Shrinking Your SMS Opt-Out Rate: Essential Strategies for Marketers

By Koushi Sunder, CEO of Stemless Co.

Greetings, marketers! I suspect you’re actively seeking effective strategies that ensure your customers remain committed to your brand. After all, a robust and engaged customer base is the engine that drives a successful marketing campaign.

In the realm of SMS marketing, the opt-out rate can pose quite the challenge. Today, however, we’re set to turn that challenge into an opportunity. We will be exploring three proven strategies to substantially reduce your SMS opt-out rate. Are you ready to take this informative journey with us?

Decoding the Opt-Out: Why Do Customers Click Unsubscribe?

Before we can significantly shrink the average SMS opt-out rate, it’s important to comprehend why customers choose to hit the dreaded unsubscribe button. While the reasons can span a wide spectrum, here are a few recurring culprits:

Too Many Messages

Customers tend to wave goodbye to marketing text messages when they start to feel swamped with too many alerts. No one likes a a phone buzzing with a barrage of non-critical updates. If their device seems more like a chatterbox than a helpful tool, they’re more likely to opt for an easy opt-out.

Irrelevant Content

What’s the one thing customers adore? Content that resonates with their interests2. If you’re firing off mass text messages to all your customers, without considering their unique preferences, many might find the content off-key and hit unsubscribe.

Lack of Personalization

In this age of tailored experiences, customers seek a personal touch in their interactions3. If your SMS messages sound more like generic mass-produced alerts, customers might feel unappreciated and opt-out.

Opting Out Feels Like Solving a Puzzle

A complicated opt-out process can pump up the opt-out rates. If customers feel ensnared, they may get annoyed, form a negative image of your brand, and decide to unsubscribe for good.

By learning from these insights, you can tweak your via SMS marketing strategy to better cater to your customers’ needs and tastes, which can dramatically decrease the likelihood of them opting out.

And let’s not forget, the ultimate goal isn’t merely to lower opt-outs, but to deliver true value to your customers that will make them want to close to your brand.

Now that we’ve explored the reasons behind opt-outs, let’s dig into our advice on trimming down the unsubscribe rates.

1. Strive for Consistency Without Being Overbearing

Our first tip might feel like a tightrope walk: provide regular updates, but refrain from bombarding your customers. Research indicates that an overload of messages is the top reason for SMS opt-outs. Ideally, you should aim for the sweet spot of around 4-5 texts per month. This keeps your brand fresh in your customers’ minds without turning their inbox into a battlefield.

2. Champion Relevance and Quality

In the world of SMS marketing, it’s crucial to remember that quality always triumphs over quantity. To keep your customers engaged, every text you send should add value and spark interest. Let’s break this down:

Relevance is Key: Customers have varying interests, preferences, and needs, and your SMS marketing strategy should cater to this diversity. 52% of customers opted out from marketing texts because they found them irrelevant (Marketing Profs). So, how can you make your texts more relevant? The answer lies in knowing your customers better.

Use customer behavior, purchase history, and feedback to tailor your messages to individual preferences. For instance, if you run a bookstore, you might send a Stephen King fan an alert when his new book hits the shelves.

Offer Exclusive Deals: 91% of users who opted into SMS marketing did so to receive promotions or direct discounts (Marketing Sherpa). Consider providing SMS subscribers with special offers that aren’t available to other customers. This could be early access to a sale, a special discount code, or a buy-one-get-one-free deal. This kind of exclusivity enhances the perceived value of your texts and can lower your SMS opt-out rate.

New Product Alerts: Keep your customers in the know about the latest and greatest offerings from your brand. Sending sneak peeks or early-bird announcements about new products or services gives your customers a feeling of being insiders, which fosters loyalty and engagement. Remember to tie these alerts back to the recipient’s known preferences to keep the content relevant and enticing.

Relevance and quality are key to holding your subscribers’ interest. Tailor your messaging strategy around your customers’ interests and needs and they’ll be far more likely to stay engaged.

3. Offer an Easy Opt-Out

Think about it: nobody enjoys feeling trapped. This sentiment applies to everything from complicated contracts to insistent salespeople, and it’s just as true for SMS marketing. When people know they can leave at any time, they feel less pressure and more at ease— enhancing customer retention.

There’s also the issue of respect. By offering a simple and straightforward opt-out, you show respect for your customers’ time, attention, and preferences. And as any seasoned marketer knows, respect is the cornerstone of customer loyalty.

To put this into practice, ensure your opt-out process is clear and user-friendly. A good rule of thumb is to include a simple “reply STOP to unsubscribe” message in your SMS marketing. It’s also good practice to confirm the opt-out, letting customers know they’ve successfully unsubscribed and won’t receive further messages.

In a Nutshell

Harnessing these strategies can help you maintain low unsubscribe rates. It also allows you to create stronger connections with your customers. This will take your SMS marketing campaign from good to great.

Looking to push the boundaries of your SMS marketing? Here at Stemless Co., we’re passionate about helping businesses like yours curb opt-out rates and boost engagement. Get in touch today and let’s explore how we can supercharge your marketing efforts!