How to Immediately Increase Your SMS Reach

When we say, you can immediately increase your SMS reach, we really mean right away. “Impossible” or “magical” may be some words that come to mind after that statement, but stick with us. The magic is in the different regulations and compliance needs around P2P and A2P SMS. 

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The Magic of P2P or Human-Powered SMS 

Person-to-Person messaging (P2P) is when two or more people communicate over text messaging. P2P messaging has different regulations than its counterpart application-to-person (A2P) messaging. A2P is any form of message traffic in which a person receives messages from an application rather than another individual. This method includes automated drip messages and one-time campaigns. As you know, for a customer to receive an A2P message they need to give clear consent to opt in. You can use modals, opt-in at checkout, and keyword campaigns to compliantly build your A2P subscriber list. 

The language in A2P opt-ins must be explicitly clear that the individual is enrolling in a promotional SMS program. If any ambiguity exists, it could lead to the individual claiming their consent was not valid—i.e. that the subscriber did not clearly authorize you to deliver ongoing advertisements via text.

This is where the magic of P2P comes into play. Because P2P is sent by humans it allows for more nuances and true conversations to take place. Therefore the regulations are different. While the majority of SMS compliance regulations are similar across A2P and P2P messaging, the TCPA does not expressly require written consent for person-to-person SMS. This means that in certain use cases, you can text customers without having them explicitly opt-in to all SMS communications which instantly widens your SMS reach beyond your subscribers. 

(Although it’s not required, Voyage recommends express consent for P2P for the highest level of trust with your customers. By having it in place, your brand is prepared for any future regulation changes for P2P messaging from the start.)

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Converting & Recovering Revenue Through P2P SMS

One of the use cases that P2P (that is compliant and brands see great success in) is following up after abandoned checkouts. For example, LiveRecover by Voyage allows you to loop in live agents to act as your brand ambassadors via SMS. With data from your integrations and your brand standards as a guide, brand ambassadors have the full context of the customer journey and engage your customers with delightful, human conversations. 

Here’s how a brand utilized P2P SMS to recover $450k worth of revenue. 

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How Thinx Recovered $450k Worth Of Abandoned Carts Using Human-powered SMS

Thinx, a niche online underwear brand, had an issue all eCommerce stores face — cart abandonment. Abandoned carts were a constant headache and costly challenge for Thinx. When customers made a last-minute decision not to go through with a purchase, it added up to missed revenue, diminished profits — and the painful knowledge that they weren’t realizing their full commercial potential. 

Using LiveRecover by Voyage, Thinx had live agents personally engage with customers to convert abandoned carts into sales.

“Having live agents—not bots—recover our abandoned carts is super powerful,” said Brendan Hastings, VP of Digital Product and Engineering at Thinx. “They contact our customers manually to understand why they didn’t purchase, are able to answer their questions in real-time, and help them make a decision to buy.”‍ 

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LiveRecover by Voyage agents allow Thinx to have:

• Their abandoned carts and customers’ contact details automatically sync to LiveRecover, meaning no admin time or input is required by Thinx.
• Tailored, personalized texts are sent to customers 30 minutes after every cart is abandoned to understand why they didn’t buy.
• Knowledgeable agents at the end of every text. They have the training and resources to answer all the common questions that make customers hesitate—such as shipping, fit or measurement, and other product-specific queries. 
• Agents offer a small discount, typically in the form of free shipping, to seal the deal.

In just eight months of Thinx using live agents, they have recovered more than $450k of revenue. That’s a huge chunk of previously lost income that’s now in their bank account. 

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👀 Click here to read the full case study.

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From Human-powered to Automation and Beyond

As we covered, human-powered SMS messages have different compliance restrictions than automated SMS messages. At Voyage, we understand the nuances of each and expertly deploy LiveRecover alongside automated messages to exponentially increase your addressable audience and conversions. Our innovative SMS platform (with the most advanced SMS-first segmentation builder on the market) is paired with expertise from our team of accomplished eCommerce founders and best-in-class technical product managers — so you send the right message to the right person at the right time. 

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Ready to learn more? Request a demo today!