Lowe’s Home Improvement is one of the largest home improvement and hardware retailers in the United States, offering everything consumers need to upgrade and renovate their homes, gardens, backyards, and beyond. The Lowe’s SMS marketing program offers subscribers exclusive deals and promotions. Every brand’s SMS marketing is slightly different, and Lowe’s is no exception. In … Continued
Lowe’s Home Improvement is one of the largest home improvement and hardware retailers in the United States, offering everything consumers need to upgrade and renovate their homes, gardens, backyards, and beyond. The Lowe’s SMS marketing program offers subscribers exclusive deals and promotions.
Every brand’s SMS marketing is slightly different, and Lowe’s is no exception. In this blog post, we analyze text messages from Lowe’s, looking at efficiency, formatting, clarity of copy, and media usage.
Consumers can sign up for Lowe’s SMS marketing program using a form on the Lowe’s website. This is a smart move by Lowe’s, because the faster a company can grow its SMS subscriber list with an opt-in form, the more revenue its SMS marketing program can generate each and every time a text goes out to subscribers. SMS marketing has a 99% open rate, which blows past anything marketers are able to get with email marketing.
Let’s get into the examples. The examples below are from smsarchives.com, where you can explore more SMS marketing examples from Lowe’s and other top brands.
The first Lowe’s text message example sets a good standard for the kind of text messages Lowe’s sends out. Lowe’s sends text messages roughly once per week. The messages are concise and effective, and they don’t include supplementary media.
One thing worth highlighting is right at the top: Lowe’s identifies itself at the start of every message. This might not seem important at first glance, but most consumers don’t save a company’s short code as a known phone number in their address book—which means they could ignore or misunderstand some automated messaging. Immediate self-identification can have a major impact on a message’s open and click-through rate.
As for the message itself, it’s clear and to the point. It outlines the deal in enough detail to pique the consumer’s interest and includes a link to the relevant web page. One potential area Lowe’s could explore for future messages is the inclusion of supplementary media using MMS messaging. Lowe’s currently only sends SMS messages. MMS messages would allow Lowe’s to use images, short videos, GIFs, and longer messages.
This example shows Lowe’s taking advantage of a fun micro-holiday: National Ice Cream Day. As in the previous example, the message itself is simple, but Lowe’s provides a custom URL to the coupon page. This gives the consumer instant access to the deal itself, while giving Lowe’s valuable click-through metrics that help the company measure the value of the campaign. It’s a win-win scenario for Lowe’s and consumers alike.
In this final example, we see Lowe’s taking a different messaging approach. Instead of promoting an event or taking advantage of a holiday, Lowe’s offers DIY advice and suggestions, which their target market is absolutely interested in. Of course, it’s only logical that Lowe’s would suggest DIY projects for which the company can provide the tools and materials; the point is to drive business, after all.
As seen before, the custom URL gives Lowe’s the click-through conversion data needed to help determine if this form of messaging is valuable and effective. (Ask Tatango about their robust subscriber analytics.) It also looks very professional when branded with a custom Lowe’s short link (low.es) and relevant slug (/SecureSafeHome).
The Lowe’s SMS marketing sign-up page links to several other pages dedicated to the SMS Terms of Use and the Privacy Statement. On the sign-up page, Lowe’s makes it clear that consent is not required as a condition of purchase and states that message and data rates may apply. Immediately before providing links to SMS Terms and Privacy Statement, Lowe’s provides clear STOP and HELP commands for the consumer’s benefit. By following these best practices, Lowe’s helps ensure that its SMS marketing is TCPA compliant.
