When setting up an SMS campaign, your content needs to be truly impactful. But even more importantly, you need to ensure that this high-quality content reaches the people for whom it will be truly relevant. The conclusion here is clear: targeting pays off. In fact, targeted calls-to-action perform 42% better than generic ones.

Creating reader segments

Visitors to your site are constantly taking actions: reading articles, clicking links, sharing on social media, and so on. The first step to tracking these valuable actions is to get the user to provide information that allows you to link them together—for example, an email address.

Once a reader has provided their email address, all information about them can be associated with a unique, saved contact record, which you can use to target your offers.

From these contact records, you can start creating lists that group users based on specific criteria you have selected. These lists will serve as the foundation for your segmented marketing campaigns. These campaigns will offer your readers truly relevant content, both on your site and in your SMS messages.

This is all very simple in theory, but without the right data, the right tracking system, and the proper workflow, the segmentation process can become very complicated indeed.

What are the necessary tools and key points for successfully segmenting your audience?

Here are a few tips to get your segmentation process off to a good start.

What device is the user connecting from?

Displaying a message appropriate to the type of screen being used has a significant impact on your readers' engagement rate. However, this type of segmentation cannot and should not be done manually. To do this, you must use a content management system capable of detecting the type of connected device and adapting your content accordingly. This way, readers connecting via smartphone or tablet will automatically receive the best possible viewing experience.

What is their subscription anniversary date?

By integrating your contact database with your management software, you can create contact lists that take into account the date the user subscribed to your campaigns. To do this, create lists of people whose subscription dates fall within a certain time frame, such as 15 days or one month. As the renewal date approaches, send SMS messages containing a call-to-action to encourage renewal. For people who have just signed up for your program, send welcome SMS messages or satisfaction surveys.

What is their professional category, company information, or industry?

It is wise to include questions in your sign-up form about the subscriber's profession and industry. This information will allow you to target your recipients with content directly related to their daily professional needs. This type of information will help you adjust your SMS content or identify target prospects likely to yield a high conversion rate. You can then send perfectly targeted texts to these segments of your database.

Has the user participated in an event offered by your brand or purchased a digital product?

Once again, keeping your entire prospect database in one place allows you to create lists based on users who have purchased a product on your site. You can then offer them cross-promotions with other related products from your range. And the possibilities for connecting with your customers are endless! Send them follow-up SMS messages, such as invitations to your events with the option to receive reminder notifications, or additional content based on products currently on sale.

What is the user doing on your site?

If you are able to track the navigation paths taken by your site's users and identify which content has generated clicks, you will know what your customers' favorite topics are. This data will allow you, once again, to segment your audience by interest and send them targeted promotional SMS messages that are likely to increase your conversion rate.

Each of these criteria should ideally be used to create segmentation based on personalization rules. As you know, offering your customers personalized content is a complex task. However, the strategies proposed in this article are excellent starting points. Your database may contain over 50,000 users, but your goal is for every SMS to feel like it was sent to just one person.