Webinar Recap - GRWM: How TikTok Famous Beauty Brands Use SMS
If you’ve never watched a GRWM on TikTok—you’re missing out.
TikTok has dramatically changed the way beauty brands interact with their customers. And converting an audience of engaged social media followers into SMS subscribers is much easier than you think.
During this one-hour webinar, our incredible panel of D2C beauty experts shared strategies about SMS list growth, personalization, and retention. We were joined by Alec Sunderland, Senior Ecommerce Manager for Kosas, Helena Youhana, Senior Manager of Ecommerce and Digital Marketing for Topicals, and Gio Diez, CRM manager for about-face.
You can watch a full recording of the webinar below—or select one of the following timestamp links to skip to a particular section of the video.
How To Combine Social Media and SMS Efforts [3:15]
TikTok is obviously all over the news right now, and it’s got this incredible algorithm that marketers everywhere are trying to crack. Trends like GRWM and makeup tutorials from everyday people have radically changed the way beauty brands can market to consumers.
A big initiative that works really well to connect your TikTok presence with your SMS marketing program: the waitlist. This is something all of our featured brands had leveraged to gather new SMS subscribers. Teasing out a new product drop on social media—and sharing the link to an SMS lander where people can sign up to be the first to know about it—is one of the most seamless interactions you can create.
Also covered in this section: Keeping your brand tone and content the same across channels and elevating that “surprise and delight” people find on social media through hyper-personalized text messages.
Creating a Segmented and Personalized SMS Strategy [11:59]
Gio from about-face noted that because she knows a lot of their TikTok audience is intrigued by educational content, she adopted a similar approach for SMS. By creating SMS flows designed to educate the end consumer about a particular product—think application tips or techniques—she was able to replicate the educational vibe of about-face’s social media content.
Each brand also referenced using subscriber replies in the welcome series to segment new subscribers based on the content they actually want to receive. (For example, reply “TIPS” to receive tips for using the products.)
Conversational campaigns were also key to each brand’s strategy. Kosas even asked their subscriber base what type of merchandise they wanted to see, and they ended up having a company-wide meeting to discuss the requests they received!
Also covered in this section: Winback series, replenishment flows, credit reminders, and SMS quizzes.
The Most Effective Acquisition Strategies [20:14]
List growth is forever and always a hot topic for SMS marketers, and our panelists had some hot tips to share.
Every brand noted the importance of testing their opt-in popup—from the creative and copy, to the incentive offers. Testing based on device was also a crucial strategy.
Back-in-stock alerts on the product pages were also a great tool for acquiring high-intent leads. About-face found that the majority of their back-in-stock reminders were requested via text over email.
Kosas uses a Shade Finder quiz on their website, and adding a field for phone number capture has been a tremendous lead source as well.
Using SMS as a VIP-Only Experience [27:53]
As more and more brands adopt SMS, it’s becoming a cluttered space. So how do you stay a favorite brand in your subscriber’s phone? Treat them like a VIP.
In the absence of loyalty programs for about-face, Gio uses SMS to create VIP flows where special content or sales are given to subscribers based on behavior (e.g., 3 or more purchases). These flows have generated tons of conversions for the brand.
Giveaways were also something every brand used as both an acquisition strategy and a way to do something special for just their SMS audience. For example, about-face made sure that only SMS subscribers were able to enter a giveaway for an autographed Halsey makeup bag.
Subscribers of these brands also get early access to sales, first dibs on new product launches, and the ability to message the brand directly if they have support questions. Topicals cited the Gorgias integration as a key part of making every subscriber feel like a VIP because it allows the brand to provide white-glove customer service over SMS.
The Most Exciting Thing About SMS [37:55]
We posed this question to all three brands and got some great responses.
Topicals has been able to elevate their loyalty program with the Postscript x Yotpo integration, seamlessly sending rewards reminders over text rather than email.
They are also excited to be able to integrate with Recharge and let customers know exactly when it’s time to receive or cancel a subscription order.
About-face spoke about the importance of incremental wins, like adding a keyword opt-in to the Google sitelink extension. They also see SMS as a powerful way to collect UGC, citing a campaign asking subscribers to send selfies of themselves in about-face makeup, which garnered hundreds of responses.
The launch of Kosas Try-outs was a huge company initiative, but it has been especially successful with the integration with Yotpo. SMS has taken this program to the next level in terms of convenience and personalization, and it’s also improved the brand’s customer return rate.
Live Q+A [45:50]
Questions covered in this section include:
How to execute a waitlist strategy on SMS
Recommendations for a brand with an older audience (48:46)
How to elevate influencers on your SMS strategy (51:15)
How to incentivize giveaway signups to convert (53:15)
Have questions about Postscript and all the ways we can help you make SMS your brand’s number-one revenue channel? Get in touch with our Textperts here.
