🔍 Jones Road Beauty’s Playbook For An Effective SMS Strategy

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I got some news for you, the Marketing Examined umbrella is growing, and today we’re taking one of our newer newsletters (say that 3x fast) out of stealth mode and in your inbox.

That newsletter is DTC Examined.

In a nutshell, it’s two things:

• Tactical case studies of the best in DTC in your inbox
• Case studies and playbooks for your DTC brand (you submit your brand, and we offer advice)

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Now, onto today’s case study…

I spend close to six figures on ads every month.

And here’s a quick tip I use to improve my ad’s click-through rate:

• Use image-based ads to test different value propositions, hooks, scripts, and positioning
• Test different variables and see what resonates
• Scale what works best into video ads

It’s much more budget-friendly, easier to test, and efficient for scaling when you using this approach.

And so I subscribe to Superside, which offers creative as a service.

They’re faster than hiring a creative team. They cut the average asset cost by 50%. And they ship fast as hell.

You can sign-up for a demo here.

SMS marketing genius Joanne from Jones Road Beauty shared her creative strategies and testing results on Twitter.

In this case study, we’ll break down three of her SMS tactics and why they work.

SMS is not email.

It’s where people look out for messages from family and have intimate conversations with friends.

To blend in, be personal - instead of being a faceless number from a brand.

Joanne showed up in JRB subscriber’s inbox with a photo of herself, saying hello & sharing her favorite product from JRB, just like a friend would.

A face equals familiarity. Familiarity equals trust. Trust converts customers.

Segmentation is not for the sake of segmentation.

Segmenting is used to deliver the right messages to the right people to sell them the right products.

Joanne tested sending to a segment who’ve shown interest in lip products (interest), and have purchased (intent), but haven’t purchased their lip tint (objection).

Then she called out the potential objection - the exact topic this group would want to learn more about.

The result? 11.5% CTR and 5% conversion. It's not rocket science.

Actual humans communicate in plain-text SMS.

For visual brands, it’s always tempting to include images in the messaging. But there’s a time and place for that.

Joanne tested out image + shorter description vs. no image + longer description. And…no image won with higher CTR and repeat purchase rate.

The lesson here? Tested plain text SMS and let your killer landing page do the rest of the work.

• Don’t be faceless. Add a personality behind the number
• Segment to send relevant messages to the right people in need of the right product
• Keep SMS native like you’d text your friend because that’s what you're TRYING to do

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And You know the drill! Maybe you’ve already done it. Go follow Joanne on Twitter for more gems like this!

- Alex & Chi