Katie Morley
Sep 21, 2023
Katie Morley
Sep 21, 2023
Love it or hate it, there’s no doubt the 2020s will be defined by constant connectivity. Yet, despite the emergence of new tools and channels, one stands out above all others for its effectiveness, directness, and immediacy: SMS.
With a 98% open rate and an average response time of just 90 seconds, SMS is unrivaled for engaging with customers. As a marketer, if you’re not leveraging the power of SMS, you’re missing out on a golden opportunity to connect with your audience on their favorite device, no matter where they are or what they’re doing—because who isn’t slightly addicted to their phone?
However, the days of sending generic, one-size-fits-all SMS blasts are long gone. We all know consumers are bombarded with information from every angle, and so personalization has become the cornerstone of successful marketing strategies.
Did you know 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations? Marketers need to tailor their communication channels to each individual. And no matter how impactful SMS is, if you want to drive ROI, build customer loyalty, and hit business goals, you need to personalize your text messages, too.
Insider is an industry-leading platform for individualized cross-channel customer experiences. Not only are we recognized as G2’s best mobile marketing software, but brands including Samsung, Allianz, and Adidas trust us to personalize their customer experiences at scale. So, we do happen to know a thing or two about building highly effective personalized SMS campaigns.
This article will dive into the significance of SMS marketing, exploring its impact and sharing strategies for maximizing its potential. We’ll also show you how, with Insider’s AI-driven personalization, you can elevate your SMS game to drive unprecedented engagement and tangible results.
Let’s get into it.
Why SMS?
The power of personalization
AI-powered SMS personalization with Insider
5 examples of turning generic texts into conversion-driving, personalized SMS campaigns
How Slazenger gained 49X ROI in 8 weeks with personalized messaging
Ready to leverage AI, personalize your SMS campaigns, and drive results?
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“ Insider’s SMS and mobile app messaging capabilities have allowed us to reach customers on-the-go and in real-time. We have created personalized and targeted campaigns that have increased customer engagement and loyalty and the messaging capabilities have been especially effective in driving immediate actions, such as purchases or sign-ups. Additionally, the data analytics and reporting features have helped us optimize our campaigns and improve ROI.”
– Merve K., Head of Marketing,
Effective SMS marketing isn’t just about grabbing attention, it’s about bringing true value to the user experience. Take a second to think about the countless notifications, emails, and ads that compete for users’ attention. SMS cuts through the noise and delivers messages directly into users’ hands—literally. In fact, 95% of text messages are read within the first three minutes. As a channel users opt into, SMS engagement is more than a message—it’s an ongoing conversation.
Still unsure if you need to introduce SMS to your marketing arsenal? The answer is you do.
Here are seven campaign examples you can build to hit key business goals and re-engage your customers:
When choice fatigue is prevalent among buyers, the ability to stand out and truly connect with customers is paramount. The key to this connection? Personalization.
According to an Epsilon report, 80% of consumers are more likely to purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. This isn’t just a coincidence; it’s a testament to the emotional response that personalized interactions create.
But why does personalization bring on such a strong response? Ultimately, it’s the sense of being understood, of having one’s preferences and needs acknowledged. This fosters a connection beyond a transactional relationship, transforming customers into loyal advocates.
However, true personalization isn’t merely addressing recipients by their first names. You need to craft content that aligns with their preferences, behaviors, and aspirations.
Luckily, Insider can help.
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“Insider’s advanced Personalization capabilities increased our conversion rates by 20%. By leveraging data-driven insights, Insider has provided us with a deeper understanding of the preferences and behaviors of our users, allowing us to curate genuinely personalized experiences.”
At the center of Insider’s personalization suite, is AI. Don’t worry; our industry-leading AI tech makes it more than just a LinkedIn buzzword. Insider’s personalization suite uses AI and machine learning to interpret customer intent, predict preferences using data insights, and craft messages that trigger action.
It’s all found in Insider’s industry-leading Customer Data Platform (CDP), which unifies data from your SMS, website, app, email, CRM, POS, contact centers, and more to build a 360-degree view of every single customer.
By analyzing attributes such as past behavior and purchase history, you can create deep audience segments or use our AI to make accurate predictions, enabling brands to design experiences that match each customer’s preferences and change customer journeys in real time.
Seamless integration allows you to unify event data from SMS with other channels to build a consistent, holistic view of every single customer. Imagine receiving a text about your favorite product just hours after you receive a 20% off push notification—we’d take it as a sign.
Getting permission to text your customer is often the easy part. It’s maintaining their permission that’s hard. To prevent opt-outs, you need to make sure your campaigns are:
Insider’s unified customer data powers SMS campaigns to make sure your messages hit the mark every time.
Here are five examples of SMS messages that maintain consent and drive action:
Use real-time event triggers to send timely, relevant, and contextual messages to your customers depending on their journey stage and preferences.
For example: A customer of a retail brand has a high discount affinity. Past purchasing behavior shows they’re most likely to shop during a sale or with a discount code. The brand is launching a sale and wants to increase AOV.
Instead of sending out a general sale alert to hundreds of customers. Insider enables the brand to send targeted, personalized alerts about specific products each customer loves.
In this example, Insider uses:
Create hyper-personalized messages based on customer data, including first name and purchase history to encourage customers to restock their favorite repeat products.
For example: A beauty customer has bought the same moisturizer multiple times from their favorite beauty store. Instead of waiting for it to run out, the brand uses Insider to anticipate the customers’ upcoming need for a new moisturizer.
In this example, Insider uses:
Bring back those who left their cart unattended with in-the-moment and relevant reminder nudges to reduce browse abandonment and recover lost revenue.
For example: A global bank wants to increase its credit card applications. The bank knows this is a high-involvement process, with customers going from brand to brand to find the best fit. To encourage applications, the bank sends out personalized cart reminder nudges to emulate the customized care future customers will experience across the bank’s services.
In this example, Insider uses:
You know customers who have recently purchased are actively interested in your brand. Sending a follow-up text with a relevant service or product to complement their purchase is a quick way to improve ROI and save profit margins on already-engaged users.
For example: An automotive brand wants to improve ROI and reduce profit margins by upselling car services. The brand recognized that customers who had just purchased a car would be the most likely to treat themself to a service, so they built a follow-up cross-sell campaign around servicing the new car.
In this example, Insider uses:
There are hundreds of reasons a customer might disengage from your brand—it’s up to you to make sure they don’t. With relevant, personalized offers, increasing your CLTV and re-engaging customers is worth the discount code.
For example: A travel brand wants to re-engage its customers over the most popular time to book a vacation. The brand builds a re-engagement campaign based on customers’ favorite locations.
In this example, Insider uses:
Slazenger was looking to improve its cart abandonment rate to boost conversions. The world-leading sports brand created powerful, personalized, and contextual messages to engage its customers across SMS, Web Push, and Email. By unifying its data and combining AI and personalization across multiple channels, Insider helped Slazenger re-engage cart abandoners and nudge them to complete their purchases.
Supercharge your SMS strategy with Insider’s intuitive SMS builder. With over 120+ attributes and AI-powered segmentation, your messages will hit home every time. Plus, enjoy higher deliverability rates and cost-friendly pricing.
Insider fully integrates with your existing tech stack so there’s no need to migrate your ESP, just seamlessly weave SMS into your cross-channel journeys. From list building to campaign launch and insightful reporting, start building SMS campaigns that boost revenue and increase customer loyalty with Insider. Book a demo today.
Insider—a single platform for building individualized, cross-channel experiences—enables enterprise marketers to connect customer data across channels and systems, predict their future behavior with an AI intent engine, and build individualized customer experiences. Marketers use Insider’s platform to deliver consistent and engaging experiences across Web, App, Web Push, Email, SMS, WhatsApp Commerce, and more.
Written by
Katie Morley
Katie is an award-winning content marketer with over eight years of experience in content strategy, development, and copywriting. As Global Content Director at Insider, she currently oversees content strategy across 26 regions. Fun fact: Katie read 64 books last year (for which she owes a long commute and two week-long holidays where she spent approximately six hours a day with her nose in a book).
