For decades, email marketing has been a popular way for brands to market to consumers. Today, SMS marketing is growing equally popular for delivering targeted messages to customers, with an average of 46% of consumers stating they receive marketing messaging via text.
However, with so many messages sent each day, it’s important to make sure your SMS marketing efforts don’t become redundant or annoy the customers you’re selling to. Around 50% of people receiving marketing text messages feel like they receive these messages too often.
Rather than play a guessing game, wondering if you’re sending too many messages or not enough, why not allow your customers to tell you how often they prefer to hear from you? This is the beauty of a preference center.
Here’s what we’re about to cover:
- What is a Preference Center?
- Top 4 Benefits of a Preference Center
- Adding SMS to Your Preference Center
- Build Your Multi-Channel Preference Center Today
What is a Preference Center?
A preference center is a page that allows customers to choose the type and frequency of the messages they receive from you.
For example, within a preference center, a customer can choose between receiving messages:
- Once or twice a week vs. Once a month
- Only when there’s a sale vs. New product updates
- About certain publications or topics you run and not others
- Invites to an upcoming conference, event, or webinar
Without a preference center, the only option a dissatisfied customer has is to unsubscribe. But given the option, many people will stay subscribed if they can simply reduce or refine the messages. We’ve found that a preference center can reduce unsubscribes by up to 30%. If you’re not using a preference center, you’re missing out on customers who may buy from you at some point if you allowed them to customize the messaging they receive.
While many brands use preference centers strictly for email, preference centers provide an opportunity to let subscribers customize which channel they hear from you on. Maybe a customer opted into your email list but prefers to receive discounts via text. Or maybe they opted into your weekly texts but would like to only receive them monthly. Either way, giving subscribers a choice gives you the ability to ensure you stay connected with your customers.
Ultimately, a preference center embodies the idea we hold to strongly: ask your customers what they want and what they’re looking for! Stop guessing what’s best for your customers when you can go directly to the source.
For tips and real examples, read our most popular blog post: Email Preference Center Best Practices.
Top 4 Benefits of a Preference Center
Here are the top 4 benefits our customers see when they implement a quality preference center:
#1: Improved Customer Experience. Improve your customers’ experiences by allowing them to customize their experience. No one wants to receive messages that don’t apply to them over and over – not the best experience. But ask them to choose what they want and don’t want to hear? Now that’s great customer service!
#2: Increased Engagement Rates. When you build trust with more personalized messages, you’ll see higher engagement rates. Relevant messages get more engagement, giving you a better ROI overall – making your SMS marketing more efficient.
#3: Reduced Opt-Outs and Complaints. Reducing your opt-outs means fewer sales lost just by offering custom messaging. In the same vein, you’ll receive reduced complaints from redundant or irrelevant messages, keeping your email deliverability high and your SMS program in good standing.
#4: Valuable Customer Insights. This is our personal favorite. The possibilities are endless with customer insights. Every time a customer tells you what they want, you learn more about their preferences, interests, and what excites them. This is helpful not only in the moment but also for big-picture decisions you make on your business going forward.
Adding SMS to Your Preference Center
Email preference centers have been around for a long time. With the rise in popularity of SMS marketing, it’s important to allow customization for your SMS messaging too. While you can create a separate SMS preference center, including email and SMS messaging in the same preference center gives subscribers a centralized hub to manage all communication.
The most important thing you’ll need to look for in a preference center tool is customization. Preference pages are most effective when designed and formatted well. You want your preference center design to match your brand colors and fonts and embody your personality as a company. Flexible integrations are also a must, as your preference center should connect with your email and SMS lists.
Finally, make sure subscribers can easily access your preference center! Don’t hide it! Instead, include a link in your messages that gives recipients the option to customize their communication preferences.
Build Your Multi-Channel Preference Center Today
With Digioh’s preference center builder, launching a preference center is quick and easy. No need to waste precious time and development resources; we’re here to answer every question, design it for you if needed, and support your optimization along the way.
Check out over 20 examples of preference centers designed by Digioh.
A preference center is an easy way to stay connected with your customers. Book a demo today to see preference centers and other Digioh tools in action!
