How Beekman 1802 Made Their SMS Channel Feel Like a Neighborhood

Challenge

Beekman 1802 had already launched their SMS channel through a different vendor. But “the backend capabilities just weren’t quite there,” said Adam Bshero, VP of Digital Marketing at Beekman 1802.

They were using a 10-digit long code, which was impacting the deliverability of their text messages. Beekman 1802 needed an SMS partner with a more powerful platform—and one that could migrate their phone number over to a 5-digit short code.

When we were evaluating vendors, Attentive stood out as one of the leaders in the space. You had the integrations Beekman 1802 needed, like Shopify and Zendesk. We also knew we wanted our own dedicated short code. Attentive met all the criteria we were looking for.
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- Adam Bshero, VP of Digital Marketing at Beekman 1802

Solution

After shopping around for a new SMS partner, Beekman 1802 felt confident about Attentive. “As we were looking at different platforms, Attentive checked all of our boxes—with better deliverability, segmentation, integrations, two-tap sign-up, and more,” added Bshero. “We also knew we’d be able to have our own short code, which was important.” Their first orders of business were migrating their existing SMS subscribers over to Attentive and launching their program on a 5-digit short code.

Strategy

Setting up integrations and launching sign-up units

After setting up Attentive’s Shopify and Klaviyo integrations to connect SMS to their other digital channels, Beekman 1802 launched Attentive’s 2-in-1 sign-up units, so they could collect email and SMS subscribers at the same time. They also recently added a checkbox to their Shopify checkout process to capture SMS opt-ins—an easy way to quickly grow their list, since that audience is already highly engaged and about to make a purchase. 

“The ease of use of Attentive’s sign-up units has been huge for us,” said Bshero. “We’ve seen massive success to date capturing SMS and email at the same time. That one pop-up has led to the growth of both of our lists.” And with Attentive’s Klaviyo integration, email subscribers that the brand is capturing through their SMS/email sign-up flow are automatically added into their email marketing platform. “It’s completely hands-off,” added Bshero. 

Creating segments to send more relevant messages

With their program up and running, Beekman 1802 quickly took advantage of Attentive’s sophisticated segmentation capabilities. “Beekman 1802 is a multi-category business. We’re industry leaders in the body care and skincare space,” said Bshero. “When people join our SMS list, they have different interests and preferences. We can align our segments to their interests, and always send the most relevant message to each individual subscriber.” 

With a physical flagship location in Sharon Springs, New York—a small town in the Mohawk Valley—Beekman 1802 has formed an active community of customers who live nearby. It’s important to the brand to stay closely connected with them. “We host events like farm tours and kindness workshops where we invite our community to come together with our Beekman team members,” said Alex Huebner, Digital Marketing Manager at Beekman 1802. 

By creating geo-targeted segments based on the subscriber’s location, Beekman 1802 can text only those “Neighbors,” the term the brand uses for their customers, who are near their retail location to invite them to the events they’re hosting. 

“Being able to have a close relationship with our ‘Neighbors,’ even when we grow, is super important to us. We send standard marketing messages with our SMS channel, but sometimes we just want to know how everyone is doing, said Huebner. “We’ll send updates about the farm—like photos of our super cute goats. Having these real-time conversations one-on-one...I don’t think you can replicate that on any other digital channel.”

Attentive’s segmentation has been really important to us. I love that I’m able to dig really deep into the audience to ensure we’re sending the most relevant messages. I don’t have to worry about sending a local event to someone who lives in a different city and wouldn’t be able to come.

- Alex Huebner, Digital Marketing Manager at Beekman 1802

Activating two-way text messaging through Attentive’s Zendesk integration

Since Beekman 1802’s ‘Neighbors’ play such a big role in their brand, they’re using Attentive’s integration with Zendesk, which allows their customer support team, Neighbor Services, to quickly respond to any text message replies that come in. 

“When someone from our team replies via text message, we’ve noticed that there’s a level of shock when we reply back right away,” added Bshero. Their Neighbor Services team prioritizes responses that come in via text message over any other ticket—sometimes replying within minutes or seconds.

Our customers are extremely surprised when we reply back so quickly. They start telling us about their kids, their family, and they're having this real-time conversation as if we're their close friend. You don’t get that with any other platform. Having that level of high-touch engagement is massive when it leads to a conversion, in addition to strengthening our community.

- Adam Bshero, VP of Digital Marketing at Beekman 1802

Results

Since Beekman 1802 switched to Attentive in March 2021, they’ve driven 10% of total revenue from SMS. The brand’s text messaging channel’s conversion rate is the second highest—only behind email—out of all their digital channels.

Beekman 1802 has also grown their list much faster than they were able to with their previous SMS vendor. In just eight months, their list of SMS subscribers grew by 160%.

While they’re extremely focused on engaging their active community through two-way text messaging, they’ve also launched automated Journeys—like their welcome message and abandoned cart reminder—which see an average 55% conversion rate.

Over the next few months, Beekman 1802 is excited to launch Attentive’s abandoned checkout journey, which will help them convert subscribers who started their checkout—but didn’t finish it—by sending them a reminder via SMS. “I’ve been really impressed by our abandoned cart reminder, and the performance is great,” said Huebner. “I love that this new checkout abandonment Journey will prefill their cart and make returning to our site to complete their purchase that much more seamless for them.”

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