Retail & Ecommerce

ATX Auctions Leverages Text Marketing to Boost Engagement Despite Pandemic Obstacles

Just last year, like many small businesses, ATX Auctions Co-Owner Jared Deborer and his team, found themselves emerging from the pandemic-related economic impact of COVID-19. As they reacclimated to the post-pandemic auction landscape, they decided to leverage SMS text messaging to open a new channel of communication and help bolster and refresh engagement. Not only did adding text marketing boost their brand, it also enhanced nearly every aspect of bidder engagement in the process.

The Big Picture:

Using EZ Texting, ATX Auctions increased its marketing campaign open rates from 3% using channels like email, to 100%! The EZ Texting platform also streamlined the auction winner notification process, making it faster and easier to track and claim items after you’ve won.

30%

increase in new & returning bidder engagement across all auction houses (26 total)

100%

SMS text message open rate

100%

Click-through rate using EZ Texting’s Link Shortener

The Challenge

Prior to leveraging EZ Texting’s SMS text marketing platform, the primary challenge facing ATX Auctions was that they lacked a real-time communication channel capable of helping their customers safely navigate COVID-19 when picking up their winnings at ATX Auctions locations. This resulted in significant dips in audience engagement and auction attendance.

In order to continue conducting auctions across its 26 U.S. locations, while also adjusting supply levels as necessary and often at a moment’s notice during the pandemic, they needed the ability to “instant message” individual auction winners when they arrived at their auction houses for curbside pickup. Emails were no longer going to work for this type of transaction, as it not only needed to support communications that could happen in real time, but also required delivery assurances. This is where text marketing came to the rescue on both message speed and readability rates.

I don’t know what we would've done to communicate with our customers during the pandemic, without EZ Texting. It was imperative to the survival of our business. ATX Auctions and EZ Texting are officially married.

Jared Deborer, Co-Owner, ATX Auctions | Salt Lake City, UT

The Solution

With EZ Texting, ATX Auctions implemented a new notification system which sends a personalized text message to customers informing them when they have won an auction, and when and where to claim it.

The ATX Auctions team reported that one of the most important features EZ Texting offers to them is message templates, which enabled them to quickly send text messages to customers as soon as one hour before the auction started. Being able to message individual customers and alert them that it's time to bid was imperative to the continued success of their business, especially as the country shifted toward a remote-first way of life due to COVID-19.

The Results

Using EZ Texting, the ATX Auctions team's pandemic challenges transformed into game-hanging opportunities. By creating a new communication window with their audience, the auction house saw an upward increase of 30% in revenue, 30% in bidders, and 30% in engagement with their customers during auctions. Their success with EZ Texting was so undeniable that text marketing is now an integral part of their post-pandemic marketing communication strategy.

Instead of missing emails, or responding days later like before, customers now engage in text message conversations with ATX Auctions at home or on the go, seven days a week and often in real time. Jared Deborer and his auction teams nationwide are thrilled with the returns they are seeing from text marketing, especially during such a turbulent time. They look forward to meeting 2023’s challenges, one text at a time.