Email and SMS Marketing for Ecommerce Brands with Rytis Lauris, Co-Founder & CEO of Omnisend

I would say there are a lot of good brands, and the ones that stand out are typically digital-native brands like Duck Chocolate and Dixxon Flannel, which you mentioned. Some of our own customers are brands I really admire. These companies were born DTC and digital-first.

For them, it’s much easier because they rely on digital channels and don’t have traditional ones to fall back on. In contrast, businesses that were originally established offline and are now transitioning into e-commerce tend to struggle a bit more. They usually start with email marketing, but over time, they begin to explore and realize the benefits of an omnichannel approach.

It’s not that email marketing alone isn’t enough. Email is still the best-performing channel, and I won’t lie about that. I used to hear a lot at events about the tagline, “Email is dead. What’s next?” It’s a provocative statement, but I would usually start my presentation by saying, “Okay, email marketing as a category isn’t dead.” What’s actually dead is just focusing on email marketing alone. Now, you need omnichannel marketing, where email is still an integral and important part, but there’s also SMS and MMS, which you mentioned.

It’s important not to forget that SMS is purely text, but MMS adds more media-rich content. We saw a huge increase in SMS usage. For example, in 2020, the number of text messages sent through our platform grew by 380%. This shows that adoption is increasing significantly. Even though more text messages are being sent and received, it proves the effectiveness of SMS, as the conversion rate for SMS messages actually increased by over 100%. People are clearly willing to receive these messages.

SMS is experiencing a renaissance for two main reasons. First, it’s much easier to unsubscribe now than in the past. SMS used to be a channel for spammers—companies would just acquire random phone numbers and send spam. But now, with regulations like California’s Consumer Privacy Act and GDPR in Europe, the industry has been cleaned up, which is a good thing.

Second, it’s become much easier to opt out. People can simply reply with “STOP” to unsubscribe, and they know that they can do so easily, just like with email. This has made people more comfortable with giving out their phone numbers, knowing they can opt out at any time.

So, SMS is proving to be effective, but it needs to be used smartly. For example, it’s great for welcome offers, time-sensitive discounts, abandoned cart reminders, or post-purchase scenarios like order confirmations and shipping updates. These are all super effective uses of SMS. You can even include a link to a landing page with transactional data while still incorporating some promotional messaging. Ultimately, it’s another way to remind customers of your brand and interact with them, which is always valuable.

And that’s a very good point. Yes, it might seem like those are just transactional messages, but they’re actually great examples. Sometimes, when marketers talk about this, they say, “Okay, but those aren’t promotional messages.” And while that’s true to some extent, what is really considered marketing or promotion? It’s your brand’s interaction with customers. The messages you send don’t cost much for the customer or the brand, but they allow you to interact repeatedly with your customer and show that you care about them.

You can even send a satisfaction survey via text message. It’s just a couple of clicks, and it’s so easy for customers to evaluate. If the feedback is bad, it can be directed to your call center. If the feedback is good, it can be sent to an online review form. That way, you’re not directly incentivizing another purchase right now, but you are raising your brand awareness over time. It’s a great way to stay engaged with your customers.

Absolutely. Personalization is a tricky thing. What do you define as personalization? In the past, personalization was simply putting someone’s first name in the subject line. But true personalization is based on automation and data. Instead of sending bulk campaigns, you send a message that’s tailored to the right person. For example, if I send a message to Shane, I know he’s interested in something, or maybe he’s run out of a product with a consumption cycle, etc. That’s what really makes a message personalized—not just adding a name, but having context.

The key to personalization is behavioral data, not demographic data. Behavioral personalization is what makes it work. We can call it data-driven automation, and that’s the real personalization. It’s been proven to work, and it really exploded in 2020. Automated messages generated 29% of all orders for our customers in 2020. What’s amazing is that they only accounted for 2% of all email traffic. This shows that when a customer receives a relevant message, they’re much more likely to complete the transaction.

Instead of spamming customers with bulk campaigns, you create effective automated sequences. So, you’re sending only 2% of your messages, but they generate 30% of your revenue. That’s incredible.

So for those who are not doing yet, the main table would be, do it.

Yeah, today is the day. Start simple, start small, and improve as you go.

The numbers I shared with you are average results, which means they’re not difficult to achieve. They’re not outliers. Some of our customers are doing much better, and of course, some are doing worse, but these results are definitely achievable.

Automate your processes. Build sequences, set up workflows, and use different channels. Start with email, then add text messaging. Augment that with web push notifications. Sync your subscriber lists with your Google and Facebook ads to run retargeting campaigns.

But again, start small and expand from there. Even small actions will begin to generate extra revenue.

Some of the numbers I shared with you—those are average results. That means it’s not difficult to achieve them. They’re not outliers. Some of our customers are doing way better, and of course, some are doing worse, but these results are totally achievable.

Automate things. Build sequences, build workflows, and use different channels. Start with email, then add text messaging. Augment that with web push notifications. Sync your subscriber lists with your Google and Facebook ads so you can run retargeting campaigns.

But again—start small and expand from there. Even small actions will begin to generate extra revenue.

And if you’re looking for more great case studies or practical advice, you can always visit Omnisend’s blog. There’s a lot of helpful advice on how to run your campaigns and automation effectively.