How to increase SMS conversion rates

You will learn

Learn how to improve your SMS conversion rates as well as about performance benchmarks for campaigns and flows.

Conversion rates show how many of your SMS recipients become customers. This rate plays a critical role in how successful your SMS marketing efforts are.

Before you begin

Conversion rate is the number of unique conversions attributed to your SMS or MMS divided by the number of received messages, expressed as a percentage.

The benchmarks below are general guidelines for good SMS conversion rates. Your results can vary by industry and audience.

Increase conversion rates

Improve click rates

When looking to increase your conversion rates, first follow the steps outlined for click rates. After all, the more people who click the link, the more people who will be on your site — and the more who might convert.

Review your call to action (CTA)

If you find that a lot of people who click your link are not converting, there might be an issue with your content, specifically your CTA. Your CTA should set the right expectations so that someone who navigates to your website knows exactly what they’ll see.

For example, if your SMS message reads: “Hey friend, for the next 2 hours, get 10% off,” but when someone clicks the link, they see that the 10% off is only good for footwear, you’ve got an issue with your content. Since the expectation (10% off anything in the store) didn’t match the reality (10% off footwear), this may lead to a lower conversion rate.

To fix this, include all important details within the message itself. For example, if instead your SMS message reads: “Hey friend, for the next 2 hours, get 10% off all footwear,” you’re more likely to see conversions from the people who are interested in your shoe sale. It’s also a good idea to read your message aloud prior to sending, as it helps you catch any missing information.

Create a personalized experience

2 ways to make your messaging more personalized to your recipient include:

• Creating targeted segments for campaigns
• Using splits in flows

The goal with both of these strategies is to send messages tailored to subscribers’ likes and dislikes, shopping behavior, how they engage with your messages, and any other available information you have.

Campaigns

Clone your original engaged segment and make it more targeted.

Add conditions to the segment so it fits one of your buyer personas. At first, it may be just 1 condition, like gender, preferences, hobbies, or location. You can also group those who typically shop sale items or who buy from your latest releases.

As you gather more information about your customers, you can combine conditions and tailor your segments even further; for example, grouping those who shop for women's dresses that are on sale.

Flows

You’ll apply a similar method for flows. In this case, use splits to separate customers by their preferences and previous behavior.

Flows: add a dynamic image

Add a dynamic image to an MMS message in a metric-triggered flow to show a subscriber the product they viewed or started their checkout with. Use product data from the event that triggered the flow. Showing the product can remind subscribers of their interest and encourage them to finish their purchase.

If your sending number does not support MMS in the recipient’s country, Klaviyo sends the text without the image. Make sure the message still makes sense without an image, and preview the dynamic image before sending.

For more information, check out this article on how to add a dynamic image.

Optimize the mobile checkout experience

A lower conversion rate may not indicate an issue with your message content but rather a subpar checkout experience. If it’s hard for a user to complete their order, many would-be customers give up.

In particular, it’s important to optimize your mobile experience. Since, in this case, many customers will visit your store via a text on their phones, these people will go through mobile checkout. Friction at checkout can discourage customers from completing their purchase.

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