Cellit Introduces Retail Benchmark Report: an analysis of engagement from national retailers

This month Cellit, the mobile marketing division of ePrize, released a Retail Benchmark Report outlining mobile marketing best practices for retailers to grow their SMS databases, retain loyal mobile subscribers, and drive in-store and online sales. The study analyzes 1,180 campaigns sent by national retailers throughout 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.

Mobile databases (collected with the correct opt-in process) will result in a cache of a brand’s most loyal consumers.  Retailers have approached SMS programs from two different angles, the short term (seasonal) and the long term (years), both working together. “When properly planned, those short programs can funnel members into a brand’s long program through special opt-in messages at key infection points. In the programs analyzed, Cellit found that there was a 23.3% average conversion rate for retail short programs to long programs. In addition to the ongoing stream of new subscribers moving from ‘short’ programs to ‘long’ programs, retailers find the most successful acquisition points to be in store, online, through mobile websites and applications and via social media outlets,” stated in the report. 

The report further explores cadence, a measure with which messages are sent to a client, and each client’s cadence is unique to them. ”Cellit recommends the rule of 1s: no more than once a week, and no less than once a month. Deal of the Day or other highly concentrated programs violates this rule with good cause, as they provide compelling content on a much higher frequency,” stated in the report. “Because mobile marketing is new to many retailers, many find that the most challenging part is determining the right cadence. Learning how often to send messages, combined with what those messages should be is part of the initial breaking in process,” stated Janice Pollard, Marketing & Public Relations Manager

Key findings from the report include:

-SMS offers a different type of engagement than other forms of media:

                       Among retailers examined in the study, Cellit found that SMS produced

                       engagement rates 6-8 times higher than the retailer normally achieved

                       across redemption, data collection, and brand awareness by email

                       marketing. Overall, most sales attributed to SMS came from in-store

                       transactions rather than online.

-Focus on building long-term CRM programs: The use of SMS "short

                       programs" with fixed timeframes and strong calls to action -- such as

                       promotions -- are a key way to drive overall CRM program adoption,

                       typically leading to a 23.3% conversion rate for ongoing mobile CRM

                       initiatives

-Cadence and content are key to mobile CRM programs: By sending up to

                       two messages per week during peak seasons and no more than four

                       messages per month during non-peak seasons, retailers will achieve the

                       lowest unsubscribe rates throughout the year.

                        --  Scaling your mobile database: The size of a mobile database is

                         typically between 2-10% of a retailer's email database. The most

                        effective ways for retailers to scale their mobile database is through

                       integration into overall marketing initiatives and promotion through

                       in-store, Web, email, print, and social channels like Facebook.

                       --  Holidays lead to growth: Growth of SMS databases is strongest during

                       the Q4 holiday shopping period. Retailers can expect their mobile

                       databases to grow by an average of 41% over the holidays, with most of

                       the growth happening in November and December. The average monthly

                       churn rate during the holiday period is only 1.08%.

                         --  Subscriber acquisition: While subscribers joined in larger numbers

                         during the weekend, they also opted out of programs at similarly

                        higher numbers over the weekend. The daily average subscribe rate was

                       147, which dropped to an average of 139 on weekdays and 167 subscribes

                       on the weekends.

                       --  Churn rates: There is strong correlation between unsubscribe activity

                        and outgoing message activity, with an overall unsubscribe rate of

                        just over 37 per every thousand messages sent. This breaks down to an

                        average of 18 unsubscribes per every thousand messages sent during the

                        week, and an average of 85 per thousand messages sent on weekends.ⁱ  
 

Content is crucial and has to be exclusive, different, and timely because these are the most engaged brand loyalist and they acutely attuned to other offers in other mediums. Some SMS programs that were examined included: mobile coupons, expanded mobile coupons, sales alerts, mobile circulars, and branded content. The key is to keep it fresh and focused on your target market. “ePrize and Cellit have many tools for helping brands and retailers engage their customers with offers that they find relevant and personally valuable. Our short term promotional tactics fit nicely into longer term CRM programs,” stated Janice Pollard, Marketing & Public Relations Manager.