CASE STUDY
From $28,000 to $143,000+:
How Budai Media achieved 33% of total sales from SMS for a 7-figure kitchenware brand
Brand Story & Challenges
This handmade knife brand targets 35- to 55-year-olds who enjoy cooking outdoors. The hand-forged steel blades are affordably pitched in the $100 to 300 USD price range, with regular discounts and bundles. All knives come with a lifetime warranty.
The brand had the potential to shoot up their revenue and profits using email and SMS. As of Q4 2022, we’d already worked on their email marketing for more than a year.
But SMS was missing from the marketing mix, so we decided to implement it during Q3 2022. The challenge was to scale this up further and make it as important as email marketing.
Before Budai Media
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The brand had no SMS marketing strategy in place.
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Email marketing and paid ads were their primary focus for over a year.
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The brand struggled to get subscribers to their SMS list.
After Budai Media
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The total SMS marketing revenue increased from around $28,000 to $143,000 in December.
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The brand achieved $283,000+ in revenue from SMS in just two months.
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SMS marketing generated 33% of total November sales for the brand.
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In November, 16,958 SMS subscribers generated $140,000 in revenue, resulting in a remarkable $8.2 revenue per subscriber in just one month.
How We Helped
Preparing for Q4, we migrated to Recart from our previous SMS tool. We found this tool easier to implement for this brand and Recart also focuses on the US market.
After setting up the first few SMS flows and seeing some initial revenue, we created a sophisticated SMS campaign strategy for November and December 2022.
The SMS campaigns complemented the email marketing strategy.
Our strategy usually includes:
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Pre-announcement of the BFCM sale
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Grand Opener of the sale
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Reminder messages
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Urgency
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Post-BFCM promo extension optionally
We found 3 keys of our success:
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The brand used Facebook and Instagram ads to convert leads into the SMS list. This is crucial because while SMS has great conversion potential, most brands struggle to get subscribers to their list.
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Differentiation between VIP and non-VIP SMS subscribers. Also personalizing the message to each.
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Sending 12 SMS campaigns in November and 9 in December focusing them around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas. Many brands are afraid to send this many messages but this is the time of the year to go all in regarding the quantity of messaging.
The segmentation of subscribers was crucial in ensuring that VIP customers received early access to sales events, and the use of flash sales to convert non-purchasers into customers was effective.
The brand also launched new products in December and Fb-IG ads combined with SMS were great tools to draw attention to these.
While for most brands we don’t recommend it, for this one it made sense to extend the BFCM sales event by a few days. SMS marketing helped us create urgency in the last days but also updating people about the promo extension.
We also added an end-of-the-year sales event to find one more opportunity to connect with the customers during a less busy period of Q4.
Interestingly, we didn’t use discounts in many campaigns because we found it didn’t affect the sales numbers much. We found it important to test the efficiency of discounts and promo codes.
Many SMS marketers think that it’s not possible to have much creativity in the SMS copy but for us, emojis and images made a difference in the campaigns.
If you take a look at the numbers, in November the total SMS marketing revenue was $140,000 with 2,000 new subscribers only. In December, we achieved $143,000 with around 3,000 new SMS subscribers.
In November, 16,958 SMS subscribers generated $140,000 revenue, equivalent to $8.2 revenue per subscriber in 1 month! This is something very hard to achieve with emails in B2C.
In both months, SMS marketing surpassed the email marketing revenue and in November, it hit 33% of the total sales of the brand. This is an exceptional achievement with SMS and nobody has ever imagined similar results with SMS (even if Fb and IG ads were connected).
When you take a look at the Q3 and Q4 2022 numbers of this kitchenware brand, you can also see the bigger picture of how email and SMS marketing could scale this brand. The brand could scale from $100,000 to beyond $400,000 in just 5 months.
The total SMS marketing revenue has also grown from around $28,000 to $143,000 in December.
CONCLUSION
The SMS success story of this kitchenware brand demonstrates the incredible potential of SMS marketing when implemented strategically. By incorporating SMS into their marketing mix, this kitchen knife brand was able to generate $283,000+ in just two months and achieve 33% of their total November sales through SMS alone.
The key to success was a sophisticated SMS campaign strategy that focused on segmentation, differentiation, and timing. By targeting VIP customers, personalizing messages, and sending multiple campaigns during specific dates, the brand was able to convert leads into SMS subscribers and drive sales through flash sales and promotions.
Interestingly, we did not rely heavily on discounts and instead tested the efficiency of discounts and promo codes. We also used emojis and images to add creativity to their campaigns, proving that SMS marketing has the potential for great creativity.
Overall, this success story showcases the potential for SMS marketing to dramatically increase revenue and customer engagement when implemented strategically, and highlights the importance of choosing the right tools and tactics to achieve success.