How to Segment Your Contact List

The market for SMS marketing is growing at a blistering pace—expanding by over 20% each year. Texting is also most people’s preferred method of business-to-consumer (B2C) communication, and boasting a 98% open rate.

SMS marketing is the modern era’s equivalent of television ads, and magazine spreads in the 1980s—if you want to get your offerings in front of consumers, it is the best choice. List segmentation can help you utilize relevant messaging techniques to zero in on engaged clients.

What is list segmentation? 
It’s the process of dividing your SMS audience into smaller, more manageable, and like-minded groups to inform your marketing efforts. In this quick guide, we’ll explore its finer points and implementation strategies. 

Why List Segmentation Is Vital for SMS Marketing

List segmentation is essential to SMS campaigns, enabling marketers to better serve and cater to their audience’s makeup. Understanding your client base is vital to contemporary marketing as it empowers:

• More personalized messaging – Over 70% of consumers expect personalized interactions in B2C communications. Segmentation allows you to more effectively group clients by location, purchasing history, and other factors to craft more closely customized messages. 

• Engagement rates – 72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messages. So, if you’re not segmenting and customizing your SMS for different clients, there's a chance you’re reaching less than a third of your potential audience. 

• Better conversion outcomes – 76% of consumers say personalized messaging is the primary reason for their interest in specific brands. Likewise, 78% admit personalization led them to purchase from a brand multiple times. With salient segmentation, powerful personalization, and enhanced engagement, other more important metrics (such as your bottom line) will rise, too. 97% of companies say this personalization boosts their business—so don’t skip list segmentation when plotting out your SMS campaign!

Executing List Segmentation for SMS Marketing 

Before you can begin sending text blasts and reaping the rewards of SMS marketing, you’ll need to know how to segment your customer base. Follow the steps below to ensure your segmented groups share similar sentiments, sensibilities, and shopping habits.

1. Identify Segmentation Criteria for SMS Lists 

There are a variety of dividing lines you can use to split your audience into segments. Many marketers rely on classic demographic information such as age, location, and gender. For SMS campaigns in particular, however, it’s more effective to consider other factors such as:

• Customer behavior – How much time do they spend browsing your site? How often do they open your emails or check your social media? When was the last time they went online? Customer behavior can give you a sense of which clients are active and which are essentially phantoms with phone numbers—allowing you to focus your efforts on segments more likely to actually receive your message.

• Purchase history – Splitting customers up by purchase history allows you to recommend similar products to those they’ve bought in the past. The vast majority of consumers are interested in personalized product recommendations—meaning they’re an effective way to boost sales figures.

• SMS engagement – If a customer reads all your messages, responds, and routinely clicks on your links, they can be considered a highly engaged client. Group such customers into one segment as they’re the most interested in your messages and have the highest chance of converting when they get a new SMS. 

2. Implementing Tools and Technologies for SMS List Segmentation 

Many modern marketing tools empower businesses to send highly targeted messages, increasing engagement and conversion rates. Several solutions, such as Mozeo, offer robust segmentation features, allowing companies to categorize subscribers based on demographics, behavior, or preferences. 

Essential features include intuitive segmentation interfaces, automation capabilities, and integration with customer data platforms, enabling seamless execution of personalized SMS campaigns.

3. Analyzing and Refining SMS Segments 

SMS campaigns are typically high-performing but also tend to be fickle. Despite boasting higher click-through rates (CTRs) than email or social media ads, they still range anywhere from 20% to 35%.

To keep your campaigns performing on the higher edge of this range, you should constantly reevaluate your content and recipient lists to ensure they remain relevant and engaging. 

Effective Strategies for Using List Segmentation in SMS 

There are various ways to use list segmentation to enhance your SMS campaigns and drive conversions. Consider the following for your strategy.

Personalized Promotions 

Customers enjoy different products and have various spending patterns, which is why targeted promotions are essential. Segmenting your audience allows you to personalize the messages they receive with products and offers that suit their fancy.

Three-quarters of American consumers make purchases after receiving promotional SMS. With thoughtfully targeted promotions, you can drive that figure even higher.

Event-Driven SMS Alerts 

There are a variety of events—both digital and in real life—that you can promote through carefully timed SMS bursts. You can use them to advertise:

• Flash sales – Discounting everything for the next two hours? Amp up your sales performance by letting your audience know with a massive blast to all your segments.

• Launches and new releases – Are you debuting a new product or service? Send specialized invites to let your customers know when to log in for the big reveal.

• Pop-ups – Taking your online presence to the streets? Invite your most engaged segments to join you if it’s a small ordeal—or all of them if you want to generate as much buzz as possible.

Exclusive Updates or Offers 

Providing offers and insider information to specific segments is a key strategy to generate hype and pique your audience’s interest. For example, saving exclusive discounts for your top 10% of spenders makes them feel appreciated and rewards them for their loyalty to your brand.

It also gives less engaged customers a higher incentive to attain VIP discounts and exclusive offers.

Best Practices for SMS List Segmentation 

SMS list segmentation is an effective way to craft engaging messages that captivate your customers and match their interests. To make the most of your segmentation efforts, keep the following best practices in mind.

1. Continuously Review and Adjust Your Segments

If customers stop opening, reading, or responding to your messages, they can no longer be considered highly engaged. Move them down into less engaged segments and promote more active users.

The same logic applies to any other segmentation criteria. Consumers, clients, and entire market sectors are constantly evolving—make sure you acknowledge and adapt to these changes by reviewing and adjusting your segmenting efforts accordingly. 

2. Prioritize Opt-in and Compliance 

If any business sends consumers an SMS without first receiving explicit approval, they’re in violation of federal law and can be fined up to $1,500 per message.

To avoid heavy penalties and keep your operations fully legal, ensure your customers opt-in to receive messages before you send a single SMS. Similarly, be sure to give them the option to opt-out in every promotional message.

Capitalize on Your Segmentation Efforts by Leveraging Mozeo for Your SMS Campaign

List segmentation takes your SMS campaigns from Hit or Miss to Right on Target by nurturing a more personalized brand experience—a must for modern marketers hoping to appease expectant consumers.

You could sit and hand-write a list of your highest-spending, most engaged clients, create multiple group chats on your phone, and painstakingly craft messages for each one—or you can use Mozeo.

Mozeo makes it simple to group similar customers into segments, devise salient messages that pique their curiosity, and engage them with your brand. We even provide in-depth activity reports to give you a sense of your campaign’s performance and help you improve your segmentation efforts.

More insight. More capabilities. More engagement. Mozeo.