How to use Castiron’s SMS marketing feature
Welcome to CastIron's tutorial on the new built-in marketing solutions designed to enhance your shop's performance. This feature integrates various marketing tools to help you reach more customers effectively.
From the homepage, scroll down until you find the Marketing area on the left hand menu, and click on the SMS tab to proceed.
SMS marketing is highly effective, with six times the engagement rate of traditional email marketing. This makes it an essential tool for reaching your customers more directly and effectively.
There are four types of SMS texts you can send:
- Product Promo Text: Highlight specific products.
- Coupon Promo Text: Share discount codes.
- Event Promo Text: Inform about events like farmer’s markets.
- Presale Promo Text: Announce upcoming sales for holidays and special occasions. Use these to keep your customers informed and engaged.
To start building your SMS subscriber base, click on the “Share Link” button. This generates a unique link that you can share on your social media or website to collect phone numbers for SMS marketing.
When users click on your shared link, they’ll be directed to a sign-up page. Here, they enter their email address and phone number to subscribe to your SMS updates. This page also includes legal language to ensure compliance with marketing regulations.
How to create and send an SMS message
Step 1: Select the template you'd like to use, then choose a product to promote from your inventory. Click "Next Step: Content"
Step 2: Click the "Write it For Me!" button for the AI feature to generate an engaging promo text. This tool helps create eye-catching messages that can increase customer interest and sales.
Step 3: You can schedule the SMS to be sent at a specific time that aligns with your marketing strategy, or send now.
Before sending out your SMS, preview the generated message on the right side of your screen to ensure it looks good. You can also send a test text to your business phone number to see exactly how it will appear to your customers.
Step 4: Click "Send Text" or "Schedule Text" and get ready for the sales to come in!
Helpful Tips
- Ensure you have an active coupon set up in your shop. This is necessary for sending out coupon promo texts.
- The process for creating other types of promo texts (event and pre-sale) is similar. Note that the AI Writer is available for most promo types, but not for the coupon promo text. Always preview and send test texts to ensure accuracy.
- Regularly check your sign-up page to ensure it's working correctly and collecting email addresses and phone numbers for SMS marketing. This page is crucial for growing your marketing list.