BoozeBud, an online retailer for alcohol, focuses on providing low prices, a wide selection, and super-fast delivery to its customers. To help showcase its value, the Australian brand uses a cross-channel strategy with personalized messaging.

While they already used SMS, BoozeBud knew it needed to make some changes if it wanted to get everything it could out of this mobile-first channel. Luckily, it was already engaged with Braze, and embracing native SMS proved easy, efficient, and fruitful.

The Case for SMS

Why was SMS so important to BoozeBud? In order to answer that question, we have to dive into the channel a little bit. SMS stands for “short message service,” better known as text messaging on mobile phones. People send and receive SMS messages all day, every day—it’s estimated that some 23 billion texts fly over wireless networks each day, globally.

For brands, SMS carries a lot of strengths. For one thing, it’s a two-way communication stream, as responsive messages and included links allow users to respond and drive the conversation. It’s also incredibly effective at snagging audience attention, with an 98% open rate that puts it at the top of the heap, channel-wise. SMS read rates also clock in at around three to five seconds, which you won’t see with any other channel. The catch is that it’s opt-in only, and that opt-outs have to be strictly tracked and respected, but properly managed, SMS shines as a way to reach customers who are prepared to engage with a brand.

It’s easy to see why BoozeBud wanted to make better use of this powerful communications tool, and with Braze native SMS, it had the opportunity to capitalize on the channel’s strengths while smoothly navigating its challenges.

BoozeBud Brings SMS Home

Initially, BoozeBud was utilizing SMS as part of its quarterly campaigns, but it required a bit of finagling. Because they were running things through a webhook to another cloud communications platform, they weren’t able to fully leverage the Braze features they used in other channels. What’s more, they needed to manually upload their opt-outs each time a campaign was sent, adding labor and affecting efficiency.

A full Braze integration of SMS was the answer. In a matter of just four weeks, BoozeBud’s marketing and tech teams were able to bring the company’s SMS efforts fully under the Braze umbrella. By doing so, they now had access to tools such as Subscription Groups to automatically manage opt-outs based on users’ level of consent.

With their SMS efforts now fully operational, BoozeBud was ready to take its messaging strategy to the next level.

An SMS For All Seasons

Now that BoozeBud’s SMS capabilities were in line with the rest of its marketing communications, the company was ready to roll out the channel throughout its promotional lifecycle rather than reserving it for tentpole events. They found it particularly effective in their efforts to win back lapsed customers, and as a way to re-engage audiences that had lost interest in, for example, email communications.

The first campaign to make use of this new evolution in BoozeBud’s SMS messaging was their massive birthday sale, and the results were striking. The company saw a revenue increase by a massive 25% compared to previous efforts.

“Braze helps us deliver personalized comms to a customer at the right time in the right channel, what more could you want?” said Shalina Patel, Customer Marketing Manager at BoozeBud.

Final Thoughts

Every messaging channel has its strengths, but the only way to make the fullest use of a channel is to be sure you’re using the best version of it. With a full Braze SMS integration, BoozeBud’s CRM team was able to efficiently handle the nuances of this highly engaging channel and make a big splash with their quarterly KPIs. That’s worth toasting to.

For more on what SMS can do for your promotional efforts, check out the Braze The Road to SMS Marketing guide.