such as discounts, vouchers, promotions, and even birthday greetings, for instance, helps you nurture customer relationships while promoting your marketing content. Studies even show that text messages have a 99% open rate, and 94% are read within five minutes and customers are six to eight times more likely to respond to CTAs in a text message. Plus, the click-through rate for links is 19% in SMS compared to 4.2% in email, which is crucial when you want to generate traffic.

Streamline data gathering

Using SMS lets you gather customer feedback and get great reviews swiftly, which helps in enhancing your marketing strategies to achieve higher customer satisfaction. Additionally, your SMS marketing campaigns are trackable, allowing you to get analytical insights on what works and or not and helping you refine your strategies for better results.

Integrate with other channels

SMS can integrate with and support your other marketing channels, such as email and social media. For instance, you can send text reminders to customers about emails you’ve sent about their orders or other marketing materials, which can increase your email open rates.

Use automation tools

Email marketing automation platforms let you send messages directly from a web app and connect them to your scheduling or booking system. However, timing your SMS marketing strategically and knowing when your audience is most responsive on top of running your campaign takes time and effort.

Centralized e-commerce marketing automation platforms such as Omnisend provide a solution by letting you integrate several channels, such as email and SMS, to your workflow. Combine automated text messages with email and push notifications on workflows that include pre-built sequences with text messages for cart abandonment, birthday, order & shipping confirmation sequences, special offers, and more. Omnisend provides SMS list building tools that incorporate signup boxes with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) compliant templates to collect phone numbers. Plus, it offers personalization and opt-out instructions in the messages you send.

The platform also streamlines your campaigns through automated text messages for your customers’ order follow-ups and confirmations and browsing abandonments. Additionally, Omnisend’s SMS campaign segmentation profiles your customers to help personalize your marketing efforts more. With automation tools, you’ll run your SMS marketing campaigns seamlessly and strategically without spending too much time and effort while getting excellent results.

Implement the right SMS marketing strategies

Write an excellent SMS marketing copy that provides value to your customers, instead of generic messages that lead them to skip through your texts or tag as spam.

Welcome message

This is the first message your customers will get from you, so you need to make it count. Personalize your message by addressing each person by name, grabbing additional attention, which can push your engagement levels higher. Send unique one-time coupon codes as well to entice them into purchasing. Plus, this can make them feel like they’re part of an exclusive group with access to offers other people don’t get.

Abandoned cart reminders

Optimize your communication to recoup the sales from your high-intent shoppers. Send them a text message reminder, and provide a direct link to their cart. This way, they won’t have to navigate to your site to complete the purchase.

Feedback

70% of customers consult reviews or ratings before they decide to purchase, but generating these reviews can be difficult. SMS marketing allows you to seamlessly follow up with your customers after they make a purchase. Text them a poll, asking if they’re satisfied with their items. If they give a positive response, ask them for a review. Keep your survey brief, focused, and contextual to help support your marketing efforts. Additionally, offer incentives for survey participants by delivering a unique coupon code once completed and entice them to make another purchase.

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Promos

It’s a simple text blast to your subscriber list with an offer that drives them to your website. Create a sense of urgency to your offer with time-limited promos to motivate people to take immediate action, which helps increase your conversions and sales. Provide a direct link to the product or category you’re looking to push as well, to make them easier for your customers to find.

The success of your SMS campaign can boil down to whether or not you’ve added enough value to your audience. Streamline your SMS marketing, as well as your other marketing efforts, by using some of the best task management tools to manage and track your campaigns.

Wrap up

With the right approach, SMS marketing can be your go-to strategy to reach your audiences quickly with highly targeted messages and build brand awareness and loyalty. Not only is SMS marketing perfect from helping you generate more engagements and traffic, but it can help you get truckloads of sales.