Personalize and Predict Shopper Engagement

By leveraging data from multiple channels, including your loyalty program, email service provider, SMS marketing program, and so much more, your brand can get a deep understanding of a customer’s sentiment toward your brand — and you can better personalize messages to drive conversion. The key to truly executing personalization at scale is segmentation.

With connected data, you can create high-impact segments, understand specific audiences, and effectively target shoppers to catalyze desirable behavioral change. There is no maximum number of segmented groups your brand can leverage, but offering differentiated experiences to each audience is crucial. For example, brands could segment based on loyalty tier, customer sentiment (using reviews), SMS subscriber status, and more.

After creating your desired segments, effectively target customer audiences. You can engage one-time shoppers with retention-focused campaigns such as a punch card campaign and get them to their next milestone, like a higher VIP tier. Or, key into customers at risk of churning or those ready to make a purchase at the right time with the right message.

Leverage loyalty data to personalize communications

With rich data behind the scenes, your brand can do more than send a birthday message to make a customer feel recognized and important. Leverage their past purchase history and product preferences to suggest relevant products, especially during a new release or collection drop.

Send over suggestions on a shopper’s preferred channel, or both email and SMS, to drive higher conversion and engagement. Over 76% of loyalty members want to receive personalized updates from their favorite brand via SMS.

Skincare brand Barefaced uses loyalty, SMS marketing, and reviews to collect and share valuable data across their tech stack — delivering relevant, high-converting customer experiences. For example, the brand rewards customers with loyalty points when they subscribe to SMS, and sends texts with timely point balance reminders and perks. They also segment campaigns to send exclusive deals and promotions to their top loyalty VIP tier. Synergies between their loyalty program and SMS marketing propel powerful engagements. Triggered messages that remind customers of their remaining loyalty points to spend have driven an incredible 253x ROI, with New VIP Tier texts driving 120x ROI as well. Holistically, the three solutions work to humanize their brand.

Send texts when purchase likelihood is high (and low!)

With loyalty program data, your brand can get a good understanding of exactly when a shopper typically purchases, and that’s especially true for brands with a high purchase frequency, like brands in the food and beverage and CPG industries.

With this data on hand, your brand can send perfectly-timed messages, especially via SMS, reminding members that it’s time to re-up. To entice shoppers even further (and potentially increase cart size for future orders), try throwing in a free sample with their purchase. Ask them which product they’d like to try, giving you even more insight into their preferences for future suggestions. 

Alternatively, brands with low purchase frequency can still leverage cross-product data to drive engagement in between purchases. If a loyalty member has left a positive review on a past purchase, try reaching out to them to check in and see how they’re enjoying their purchase. Reward for any additional photos or videos they’d like to share. 

Message shoppers with time-sensitive updates

Sending new sales and exclusive offers, especially for loyalty program members, are key ways to drive continued engagement during both on and off buying cycles. 

“Before, we were using texts as a replenishment tool, but what we found is that people want to know about sales and offers,” says Dee Charlemagne, Co-Founder at AVEC. “We use a simple strategy: ‘What would I want to receive in my text inbox that wouldn’t annoy me?” 

Entice your most loyal shoppers, like members of your loyalty program, with a brand new product launch or brand partnership, and text them an exclusive offer or time-sensitive discount code to incentive immediate action. To make the path-to-purchase even easier for members, allow them to redeem their loyalty points via SMS. No copying and pasting codes or even scrolling through redemption options at checkout. Members can simply click their reward link from their phones and checkout.

Over 40% of shoppers said a text with a countdown to when a sale or offer expires would encourage them to complete a purchase. These types of messages keep shoppers engaged for the long run and create excitement — they never know what exclusive perks might be next for them to enjoy.