Improved Targeting with Our Updated Flows

For many eCommerce businesses the core revenue generator is automated messages, with SMS automations being one of the front-runners when it comes to that. Whether it’s an abandoned cart sequence to recover purchases, winback messages to re-engage customers and boost CLV, or a welcome SMS series to greet new subscribers, automations work non-stop and generate conversions behind the scenes.

Realizing the importance of automated messages and what growth opportunity they give our users, at SMSBump we always look for ways to improve their performance and capabilities.

With the last few updates, merchants can now get really nitty-gritty with their Flows, improve segmentation, refine their targeting and provide for better personalization.

Let’s look at the three latest advancements we introduced to our Flows to make them even more effective. 

Maximize Audience Reach with the “Or” Condition 

Our newest “Or” condition gives you the opportunity to enhance your text marketing reach with a single Flow.

Oftentimes we have to deal with very similar audiences that have similar interests. Instead of launching separate campaigns for every group, you can now launch one campaign and target audiences with similar, yet not exactly the same, interests.

For instance, let’s say you are running a campaign, where you have a sale on beach hats and dresses.

Despite coming to you to look for two completely different things, these two groups of people have a common interest: your summer merchandise.

Let’s say you have customers that have recently purchased dresses from you, and some that have bought summer hats. If you are looking to start a sale on your summer inventory, using the “Or” filter will allow you to launch only one Flow, but target both of these groups at the same time. To better visualize it - check out the image below, where we are looking to do an upsell, but only target customers who bought either a summer hat, or a dress. Since they are both interested in summer items, it makes sense to target them with another relevant item from your summer collection. 

Time-consuming and effective!

Besides boosting reach, we know it’s important for brands to maintain a healthy stream of repeat purchases. To do that, you need to engage customers on a personal level and provide them with offers that are of value to them specifically. Let’s see how you can do that with SMS flows.  
 

Better Personalization with Flows Genders 

Developing a marketing strategy that resonates with particular audiences is essential for improving conversion. Knowing something as basic as whether a customer is male or female can be a true game changer when it comes to how your brand will approach its customers.

The second of our newest Flows updates will allow users to create entire flows based upon the gender of their customer. This is especially valuable for any eCommerce store that sells both females and male products and is looking to provide customers with the most relevant offers.

Use the gender filter with any other to make the scope of your flow even narrower and only engage with subscribers that have the highest chance to convert. You can create special treats for your highest-spending female customers, your most frequent male buyers, or target them based on an exact product or collection they purchased from before, and many more.

With the gender segmentation in Flows, you can also customize the copy of your text message and use images that would speak to the particular audience. Images are eye-grabbing by themselves, but imagine how effective they’d be if you tailor them based on gender. You wouldn’t use kittens to appeal to men, would you now?



Not to mention, adding a gender rule in your flow will help you better understand your audience, i.e. how responsive are women to your offers vs men, what is the ratio of females vs male subscribers, and use those findings to improve, innovate, and optimize your campaigns.

There are many key elements to a successful marketing campaign, but using the gender of your customers as a filter is a great way to start, one that will help you text the right people with the right offerings!

And speaking of accurate targeting… 

Better Targeting with Specific Segments 

To take your targeting to the next level, we now present you with the opportunity to engage with specific segments within Flows.

Do you already have a segment, fetching inactive high-value customers, based in the USA, for example? Are you looking to set up an abandoned cart flow to notify them specifically with an exclusive offer, such as free shipping? Instead of creating a bunch of conditions to have your flow only target that group of people, you can simply select that particular segment from the flow builder! 

To create a really exclusive flow, you can also combine multiple segments using the “And” condition. This way your messages will only be sent to people who are part of all segments at the same time. For instance, you can configure your flow to target customers who are both female and based in the US, but also have completed more than 3 purchases with a total order value of more than $200, making your flow really focused on a very particular group of people.

On the other hand, with the new OR functionality that we mentioned above, you can also broaden up the reach of your flow. Assuming you are running a campaign on your newest 4th of July collection: with the OR rule you can contact either customers that are part of, let’s say your Engaged US customers segment (i.e. the ones based in the US that have clicked on a link in an SMS but didn’t purchase), or customers who are based in the USA and have purchased from a particular collection before.

Remember: all you have to do is create the segments you want to use in the Flows in advance.

There is a whole science behind segmentation and the million routes you can take with your segments. But one thing is for sure - segmenting your subscribers based on characteristics such as behavior, demographics, lifestyle, interests, even geographic location, can only be of benefit to your marketing strategy. Segmentation is crucial for any brand looking to only provide its customers with the most personalized experiences, instead of launching all-in-one campaigns and relying on chance to improve conversions. 

Let Your SMSBump Flows Do Their Magic! 

Automating part of your marketing is essential not just because it makes everything so much easier, but to also cover aspects of your sales funnel that might slip by you otherwise.

With the newest updates we are getting closer and closer to providing you the most comprehensive flow builder you can think of, and giving you all the necessary features to successfully automate your SMS marketing.

Let us know if you have an idea for a feature we can develop to help your business make the most out of SMS!