Key metrics for retailers to track the success of SMS marketing

While digital marketing is known for being highly trackable and measurable, things get more complicated when you bring a physical retail store into the picture. However, if you utilize the right metrics to track campaigns like SMS messaging, you can keep tabs on the return on investment (ROI) for your digital spend. 

Using the correct metrics will ensure you correlate marketing expenditures with actual revenue generated at your retail store. Moreover, you can also save time by avoiding data that isn’t relevant to your needs. In any case, RareCircles wanted to share key metrics that every retailer should utilize to track the performance of SMS campaigns.

List Growth Rate

Divide new subscribers during a specific timeframe by the overall size of your list.

While enhancing sales is undoubtedly the end goal of SMS marketing, you first need to start with cultivating a high-quality subscriber list. In the end, the more quality recipients you have on your SMS list, the more successful your marketing efforts will be. 

The list growth rate metric represents the inflow of new subscribers to your text message list within a specific timeframe. As such, this metric is a very powerful tool for keeping tabs on the effectiveness of new subscriber acquisition. Following these figures, you can make necessary tweaks like incentivizing new subscribers with discount codes or exclusive deals.

Unsubscribe Rate  

Divide total unsubscribes during a specific timeframe by the complete size of your list. 

The unsubscribe rate refers to the number of established recipients who opted out of your text message list within a specific timeframe. Monitoring this metric can be beneficial for evaluating customer satisfaction with the SMS content they receive from your retail store. 

According to SimpleTexting, “60% of consumers say too many text message alerts is the number one reason they would unsubscribe from a business’s text messages.” Other people might be urged to unsubscribe due to repetitive or generic content. In any case, strive to deliver only high-quality messages that show the value of your retail operation.

Message Conversion Rates

Divide the number of conversions in an SMS campaign by the total number of people contacted. 

This is one of the situations where a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like RareCircles is essential for measuring the success of your marketing spend. By linking a phone number with a customer account at your retail store, you can track if an SMS campaign eventually leads to a sale at one of your physical store locations. 

The message conversion rate metric gauges the number of purchases or other desired actions generated by a text message campaign. In turn, a high conversion rate shows that your list segmentation and SMS content are on target. If your SMS campaigns are bringing people into your store to spend money, keep up the good work!

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

ROAS is calculated by dividing revenue from a specific campaign by advertising costs for the same campaign. 

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is a valuable metric for gauging the profitability of SMS marketing. It quantifies the amount of revenue generated for each dollar spent on advertising with a specific SMS campaign.

Say you invested $500 in an SMS campaign promoting the release of a new running shoe at your store. Through the company CRM, you’re able to discern that you sold $1,500 worth of running shoes due to that specific campaign. With a ROAS of 3:1, this indicates that for every dollar spent on the SMS campaign, $3 worth of sales were generated.