In other exciting news, we are thrilled to announce the acquisition of our long-term partner, Fresh Relevance. With this move, we are able to provide you with the best CXDP experience, empowering you to consistently deliver customer experiences that go beyond expectations. Read more about it here.

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

Save time and do more with WinstonAI

WinstonAI, Dotdigital’s marketing intelligence engine, has continued to grow and evolve. From send time optimization and product recommendations, to generative AI assistance, WinstonAI is on hand to make your work life easier. And with this release we’re adding even more features to our generative AI capabilities, helping you streamline your campaign creation process.

Grammar and spell check

What is it?

Built into the campaign builder, WinstonAI will scan your campaign content and provide a spelling and grammar check across email, SMS, surveys, and pages and forms. This will let you know of any errors found and offer suggestions, leaving you in control to adopt as you see fit.

WinstonAI is powered by GPT and our partnership with Microsoft ensures that all data is always secure.

Why is it important?

WinstonAI grammar and spell check allows you to save time, so you can focus on the more creative and important elements of your campaign.

• Reduce time spent proofing campaigns
• Streamline sign-off processes
• Communicate with confidence
• Reduce typos and grammar errors
• Keep standards high and maintain brand reputation
• Spend more time focusing on creative and strategic elements of your campaign

How to get started

Our grammar and spell checker, powered by WinstonAI is now available within the campaign builder. To note, if you don’t want to utilize WinstonAI, there is a toggle option to disable WinstonAI suggestions, so you always have complete control.

SMS in one-click

What is it?

This new WinstonAI feature enables you to easily convert email campaigns into SMS messages with just one click. WinstonAI will do all of the hard work for you and suggest an SMS campaign with copy that is aligned with the message of your email campaign.

Why is it important?

A cross-channel approach is key, and SMS adds a lot of value to your marketing mix. With incredible engagement rates, 60% of SMS are read within 1-5 minutes, and the ability to cut through the noise of a busy inbox, SMS campaigns should be a part of your marketing strategy.

This new feature means you can focus on the message first, and the channel second. Creating SMS has never been this easy, allowing you to increase your reach in no time at all

• Save time and drive far more engagement with just one click
• Deliver cross-channel experiences in seconds
• Focus on creating your message first, and channel second

How to get started

When you’ve finished writing your email in our campaign builder, simply click on the WinstonAI icon and select “convert to SMS”. You’ll then find the suggested SMS campaign in the SMS editor and all that’s left to do is hit send. If you’re not sending SMS yet, start by setting up a free trial in your account.

Shorten SMS

What is it?

Ever written the perfect SMS campaign only to realise that you’ve gone over the character limit? WinstonAI can now analyze your text and provide a shortened version that is suitable for mobile messaging while retaining the essentials of your original content.

Why is it important?

Adhering to the 160-character count limit for SMS texts is crucial to avoid sending multiple consecutive messages and impacting your billing. The WinstonAI shorten SMS feature simplifies the task of condensing lengthy messages, without losing their core meaning. You will also receive the character count of the shortened message.

How to get started

You’ll find the WinstonAI Shorten SMS tool in the SMS campaign editor. Simply click on the WinstonAI icon and select “shorten message” to receive your alternative text.

Elevate your strategy with enhanced SMS

SMS is a great tool to have in your cross-channel strategy. It lands in the palm of your customers’ hand and gets the message across in rapid time. This release we’re launching a host of improvements to your SMS experience. This includes making SMS campaign creation easier, offering improved SMS number capture, and delivering detailed new reporting.

Advanced revenue attribution for SMS

What is it?

Get more insight into campaign performance with our new advanced revenue attribution for SMS. By tracking both direct and assisted campaign revenue, you can now easily identify how different touchpoints are performing throughout the customer journey. This is already available for email and now we’ve added the capability to SMS to ensure you can effectively report on campaign performance across both channels.

Why is it important?

Customer journeys are anything but linear and each touchpoint deserves recognition. ROI is a crucial metric for any business so reliable, detailed reporting is key. A comprehensive understanding of the marketing journey and every individual campaign’s impact is invaluable for managing budgets, future campaign planning, and campaign optimization.

How to get started

Find out more about our revenue attribution models in the help center. To benefit from assisted revenue attribution you must be on a CXDP or Amplify package.

Commerce SMS capture

What is it?

Consumers are shopping on mobile devices more than ever before, so we’re making it easier for our ecommerce partners to maximize every conversion opportunity. Merchants using Magento, Shopware, Shopify, or WooCommerce can now capture SMS numbers as part of the check-out process. Shopify merchants are also able to offer an SMS-only checkout to their customers.

Why is it important?

Embrace the mobile shopping trend by integrating SMS capture at checkout and letting consumers decide how they want to be contacted, keeping your brand connected to the pulse of the customer.

• Acquire more marketing contacts that are opted-in to receiving SMS.
• SMS checkout allows customers to complete their purchases faster.
• Send tailored mobile offers and discounts via SMS.
• Send order updates directly via text messages keeping shoppers informed throughout the whole purchase process, leading to higher satisfaction.

How to get started

You must be a merchant using either Shopify, Magento, Shopware, or WooCommerce and SMS. Head to the help center and search for your ecommerce platform to find out more.

Think bigger with extensive integrations

Our integrations allow you to bring your whole customer journey together and share data every step of the way to better inform your marketing strategy. We know how important fast, accurate data flows are, so we made our API even better.

New integrations area in Dotdigital

What is it?

In our new integrations area you will find a comprehensive directory of all of Dotdigital’s tech integrations, including Dotdigital-built, verified partner and app extensions such as Facebook and Google ads. The integrations area is categorized and has search and filtering functionality, plus each integration will have a profile with a description along with instructions on how to install.

Why is it important?

A core part of our offering as a CXDP is our ability to connect with your entire marketing stack. You can now easily find the integrations you need to create a seamless customer experience that delivers conversions and improves ROI.

• One centralized database for improved visibility and connectivity.
• Have the confidence that the integration you’re reviewing is either Dotdigital built or verified, making choosing new tech easier.
• Discover the steps needed to self-install, or how to get in touch with our partners.

How to get started

You can visit the new integrations area from your Dotdigital account. Not a customer? You can also check out our integrations in the partner directory here.

API V3 and improved rate limits

What is it?

Our all-new API offers a top-of-class CXDP experience. Whether you’re wanting to push data into Dotdigital or send it back to other systems, this new API is changing the game. We’ve also enabled higher rate limits for our existing APIs.

Built with the latest RESTful technology, with service versioning embedded from the start, our family of APIs allow you to:

• Integrate quickly with any other system
• Make up to 6,000 calls per minute so data will always be up to date
• Read data in 30ms – that’s five times faster than you can blink

Why is it important?

These new services are the first of a new batch that will be focused on ensuring our customers and partners can integrate even more seamlessly with Dotdigital. This enables you to freely exchange data which in turn drives incredible customer journeys using our communications and automation capabilities.

• Our CXDP allows high-speed data access without burdensome rate limits.
• Sync insight data as you can now retrieve all modified records since your last call.
• Contacts can be identified using any identifier for improved visibility.
• Consolidate many API calls into one by optionally including other contact related data when getting your contact details.

How to get started

Visit the Dotdigital Developer hub for all information relating to our APIs.

The new Dotdigital is now available to all customers

We’ve spent the last few years re-building Dotdigital from the ground up to be able to offer you the functionality of a powerful data platform, paired with our customer experience and marketing automation tools. In short, Dotdigital is now a CXDP.

What is it?

We’ve kept all the things you already love about Dotdigital, and amplified them. Built on our core values of sustainability, privacy, and security, we are continuing to grow the platform to support your business in even more areas.

Dotdigital’s data platform functionality combines email and SMS data to create a unified, single source of truth for your contacts. Unified contacts allows you to bring your data into one place, enabling you to build a deeper connection with your audience.

Why is it important?

Unified contacts, gives you more insights than ever before – all in one place. You now have more ways to identify customers, so you can match up associated data with identifiers including (email, mobile number, and unique contact ID).

A joined-up customer data platform allows you to create an engaging, cohesive customer journey. In today’s market, going beyond the expected is key for brands who want to stand out, be memorable, and offer an exceptional experience.

• Engage with your customers on their preferred channels for optimal engagement and an improved customer experience.
• Deliver a seamless cross-channel experience with multiple touchpoints across the customer journey.
• Gain a 360° view of your contacts to better understand them enabling you to market directly to their interests.
• Deliver campaigns that engage at scale with hyper-personalization techniques and tools that appeal to your audience.

How to get started

We’ve done all the work, unified contacts is now a part of your Dotdigital account from today.

Other key updates

New look and feel: homepage and better UI

You’ll notice a new, refreshed homepage now featuring key performance metrics and personalized recommendations to help you identify key opportunities and effectively manage your to-do list. We’ve also upgraded our navigation and redesigned the SMS editor, making the platform easier and more intuitive to use.

A Dotdigital PWA

We’ve developed our own progressive web app (PWA) for the Dotdigital platform. This app makes it easier for you to access the Dotdigital platform. Simply pin the new app to your task bar at the bottom of your screen for instant, easy access. Head to the help center to find out more.

Shopware multi-store support

Shopware merchants can now connect multiple storefronts to one Dotdigital account in order to communicate with customers more effectively. Having a multi-store setup connected to one back end store can save time and admin work, this is especially valuable for ecommerce merchants that serve multiple countries.

App blocks for partners

The new partner app blocks enable to partners to build their own blocks for customers to use in the EasyEditor. This gives you more control and flexibility over what layouts you use in your campaigns. Plus, automatically matching campaign style functionality saves you time by removing the need to manually adjust the style via the code.

SMS regulations for Singapore

In order to send SMS in Singapore, marketing providers need to be able to block incorrectly formatted sender IDs, as these are considered a risk for illegitimate messages. Our latest update supports this change – get in touch with your Customer Success representative to enable the change in your account.

At Dotdigital we know it’s hard to keep up with the sending rules and regulations of different countries. We keep on top of it for you so that you can continue to send SMS in 220+ countries across the globe confidently.

Improved login experience

We’re increasing the login inactivity window from 2 hours to 3 days. So you can go away for a long lunch or even a long weekend, without being logged out of the platform.

Join the webinar

1. Make your content mobile and desktop friendly

In today’s digital age, it’s important to ensure that your content is not only visually appealing but also optimized for both mobile and desktop devices. With more and more people shopping and browsing through their phones and laptops, it’s important to review how your website performs across different devices and make any necessary optimizations.

By making your content mobile and desktop friendly, you can provide a pleasant browsing experience for your users. Nobody wants to zoom in or scroll endlessly just to read the content or view product details. So make sure that your website and email design is responsive, with easy navigation, readable text, and properly sized images.

Optimizing your website for mobile devices can also help reduce abandoned carts and increase conversions. If users find it difficult to navigate or complete a purchase on their phones or tablets, they are more likely to abandon their carts. On the other hand, if the checkout process is smooth and user-friendly on all devices, it can lead to higher conversion rates.

2. Turn abandoned carts into revenue with crafty email follow-ups

The holiday season is here, and with more shoppers turning to online shopping, it’s the perfect time to focus on fine-tuning your abandoned cart recovery strategy. Don’t let those potential customers slip away – give them a chance to save their carts for later.

One effective way to reconnect with shoppers who’ve shown interest in your products is through personalized emails or messages. By sending follow-up messages tailored specifically to their abandoned carts, you can remind them of the items they left behind and entice them to complete their purchase.

Whether it’s a friendly email highlighting the benefits of the products or a text message offering a limited-time discount, these personalized approaches can make a significant difference in recovering lost sales during this busy holiday season.

3. Add a personal touch to your messaging

When it comes to holiday messaging, personalization is key. Gone are the days of generic mass emails and cookie-cutter marketing campaigns. Today, it’s all about creating a personal connection with your audience.

By utilizing the data you’ve gathered from preference centers and first-party data sources, you can tailor your messages to cater to each individual’s preferences and behaviors. This level of personalization not only shows that you value their unique needs but also increases the chances of engagement and conversion.

Imagine receiving an email that speaks directly to your interests or a targeted holiday ad that showcases products you’ve been eyeing. It instantly creates a sense of connection and makes you feel understood as a consumer.

4. Sprinkle some holiday magic into your SEO

The holiday season is the perfect time to sprinkle some festive magic into your website’s SEO. By incorporating festive keywords throughout your SEO copywriting and product descriptions, you can capture the attention of shoppers who are in the holiday spirit.

One way to add a touch of holiday flair to your SEO is by updating your meta tags and headings to showcase that seasonal spirit. By including keywords like “holiday deals,” “gift ideas,” or those related to your product, you can align your website to what customers are searching for at this time of year. By with your customers’ seasonal searches, you can increase the chances of attracting more traffic to your website. 

You can make the most out of your website traffic by incorporating a clear call-to-action (CTA) section. Not only does it help enhance your click-through rate, but it also allows you to drive revenue. By organizing your CTAs with various links, you can cater to the different interests and preferences of your visitors.

To make your CTAs engaging, use simple language that is easy for users to understand. A user-friendly layout will also encourage them to take action. Remember, the goal is to create a seamless experience that entices users to click and explore further.

5. Be social media savvy

The holiday season is the perfect time to have some extra fun on social media. With so many people spending time online during this festive period, using paid and organic social methods is an effective way to reach both new and loyal customers.

On Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, you can use targeted ads to connect with your desired audience uniquely. These platforms offer a range of gamification options to incorporate into your ad campaigns. You can create engaging content that resonates with your demographic using interactive quizzes, polls, and immersive storytelling experiences.

By adding gamification elements to your social media ads, you can transform the user experience from passive viewing to active participation. This approach not only increases brand awareness but also encourages interaction and engagement with your target audience.

But why stop there? For an added layer of flair and authenticity, team up with influencers who resonate with your target audience. Collaborating with influencers can help you tap into their engaged followers and create a buzz around your brand during the holiday season.

Time to wrap up

These five simple and engaging tips will help make your holiday marketing campaign a smashing success. By keeping your messaging personalized, your SEO festive, and your content as device-friendly and heartwarming as possible, you’re setting yourself up for a profitable holiday season. So why wait? Jump into the holiday marketing fun and spread good cheer all around.

In a glance: the benefits of SMS marketing

• 3.8 billion people own smartphones – that’s nearly half of the world population.
• 48.7 million people chose to receive text message marketing in 2020.
• SMS marketing has a 98% open rate.
• Click-through rates on SMS offer messages are 9.18% higher than any other digital channel.
• 75% of people aged 44 and below like contacting businesses via text.
• Millennials and Baby Boomers spend around five to six hours on their phones – that’s basically half a day!

What makes SMS a global channel?

How to use SMS to engage international customers

1. Automated welcome messages

2. Target time zones

3. Triggered SMS automations

4. Competitions and surveys

5. Expiry periods

Similar to email marketing, SMS marketing allows marketers to reach subscribers with personalized one-to-one communications at scale. Modern consumers always have their mobile devices close at hand. That’s what makes SMS marketing such an under-utilized channel. Marketers have access to a channel guaranteed to get the reader’s attention, but its potential remains untapped.

Mobile phones help connect users to the wider world. It’s through these devices shoppers are searching for and discovering new brands. They’re already demanding personalized experiences on well-established channels such as email and websites, but the growing dominance of mobile has led to a demand for more personalized mobile experiences.

Personalized SMS experiences

It can be daunting enough just thinking about adding SMS to your marketing channels, how are you supposed to deliver personalized experiences too?

We hear you, and the answer is simpler than you would expect.

Marketing automation allows you to send one-to-one communications on a massive scale. Using an intelligent omnichannel automation platform, you can use behavioral triggers to deliver the right messages at the right time. This means that every single recipient is receiving the same experience.

What’s more, with intelligent SMS builders, you can personalize messages the same way you would an email. Adding data fields such as first name or location empowers marketers to deliver hyper-personalized messages with next to no effort.

8 SMS marketing programs to get started

1. Subscription confirmation

When you collect phone numbers at the point of sign-up or subscription, you can trigger a subscription confirmation message to be delivered to your new contact. This is especially useful as a double opt-in tactic to reaffirm the contact’s desire to hear from your brand.

Subscription confirmation texts not only ensure your mailing lists as full of engaged contacts but also assures that the phone numbers collected are valid.

2. Welcome message

Welcome emails are a must. They help you introduce your brand while getting to know your new contact. But a welcome text message goes one step beyond to surprise and delight.

Adding a welcome SMS to your welcome program is about expressing your brand personality. It feels personal and will leave the recipient excited about connecting with your brand.

3. Announcements

Do you have quarterly product launches? Do you host events every month? Maybe you run semi-annual sales. Whatever your announcement, creating an SMS program will help your messages land with impact.

This should be a three-stage program:

1. The teaser: let customers know something exciting is coming their way.
2. The announcement: shout it from the rooftops and drive customers into action.
3. The last chance: just before the end of the sale or the event begins, offer customers a final chance to get on board.

4. Abandoned cart or browse messages

There are various reasons for cart abandonment, but distraction is one of the most common ones. Drive customers back to your website is an abandoned browse or cart text message.

Customers who are out and about, at work, or on the move are more susceptible to distraction. Using this channel to offer an exclusive discount code can be the motivation shoppers need to complete a purchase.

5. Birthday alerts

Happy birthday messages, especially those delivered via text, once again allow your brand to connect with customers on a human level. You can choose to deliver exclusive discount codes through this channel or drive them to their email inbox with a ‘keep an eye out’ message.

6. Order confirmation

Transactional emails are essential for building trust and confidence in your brand. Adding SMS order confirmation automations to your marketing strategy not only reaffirms this trust but also allows you to thank customers for choosing your brand.

Saying “thank you” in your order confirmation message is a perfect way to ensure a customer feels valued. And when a customer feels valued, they’ll become a repeat purchaser and a high spender.

7. Surveys and feedback collection

The only way your brand can grow and continue to meet the needs and demands of your customers is if you know what it is they want. The best way to discover this is to ask them directly through surveys and feedback forms.

Using SMS to collect this information helps you collect this information quickly and effectively.

8. Win-back and re-engagement campaigns

Winning back a customer when they stop engaging with your emails can be a tough job. Especially using the very channel they have stopped responding on. That’s why an SMS re-engagement campaign is a guaranteed win.

Remind subscribers about your brand and drive them back to your site as they lapse with well-timed SMS automations.

Getting started with SMS marketing

These eight SMS marketing automation programs will deliver immediate results. SMS doesn’t have to be complicated or long-winded to add to your marketing channels. You can create these as stand-alone programs, or add them as stages in your existing programs.

However you choose to integrate SMS into your marketing, there’s no better time to get started.

Every brand now vies for their customer’s attention not with product or price, but a personalized experience. Consumer expectations have shot through the roof, their demands for tailored one-to-one experience now having shifted fully online. McKinsey claims the pandemic has transformed consumers’ lives, and that shoppers have “covered a decade in days” in the adoption of digital. Traditional offline shoppers have had to pivot to online shopping overnight – which has put pressure on brands to replicate that personal in-store experience digitally. Moving forward, businesses need to nail their messaging and customer experiences if they wish to compete in this new ‘home-demand’ economy.

Transactional vs. marketing

Post-purchase marketing covers everything from transactional updates like order confirmations and marketing promotions like upsell product recommendations. But, it’s important to remember that your customer perceives all your communications equally: it’s just marketing. With this in mind, it’s key to keep messages looking consistent, because a harmonious brand experience will drive your competitive edge. Customers will feel satisfied and value your brand more.

What’s more, the post-purchase experience sets the scene for a continued healthy relationship between brand and customer. Retention is a key business pillar for every brand, especially because it’s much more costly to acquire a customer than retain one. And yet, many marketers pour their focus into pipeline and acquisition – even though there’s a bounty of sales opportunities in their post-sale marketing that will convert faster. After all, your existing customers know you, have a relationship with you.

Ok, so what is post-purchase marketing?

Essentially, it’s the transactional and marketing messages you drip-feed customers after a completed purchase. Hand-holding customers is important in our digital age because of all the ambient noise. Once a shopper places an order online, they want reassurance that they completed the order successfully, plus an idea of when it’ll be delivered. They’ll likely want updates about when it’s dispatched too, in case they forget about it.

Psst! With Dotdigital for Adobe Commerce, powered by Magento, you can send transactional updates via SMS in app. Plus, using our Microsoft Dynamics 365 integration, you can trigger transactional emails from lists in CRM too. You don’t need to settle on plain transactional templates either; brand your post-sale emails so they reflect all your other marketing comms.

After a customer receives their order it’s customary to follow up with a ‘thank you’ and review, maybe including a little incentive. Asking customers about their experience and purchase helps you improve your online shopping capabilities and products.

The next stage is promotional and editorial content. Remember, customers who’ve bought with you once are likely to buy again. So, mix relevant product recommendations based on past purchases – like ‘also bought’ and ‘best next’ – with exciting editorial such as product help guides and inspirational articles.

For more insight into the kinds of post-purchase messages you can send, plus all the relevant product recommendations, download our post-purchase marketing guide here.

Post-purchase marketing automation programs

Post-purchase marketing is much more than just an order confirmation. Automation tools are a great way to plan out all of your customer lifecycle messages. Here are some effective aftersales programs you can consider:

Nurture program

Build engagement and loyalty over time, pre- and post-purchase. Deliver on your subscription promise with engaging and valuable content, including both promotional offers and top editorial picks.

Loyalty program

Once customers purchase, or the more they purchase, you can enroll them onto a loyalty program. Just set your criteria and start boosting the value of your customer’s overall experience, with perks exclusive to them.

VIP program

Reserve this premium program for your customers that spend big and frequently. Here, you’ll want to showcase your most exclusive content, invite-only events, and limited product ranges.

SMS: an effective post-sale marketing tool

SMS marketing, when used in conjunction with email marketing, can be a highly engaging way to connect with customers. The channel boasts unbeatable engagement rates, plus cuts through the white noise better than email. Your customers don’t even need an internet connection for you to reach them, either.

The beauty of text messages is that they’re highly contextual, so using them as part of a wider marketing program helps drive relevancy and engagement. You could, for instance, incorporate SMS into your aftersales program for transactional updates or loyalty series for product drops. Likewise, SMS can complement your product recommendations push in email too.

When it’s all said and done, SMS is easy for marketers, novel for customers, and a smart way to communicate post-sale. And with Dotdigital, sending your transactional and broadcast SMS is simple via API.

For more info on the golden opportunity of SMS, download this guide.

It’s time to take post-purchase marketing seriously

If you’re a marketer that doesn’t have control over transactional campaigns, it’s time to take ownership now and consolidate all post-sale messages under one roof. Keep your email design branded, your SMS and email messages coordinated, and your content super-relevant. This will help make the post-marketing experience more holistic and personalized, delighting customers at scale.

Want to find out more about post-purchase marketing? Check out our guide to all things aftersales here.

Many buyers feel more comfortable with SMS because they’re not compelled to stop what they’re doing and engage right away. That may not sound great for SDRs or BDMs who want to close their deals before the month’s end; but at least these messages will be seen and read, and not lost like an email in an overcrowded inbox.

SMS might be an underrated and underused channel; but if your buyers like it, you should too.

Why SMS for B2B?

• SMS read rates are as high as 98%
• Buyers are 4.5x more likely to reply to an SMS than an email
• Marketers using three or more channels in their campaigns see a 250% higher purchase rate than marketers using a single channel

It’s no surprise that 61% of marketers increased their SMS budgets in 2020. The mobile, whether at work or at home, has become more than a communication device. People use it as a calculator, a camera, a portable TV. The smartphone is never further away than arm’s length – and that provides businesses with an unmissable opportunity to reach their prospects and customers.

What’s SMS for B2B?

In layman’s terms, SMS for B2B is businesses selling to prospects via text messaging. An important thing to note is that B2B buyers are everyday consumers. And while many wrongly consider SMS a B2C-exclusive tactic, the channel can be used in the same way in a B2B context.

For instance, consider this:

After filling in a prospectus form, entering your email address and mobile number, you browse part-time university courses that will help with your career progression. Later that day you receive a text inviting you to a virtual open day about the institution and preferred course. You accept and are one step closer to choosing that institution.

An example like this can be applied to B2B scenarios easily. Like the above, once your prospect opts in to your marketing, you can use SMS to follow up on high-intent actions like product page views, demo or sample requests, and content downloads.

Benefits of selling via SMS

One of the biggest advantages of selling via SMS is speed. You can meet your audiences where they are and get your important sales prompts across quickly. In fact, text messages are read much faster than any other channel. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Wrong!

90% of SMS is read in under three minutes.

Text is also a more personal approach to selling, which makes the buying experience that bit more human. Like B2C, people want to be spoken to and not marketed at. Personalizing your message on your buyer’s preferred channel helps you break down barriers and reach decision-makers when your competitors can’t.

SMS for B2B: best practices

1. Always get permission

Like any marketing channel you need to get permission from your audience before contacting them via SMS. Failing to do so is illegal and could cost your business dear. What’s more, recipients will be unimpressed receiving unsolicited texts from you, and that’s not good for business. Luckily, there are easy options to get permission:

• Opt-in form

The moment a prospect lands on your website there should be an obvious place where they can subscribe to your marketing. Whether it’s a popover on your homepage or a post-purchase prompt, invite users to sign up by communicating the benefits. What will they get in return?

• SMS campaign

Create an initiative that encourages prospects to text a specific code or keyword to sign up to text messages from your business. Make sure it’s obvious about what you’re going to send them so that the delivery and expectations are aligned.

2. Communicate something of value

If even one text message you send doesn’t have any value for the recipient, it’s not worth sending. Remember, subscribers have exchanged their mobile phone number for something of value. As a marketer or salesperson, it’s your job to deliver.

Offers and promotions might first come to mind, but you can reach out about other important stuff too. You might want to send a text that includes a link to a competition form, for example. You could also send a zoom meeting reminder, some handy content, or pricing details for your product or service. Whatever it is, there should always be a reason for sending a text, otherwise you’ll just annoy your buyers and put them off buying!

3. Include a compelling CTA

Communicating something of value is all well and good, but there needs to be a way for recipients to take you up on the offer. What you need is a clear and compelling call to action (CTA).

The key is making sure your CTA is actionable – in other words, that it outlines what the recipient needs to do to get to the next step in the journey.

Here are some examples:

“Use this code for one month free!”

“Check out our services here.”

“Complete the form to win!”

Successful CTAs are always simple, so keep yours brief and succinct. And remember, the action should seem effortless. Subscribers won’t have the attention span or time for a longwinded process.

4. Keep your message concise

You only have 160 characters to convey your message. And don’t forget, Unicode (things like emojis, etc.) will cut that limit to 70 characters – but luckily dotdigital warns you about that! In both cases, brevity is the answer: you’ll want to get your points across in a few words.

Here are some simple tips to help you save on your word count:

• Open with something irresistible: much like an email subject line, you want to communicate value right away and with as little characters as possible. Phrases like “FREE TRAINING” will grab people’s attention instantly.
• Sell benefits over features: rather than list your products and services, communicate the benefits. What’s in it for prospective customers? Is it saving time or making more money? Reducing production costs or improving management style?

Don’t let the 160-character word count put you off – if anything, it makes messages much more effective and digestible. Plus, writing concise marketing copy is a brilliant transferable skill.

5. Get your timings right

Just like your email campaigns, timing is everything with SMS. Buyers are busy like the rest of us, juggling a work-life balance, so catching them at the right time makes all the difference.

Think about your prospect’s work day – when are they most productive and when is their down time? Try and catch them mid-morning or straight after lunch. Avoid times when they might not read your text messages – for instance, Monday first thing or Friday afternoon.

Remember not to spam subscribers – give them some breathing space in between your communications. Messages should sink in with recipients before you reach out next. So, be sure to consider a careful, staged approach with the right texting frequency.

6. Test, test, test!

Split testing isn’t just for email or social, it’s for SMS too. Test which messages resonate better with which audiences and understand who you’re sending to: is it an executive or decision-maker?

Planning out all your variations for all of your personas, you can then split-test for each to see what works best. As with your sales templates, testing your content helps decipher the winning combination that drives positive engagement – signing up to an event, requesting a demo or sample box, viewing a pricing page – with prospective buyers. You can also test any personalization you use, CTAs and links, plus your ‘from’ name. All this analysis will help you curate the most optimum text message.

And that’s a wrap!

I hope you enjoyed this B2B-inspired SMS blog. SMS is a great channel for B2B companies; it helps your BDMs drive opportunities down the funnel. There’s no better way to get your buyer’s attention; and in a digitally noisy world, breaking through the noise will help you close more business deals. Plus, buyers prefer SMS to cold calling. And they won’t delete it without reading it, like they would an email.

There’s one more, very important, thing. Choosing the right SMS tool is key to success. Luckily, dotdigital has you covered.

dotdigital’s SMS tool

Dotdigital’s self-serve SMS tool allows you to pepper your marketing automation programs with engaging text messaging. Drive more leads and sales with multichannel touchpoints that turn opportunities into orders.

• Capture your customers’ attention better than on any other channel
• Achieve repeat conversions with timely nudges
• Reduce virtual meeting no-shows with appointment reminders
• Generate sign-ups to online events through early-bird texts
• Use SMS as auto-responses for competition entries, feedback submissions, and more
• Subscribe contacts to other channels with direct links to branded landing pages

The reality is that popups are only annoying when they’re used poorly and their purpose doesn’t serve the visitor. Examples of annoying popup moments are:

• Covering up an entire webpage
• Firing the moment a visitor lands on a page (or displaying the same one several times)
• Taking users off-site
• Making it difficult (or impossible) to close out of
• Displaying irrelevant or useless offers

The list goes on. It’s not unreasonable to say that every web user has been to a website only to be greeted by a bad popup (or several) which is why so many of us have a negative perception of them.

Then why use them?

At their core, popups were invented to help websites display or promote information useful for the website’s visitors, not detract from their experience. And, most importantly, frustration does not necessarily equal ineffectiveness (though frustration should hopefully not be a part of your site’s experience).

With the rise of ecommerce and digital agencies, popups are tremendously useful for brands: building an email (or SMS) list, offering discounts, promoting sales, recommending products, and driving user behavior. Additionally, they provide ample opportunity for a more personalized customer journey, which leads to better customer-brand relationships, loyalty, and bottom-live conversions. Marketers see an average increase of 20% in sales when using personalized web experiences.

These are just a few of the ways that popups can improve the user experience of a site. As far as ecommerce marketing tactics are concerned, popups remain one of the easiest, fastest, and most effective ways of increasing conversions across the board.

So, all brands need is simply a guiding hand to get them there.

Should I use popups?

(Hint: Does it help the customer?) 

The short answer is yes. The long answer is still yes, but with a few caveats.

With the rise of such a variety of brands and products, consumers have more options for the same products than ever before. Marketing should be dictated by the consumer’s needs and how you can help fulfill them. Popups, underneath the umbrella of conversion rate optimization, are not much different.

Ask these questions to determine if you need to use a popup or note:

• How does this help website visitors?
• Is this information readily available elsewhere or useful?
• What action do I want to lead them to take?
• Is it intrusive or annoying to a new visitor?

Your answers will determine not only if a popup is the right vehicle for your message but the way your popup should interact with visitors. Also, consider that for every $92 spent acquiring website visitors, only $1 is spent converting them.

The different kinds of popups

There is a surprising variety of popups, and some might not fit into what you think of as a popup. The true  power of popups today is that they can be tailored to any purpose and audience.

Lead capture

Lead capture popups are one of the most common popups visitors see. These typically appear in the middle of the page for a visitor’s first arrival (after about 30-60 seconds) on a site asking for an email in exchange for a discount. However, lead capture promotions can take the form of corner slide-ins, banners, gamification (or spin-to-wins), and more that appear throughout the website. Anything that gets their contact information into your hands is a lead capture.

There’s a reason lead capture promotions are one of the most popular popups. 95% of website visitors leave the site without a trace, and it’s crucial to get what you can, especially if you paid a lot to get them there. Asking for a name, email, product preferences, or gender can go a long way for future remarketing efforts, on and off-site. Turning anonymous traffic into a subscriber is the first step in a successful CRO strategy.

Exit offers and cart abandoners

These popups are designed to convert visitors as a last-shot attempt before they leave the website, often paired with an ungated discount (you’ll get their email address when they checkout!). With a lead capture and exit offer combined, brands often see a marked decrease in visitors that leave without a trace. Even a few more percentage points of engaged visitors can mean a tremendous amount of new revenue for a high-traffic site.

Banners

While they don’t “pop up”, banners exist within the popup umbrella. They can be used to display brand announcements, sales, countdown timers, text-tickers, and more. Banners are the ideal promotion to use for any important announcements that should be communicated site-wide. Situations that can affect large segments of your customers like a shipping delay can be communicated easily. Here being transparent with customers can go a long way, putting out a shipping fire before it starts. Other uses, like a sale countdown timer (especially relevant for BFCM), can spur customers to convert or help get rid of excess supply.

How to use popups

People report frustration and annoyance with popups for good reason – too many companies have used them in all the wrong ways for far too long. That’s the simple fact of the matter. Whether it’s too many at once, making it difficult (or impossible) to close out, showing the same over and over, or just making for an incredibly friction-heavy experience, brands aren’t using them right. When used correctly, the opposite happens: Customers are happier, more loyal, and more visitors convert.

How to make the transition?

Give your customers space

Don’t flood their screen with too many popups at a time, regardless of what they are – banner and lead capture, corner slide in, and a spin to win. This may seem obvious, but a surprising number of websites continue to spam their visitors and drive them out, leaving a bad taste in their mouths.

Make it personal: Intelligent visitor targeting

You can have several popups set up for your site. In fact, we recommend it. However, it’s crucial that you’re targeting visitors appropriately – whether it’s a new visitor rule (only show to new visitors that have never engaged with it before), an exit offer (only show to users that are about to leave), or targeting based on their traffic source like social media or email. The more specific when targeting visitors, the more likely they will convert and appreciate the offer you’re providing them.

By coordinating targeting rules you can ensure each segment of visitors will receive an experience designed to fit them, elevating the popup game starts with targeting people with the right message at the right time.

Provide genuine value

Is the popup providing genuine value to visitors? That is the most important question when creating and using popups. If they give me their email, will I spam them or will I send them useful information on new products, sales, or services? Is that 10% off discount for their first order enough? Would they prefer a free sticker or product sample instead? Like all marketing, know and respect thy audience. 

 Be creative and A/B test

Is it original and on-brand? Popups are normalized, but a bland “Give me your email address” won’t get anywhere with an increasingly intelligent and internet-savvy online audience. Be creative and incorporate fun messaging. Popups are a great way to show the human side of a brand – make jokes and make them feel noticed. Lastly, test, test, test. Utilize A/B testing to know what’s working the best – where, what, how, when – and you will find great success.

Popups are not the enemy

Justuno works hard to educate marketers and brands about popups. They can dramatically improve a visitor’s experience and allow a company to build better relationships with their customers with personalized onsite experiences.

Much like passive income, the initial hurdles of setting up pop ups (which is easier than ever before) can lead to dramatic improvements in business and long-term returns with improved bottom-line conversions, average order values, email marketing and SMS lists, revenue, more loyal customers, and more. There’s no reason to not start today.