Hey, happy Sunday! It's quite a chilly Sunday here in New York, so I've been bundled up in my KOTN sweats (they're extra thick). I got 11 hours of sleep last night, 37% of which was spent in REM. On Friday, we also launched the new JuneShine (Hard Kombucha) website to ship JS nationwide! The site was another incredible Pointer Creative and Sharma Brands collaboration! PS - if you reply with your favorite flavor, I'll ship out a few cases to people 😊
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Last Thursday, I was on the phone talking about a ton of new prospecting customer flows with Paloma, the Messenger app, and it dawned on me later, there is going to be a marketing role positioned for DMs, Messenger, SMS, etc. Not for the purpose of customer service, but understanding how to tu rn these into efficient channels.
On Twitter when I tweeted it out, of course people started to respond with "Ugh, marketers ruin everything!" I'm not saying to use these channels in a way of ruining anything, it's more about being accessible and convenient to the consumer.
While you might live in Brooklyn and hate that "marketers ruin everything" there are millions of people who might be able to save 25 minutes by engaging with a really well-made Messenger chat bot, or a tool like Electric SMS to change their Olipop Vintage Cola subscription. (PS, I love Brooklyn & SHARMA20 on Olipop still works)
So this week, I wanted to dive a bit deeper into SMS, and brought in Erin Falter to help me to do more of it. You can check out a deck made by clicking here, which really answers the question of: Why SMS?
In addition, Erin and I have worked together tackling different brands' concerns with approaching SMS, and I wanted to share a document Erin put together on pushing through SMS misconceptions (see below). If you'd like to get in touch with Erin, you can email her (erin@pinkskies.co) or find her on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram.
1. SMS is a substitute for email.
Absolutely not! Just like how people thought TV would replace the radio and it didn't, SMS is not replacing email. Here’s why:
- SMS is a significantly more intimate channel. You need to communicate with your customers differently here with a level of respect for their privacy that can often be overlooked with email.
- You’ll often have more email subscribers than SMS subscribers for that reason.
- You can’t send as many full list campaigns. SMS should be used strategically in tandem with email when you have a big moment worth communicating to your customer.
- SMS subscribers are often more engaged, qualified and loyal than email. Another reason to treat them differently!
2. SMS is for discounts only.
You COULD but you’d probably have significantly higher unsubscribe rates, which is no bueno. We’ve all been there: annoyed with the 3rd text in 2 days from the same brand saying last chance, buy now. And we’ve also then unsubscribed.
SMS should be used to communicate your most important messages to the most applicable customer. That means maximum strategy of segmentation and personalization. For example, instead of sending the sale you are having on the sku you are looking to sell off to everyone, target only the people who have purchased it in the past within the lifetime window that they’d be looking to replenish that item.
You’ll see higher conversion rates and a lot less unsubscribes.
3. More messages = more revenue.
It’s more like more messages, more problems. Piggybacking on the point before, it is super important to not send every message to every SMS subscriber. Ask yourself:
- Does everyone need to hear this?
- Does the message add value?
- Am I sending this at a time that is annoying for the consumer?
- Did they receive another text from me too recently?
- Could I save money by further segmenting my audience?
4. It’s better to have a long code number.
People often think that long codes (aka having a number for your brand that’s the same length as a normal phone number) is better than a short code. It might feel more human, but long codes are more expensive and not built for mass communications.
They are slower and could lead to sending errors. Besides, consumers are more accustomed to receiving marketing messages than you think: over 80% of consumers have received text messages from a business or organization before!
5. MMS performs better than SMS.
MMS is used when you have an image, gif or emoji in your message. They also cost significantly more to send. And while they might stand out more in your message feed, PostScript confirms that SMS performs just as well as MMS, so choose your message type wisely!
Remember, you can get the Why SMS PDF here!
Software/App of the Week:
So if you're curious what this allows you to do, it basically allows you to have a URL, where when you click it, it automatically opens iMessage or the SMS app on someone's phone, puts in the number and even a pre-populated message. You can test it by clicking here and texting me!
Brand of the Week:
JUDY — Emergency Prep Kits by Experts!
JUDY has been a brand that I've been a part of since before its launch, and this week, the JUDY team has put together a checklist to give out to the community for free.
You can download it here - https://judy.co/checklist
The file will be emailed to you within seconds!
That's all for this week. I don't usually plan out my topics so far ahead, but considering how many questions there have been around how to really stand out with a brands organic social, I am thinking about leaning into that. If you have other ideas, reply and let me know!
Hope you have a great week, and get those 9 hours of sleep!