Drip Texting: 5 Ideas to Ace SMS Drip Campaigns in 2023

Marketing is a vital part of doing business. You need to boost brand awareness, find new customers, and foster customer loyalty. But your emails are being ignored, and nobody picks up the phone anymore. There must be a better way.

There is! Find out everything you need about a drip text campaign here. It’s a great way to run an efficient and personalized marketing campaign.

What’s drip texting?

It’s a marketing strategy designed to gradually warm up a lead to convert them to a customer. You can also aim this strategy at existing customers. You run drip texting campaigns by sending SMS messages to prospective customers.

This happens over a period of time to slowly encourage your targets to take a certain course of action. That may be to buy for the first time or upgrade their plan with your business.

The process is automatic, pre-written, and pre-scheduled. That means it won’t occupy a ton of your people’s time.

To succeed with your SMS drip campaign, you need to segment your audience. This is so you can tailor your messages depending on who you’re trying to reach. The best campaigns are a perfect combination of personalization and automation.

What are the benefits of a drip texting campaign?

So why use a drip campaign? Let’s examine some of the benefits.

Increase customer engagement

Through audience segmentation, you’re able to give your messages a personal touch. You can leverage customer data to discover the topics most likely to get traction. Then reflect that in the content of your messaging.

You can post content on various topics if your website has a blog. You can see which subjects garner attention from which audience segments. Suppose a customer reads a post about small business VoIP phones. Find ways to incorporate the subject into your drip texting campaign.

By appealing to your audience’s interests, you’ll engage them better.

Set-and-forget

Messages will be sent to a schedule over which you have full control. You put in the initial work to leverage data to make the most effective messages. After that, the campaign will run itself.

You can monitor success by looking at click-through rates and sales. This allows you to tweak things if necessary.

Improve brand awareness

You personalize messages for your audience, which is powerful. Additionally, you can show off your brand personality. Craft your messages to project an image true to your brand.

You want your audience to know what you do, of course. Equally important is how and why you do it. Use your drip texting campaign to educate your audience about your brand values.

Boost efficiency

Once set up, an automatic text messaging campaign will send out your messages to your target audience. Thus, it frees up your sales and marketing teams. They needn’t occupy themselves with mundane and repetitive tasks. They can focus their efforts on other things.

Step-by-step guide for setting up your drip texting campaign

Choose the right platform

There are many providers who can supply you with an automated text message system. Do your research and choose a platform that ticks all the right boxes.

You’ll need something easy to use, and something that gives you the personalization options to make an effective campaign.

Additionally, you’ll be thinking about the budget. Please note: the platforms with pricing at the lower end will have fewer features. This means your campaign will only be so effective.

Determine your goals

What is this particular campaign trying to achieve? Are you looking to find new customers? If you’re a new business, perhaps brand awareness is your goal. You need to know this so you can craft the messages as effectively as possible.

Pick your targets

One of the key strengths of a drip texting campaign is the ability to personalize it. To do this, you’ll need to know your target audience.

A great way to get this data is by offering a free resource such as an ebook. In exchange, you’ll get crucial data you can use to segment your audience. Use existing customer data if you have it.

Once you’ve got the information, you can begin the process of grouping your leads. For a B2B company, this could be by business size, industry, or the number of employees. Create segments in whatever way makes the most sense to achieve your goals.

Write your messages

With your goals and targets set out, you’re in a position to craft your messages. As it’s a text, brevity is key. You can’t go on and on in an SMS. Get your message across succinctly but in an engaging way.

You can merge SMS and email marketing, if you want longer messages. Use each medium to complement the other. Also, use marketing to drive traffic to your website, where you can provide even more detail.

Plan the campaign

When and how often your messages get to subscribers is as important as the content. You’ll need your messages to arrive when they’re least likely to be ignored. Also, you want the volume of texts to be effective but not annoying.

Some of your contacts may have two or more phone numbers on one phone. Try not to send repeat texts to the same contact. Make sure your numbers list has a single number for each lead.

The decisions you make around this will depend on your goals. If you’re onboarding new customers, the gaps between messages can be quite wide. If you’re looking to boost customer loyalty, you’ll want a higher frequency of messages.

Launch the campaign

You’ve done the leg work and now it’s time to launch. The campaign will run automatically. You can run several campaigns simultaneously if you’re using the right platform. This means that you can target several groups all at once.

Monitor & tweak

Although the campaign runs itself, you’ll still need to monitor its success. Depending on your goals, work out the KPIs for an effective campaign. If it’s not quite working, then make the necessary tweaks and relaunch.

5 Ideas to ace your SMS drip campaign

Now you see the potential for a drip texting campaign, let’s look at some ideas to make the most of one.

1. Warm welcome

First impressions matter. Create a good welcome message that shows your customer is valued. Make sure the tone matches your brand identity.

Hello [Customer],

This is [customer service rep] from [company]. Thanks for [purchasing, signing up]. We’re happy to have you on board!

We know you’re just going to love [product/service]. If you have any questions regarding your [product/service], please head over to [company website FAQ page]. Do not hesitate to get in touch at [customer service email].

Thanks again, [customer service rep]

This warm welcome also tells customers how they can contact you if they have any questions.

2. New Product/Service

Launching a new product or service is an opportunity to reconnect with lapsed customers. Tie in an exclusive promotion, such as a discount coupon, and you can win them back.

Great news, [Customer]!

We at [company] are proud to announce the launch of [new product/service].

We’re currently offering existing customers an exclusive discount. You could save up to 30%! Go to [link to new product/service landing page] to learn more.

This message shows the excitement of a new product launch and has a direct call to action. The exclusive offer acts as an incentive for the customer.

3. Awareness Booster

The following example assumes the customer has signed up for a newsletter. The message is meant to educate customers and encourage them to visit your company’s website to learn more.

Hello [Subscriber],

We hope you’re enjoying [company newsletter].

Did you know that [company] offers [product/service]? It’s just one of many things we offer to help with [newsletter topic].

Go to [company website] to learn more about [newsletter topic].

This message leans into the subject the newsletter subscriber is interested in. Also, it directs them to your website where they could become a customer.

4. Get them 1-to-1

Sometimes, you need to have an in-depth conversation to convert a lead. A great way to do this is through a consultation. Use messages to encourage leads to sign up for a 1-to-1 meeting or call.

Hello [Customer],

Did you know that [company] offers a free consultation service? We can discuss your [product/service] needs. There’s no obligation, and we can do it at a time that suits you.

Sign up at [consultation sign up web page].

Many thanks! [Company/customer service rep].

This message lets the customer know that there’s no obligation to buy. They might have worried they’d be pressured otherwise. It’s also got a call to action to sign up at the provided web address. Make sure to follow up with an appointment confirmation text for any consultation sign-ups.

5. Milestone Celebration

A great opportunity to encourage customers to upgrade their service is at some milestone moment. Use a drip texting campaign to automatically get in touch with customers at a set time.

Hi [Customer],

It’s been one year since you signed up for [service]. We hope you’re enjoying your [service], and we wanted to know that we’re grateful for your custom.

If you want to get more out of [service], go to [upgrade web page] to see what else [company] has to offer.

Thanks again. We’re looking forward to many more years of working with you.

[Company CEO]

This message is for customers who like the service and could benefit from extra features. By signing it with the name of the CEO, customers will feel important and valued.

Automatic and personal

It doesn’t matter if you sell jewelry or you’re providing a virtual receptionist for small business. The key to success is finding areas where your company can connect with a prospect. That’s why it’s crucial to personalize your messages. With an automated drip texting campaign, you’ll be able to alleviate some of the work but reap all the rewards.

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Bio:

Jenna Bunnell - Senior Manager, Content Marketing, Dialpad

Jenna Bunnell is the Senior Manager for Content Marketing at Dialpad, a business communications software and AI-incorporated cloud-hosted unified communications system that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. She is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Jenna has also written for other domains such as TRACX. Check out her LinkedIn profile.