When it comes to SMS, sending the right message to the right person at the right time means the difference between a brand loyalist and an opt-out. And in today’s crowded DTC landscape, marketers who take the time to research and segment their subscribers have a competitive edge.

Here’s how we use segmentation to help our merchants create hyper-personalized SMS experiences for subscribers.

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Recent purchasers

Recent purchasers are the segment most commonly tapped by marketers. Targeting this group of subscribers is key to your segmentation strategy so you can create effective upsell and cross-sell campaigns based on an item they purchased most recently.

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Unengaged

The 80/20 rule suggests that 20 percent of your customers make up for 80 percent of your sales. But don't count unresponsive customers out. Our clients find that when they use segmentation to send targeted messages to unengaged subscribers, they're able to convert them into purchasers.

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Never purchased

For your text subscribers who have yet to make a purchase, play with different types of messages to see what resonates—try a special offer or limited release, educational content, or a 5-star customer review on a popular product. If they were interested enough to opt-in to your channel, these shoppers might just need an extra nudge to make their first purchase.

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VIPs

Loyal customers are your VIPs, and grouping them together to provide them with targeted content helps you reward them for sticking around. Whether you use a loyalty program or behaviors and actions—like number of purchases made or total amount spent—to determine what makes a customer a VIP, make sure to keep them happy with first looks, and exclusive offers and discounts.

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Zero-party data

SMS gives brands a way to easily collect valuable information that helps them better understand, and serve, their customers. The more you learn about them through real-time, two-way conversations, the more relevant texts you’ll be able to send. In addition to the info you gather from two-way interactions, you can use SMS to collect data from customer responses to a survey or quiz.

At Wizard, we use the zero-party data we’ve collected via text to tag relevant groupings so we can create custom segments. Take MYOS Pet, for instance. After wrapping up a successful interactive campaign where they asked their customers to respond with a photo of their dog, MYOS was able to sort through the responses and segment their Golden Retriever owners. And on National Golden Retriever Day, those customers received a personalized message, along with an exclusive discount code.

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Abandoned cart

One of online retailers’ biggest pain points, abandoned carts cost e-commerce brands $18 billion in lost sales every year. But your cart abandoners are high-intent shoppers who may simply need a reminder. And targeting them with a reminder to complete their purchase—or sweetening the pot with a promo code—can help brands capture revenue that would have otherwise been lost.

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When you take the time to tailor experiences to customers, you’re more likely to convert. And Wizard can set your text channel up for success.

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