SMS Marketing Best Practices

SMS Marketing AB Testing – Always A Good Idea!

While we love to give SMS marketing advice on our blog here at Tatango, it’s always best for brands to AB test this advice, as not all brands or consumers are the same, and while some advice may work for some brands, it may not work for all brands. Case in point is Firehouse Subs. Instead of launching a national SMS marketing campaign based on our advice that to grow an SMS subscriber base, it’s best to offer some sort of incentive to join an SMS campaign (free drink, 20% off next purchase, etc.), Firehouse Subs decided to test this advice on a small test market before launching their SMS campaign nationally.

SMS Marketing AB Testing

To test, Matt Olsen; Digital Marketing Manager at Firehouse Subs performed an A/B test, with two different calls-to-action, one contained an offer for a free drink when a consumer joined their SMS marketing program, the other did not. The results were very different than the results we’ve seen for other QSR type brands.

The signage without the free drink offer had a higher opt-in rate after purchase, and higher redemption rates (on average 8.6%) for subsequent mobile SMS offers. Sounds almost counter intuitive doesn’t it? That’s the point of AB testing though, some things sound like they’re a no-brainer, but in reality everything should be tested to ensure the assumptions you’re making in your marketing efforts are valid.

 


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