Quick Wins: High-Impact SMS Strategies
Drive ROI from your SMS marketing, FAST
If you’re joining us from the last blog post, you’re in the right place, and we are good to move on to the next step… generating revenue!
If you missed it, you should probably start here to get caught up.
Automated Welcome Series
It's time to switch gears and focus on content planning—specifically, message 1.1.
This is Journey 1 (welcome), message 1. Think of it as having the first overall pick in the draft. We're building our franchise starting with this foundational brick.
Message 1.1 typically boasts the highest click rate, conversion rate, and revenue generated out of any message in your program. (I've seen abandoned cart messages take this spot, but generally, message 1.1 reigns supreme.) Let’s make content worthy of this position in your overall retention marketing strategy.
Here's a quick formula for SMS journey content creation:
(opt-in focus level "product/category/store") + (opt-in offer) + (opt-in details) = message content
Let's play it out with our supplement store example:
Product level:
Formula: [Opt-in: "This specific calcium supplement" + 10% off first order + calcium-specific landing page]
Message: Calcium-specific benefits tied to a 10% discount incentive (with urgency), option to show a positive calcium product review.
Category level:
Formula: [Opt-in: "Our solutions for seniors" + 10% off first order + senior health landing page]
Message: Supplement options curated for seniors tied to a 10% discount incentive (with urgency), option to show a positive site review from senior customers.
Pro tip: Now that we understand the idea of message 1.1 being the most valuable in our program, you should be looking to create as many of them as possible! Remember, you can launch as many opt-ins and welcomes as you want 🙂
Abandoned Journeys
Next up, let's talk about abandons. This is just another part of life that we accept and work with. People will engage with your brand, show interest, and sometimes even initiate a conversion process... and then pause. It's not just an e-commerce thing; this applies to any organization with desired outcomes for their audience.
Let's break down the key abandon points and strategies:
Browse product/page: This is exactly what it sounds like. If someone is opted in to SMS and takes an action on your site, it'll be recorded as an event that can trigger an SMS message. Instead of the typical "we saw you checking this out!" message, we can use our SMS journey content formula to craft something more engaging and valuable.
Add to cart (or initiate process): This occurs before the final conversion step and is generally only available to currently opted-in users. Again, you should use the SMS message formula to write your message here. A thoughtful reminder of the user's interest in your solution can make all the difference.
Conversion abandon: This is what most people think of when they hear "abandon." For e-commerce, it's often called "Cart Abandon," but it's typically triggered by a "checkout started" metric. For other industries, this could be any final step abandon, like a membership application or donation process. This is where message 2.1 lives (remember the one that I said sometimes rivals message 1.1?), so we have another massive opportunity to win right here.
Shopify reports that 14.5% of visitors add products to their cart, and only 3.3% actually make the purchase. While these numbers are e-commerce-specific, they illustrate the importance of addressing abandons in any conversion process.
To get the most out of these three journeys, keep these tips in mind:
Remember your opt-in incentive: If you gave a 10% discount for the opt-in, it won't make any sense to offer 5% off in your abandon journey. Like it or not, as soon as you put a discount in your popup, you've started building a discount ladder. Go up the ladder, or your conversion will likely suffer.
The power of SMS: Delivering that reminder of abandonment in a highly visible channel like SMS boosts click rate potential by 2-3X vs delivering via email.
Evolve with your program: In this article, I'm speaking about these abandon journeys from the standpoint of a new(ish) program launch. So the path right now is opt-in -> welcome -> abandon. As your SMS marketing becomes more established, you'll want to create specific abandons for repeat engagers, VIPs, etc.
Just like the welcome strategy, you can make as many of these abandon journeys as you need. The SMS journey content formula will help you craft messages that resonate with each audience and effectively guide them back to completion, regardless of your industry or conversion goal.
Results
Measuring the Impact of Your Work
You have at least 1 popup and 4 SMS journeys live! Time to kick back and watch Eagles game highlights right? Not so fast. Let's see if that work actually amounted to anything. Here's how to measure after the fact:
KPIs to focus on, in order of importance:
$/message sent: New journeys should outperform legacy versions. If starting from scratch, set your own benchmarks based on industry standards and early performance (read: NOT just industry standards). Key factors: AOV, Opt-In Incentive Type (aggressiveness level).
Number of messages sent: Aim to increase both value per message and total messages sent. Create multiple SMS opt-in & messaging frameworks for maximum benefit. Compare actual numbers to your 1-4% opt-in projection per traffic source. If they don't match, investigate why - traffic might be lower than expected, or your opt-in isn't capturing as it should.
CTR: Your audience's engagement (or lack thereof) provides immediate feedback, especially with SMS's quick response times.
Interpreting Your Results
Quick troubleshooting guide:
$/message sent underperforming:
Check links and landing pages
Adjust content using the SMS Journey content formula
Review on-site customer shopping journey post-click
Number of messages sent underperforming:
For welcome series:
Check the popup opt-in rate
Adjust popup placement, timing (exit intent, timed, % scroll), content
Review traffic sources/ad
For abandon:
Check funnel stats (add to cart, start checkout, purchase)
Compare raw numbers and percentages to your abandon sends
Look for discrepancies that might indicate integration issues (another reason I love Attentive - this time-waster rarely happens.)
CTR underperforming:
This will largely be content/offer-based - review and adjust as needed
Another crucial variable is the recipient list itself. Remember, your popup strategy directly impacts who's receiving these messages.
Adjusting your popup strategy to bring in a different type of lead can greatly impact CTR on the message-sending level. For example, changing the aggressiveness of your opt-in offer or targeting a different stage of the customer journey could attract subscribers more likely to engage with your messages.
For abandon journeys, experiment with message delivery timing. Lower the time delay to increase aggressiveness and observe the impact it has on your specific audience.
Don't forget to consider the context of your messages. Are they aligned with the expectations set during the opt-in process?
Remember, connecting these KPIs to specific actions is crucial for running your program effectively. You won't need to waste time thinking about what to do and why; you can just start clicking and fixing things away.
Conclusion
Strategy Recap
In this article, we've covered essential SMS marketing strategies for busy business owners. We started with efficient list growth tactics, leveraging existing customer touchpoints and incentivizing opt-ins without breaking the bank. We then explored high-impact SMS strategies, including automated welcome series and abandon journeys, emphasizing the importance of message 1.1 and our SMS journey formula. We discussed measuring results through key KPIs like $/message sent, number of messages sent, and CTR. Remember, these strategies aren't just about growing numbers—they're about cultivating a high-quality, engaged audience across channels.
SMS is a Non-Negotiable Channel in 2024
The great thing about SMS and email marketing is that you can make these programs as complicated as you want/need them to be. There will always be an opportunity to add additional value to both your customer lives and your own conversion rates & LTV metrics. When you start a workday, and you're deciding what bridges to build - there aren't many as valuable as an honest investment in the framework and structure to communicate with the customers and leads that have subscribed to you. SMS is no longer an optional add on, I view it as a must-have for any organization with desired outcomes for their paid and organic traffic.
The long-term benefits of a focused SMS strategy
At this stage of the game, EX has multiple clients driving more revenue from SMS than email. It's not a surprising outcome, the only limiting factor here has been list size comparison. Email should outperform SMS as long as your email list size is multiple of your SMS list size, there's no trick to this, you can count on this being a solid boundary to operate within. Once you understand this, it's clear that consistency along with time spent on these specific list growth and nurturing tactics are the only path forward for brands that are looking to succeed online in 2024. Investing additional time into planning, sending, and measuring campaigns only amplifies the reach and effectiveness of this critical channel.
