130 - Laryssa and Liz Dive into SMS (Text) Marketing For Jewelry Brands

Summary

Episode 130 Summary: Laryssa and Liz Dive into SMS (Text) Marketing for Jewelry Brands

In Episode 130 of the Success With Jewelry podcast, hosts Laryssa Wirstiuk and Liz Kantner delve deep into the realm of SMS (Short Message Service) marketing tailored specifically for jewelry brands. Drawing from their extensive combined experience of 18 years in jewelry marketing, they provide actionable insights, best practices, and real-world examples to help jewelry entrepreneurs effectively leverage text message marketing to boost their business success.

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1. Introduction to SMS Marketing

The episode kicks off with Laryssa introducing the core topic:

Laryssa [00:29]: "In this episode, we're diving into SMS marketing, what it is and how it works. We'll cover when to start, how to build your list ethically, and what types of messages actually convert."

Liz echoes the enthusiasm, emphasizing the importance of understanding SMS marketing in the current digital landscape.

2. Defining SMS Marketing

Liz clarifies the fundamental aspects of SMS marketing to address common misconceptions:

Liz [02:29]: "SMS marketing is sending marketing messages to your smartphone or your cellular device. It's more of a blast rather than a one-on-one conversation and is highly regulated."

This distinction is crucial, especially for jewelry brands accustomed to more personalized customer interactions.

3. Differences Between SMS and Email Marketing

A significant portion of the discussion contrasts SMS marketing with email marketing:

Liz [04:32]: "The message has to be short. There are limitations on the number of characters you can use, and platforms like Klaviyo charge more if you exceed 160 characters."

Laryssa [04:16]: "Email marketing is something to align with all your other marketing efforts, but SMS seems to be a thing that a lot of brands are looking towards."

Key differences highlighted include character limits, costs associated with longer messages, and the immediacy and higher open rates of SMS compared to email.

4. Benefits of SMS Marketing for Jewelry Brands

The hosts discuss why SMS marketing is a valuable tool for jewelry entrepreneurs:

Liz [08:20]: "Email marketing is extremely valuable, but it can get lost. SMS makes it harder to not see the message. Those who sign up are highly engaged and almost guaranteed to see the message you're sending them."

They emphasize that SMS marketing can effectively cut through the digital noise, ensuring messages are seen and acted upon, which is particularly beneficial in the visually-driven jewelry market.

5. Ethical List Building Strategies

Building an SMS list ethically is paramount, and the hosts provide guidelines to ensure compliance and foster trust:

Liz [18:34]: "If you are doing the regulations, you are doing it ethically because there's so many like guardrails around it. The one thing you don't want to do is just add people yourself without asking."

Laryssa [19:32]: "With SMS, it sends you a confirmation text like 'you have been added to this list. Type yes to confirm.' They actually have to take an extra step to type yes."

This double opt-in method ensures that only genuinely interested customers are added, maintaining the integrity of the marketing list.

6. Crafting Effective SMS Messages

The duo explores what makes an SMS message convert effectively:

Laryssa [20:01]: "What to send is like you want value in your messages, you want to be really thoughtful with them. They need to be short and clear and brand it."

Liz [22:12]: "Storytelling can be effective. Sometimes it's not even about the product but sharing something personal or inspirational, like a playlist that's been inspiring her."

They stress the importance of providing value, whether through exclusive offers, behind-the-scenes content, or personal touches that resonate with the audience.

7. Balancing Value with Frequency

Maintaining the right frequency of messages is crucial to avoid annoying customers:

Liz [20:16]: "Once a week could be fine. If you don't feel like you have much to say, find out why that is because you probably have more to say than you think you do."

Laryssa [21:26]: "Understanding your client is essential. Some clients prefer casual, personalized texts, while high-end clients might respond better to more polished messages."

Finding the sweet spot in frequency ensures that messages remain engaging without becoming intrusive.

8. High-Performing SMS Campaign Examples

Real-world examples illustrate successful SMS strategies:

Liz [15:30]: "Brands like Crew send MMS messages with pictures, change message lengths, use emojis, and vary capitalization to keep the content fresh and engaging."

These tactics prevent messages from feeling repetitive and maintain subscriber interest over time.

9. Integrating SMS with Email Marketing

Integrating SMS with existing email strategies can amplify marketing efforts:

Liz [23:37]: "Think about how SMS supports or adds to email marketing. It could be fine to amplify the email by creating a more personal and special touch in text."

Laryssa [23:14]: "Segmenting SMS messaging can make it feel less like a mass send and more personalized."

Synchronizing SMS with email campaigns ensures a cohesive marketing narrative across all channels.

10. Regulations and Best Practices

Navigating the regulatory landscape is essential for successful SMS marketing:

Liz [03:50]: "There are strict rules about the times of day you can send SMS marketing. For example, you can't send texts at midnight."

Compliance with regulations not only avoids legal issues but also builds trust with customers who appreciate respectful communication.

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Key Takeaways

• SMS Marketing vs. Email: SMS offers higher open rates and immediate visibility but requires concise messaging and careful frequency management.

• Ethical List Building: Utilize double opt-in methods to ensure subscribers are genuinely interested, maintaining list quality and compliance.

• Content Strategy: Provide value through exclusive offers, personal stories, and varied content to keep messages engaging.

• Integration: Seamlessly blend SMS with email marketing to create a unified and effective communication strategy.

• Regulatory Compliance: Adhere to all SMS marketing regulations to respect customer preferences and avoid penalties.

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Conclusion

Laryssa and Liz's comprehensive discussion on SMS marketing provides jewelry brands with a clear roadmap to harness the power of text messaging effectively. By understanding the nuances, adhering to best practices, and integrating SMS thoughtfully with other marketing efforts, jewelry entrepreneurs can enhance customer engagement, drive sales, and foster lasting relationships with their audience.

For more insights and expert advice on jewelry marketing, visit successwithjewelry.com and become part of a community dedicated to your business success.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the Success with Jewelry podcast where we invite you inside our conversations about business success and marketing for jewelry designers and entrepreneurs.

[B]

We're Larissa and Liz, jewelry marketing experts with a combined 18 years of experience in jewelry marketing and proven track records in helping jewelry brands meet their goals. When you listen to this podcast, you get an intimate and exclusive peek behind the curtain of all the things you wish you could know about earning success in this industry.

[A]

Welcome to episode 130. In this episode, we're diving into SMS marketing, what it is and how it works. We'll cover when to start, how to build your list ethically, and what types of messages actually convert. Plus we'll talk about balancing value with frequency so you're not annoying your customers. And for insiders, we're sharing examples of high performing SMS campaigns, often best practices, and a guide to integrating SMS with your email marketing. Hey, Larissa, let's get into it.

[B]

Let's get into it. I know that you have been asking about this topic for a while, so we are tackling it today.

[A]

I know it keeps kind of coming up. I feel like though, when I was writing this outline that we've talked about it before, I didn't go and look, but I feel like we've probably covered it in an episode. I mean, we've done so many episodes.

[B]

Of this podcast, we must have talked about it. But you know what, here's a refresher.

[A]

Yeah, here's a refresher. If we have talked about it before.

[B]

We haven't talked about it in a while, so true. So what kind of questions do you get from people about it? Because I know you talk to like a lot of designers all the time. Are they asking you like, should we do sms?

[A]

I think everyone's kind of looking at like, well, how do I actually reach my customer? And you know, Loris and I speak a lot about email marketing as something to like, make sure you're aligning with all your other marketing efforts. But then, you know, email marketing is sometimes getting lost too, right? So SMS seems to be a thing that a lot of brands are looking towards. Now I'm on a handful of SMS text message things. I'm signed up. I've signed up for a few and a lot of like the new brands, I discover more medium size. Not as many small brands are asking for a phone number when you sign up for a list or try to get a discount.

[B]

Yeah, definitely. So sms, you kind of said it is text message marketing. So people sending marketing messages to your smartphone or your cellular device And I do want to clarify that because this is kind of a misconception that I run up with sometimes with clients, especially ones like jewelry stores, a lot of times they'll have like a text system to send like transactional or update messages to clients. Like for example, like your repair is ready or something. Almost like a DM where you can just converse with someone about a product. Text message marketing isn't like that. It's more of like a blast rather than like a one on one conversation. And it's actually highly regulated as well. It's more regulated even than email marketing because of phone call, spam, phone call, text messages. So like there are a lot of rules and regulations around text marketing and I say that not to scare anyone from using it but to be aware. Like you can't just blast, you can't just blast whoever you want. Like there are rules about it.

[A]

As there should be. I wish that they didn't text message market me on Saturdays or Sundays. I don't know, I, because I try not to like you know, be on my phone but then it sucks you in and you know, all of that stuff. I, I wish that were a rule. I understand why it's not. I understand why these brands are texting me on a Sunday night when I might be scrolling or just like wanting to avoid the fact that tomorrow's Monday.

[B]

But.

[A]

Yeah, that makes sense that there's a lot of rules around it. How, what is the difference between, you know, I think it's kind of clear like SMS marketing comes to someone's phone but there. Are there any other differences between that and email marketing? Well.

[B]

The message has to be short. Like there are limitations on the number of characters you can use and actually I don't know about all to text message marketing platforms but I know with Klaviyo for example if you go over 160 characters you get charged like twice as much. And most people probably can't imagine what 160 characters is, but it's probably like 10 words if that. It might even be less than that. So you can't say very much and then you just put a link. So you have to be brief. That is very difficult for people to do. And I did want to mention to your point about the weekend texting there are not rules about that unfortunately. But there are very strict rules about the times of day when you can send SMS marketing.

[A]

So you can't like send like a midnight text?

[B]

No, no you can't.

[A]

Well that's good to know. That's good to know I've never done it. So you can send like you can use Klaviyo to send text messages.

[B]

You can. And that's actually nice to talking about the difference between email and sms. If your email marketing platform and a lot of them do now have SMS as an add on, it's kind of nice to have it all in one place because then let's say like your customer Sarah is subscribed to your email and subscribed to your sms. You have all of their like behavior and activity like in one place and you can really sync that up.

[A]

That's really interesting. I bet you can learn a lot about it. I know you have a client who sends SMS that is a bit more personal than some of her email marketing and it's more like like hey friend, here's like a fun idea or here's something I'm thinking about.

[B]

I know she listens to this podcast. Yeah. She doesn't happen to mind using extra credits or paying more. So we definitely like go over character limits and you can do that up to a certain extent. And also if you want to add an image or a graphic you have to pay even more because it's called an MMS or like I don't know what that stands for, Media, multimedia or something and that costs more money. So it's interesting to see like the levels of things you can do and how much you, you'll be paying for it.

[A]

I love that idea though because I think that, I mean I think a lot of the listeners out there do communicate with their customers via text message like one on one. I think that that's a way that a lot of people like to communicate just in general. So talking about you know, like hey, like I'm interested in a custom thing or you know, just like casual text messages or like I love the thing you post it today. I feel like that's happening. So I love the approach of like with sms if you are going to think of a strategy like that to keep it casual and conversational like you're talking to a friend.

[B]

Yeah. And people can respond to you. With SMS marketing it doesn't go. It's not like a text message where you get a text back. It usually goes to like a portal, say like using the example of Klaviyo, they have like your conversations. So if someone has a question or someone does, does reply like you can see it and then carry on that conversation. So there is a potential of there being like interactivity with sms even though it is more like a blast to people.

[A]

Okay, so why, why is SMS something that designers maybe should think about?

[B]

Well, I mean, I think you said it before, email marketing, everyone should be doing. And I still think it's extremely valuable and very important. But email also can get lost and you could be sending email all the time and like a good chunk of your list might not be seeing it. It's kind of hard to not see a text message. So while it's harder to build that list because only like the most loyal, most fan of yours people will sign up, those people are pretty much guaranteed to see the message you're sending them. Unless they're just someone that like, I don't know, doesn't have notifications on their phone. Like, I don't know how you wouldn't see a text message.

[A]

Yeah. So it's definitely a way to kind of cut through the noise and be seen. High open rates.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And quick visibility.

[B]

Yeah. But you also have to be pretty mindful of what you're choosing to send and how often. I would say sms. With email, you can do it very frequently if you wanted to, multiple times a week. And because no one, very few people are going to see like every single email you send, it doesn't come across as like intrusive. And it's also mixed in an inbox where there are lots of other things. And so you are just part of a whole when you're sending email marketing, when you're sending sms, like someone's definitely going to see it. So you have, you can't like text someone every day because that will be annoying. And also the interesting thing about SMS is when they open the text, they see like the thread of everything else that you've sent them. Just the same way, like you text a friend or something, you can see the whole conversation. So if everything you're sending them, however often you're sending them, is like, here's my new product, here's my new product, here's my new product. Like you're gonna come across as like some annoying like, person that's pestering you to like go on a date with them or something. You know what I mean? So you have to consider this, this old school, like marketing slash communications thing, like the medium is the message, like sms. You have to think about the way someone is receiving it in the context and it's, it's actually completely different than email marketing in that regard.

[A]

Yeah, interesting. I, I always think about my email marketing like, oh gosh, I need to make sure it like kind of comes after the one I Sent before, even though it was two weeks ago. And, like, makes sense with that. But yeah, you know, that's not.

[B]

But nobody is really nobody's. Yeah. Digesting that. Unless they're like, searching you in their inbox and they can see the thread. But, like, who's doing that? You know, probably no one.

[A]

Unless they're a marketer and they're interested to see what I'm doing.

[B]

Yeah. I mean, I do it, but it's for, like, research.

[A]

Right, Totally. But with sms. That's. That's so true. And that's so true about it being like, I. And this is the power of sms, I'd say is that, like, I know the brands that I'm on their list. Like, I think about them a lot because they're texting me, like, probably twice a week, usually with a discount. I feel like it's often with a discount. Yeah.

[B]

And it is. I. I do this. I'll like, look just again, because I'm a marketer for research and there are brands I really like and I get their SMSs from, but I like to kind of look at the thread of what came before and, like, how it all fits together and how are they keeping this fresh? Because let's say, like, I just got an SMS yesterday from this sunglass brand I like called Crew and they probably have like, I don't know, tens of thousands. I don't. Hundreds of thousands of people on this list. So I'm thinking, like, how are they making this fresh and relevant? They are mixing in an MMS every once in a while, a picture. They are changing the lengths of. Of them changing. Even, like, sometimes they'll capitalize letters or put an emoji so that it always kind of feels and looks a little fresh, even visually. It's not just like, do that same thing. Did it at same thing. Because that feels boring and nobody wants to get that all the time.

[A]

It's interesting timing that we're talking about this because I've truly been unsubscribing from all of my SMS and deleting them.

[B]

Only because I just, I'm trying to.

[A]

Like, not shop as much. I think a lot of people are in this, like, mind.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is not, you know, great for everything. People are still buying. I don't want to say that people aren't buying. I am trying to be very thoughtful about buying from very small businesses. So anyway, that's why I'm kind of unsubscribe and I'm also trying to stop scrolling on the Internet. So Frequently and sometimes it just pulls me in because I do when I get an sms often click the link link and look at what they're talking about. Yeah, so it does work on me.

[B]

The other speaking of clicking, I have to like verify my own knowledge because I'm pretty sure I know this but I'm just like googling it. Okay, so like an old. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, what were you gonna say? I was just gonna say do you.

[A]

Think as you get older that your memory starts to go, oh my God. I know we're only in our late 30s but my goodness, my like short.

[B]

Term memory I feel like is not working recently or I feel like I'm like gaslighting myself or something. Like no, that can't be right. Like you didn't remember that.

[A]

Yeah, no, you're probably right.

[B]

Yeah. So I just don't want to tell people the wrong thing. But what I do know for sure, click through rates. For email you're good if you have like a 2 to 3% click through rate. But for SMS a good average click through rate would be like 8%, 9%, 10%. Again because it's, you can't not see it and the message is so short you can glance at it, understand what they're saying to you and decide if you want to click and if you like the brand like you probably would click like Liz is saying.

[A]

Yeah, especially if it's like I, a lot of the SMS things I'm on are, were like kids clothes, like if they had a new print that they were launching or a new collection or like obviously a discount would be often something I'd click on. But yeah, I, I get sucked in. That's why I needed to cut myself off.

[B]

But.

[A]

The like again thinking like a lot of these brands I'm thinking about that I'm on or was on the list of are medium to larger sized companies. When is a brand ready to do this?

[B]

A brand is ready to do this when they feel like they can devote the time and energy to at least trying to build out that list. Because if you start the SMS channel and you start like sending messages but you are not really actively building the list or telling people about, about it or have a call to action in like your sign up forms, like it's, it's not really going to do anything for you. Like you might have like five people on your list but like you want to keep building that up and making it more valuable for you so you have to kind of devote time to it and that can be done. Alongside like building an email list too oftentimes those things will be in the same form or yeah, like in a pop up. Oftentimes it'll be like sign up for email and then another step will be signed up for sms. Maybe there's like an upgraded incentive or perk to sign up for sms because again it is the higher value opt in than email because it is more intimate and personal. So if, let's say you give a welcome discount for email, maybe SMS gets something like a little extra special because it truly is a higher value thing for someone to sign up for.

[A]

That I often see it's like you know, 10% for the email list, 15% for the SMS.

[B]

Exactly, something like that. And again, if you don't do percentage offers like that, you know, don't, don't take that as like advice. But how can you apply that logic to your own business model and brand?

[A]

Right? Like insider tips, like truly a first look or like behind the scenes or like anything like that. I've also been noticing though that you don't get the discount with certain brands until you sign up for both email and sms.

[B]

Yes, that's a taxi.

[A]

That has to be a new thing.

[B]

Yeah. So how do you choose to do that?

[A]

You could choose to do that. It kind of just like if you're, I find that like if you want the thing enough and you're going through like oh well, I think I might buy this. I have these things in my cart. Oh, I get 10% off if I sign up for this thing. And it's like so many of my browsers are like auto fill with my information anyway that it's kind of like yeah, sign up. I can unsign up, unsubscribe if I don't want to do it. Um, so I usually just give my information if it's a brand that I'm like actively putting something in my cart. But okay, so obviously there's a lot of like ethics around this. Right. How do you build your list ethically?

[B]

I have to sneeze.

[A]

Bless you.

[B]

Wait, it might have gone away. Okay, how to build a list ethically? I mean there's so many regulations around it that you have to follow, especially if you're doing it through a platform which you should be like say klaviyo or I think OmniSend has SMS. I don't know if mailchimp does. But anyway, like if you are doing the regulations, you are doing it ethically because there's so many like guardrails around it. The one Thing you don't want to do, but it's pretty hard to do is just add people yourself without asking.

[A]

So you can like the tactic like for growing your email list sometimes that we've talked about is like just ask people like, you know, send me your email, add you to your list. You can't do that with sms.

[B]

You, you can, but. Well, you can ask for their permission and add them. But the thing with SMS is that it sends you a confirmation text like you have been added to this list. Like type yes to confirm. So they actually have to take an extra step to type yes. And if they don't, they don't get added. So it's kind of impossible unless they are truly confirming it.

[A]

Got it. And we kind of went over this. But what to send is like you want value in your messages, you want to be really thoughtful with them. They need to be short and clear and brand it. And how often.

[B]

Yeah, well how often depends on the strategy of your messaging. And if you can think of value driven things to say. Like I actually think once a week could be fine. And the client we were talking about before does that. But we are truly thinking of different ways to tell stories. And sometimes it's not even about the product at all. It's about her and what she's loving right now or like sharing like a playlist that has been inspiring her. And so it's like a much different approach. But if you don't feel like you have that much to say, one find out why that is because you probably have more to say than you think you do. Then you know, you can decide the frequency based on what you have to offer. But if you're gonna do super infrequent like once every few months, I would say don't do SMS at all because people are gonna forget they're even on the list and be like, what? Who is this?

[A]

That sounds good.

[B]

So maybe once a month at a minimum, I would say.

[A]

I think this also comes down to like really understanding your client. Some people might not have the client who wants the playlist and the info or exactly the being chatty. Some, some clients like, you know, some of my clients are more high end. This probably wouldn't be the right strategy for them. But because our emails are often like really polished and like talking about like one specific piece and all that. And what would work is like understanding who our direct clients were and if we had their contact information and if they appreciate text messaging, like sending like a really personalized text to check in. So it really Depends on who your audience is as well.

[B]

Exactly. Yeah, but I think we had it in our notes, but maybe we didn't touch on it. There's also the all the automations that same applies with email marketing. Like the abandoned cart text, the browse abandon, thank you like for your purchase also, which are all more transactional, but they can support in sales and like remind people that they were looking at something or were perhaps interested to buy something.

[A]

I do like when I buy something and I get text messages like updates like thank you for your order and then like it's on the. It's like being delivered or it's out for delivery or whatever. Like all those notifications. I do kind of appreciate those. Um, okay, just a couple more things and then we're going to move on to chat with insiders. You can segment SMS messaging, right? So you can make it feel like a little bit less like you're sending all of these messages and have kind of like a more segmented and thoughtful approach, right?

[B]

Mm, definitely. I mean, that probably wouldn't make sense if you only have like a hundred people on your list, but if you have a bigger list, yeah, there are opportunities for segmentation.

[A]

And you also like with this, if this is something you're thinking about, you want to make sure it fits in with all the other things. So you're telling a same. The same story everywhere and like everything's aligned.

[B]

Exactly. And you do want to think about how it either supports or adds to email marketing. So. But this also goes through. Okay, do I want to make SMS feel more vip? What. What does the email marketing list mean to me and my business versus the SMS list or are they the same? Is the SMS kind of just like amplifying the email? Those are all decisions that you have to make, you know, and it's. It could be fine to just amplify the email because let's say you have a drop and not everyone's going to see the email. Well, SMS is definitely going to see it, but maybe just talking about it in a slightly more personal and special way in text.

[A]

All right, have you considered SMS marketing for your business? Let us know. Visit successwithjewelry.com and if you love the podcast, we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message or leave us a review. Thanks for being a part of our community.