With spring comes new blooms, more daylight, and, of course, spring cleaning! It's the perfect time of year to step back and review your cross-channel marketing strategies ahead of summer and pre-BFCM prep. Whether your program is relatively new or has a tenured legacy, it's always important to review the basics to ensure maximum performance and efficiency.

Prioritize List Hygiene

A program's growth and success hinge on a robust list. And while acquisition is crucial, removing lapsed contacts to earn the best ROI possible is a must. Review your overall list engagement for subscribers who have never interacted beyond their initial opt-in, and either unsubscribe them or filter them out of your main email and SMS segments. You can attempt winback or re-engagement strategies, but it's beneficial to your program in the long run if you move on. These contacts can always opt back in on their own if they shop with you again.

Confirm Your Compliance

For Text Message Marketing specifically, remaining compliant is crucial for ongoing success. Take some time in the spring to ensure your program is following all the rules set by the CTIA, TCPA, and relevant legislation, like:

• Double opt-in is in place with ALL acquisition strategies
• Subscribers are only collected with ‘express written consent,’ meaning by explicitly opting-in
• Thorough disclaimer language is present at ALL subscription points
• Program Name is included in ALL messages sent
• HELP and STOP instructions are included in at least one full-list broadcast message sent each month
• Make sure campaigns are NOT sent during Quiet Hours, and Frequency Capping is enabled to manage volume
• Only one message is triggered as part of the Shopping Cart Abandonment campaign within 48 hours of the abandonment event

Maintaining compliance keeps you in good graces with the mobile carriers and lowers your risks for litigation and complaints. Plus, consumers are more trusting of compliant programs in general and respond positively with their engagement.

Have Coupons Stocked

If your cross-channel program distributes coupons, whether they're dynamic (recommended) or static, spring is the perfect time to restock your Coupon Manager! By taking the time to generate more codes and upload them, you're ensuring you never run out or have to rely on fallback codes. This proactive approach can prevent defaults from ending up on couponing sites, which can negatively impact your margin and cause you to miss out on new subscribers. Offering incentives opens up numerous opportunities for engagement via email and SMS that you don't want to miss out on or fumble.

Disable Inactive Strategies

As you implement and launch new strategies, like new acquisition Keyword campaigns and cross-channel automations, remember to tidy up those you no longer use! This proactive step is about more than just keeping your account streamlined and preventing anyone from getting stuck in a campaign or having customer service issues.

For example, if you previously used the Keyword JOY for a limited-time holiday campaign, allowing contacts to opt-in to receive specific messaging, turn it off now that you're no longer promoting it. That will free up the Keyword to be used again, prevent consumers from mistakenly subscribing to a promotion they'll never receive, and give you a better look at what's active in-market and growing within your account. Think about turning off any legacy automated campaigns or popups you might not be using, too.

Audit Team Access

The unfortunate reality of the job market is that employees can come and go quickly. You might miss updating platform credentials and access to your cross-channel program, creating some security risk. If you haven't done so in a while, review your current Listrak users to ensure your team members have the proper access based on their job functions. It's a spring cleaning must-do that underscores the importance of system security.

Test, Test, Test!

Finally, springtime presents an exciting opportunity for A/B split testing your cross-channel program strategies. This is your chance to uncover new insights, refine your approach, and drive even better results. Plan to test elements like email subject lines, SMS timing, popup incentives, and more to understand what works best with your subscribers. Always look for statistical significance and don't be afraid to retest or try something else – You can check out our SMS Creative Lookbook for inspiration to start this exciting growth journey!

Get Started Today

Spring brings a time to refresh and renew, so why not do the same for your cross-channel marketing strategies? It's essential to revisit your program continually, but now's an opportune time to tidy up your lists, SMS compliance, and account settings. To get started, reach out to your Account Manager. Happy Spring Cleaning!