5 SMS Automations To Amplify Your Influencer Marketing Strategy

With nearly 4 billion smartphone users across the word, it’s no surprise that SMS marketing has skyrocketed over the past couple years. Consider this: just ten years ago, nearly all web traffic came from desktop. Now, almost 60% is driven by mobile, a clear indication of how much more time we spend on our phones (for better or for worse!). This data is not lost on marketers, who have significantly increased SMS communication and with great reason – let’s take a look at the stats:

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• 91% of consumers say they would opt in to brand communication over SMS 
• 75% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers use their smartphones to shop online 
• 58% of consumers believe SMS to be the most effective method of communication from brands 
• SMS marketing has a 98% open rate (compared to 20% for email) 

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The success of SMS marketing has also changed the way brands engage with their customers, allowing for a more direct, personalized method of communication.

Couple this with the nano & micro influencer movement which has brands looking to their own customers as potential influencers, SMS is now perfectly positioned to help scale your influencer marketing strategy.

All that has been missing is having your influencer data syncing with your SMS automation logic so that you can send the right influencer-related SMS messages to the right people at the right time.

Well now with Klaviyo's new SMS features and Gatsby's tight Klaviyo integration - you can automatically send SMS / text messages to your most influential customers to initiate partnerships, collaborations, and one-off campaigns that amplify a product drop.

Plus, you can reward your influential customers with a code through SMS as soon as they post about your brand on their Instagram or TikTok channels. This puts your communication in the perfect place - right where they are on their phone, and right when they're actively posting about your brand on social media.

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Watch the demo

Gatsby + Klaviyo SMS automations to scale influencer marketing

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How it works:

Once you’ve integrated Gatsby with Klaviyo (more on that here), you’ll be able to pass key customer data and insights from Gatsby to that person's corresponding profile in Klaviyo. As long as the customer has already opted in to SMS with Klaviyo, you can then initiate automated flows that combine both email and SMS for a personalized and enhanced approach to customer communication.

For example, you can customize a Klaviyo flow so that every time your customer tags your brand in their Instagram Story, they get a text message with a thank you, a reward, an invitation to further collaborate – or all three – you decide!

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The top 5 SMS strategies to amplify the success of your influencer marketing and ambassador programs:

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Strategy 1: Acknowledge when they publish UGC

‍One of the most basic uses for automating SMS flows with influential customers is to simply thank them for sharing their authentic Stories, Videos, and Posts about your brand. Create a flow in Klaviyo so that whenever a customer tags your brand on social media like Instagram or TikTok, they get a personalized “thank you”. Or, take it one step further and reward them! This is an especially key use-case for SMS since these customers are likely publishing that content from their phone, and then they’ll receive a thank you right on that same device just as all the likes, comments, and love from their followers start flowing in. See this great example from Kulani Kinis:

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Strategy 2: Send reminders to publish UGC

‍While we’re all guilty of sitting on unread emails, we’re much more likely to respond quickly to a text message. In fact, a recent study discovered that the average response time for an email is 90 minutes, compared with 90 seconds for a text message! One of the most impactful uses for automating SMS with your influencers is to send reminders. These can be reminders about redeeming rewards for posting, joining your ambassador program or anything you want to give a gentle nudge about. 

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Strategy 3: Deliver rewards & referral codes

‍You can set up a flow so that customers who have a certain follower count (say, 500+) get an email and text message with a special code for a discount off a future purchase. You’ll be able to duplicate the incentive so that the same reward code shows up in both email and SMS / text, increasing the likelihood that the customer sees it and heads back to your site to redeem it. 

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Strategy 4: Create a time-sensitive influencer campaign for a product drop

‍Campaign outreach can oftentimes be tedious, requiring a lot of following up on emails. But when you want to create something punctual, SMS can help deliver the message in a timely manner. One of our favorite ways to use SMS for campaign creation is to send links to a landing page or new product offering – this cuts down on a lot of superfluous text and gets the message out simply and clearly, especially if they need to take action quickly before the product drops.

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Strategy 5: Grow your affiliate, ambassador, and loyalty programs‍

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander! SMS marketing is not only more efficient for influencers, it helps the efficiency of your entire customer community, which often includes affiliates, ambassadors, and loyalty members. Being able to communicate with your community quickly and seamlessly by SMS is not only more streamlined but feels more personal, helping to drive engagement across all your channels. Plus with Gatsby's wide range of integrations, you can provide Yotpo and Loyalty Lion loyalty points for Instagram mentions, drive your most influential customers to your Refersion affiliate program, and more. Imagine deliver an automated SMS that says: "Wow thanks for the mention, you have a great audience too, have you considered our affiliate program? Click here"

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If you aren’t already taking advantage of SMS marketing, now is the time to start! To learn more about Klaviyo’s SMS marketing, visit here. 

To get started with Gatsby, create your account here - or if you're using Shopify, install our Shopify App.

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