Affiliate marketing is a constantly evolving landscape with growing market value. Even in our current economic state, the global affiliate marketing market is expected to reach $14.3 billion by the end of 2023 and $15.7 billion in 2024. With major e-commerce holidays such as Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday becoming increasingly cluttered with participants, retailers are looking for new and innovative ways to cut through the noise. SMS presents a lucrative opportunity for many organizations with affiliate programs to cut through the chaos and meet consumers where they're at - right on their phones.
Today, we're showcasing how SMS can seamlessly integrate into current affiliate strategies to amplify engagement efforts and drive affiliate revenue. Let’s first show you a few examples of successful executions.
CNET
CNET has been a long-standing player in the deals game and has been providing consumers with the hottest and best deals delivered via SMS with their CNET Deals channel. During their Amazon Prime push, each broadcast boasted a 15%+ CTR (click-through rate) compared to the industry benchmark of 2.3% CTR via email.
Forbes Vetted
Forbes Vetted utilizes their SMS channel to deliver daily deals as well as personalized product reviews and deals based on each subscriber's interests. By listening to their audience using Subtext's keyword and segmentation feature, they're able to drive meaningful engagement and revenue.
Here's the Deal with Reviewed
The editors at Reviewed USA TODAY run the Here's the Deal with Reviewed channel which does the leg work of testing out everyday items, so their readers don’t have to. The team texts a weekly deals’ roundup to thousands of highly engaged subscribers, utilizing SMS as an effective distribution channel.
Kitchn by Apartment Therapy
Apartment Therapy has run SMS channels with Subtext, including their latest e-commerce campaign Cook/Shop. It's a way for subscribers to find great deals on stuff for their kitchen. Apartment Therapy texts deals weekly from the latest Prime Day deals to Wayfair's Way Day sales to favorites they've compiled themselves, they've got their audience covered.
Best Practices For Texting Deals
Now that you've seen how powerful SMS can be when integrated into your affiliate marketing strategy, let us tell you about some best practices! Here's a list of our best recommendations to get your shopping SMS channel off to a booming start:
- Personalize Deals: Ask subscribers what products and deals they are looking for and utilize Subtext’s keywords and segmentation feature to send personalized recommendations. Make your text channel feel like a personalized shopping experience.
- Drip Sequences: Schedule recurring texts with coupon or discount codes to encourage long-term engagement and drive incremental revenue.
- Schedule Content During Holidays: During busy affiliate days such as amazon prime day or cyber monday, schedule texts ahead of time to give time back to yourself.
- Send photos: Take products for a test ride and send photos! We know sending photos and links instantly increases subscriber engagement.
- Follow up: Popular deals go fast, help those last-minute shoppers with a text about restocks.
- Distribute Curated Links: Share your curated recommendation lists to subscribers to drive more traffic to your site.
Key Takeaways
We're online shopping more than ever, with 66% of consumers identifying their phones as their single most important shopping tool. SMS allows you to target your most engaged audiences with product deals they told you they want.
- More Traffic: Consumer deals via SMS have an average 15- 20% CTR compared to 0.5 - 2% through other mediums of communication.
- Higher conversion:SMS subscribers are highly engaged. Using SMS to distribute deals to high intent subscribers increases the likelihood of purchase. Check out this case study.
- Better engagement: Users know what they want and will actively seek your advice on the best promotions. Let your subscribers curate your next set of deals!
Whether you're looking to ntegrate SMS into your yearlong affiliate strategy or utilize it for Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day to cut through the noise, we've got you covered. Reach out to set up time to talk to our SMS experts.