7 Tips for Segmenting Your SMS Marketing List for a More Effective Campaign

August 22, 2016 12:00 am by grouptexting

There is more to a successful SMS marketing campaign than just getting people to sign up. It is just as important to retain them so you have many opportunities to convert them to and/or maintain them as customers. One way to do this is to send targeted messages with value to your subscribers. Not everyone is interested in the same information, which is why it is key to segment your list into groups. These tips will help you to group your subscribers into the best categories to increase the efficacy of your program.

Know the Demographics

Track the demographics of your subscribers to create more personalized texts.

The more information you have about a customer, the better you can determine what list he or she belongs in. Some of the bare basics of data to track and use for segmentation are details based on their demographics. This might be age, gender, location, job, income level, education background, or any other information you might have on your list.

Identify How Customers Hear About Your Texting Program

Another important designation for your SMS marketing subscribers is how they heard about the program. This is an easy one to track. Simply use different keywords for different campaigns. Then, assign each subscriber to a group that matches the way they subscribed. This provides certain details about a customer. Those who saw your ad on social media might be more interested in cross-promotional texts for your social media campaigns or digital ads for shopping on your website. Conversely, those who signed up in store might be more interested in special deals for shopping in store.

Track Customer History Across Channels

For the best information about your customers, you must integrate the information across all channels. It is easy for customers to sign up for your email newsletter, shop in store, shop online, follow one or more of your social media profiles, and join your texting list. By tracking this information in one central database, then you know what information each customer is getting, and what might interest them. This helps you to avoid oversaturating customers by not sending them text messages with similar content to one of your other campaigns.

Determine Subscribers Engagement Level

It is highly beneficial to have a way to determine the engagement level of your SMS marketing subscribers. Those who redeem your coupons regularly or otherwise have a high engagement rate should be segmented into one group. You might send deals and offers more often to this group because they regularly react.

Create Multiple Groups at Various Levels

With all this data, you should create multiple groups at various levels for your list. However, you want to do what makes sense for your SMS marketing campaign. If there are only a few subscribers, it might not make as much sense to have as many groups as you would if you have thousands of subscribers. When creating the groups, have some that are very inclusive, such as all your subscribers or everyone over a certain age. It is beneficial to also have small groups that might only have a handful of subscribers, such as highly engaged women between the age of 25 and 30 with children.

Don’t be Afraid to Include a Customer on More Than One Group

Once you have developed many segmentation options for your list, it is important that you do not feel limited by only choosing one group per customer. A certain customer might be assigned to multiple groups, helping to ensure that he or she receives all texts for which he or she might be interested. However, it is essential you track how often a particular customer receives texts so you do not go over the frequency promised in the initial opt-in terms, or the number of texts that lead to opting out. About 83 percent of people only want texts about twice per month.

Actually Personalize Messages Based on the Segmentation

After all this work take the time to send personalized messages.

After segmenting your SMS marketing subscriber list, it is imperative you use it to send targeted, personalized messages. Some of your texts might go to the larger groups; however, it is just as important to send exclusive deals or other content that goes just to a particular group. This might include birthday specials that go to a group that includes those with birthdays in a particular month or a follow-up coupon after someone buys something. The most important component is that you do not send the same content to multiple groups, especially if you have customers in more than one. This decreases the chance of a subscriber receiving repetitive content while also increasing the exclusivity of your campaign.

You may not get this information for all your subscribers, but there are ways to gather the data. Integrating your databases, including records from your online and in store purchases, social media and email followers, will help you to gather information about a particular customer. You can also ask customers to fill out an information survey where they tell you more about their interests and demographics to help you decide on which lists they belong. Not all customers will give you this data, but those most interested in targeted, personalized deals will.

Try GroupTexting for free and incorporate some of these tips in creating a dynamite subscriber list from the get go.