5+ Low-Hanging Fruit SMS Personalization Techniques [2024]

Do you ever get emails that start like this…?

• Hello sir/ma’am
• Hello sir/mam
• Or even, Hello dear

Well, I get emails like this all the time.

And am I likely to open them (let alone respond to them)?

Nope.

These emails aren’t effective for more than one reason, but one of those reasons is this:

They lack personalization.

Whoever was sending the email is clearly sending out generic messages on a mass scale—which can be fine, but in this case doesn’t incline me to be interested enough to engage.

Look, anyone who’s in business knows that personalization is important…

(After all, 90% of marketing leaders believe it makes a significant impact on profitability, and 63% of marketers believe that personalization increases conversion rates.)

So how can personalization apply to SMS? How can you combine the potential of personalization with the effectiveness of texting to make the biggest impact possible with your text campaigns?

Here are 5 low-hanging fruit techniques you can start implementing right now. (Plus, a couple of bonus tips!)

Follow Up with Active Subscribers

When you send text messages that include links, you’re able to track who has clicked your links.

If they’ve clicked on your link, that tells you they at least had some level of interest in what you had to say.

So you can then follow up with those people for more personalized engagement—for example, to ask them what they thought about your offer, or to present an upsell.

In your Mobile Text Alerts dashboard…

• Go to Link Tracking Report and click “View Clicks” on a link you’ve sent
• (Note: if you don’t see a “View Clicks” option, that means you haven’t sent a link using the link tracking option on your Send a Message page)
• Select “Send Message to All” to initiate a message to these subscribers
• OR you can create a group for these subscribers under Manage Groups by selecting “Clicked Link” as the condition when setting up your Adaptive Group

Use Geography

Another way to incorporate personalization is to group your subscribers by geography and send messages pertaining to their particular location.

For example, you could send out a deal that’s only applicable for people in their city or state

If you don’t know your subscribers’ locations, you could go by the area code in their phone number. (This won’t always be accurate but should generally be.)

In your Mobile Text Alerts dashboard…

• Go to Manage Groups and select “Add Group”
• Select the “Adaptive” option
• Set the condition to “Phone Number → starts with…” and then input a location’s area code
• You can do this for every location that you’d like to create a group for

Celebrate Opt-In Anniversaries

Use your subscribers’ opt-in anniversary month as a catalyst to engage with them and offer them something of exclusive value.

This kind of tactic gives you an easy opportunity to engage with your customers in a way that's personal.

In your Mobile Text Alerts dashboard…

• Go to Manage Groups and select “Add Group”
• Select the “Adaptive” option
• Set the condition to “Join Date → between…” and then input Jan. 1st–31st of the previous or current year
• Repeat for each year of the month
• You’ll then have an “anniversary” group for each month

Respond Individually

Although you can set up automated replies to be triggered to your subscribers if they send you texts, if at all possible you should respond individually to each and every person.

Having an actual, individual conversation with people is the most personalized way that you can engage with them.

In your Mobile Text Alerts dashboard, go to the Inbox to view your subscribers’ responses and to respond back.

Include Names

This option may not actually be something you can do right now if you haven’t been collecting your subscribers’ names—but the easiest and most obvious way to implement personalization is to include your subscribers’ first names in your messages.

Just like with email software, SMS software allows you to do this even if you’re sending messages to thousands (or millions!) of people.

But in order to do this, you need to have your subscribers’ names on file. So if possible, try to collect your subscribers’ names when they sign up for your text message list.

In your Mobile Text Alerts dashboard, simply select the “Insert First Name” option when inputting your message content to include individual first names.

Bonus Tip #1: Use Adaptive Groups

“Adaptive Groups” allow you to automatically create groups based on certain criteria.

Doing this allows you to send out more personalized messages to the people who match the designated criteria.

And depending on what attributes you’ve set up in your account, the potential for what you can do with these groups is basically limitless.

In your Mobile Text Alerts dashboard…

• Go to Manage Groups and select “Add Group”
• Select the “Adaptive” option
• From here you can select the criteria for which you’d like your group to populate

Bonus Tip #2: Use Zapier or API to Integrate

What really opens the door to amazing personalization is integration with your other services.

For example, if you integrate with your website hosting software, you can set up abandoned cart follow-ups if a user doesn’t follow through with a purchase.

Or if you integrate with your CRM, you can set up confirmation SMS when an order is placed.

You can use the integration site Zapier to integrate thousands of services with Mobile Text Alerts.

Or, even better, if you have development capacity you can integrate via our SMS API.

How Can You Personalize Your SMS?

Are you using SMS personalization to the fullest?

Probably not, but that’s OK! How could you be doing it better?

Choose one of the suggestions above to focus on for the upcoming month and see if it makes an impact on your SMS engagement.

Get a free SMS platform trial here.