o you bought some Dr. Squatch soap. That’s just a start. Dr. Squatch wants more from your relationship. Dr. Squatch wants to text you.
“Brands are realizing that there’s at least a subset of their audience, if not the majority of their audience, that would prefer to be contacted this way,” said Adam Turner, CEO of Postscript, which powers text-message marketing for Dr. Squatch and other retailers. Most retailers are using texts to send weekly promotions, which may just be a distilled version of their emails written by somebody with a taste for capital letters, presumably for emphasis. “THIS WKND: Shop up to 20% off select outdoor furniture & accessories,” wrote home furnishings brand CB2 in one recent text. “Your 15% OFF sitewide coupon expires soon, Love!” exclaimed Lulus, an online apparel retailer. From Michaels: “Spring for everything! Take 50% off all spring items and save.
Retailers, wary that irritating their customers doesn’t blaze an easy path to more sales, monitor unsubscribe rates closely. For instance, Dr. Squatch may send its most loyal customers three messages a week. But if it notices someone has lost interest and isn’t engaging, it will scale back. “We don’t want to inundate people,” said Cody Griffin, Dr. Squatch’s senior director of marketing.
Just as ineffective