Australia’s leading hemp skincare brand, Hey Bud has partnered with Attentive to build a high-performing and more personalised SMS program, which has driven a 133x return on investment.
In 2023, Hey Bud was looking for new ways to connect and engage with their customers in a more direct, personal, and engaging way. When the brand was ready explore SMS as a new channel, they turned to Attentive and joined the free trial.
Upon signing up, Hey Bud was paired with a customer success manager for easy onboarding, while ensuring compliance and a seamless experience for building the SMS program. The Attentive team continues to offer best practices, guidance, and ideas based on insights from its 8,000+ customers globally.
“After our trial, it was a no brainer. What sets Attentive apart from other vendors is their exceptional service, the customer success and white glove teams have been really helpful,” Hey Bud co-founder, Ollie Watts said.
Hey Bud migrated over a sizable subscriber list, and one of their top priorities was to grow it using A/B testing for messages, design, timing, promotional offers, and pre-engagement tactics.
Testing the pre-engagement sign-up unit, shoppers are asked if they want a 10% discount – which they have to agree to before being prompted to provide contact information. Results show that customers are more likely to opt into the program with this tactic.
The sign-up unit with pre-engagement had 441% more clicks and 280% more conversions than a regular pop-up, which led to four times more SMS subscriptions and seven times more email signups. After the subscriber opts in for the 10% off and their contact information is collected, Attentive’s patented two-tap technology helps them compliantly subscribe to the SMS program.
From there, a welcome flow reminds customers to use their introductory offer, with a reminder sent 48 hours after the initial message. The welcome journey is driving a 15.6% CTR and $29 in revenue per message sent.
“Working with Attentive has significantly transformed our SMS program experience, boosted revenue, and fostered customer loyalty. The Attentive sign-up unit and welcome journey alone have driven a remarkable increase in revenue and SMS conversion rates,” Watts said.
Hey Bud also set up flows for abandonment retrieval and win backs to bring interested customers back to their site to complete purchases. To increase repeat purchases, they’ve also begun a replenishment reminder journey.
Recognising that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work for the Hey Bud audience, the brand has embraced a more sophisticated approach by leaning into segmentation for SMS. Hey Bud segments its audience based on skin types, purchase history, and engagement patterns to tailor messaging and offers.
“The days of batch and blast are over. Today’s consumers expect a shopping experience tailored to their needs and interests. Attentive’s SMS features allow us to truly deliver on that expectation. Not only is it helping improve customer experience, but it’s also driving higher revenue,” Watts said.
The segments are used to fuel thoughtful and playful campaigns. One of the most successful was a retargeting campaign of recent purchasers in April 2024. The FOMO campaign offered SMS subscribers a code for 20% off a sitewide sale that would end that night, creating the right mix of incentive and urgency.
“With SMS, we’ve become more responsive to customer behaviour. For example, our FOMO campaign targeting recent purchasers achieved a 36% revenue increase compared to campaigns sent through our previous SMS provider,” Watts said.
One of A/B tests involved a launch for Hey Bud’s Vitamin C Serum in May 2024. The brand pitted conventional and straightforward messaging against a softer and more creative tone of voice with the latter driving double the conversions and quintupling the revenue.
“We’ve found that SMS adds a direct and personal touch to our marketing stack. It allows us to create immediate engaging touch points that deepen the customer relationship, that in turn, drive impressive revenue. It’s been a critical addition to our marketing stack and I believe it will play an increasingly important role,” Watts said.
Hey Bud has seen sign-up units drive more than 500 new subscribers per month and the welcome flow brings in $29 in revenue per message sent. Campaigns hold an equally strong performance, with a 14.5% CVR overall.
Attentive vice president for Asia Pacific, Zach Hotchkiss commented, “By tapping into the power of the Attentive SMS platform, HeyBud has achieved impressive business outcomes. This strategy has significantly increased its audience, fostered customer loyalty, ultimately leading to increased revenue and a rapid ROI. But these outcomes are not exclusive to HeyBud, as many Attentive brands have achieved similar strong results.
“We pride ourselves on delivering unparalleled messaging performance and personalisation on the channels that matter most to consumers, while ensuring compliance with our patented two-tap mobile technology. We’re looking forward to continuing to support Hey Bud in increasing its market share by testing new marketing strategies with AI.”