The holiday season, anchored by Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is a pivotal time for retailers to maximize sales and strengthen customer loyalty. In the midst of this, the blending of in-store and digital strategies is no longer just an option—it’s essential for creating a seamless and cohesive experience that meets customers wherever they are.

With the competition growing fiercer each year, retailers must adopt strategies that combine the best of both worlds: the personalized, hands-on nature of in-store shopping and the convenience and reach of digital experiences. 

Let’s explore how you can leverage these strategies to create a winning holiday experience, boost customer engagement, and drive sales. 

1. Unifying Promotions Across Channels

Customers are bombarded with promotions during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so it’s critical that your deals are aligned across both in-store and online channels. Offering consistent discounts, exclusive offers, and loyalty rewards both online and in-store ensures that customers have a seamless shopping experience, no matter how they choose to engage.

Key Strategies:

• Early Access for Loyalty Members: Use loyalty programs to offer your most valuable customers early access to Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals. Reminding your loyalty base why they shop with you is crucial to retaining their business during the holiday frenzy.
• Extend Sales Across Platforms: Keep promotions active for a longer period, both online and in-store, to capture late shoppers. Post-transaction offers that encourage a return visit can keep customers engaged beyond the initial purchase​.
• Refer-a-Friend Incentives: Increase your referral bonuses to tap into your current customers’ networks. This strategy can be implemented across digital and in-store settings to maximize reach​.

2. Streamlining The Customer Experience

When blending in-store and digital strategies, a smooth customer experience is crucial. Shoppers expect convenience and efficiency whether they’re online or in your store.

BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store) is a great example of this, as it allows customers to combine the ease of online shopping with the instant gratification of in-store pickup. Make sure that the pick-up process is streamlined and well-organized to keep customers happy and reduce congestion in your store.

Additional Tactics:

• Digital Wallets for Promotions: Push your promotions directly into customers’ digital wallets, ensuring no opt-in is required. This puts your deals right into their hands, providing greater exposure.
• Retail Readiness: Prepare your retail space to accommodate both new and returning customers during the holiday rush. Equip staff with tools such as the AIQ Front Line Staff Certification, which refreshes their knowledge on best practices for managing sales and loyalty programs​.

3. Personalization Through Data

Customers expect personalized experiences, especially during the holiday season when retailers are vying for their attention. Leveraging data to craft personalized messaging, recommendations, and offers can make all the difference in retaining customers during peak shopping times.

How to Use Data:

• Segmentation: AIQ’s powerful segmentation tools allow you to target specific customer groups with tailored offers. For instance, you can send exclusive discounts to your most loyal customers or create personalized product recommendations based on previous purchases​.
• Intelligent Timing: Optimize message delivery with intelligent timing. During the holidays, when inboxes are flooded with promotions, using a waterfall feature increases the likelihood of your message reaching customers at the right moment.

4. Enhancing Loyalty Programs for the Holidays

Holiday promotions are the perfect time to supercharge your loyalty program. By offering exclusive perks, early access, and personalized rewards, you can boost customer retention and create long-term value.

Key Loyalty Tactics:

• Exclusive Deals for Loyalty Members: Reward your loyal customers by offering them exclusive deals during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This not only encourages repeat business but also reinforces the value of being a part of your loyalty program​. 
• Seamless Opt-Ins: Make it easy for customers to sign up for your loyalty program while shopping in-store by placing visible QR codes at checkout. Encourage online shoppers to sign up by promoting loyalty benefits across your digital platforms​. 

5. Multi-channel Campaigns for Maximum Reach

A successful holiday season strategy requires an omnichannel approach, where promotions are communicated effectively across all touchpoints—email, SMS, push notifications, and even voice drops.

Omnichannel Best Practices:

• Text, Email, and Push Campaigns: Use SMS and email to highlight your best deals and drive traffic both to your online store and physical locations. Push notifications via mobile apps can provide real-time alerts on flash sales or limited-time offers​. 
• Voice Drop Campaigns: Voice drops are an often overlooked but powerful tool during the holidays. This feature allows you to highlight storewide deals or major promotions without worrying about the message being filtered out by carrier limitations. 

To close, blending in-store and digital strategies during Black Friday and Cyber Monday is key to creating a seamless holiday experience for your customers. By unifying promotions, streamlining the shopping experience, leveraging data for personalization, enhancing your loyalty program, and executing omni-channel campaigns, you can set your brand up for success during the busiest time of the year.

With AIQ’s suite of tools, you can optimize every aspect of this blended strategy, ensuring your brand delivers a consistent and customer-centric experience. Whether your shoppers prefer the excitement of in-store shopping or the convenience of online deals, AIQ has the solutions to help you drive results this holiday season.

Ready to optimize your holiday strategy? Explore AIQ’s features and set your brand up for success this Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

In the fast-paced world of political campaigns, reaching voters quickly and effectively is critical. With AIQ.com, you can harness the power of SMS marketing to connect with constituents, mobilize support, and drive voter engagement like never before. It works astoundingly good alone but even better when paired with the entire AIQ suite.

Why SMS Marketing is Essential for Political Campaigns

• Instant and Direct Communication: Text messages have a nearly 100% open rate, making them one of the most effective ways to reach voters directly. Whether you’re sending out campaign updates, event reminders, or calls to action, SMS ensures your message is seen.
• Broad Reach Across Demographics: From younger voters to seniors, almost everyone uses text messaging. AIQ.com enables you to reach a wide audience, cutting through the noise of traditional advertising and social media.
• Cost-Effective Engagement: Political campaigns need to make every dollar count. SMS marketing with AIQ.com is both affordable and impactful, allowing you to engage thousands of voters at a fraction of the cost of other marketing channels. We designed AIQ from scratch and are as direct to carriers as possible, allowing us to bypass middle-men and ensuring your capital deployment is hyper efficient.

How AIQ.com Enhances Political Campaigns

• Personalized Messaging: With AIQ.com, you can tailor your messages to specific voter groups, creating a more personal and impactful connection. Whether it’s a message from the candidate or targeted information based on voter interests, personalization drives engagement. We also provide you with a realtime chat inbox with custom template responses and detailed information about the individual you are talking to.
  
  Example: “Thank you for your Donation of $500 to the Paschal campaign. We would love to introduce you to other valued donors next month at a private dinner we are hosting only a few minutes from you. Download the calendar invite: LINK”
• Voter Mobilization: Encourage voter turnout with reminders about registration deadlines, early voting, and election day. AIQ.com’s platform allows you to schedule and automate these reminders, ensuring no voter is left behind.
  
  Example: “Chicago! Polls are open until 7 p.m. Make your vote count today! Find your polling station here: LINK #GoVote” 
• Real-Time Campaign Updates: Keep your supporters informed with real-time updates. Whether it’s announcing a new endorsement, responding to breaking news, or sharing campaign victories, AIQ.com makes it easy to stay connected with your base.
• Fundraising Made Simple: Leverage SMS to boost your campaign’s fundraising efforts. With AIQ.com, you can send donation links directly to supporters’ phones, making it easy for them to contribute with just a few clicks.
  
  Example: “We’re almost there! Help us reach our fundraising goal for the campaign in Phoenix. Donate now and make a difference: LINK”
• Data-Driven Decisions: AIQ.com provides detailed analytics that allow you to track the performance of your SMS campaigns. Understand which messages resonate with voters and adjust your strategy for maximum impact.

Winning with SMS Marketing

In recent elections, candidates who utilized SMS marketing saw a significant increase in voter engagement and turnout. From grassroots campaigns to large-scale national efforts, SMS has proven to be a game-changer in modern political strategy. With AIQ.com, you can leverage this powerful tool to ensure your campaign stands out and reaches the voters who matter most.

Best Practices for Political SMS Campaigns

• Compliance with Regulations: Ensure your campaign adheres to all legal requirements, including opt-in consent from recipients and clear opt-out instructions. AIQ.com helps you stay compliant with all relevant regulations and we are even SOC 2 Type 2 + HIPAA audited.
• Keep Messages Concise: Voters appreciate clear and concise communication. Keep your texts brief, focused, and actionable to maximize engagement.
• Timing is Everything: Schedule your messages strategically to align with key campaign events and deadlines. AIQ.com’s scheduling tools allow you to plan your messaging for maximum impact. You can trigger messages to go out immediately, during a time window, via P2P queue sending, or even when a customer behaves/ engages a certain way.

Conclusion: Drive Your Campaign to Victory with AIQ.com

In the world of political campaigns, effective communication is key to success. AIQ.com offers a robust and reliable SMS marketing platform that helps you reach voters, build support, and drive results. Ready to take your campaign to the next level? Partner with AIQ.com and harness the power of SMS marketing today.

In today’s highly competitive retail space, with hundreds of businesses offering similar products and services, customer loyalty plays a crucial role in ensuring consumers choose your brand over others. Implementing a loyalty rewards program is a strong way to build long-term relationships with your customers, increasing their loyalty, retention and profitability. With AIQ, you’re free to design your own innovative, strategic program that speaks to the character of your brand, backed by reliable tools to power your experience.

Achieving Customer Loyalty With Essential Membership Offers 

A valuable membership program fosters a loyal customer base while continuing to drive sales. Where do you start?

1. Establishing a system of core rewards: The most important layer to a successful loyalty program is the rewards system it’s built on. An effective program should target customers during key moments in the retail journey, like the first time a customer joins your program.

Other examples include a bonus offer once a customer completes their first purchase to incentivize a return visit, rewards triggered when points & spend milestones are reached, a special birthday bonus and membership anniversary gifts. All touch points are designed to keep the customer connected to your brand by personalizing the retail experience through automated rewards.

2. Create a two-tier system: A two-tier loyalty program separates customers into two groups: (1) customers who signed up for your program and (2) customers who signed up and opted in to receive direct notifications from your brand.  

The reason? Having immediate access to notify your customers directly with unlocked rewards, targeted campaigns, and promotions gives you the platform to achieve optimal returns on your marketing & sales activations. 

Using AIQ Sign Up forms is an easy way to achieve this, and can be strategically displayed on a kiosk in-store, embedded into your website, or accessible via QR code to ensure the process is simple and generates opportunity for customers to opt-in post sign up.

3. Individualized treatment to drive retention: Maintaining loyalty becomes a top priority once a customer has joined your program. To do so, retailers must treat each shopper as an individual, not just a faceless number. This builds an emotional connection between the brand and customer, which is key in establishing long-term loyalty. 

Using AIQ’s Audience segmentation capabilities, you can reward customers based on their purchases, target them when established milestones are reached, and generate campaigns centered around customer buying behavior like favorite product, average basket size, and total loyalty points among many, to ensure you have the necessary tools to accomplish an individualized approach.

4. Exclusive experiences generate interest: Traditional loyalty programs based solely on transactions (earning points, redeeming rewards) are no longer enough as membership programs become increasingly popular. Customers compare membership programs, and it is vital yours has clear value and connects to your base. Strong loyalty initiatives focus on retention across all touchpoints with exclusivity incorporated throughout to ensure joining your loyalty program is beneficial. 

What does this look like? Examples include exclusive shopping rights to extended sales, early access to deals, and pop-up rewards available only to loyalty members, making customers feel special for being a part of your membership program.

A great way to accomplish this is incorporating AIQ’s Ongoing Campaigns throughout your shopper journey, automating the process to ensure it’s sustainable, and effectively reaching your base during valuable, key moments without any manual work required.

Download AIQ’s Comprehensive Strategy Guide on Loyalty Rewards, deep-diving into essential program structure & membership offers in retail

Best Practices For Building An Effective Customer LoyaltyProgram 

Here’s some best practices to follow as you begin strategizing with your team to develop your loyalty program: 

• Define your goals and objectives: Before launching a loyalty program, you should have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. For example, do you want to increase customer retention, spending, referrals, or data? How will you track and analyze your results? Defining these key metrics with AIQ’s Analytics tool ensures you will be able to effectively measure your successes, and see where improvement could be made. 
• Know your customers and their needs: You should design your loyalty program based on customer segments, behaviors, and their preferences using AIQ’s Audience Builder. With this, offer rewards that are relevant, valuable, and appealing to your customers, using AIQ’s Discount Builder to populate customer profiles with these available rewards, communicated to customers using our campaign tool to optimize visibility. 
• Make your loyalty rewards program simple and easy: Ensuring your loyalty program is easy to understand, join, and use helps staff better market your program to customers which in turn, helps customers see the value and want to sign up. Avoid complicated rules, restrictions, and expiration dates so the customer doesn’t feel confused or shorted by the program. Make rewards easy to earn, redeem, and access using AIQ App Wallets to bring this experience to life, with clear and consistent messaging + branding across all channels.
• Make your loyalty rewards program unique and differentiated: Your loyalty program needs to stand out from your competitors and offer something that they cannot. Using your brand identity, values, and story to create a distinctive loyalty program helps build that customer connection to ensure they prioritize your membership over others. Great ways to stand out are using gamification, like AIQ’s Prize Wheel, and personalization throughout the program, which can be accomplished through AIQ’s Personalization Macros and AIQ Audiences.
• Continuously Improve Your Program Structure & Membership Offers: A loyalty program should evolve over time to stay relevant and effective. Continuously seek feedback from customers and analyze program data to identify opportunities for enhancement. Update rewards, introduce new tiers or benefits, and keep the program fresh and exciting. Regularly communicate changes and improvements to your customers to keep them engaged and informed.

By incorporating these strategies, retailers can boost customer satisfaction, retention, spending, and referrals while collecting valuable data to refine their marketing approaches.

Download our 2024 Marketing & Loyalty Playbook for details on getting started on building your program on the AIQ platform today.

The Benefits: Investing Into Customer Loyalty Pays 

• Increased customer satisfaction: Customers feel valued and appreciated when they are rewarded for their loyalty. They are more likely to perceive and recommend the brand to others positively.
• Increased customer retention: Customers are more likely to stay loyal to a brand that offers them rewards and incentives. They are less likely to switch to competitors or look for alternatives.
• Increased customer spending: Customers are more likely to spend more when they are part of a loyalty rewards program. They are motivated to earn more rewards, redeem them, and take advantage of exclusive offers and discounts.
• Increased customer referrals: Customers are more likely to refer their friends and family to a brand that has a loyalty rewards program. They can share their rewards, invite others to join, and spread the word about the brand.
• Increased customer data: Customers are more willing to share their personal information, preferences, and feedback when participating in a loyalty rewards program. This allows the brand to collect valuable customer data and use it to personalize its marketing campaigns, products, and services.

Deep dive further into the benefits of loyalty programs by checking out our post: 10 Reasons Loyalty Programs Have Undeniable Power. 

In summary, building an effective loyalty program requires a strategic approach and a deep understanding of your customers. By setting clear goals, designing attractive rewards, simplifying the enrollment process, and continuously improving based on feedback and data, you can create a loyalty program that drives customer retention, increases sales, and fosters long-term brand loyalty. Invest in a well-crafted loyalty program and watch your business thrive as you build stronger connections with your valued customers.

Connect with the AIQ team now to learn more

Ready to take your discount experience to the next level? 

AIQ’s Unique Coupon Code Generator, the newest addition to our Discount feature, brings the power of single use redemptions to our platform for Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce retailers. With this new alternative to traditional, static discounts, users can create limited volumes of unique codes to better manage and control the customer redemption process. 

AIQ Unique Coupon Code Offers & Static Discounts Buildout Options

Our Unique Coupon Code Offer come with the same extensive discount options available with AIQ’s traditional Discount features, supporting highly segmented targeting and strategic buildouts that truly transform your customer experience.

• $ Off Rewards: Establish $ amount to take off cart total 
• % Off Deals: Input a flat total % to discount cart total
• Redeem Points for Discounts: Require specific points balance to redeem offer 
• Custom Expiration Options: Select specific data & time stamp OR relative timing for discount expiration
• Cooldown Periods for Reusable Discounts: Enable discounts to be redeemed more than once with cooldown periods available to put time in between redemptions. Both hour & day time frames are available. 

Unique Use Cases of Unique Coupon Codes

• Automate limited availability promotions: Think ‘Grand Opening Special: First 50 customers get $50 reward.” With this new feature, the amount of codes generated reflects the number of customers this offer will be sent to. This gives retailers significant control over redemption count without the heavy lifting. 

• Cap steep discounts for limited-time incentive: Retail periods that experience upticks in foot traffic, like black Friday for example, are a great time to launch aggressive win-back campaigns as a means to bring back gone customers while leveraging your big promotions. By utilizing unique coupon codes. 

Attaching an AIQ Discount to Your Marketing Campaign

Alongside this, both static discounts and unique coupon offers can be attached to any AIQ Campaign. Simply attach the Discount Macro associated with the offer, and we’ll notify your customers directly when a new offer is available upon falling into the target audience.

The reward offer also gets added into the customer’s Web or Native App Wallet at the same time they’re being sent the message. Offers built with AIQ Discounts are added to customer wallets the moment they fall into the audience attached to the reward, just like campaigns.

By combining the use of campaigns and discount offers to target the same audience, customers are able to be personally notified that a new discount is available, while ensuring it’s easy to acess and readily available to redeem directly in their AIQ rewards wallet.

Attaching discounts to AIQ Campaigns is great for promoting: 

• Abandoned Cart Incentives
• Customer Win-back Offers
• New Customer Opt-In Rewards
• Exclusive Loyalty Member Perks

Here’s how to add unique coupon code offers to your AIQ Campaigns:

Now, let’s explore exactly how to start building your unique coupon code offers in the AIQ platform so you can begin leveraging this exciting new feature.

Building a Discount With AIQ’s Unique Coupon Code Generator

• Step 1: Create target audience via AIQ Audiences

• Step 2: Create new discount in AIQ Discounts builder, targeting the audience made in step 1. Begin by filling out discount information on page 1 of the builder followed by designing your discount on page 2.

Before you move forward, make sure you click ‘Create’ in the upper right corner before proceeding, otherwise the unique coupon code generator won’t run.

• Step 3: Next, you’ll select your redemption method on page 3 and begin creating your unique coupon codes.

• Step 4: Proceed to the discount review page & click ‘save’ in the upper right corner once complete. 

Learn more about our brand new AIQ Discounts Unique Coupon Code Generator and more by connecting with our team today!

Looking for a refresh on static AIQ Discounts? Walkthrough the buildout process and feature breakdown by checking out our Product Session below.

Loyalty programs offer a powerful means of capturing zero-party data (information intentionally shared with a business by a customer), and utilizing it to enhance customer experiences. When implemented correctly, these programs can foster trust and encourage data sharing. 

If you’re ready to use a loyalty program to boost your data strategy, here are three essential tip:

1. Capture Data Creatively Through Simple Signup & Surveys

Avoid overwhelming customers with extensive data collection forms when they sign up for your website or loyalty program. Long forms can deter participation, making customers feel it’s not worth their time. 

AIQ’s Custom Signup Forms are a great tool to leverage in accomplishing this. Whether it’s posted in-store via QR code, accessible on a sales floor kiosk, or embedded into your website, our signup forms give retailers and brands control of their customer data collection with a fully branded experience.

Once customers are in your database, incentivize them to provide more information. With the right technology, rewarding customers for completing profiles or surveys can be straightforward. Gamifying the process with engaging functionality and user interfaces makes data sharing more enjoyable for customers. 

Checkout the features of AIQ’s Custom Surveys to begin incorporating them into your customer journey and loyalty flow today.  

2. Highlight the Benefits Clearly

Loyalty programs serve as an excellent means to showcase benefits and encourage data sharing. Customers are more likely to share their data if they perceive tangible benefits in return.

To maintain a balanced relationship, ensure customers feel valued. Create a table outlining the benefits of your loyalty program, highlight the tiers, and emphasize the rewards members can access. When customers see the value they receive, they are more willing to share their data.

3. Use Data Wisely

Once you have collected valuable data, ensure you use it effectively. Irrelevant communication can erode trust. For instance, if a customer has indicated their product category preferences, sending promotions for a different category can be frustrating for them and a waste for you. 

The goal of data collection is to ensure relevance. When customers provide information, they expect personalized and pertinent communications. Delivering on this promise helps build and sustain trust.

By leveraging AIQ’s Audience feature and Campaign tool, it’s easy and efficient to deploy targeted, ongoing messages directly to your customers, catered to their preferences so you can effectively implement a personalized experience.

Why Data Sharing is Important: The Mutual Benefits 

Understanding the mutual benefits of data sharing is crucial for both companies and customers.

From the Retailer’s Perspective: Knowledge is power when it comes to understanding your target audience. More data enables precise targeting, optimized content, and a higher level of personalization throughout the marketing process. This leads to increased sales opportunities and better ROI.

From the Customer’s Perspective: Customers need to see value in sharing their data. They expect a value exchange, where they receive offers and rewards tailored to their needs. For example, if a customer wears size XL, they don’t want promotions for size M clothing. If they’re allergic to peanuts, they expect relevant product recommendations. By providing data, customers enable companies to understand their preferences and offer personalized experiences.

In summary, Incentivizing data sharing through well-designed loyalty programs benefits both companies and customers. Brands gain valuable insights to improve targeting and personalization, while customers receive tailored experiences and rewards. By capturing data creatively, highlighting benefits, and using data wisely, businesses can build trust and foster long-term customer loyalty.

Discover how AIQ’s toolsuite fuels retail loyalty programs & enables powerful personalization for marketers by connecting with our team today!

SMS/MMS messages go through the most robust filtration process in comparison to other channels like email, push-notifications and voice-drops, especially in regulated industries. On top of this, flagging methods and filtration standards are 100% controlled by wireless carriers, both of which are the key determinants of a message being approved for delivery or not. 

Because of this, it is increasingly difficult to develop reliable best practices for SMS/MMS that can be incorporated into a long term messaging strategy.  

In order to best optimize your messaging strategy, it is important to first understand the role of carrier filtration when it comes to campaign performance. 

As mentioned, the filtration process led by wireless carriers determines the deliverability of your SMS/MMS campaigns almost entirely. To effectively develop an optimized messaging strategy, understanding the vetting process and how deliverability works is imperative for success, especially when it comes to combating carrier filtration.

SMS & Telecom-Related Terms to Know 

Before we dive in, review our glossary of SMS & Telecom related terms to help support as you read along. 

• Aggregator: A company that provides a bulk SMS (short message service) solution to brands and enterprises.
• API: An abbreviation for “Application Programming Interface,” an API is a set of programming instructions that allow software to interact with other software. In the context of messaging, an API would allow a chat app to connect with a carrier in order to send and receive SMS messages.
• Carrier: Carriers, or wireless service providers, are the companies that you buy your cell phone service from. Some major carriers are AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. They are responsible for building and maintaining the networks that your messages travel on.
• Direct-to-carrier: As the term suggests, this is a direct connection between a sender and a carrier. This is the most reliable way to ensure that messages are delivered, but it’s also the most expensive.
• Filtration: In the context of this article, filtration is also called message filters. These are special software programs that scan messages for certain keywords or content and can block them from being delivered if they are found to be in violation of regulations.
• Routing: In telecoms, routing refers to the process of delivering messages from the sender to the intended recipient.
• SMS: An abbreviation for short message service, an SMS refers to a text message that is limited to 160 characters.
• Telecom: An abbreviation for telecommunications, telecoms refers to the electronic transmission of data, usually in the form of text or voice messages.

Now, we’re ready to break down the filtration process and explore how messages get sent from AIQ to the intended recipient.  Let’s break it down.

Step-by-Step: How AIQ SMS/MMS Vape Shop Campaigns Get Delivered 

Step 1: Marketing campaign is built in AIQ & scheduled to be sent. 

Step 2: AIQ sends the campaign through a carrier aggregator (i.e: Twilio, InfoBip, Sinch, etc.) in order to push the message from our platform to wireless carriers. Aggregators are essentially gatekeepers to carriers and maintain complex backend systems that allow platforms to build on top of them through API’s. 

Step 3: The aggregator pushes the text to the wireless carrier, who then sends it to the end consumer. In some cases, aggregators block usage before it even ends up at the carrier, however, AIQ has a best in class partner reputation that bypasses aggregator filtering.

Step 4: Message reaches each wireless carrier (180+) to undergo a system of checkpoints to determine deliverability.

Step 5: Filtration

Once the carrier receives requests to send to the intended recipients, your campaign content is put through an algorithmic validation process to determine if the message could be considered spam, violate any terms of service, etc. 

If your message is flagged as spam, it will be blocked by the carrier, prohibiting it from being delivered.

If the message passes the filtration checkpoint and is not flagged as spam, it is then delivered to the intended recipient by the carrier.

Step 6: Message Delivery

Once your message passes the filtration checkpoints, it will be sent out for delivery to the recipient’s phone. 

It’s important to note that ALL carriers charge you for your message whether it delivers or not. This process occurs for every message or bundle of messages of a certain scale depending on the carrier. This is the reason why sometimes you will receive a message but other consumers might not. 

Why Carrier Filtration Occurs for Vape Shops

In short, carriers are bombarded with spam messages via aggregator APIs constantly. 

These messages are typically phishing hacking attempts, payday loan offers, and other undesirable actors that utilize burner accounts and backdoors to gain access to send via carrier aggregators to customers without their consent. 

Unfortunately, some legitimate markets (regulated or not) are caught in the crossfire, and filtration algorithms adversely affect them. 

In between 2021-2022, a term called “10DLC” was introduced to the telecom community. Essentially this meant that all legitimate use cases could be registered with the carriers and their filtration + fees would be far lower. Think of this like a TSA precheck at the airport. You do a large upfront screening and then it’s much more efficient moving forward. 10DLC registration is available in the AIQ system for applicable industries. 

Unfortunately, some regulated markets cannot register due to their federal status even though a product or service might be acceptable via state laws. This means your traffic must run in an “unregistered” state where spam/ phishing/ etc cause filtration.

Learn more on 10DLC Registered & Unregistered Traffic.

Main Methods of Carrier Filtration 

To optimize your campaigns & maximize deliverability, let’s break down the three main methods of filtration used by carriers so you can structure your messaging accordingly:

Image Recognition: Carriers use advanced bots to scan for any content that may be deemed inappropriate, such as certain symbols or words. This is especially important for marketers in regulated markets to keep top of mind when curating any visual content for campaigns.

Brand Name Recognition: Carriers are able to identify messages that use the brand names or logos of companies that are not authorized to use telecom networks for messaging. Most commonly, this occurs for marketers who work in an industry not yet federally legal. Removing your brand name or logo from all text message content is the most effective workaround here. Any relationship to an unauthorized company in your message will most likely lead it to being flagged and therefore, fail to send.

Keywords: The most common filtration method, and easiest to vet is keyword filtering. This is when carriers block messages containing words and/or phrases that could be potentially inappropriate, seem like spam, or go against regulatory guidelines. 

Although there is no definite list of every word that will get flagged, it is a good idea to keep your messages as simple as possible, refraining from including terminology like:

• Promotional language like discounts, offers, and rewards (Advanced carriers also read your text with AI for “promotional intent”. Even if it contains no bad keywords, it will break apart your message intent) 
• Regulated product types and/or product names 
• “Payday loan”, “donate”, “gift card” etc.

Numbers/ Domains/ IP addresses and attached assets: 10DLC users typically use 49 numbers and assign each of them to a group of users who they message. This allows them to send the maximum number of messages out per second. Unregistered traffic is also limited by per second intervals for sending and is closely watched. This is why AIQ automatically buys numbers and assigns them to your CRM user list ahead of time.

Let’s look at an example message you might send:

This message seems harmless enough. Unfortunately it has promotional intent, potentially flagged product names, and it has a link to an unknown domain. It’s plausible that this message bypasses carrier filtration for a period of time, but it will eventually be flagged for one of the reasons mentioned. 

One of the things a lot of providers do not tell you in unregistered environments is that carriers have manual auditors. When an algorithm thinks something might be spam, it will surface that to an auditor. These auditors click your links and read your message. 

They then can hit a giant red button that flags that content from sending in the future. This will database all of your messages with the carrier and flag not only that message but also the image in it, the domain, the phone numbers, etc.

This is why AIQ buys dedicated domains/ servers/ IP addresses and phone numbers for your account only. It means you are “fresh” to the carrier and don’t have previous infractions. 

Some providers in the market do not possess AIQ technologies to protect your company assets when sending. If you are unregistered and send out your brand’s domain via text, you will likely get that domain banned on every platform across every telecom vendor for future sends. 

If you experience filtration on your assets, you can simply refresh them under Settings -> Text settings in the AIQ dashboard. You can do this in bulk automatically as your system follows your filtration profile or you can do this manually by buying/ releasing numbers.

there is still no guarantee a text message will be delivered. For 99% of 10DLC registered users, texting is a walk in the park, but on unregistered pipelines this is much more time consuming. 

Here’s why:

• Varying Standards: Carriers filtration standards are different across the board. A message that is not considered spam by one carrier could potentially be considered spam by another. 
• Evolving Standards: Carriers are continuously evolving and updating their filtration systems and standards for flagging. What was allowed yesterday, may no longer be allowed tomorrow. 

This makes it increasingly important to diversify your marketing channels and move away from SMS/MMS messaging.

Diversifying Channels to Combat Vape-Related Filtration 

To truly combat filtration, the most effective method is to begin incorporating new marketing channels into your messaging strategy overall. Prioritize obtaining opt-ins for email, push-notifications, and voice-drops from customers to optimize your campaign performance and maximize reach, using more reliable channels to deploy customer communications to sustain growth long-term.

For more information on diversifying your marketing channels, checkout Communications Beyond Texting.

1. It helps you attract the right people: Understanding the needs, wants, and pain points of your target audience is key in acquiring the right customers for your business. It also helps you develop your products and services even better. 
2. It fosters customer loyalty and retention: Understanding your customers at a personal level sets the tone of your relationship with them. Having a positive customer relationship greatly contributes to their loyalty to your brand. 
3. It boosts sales & revenue: Brands that are customer-centric are found to be 60% more profitable than companies that don’t.

Here are 3 simple ways to start personalizing your customer experience with AIQ:

1. Audience Segmentation based off of Intelligent Timing & Predictive Analytics

Using AIQ’s Intelligent Timing feature, you can identify when certain customers are more likely to engage with your brand and shop at your store. Creating target Audience Segments to deploy ongoing campaigns that leverage this intelligent timing feature ensures that data is being used to your advantage when connecting with customers.

2. Customized Surveys

Surveys are a great way to collect information from your customer base, giving retailers a better understanding of how its shopping experience is translating to customers. Using AIQ Surveys, users are able to generate custom feedback flows that help gather necessary information required for data-based decision making. 

An effective way to deploy these surveys is through AIQ’s ongoing campaigns. Including surveys in post-purchase messaging that auto-connects to customers enables these forms to be sent to customers in a timeframe that feels organic, optimizing the number of submissions you’re likely to receive.

3.  Leveraging AIQ’s Retail Analytics 

By leveraging AIQ’s Retail Analytics, users gain important insight into inventory & spend metrics broken down by brand, category, and product to help guide marketing strategies informed by customer purchasing habits. 

As customers’ needs evolve over time, retailers must be proactive in leveraging AIQ’s tools in order to continuously optimize engagement efforts and maximize personalization. 

Learn more about AIQ’s full suite of tools below.

For retailers in regulated markets, carrier filtration poses challenges that have the potential to get in the way of your ability to reach customers. Leveraging the right channels is key to ensure long-term success and sustaining growth. 

Implementing a Two Tier Loyalty Program to Convert SMS Subscribers to Email 

If you have a significant number of customers already opted-in to texts, it can be challenging transitioning them from SMS to email if there’s no incentive for them to do so. That’s where a two-tier loyalty program can be your secret weapon. 

A two tiered loyalty program is designed to leverage rewards as a means to gain customer opt-ins. 

How? Tier 2 membership status can only be achieved if a customer opts-in. If set up strategically, tier 2 memberships will unlock more frequent & more attractive rewards, making it easier to convince your SMS subscribers to opt-into emails given they are getting something out of it.

This is a great strategy for regulated retailers to ensure stability with their customer communications plan and combat the growing risks of carrier filtration with SMS/MMS messaging. 

Here’s some tips and tricks for crafting emails to optimize deliverability as your grow your subscriber base: 

1. Avoid trigger words or flagged wordings

Spam filters block messages if there are any flagged wordings in the copy but most importantly, in the subject line

Trigger words:

• Calls to action that seems “urgent”: Open this / hurry / act now 
• Marketing: free / free sample / dear friend
• Health: get rid of pain / cure your medical condition

What are ways to get around this?

• Try to be subtle with your copy, especially when promoting a special promo for your products. 
• Provide a teaser and reserve the more detailed copy on your dedicated landing page.
• Avoid any and all medical claims.
• Emojis can provide a fun alternative to flagged wording. For example: Instead of “Check out this flower drop,” use “Check out this 🌼 drop” instead.

2. Ensure all metadata is accurate

Metadata in emails is the information in the Date, From, To, and Subject of your email.

Having misleading metadata or thumbnails in your email could lead to your message being filtered as spam. 

Additionally, any misleading information that’s intended to trick users into believing the content to be something else is against both CAN-SPAM and CASL laws.

Spam filters are more likely to flag your email if it’s addressed to your recipient’s email address and not their name. We recommend that you use AIQ’s macros to personalize your “To:” field in an email. 

Also, spam filters will check if your recipients already know you. This is why it is important to use a verified domain to send your messages.

3. Tailor your content to boost engagement

A practical tactic to boost engagement and reduce high unsubscribe rates is to segment your subscribers and then tailor your email content to their interests, needs, and preferences.

4. Provide quality email content 

The quality of the content constitutes the majority of the factors in determining whether an email is spam. 

Here are some tips to avoid being flagged by spam filters:

• URLs: Use descriptive text instead of naked URLs as the link text. Avoid using URL shorteners as well. 
• Links: Make sure all links included in your email are working properly.
• Images and text: Balance the ratio of images to text and links to texts. Be also sure that images are mobile-responsive and are optimized for web viewing.
• Grammar and spelling: Emails with poor grammar and spelling errors could make it appear unprofessional, and recipients may likely report your email as spam.

5. Properly format your email 

Another factor is the formatting of your email. An unprofessionally formatted email does not only make your content look spammy, but it also affects your bounce rate and engagement. Avoid the following formatting mistakes as much as possible:

• Using all caps
• Using multiple punctuations (e.g., “Hello!!!!” or “What do you think?!?”)
• Using too many colors
• Using too many different font styles and/or font sizes

For more information on email settings, checkout AIQ’s Email / Domain Settings. To learn more about SMS/ MMS deliverability, review our Carrier Filtration Guide.

Carrier Filtration’s Influence on SMS/MMS Campaigns 

SMS/MMS messages go through the most robust filtration process in comparison to other channels like email, push-notifications and voice-drops, especially in regulated industries. On top of this, flagging methods and filtration standards are 100% controlled by wireless carriers, both of which are the key determinants of a message being approved for delivery or not. 

Because of this, it is increasingly difficult to develop reliable best practices for SMS/MMS that can be incorporated into a long term messaging strategy.  

In order to best optimize your messaging strategy, it is important to first understand the role of carrier filtration when it comes to campaign performance. 

As mentioned, the filtration process led by wireless carriers determines the deliverability of your SMS/MMS campaigns almost entirely. To effectively develop an optimized messaging strategy, understanding the vetting process and how deliverability works is imperative for success, especially when it comes to combating carrier filtration.

SMS & Telecom-Related Terms to Know 

Before we dive in, review our glossary of SMS & Telecom related terms to help support as you read along. 

• Aggregator: A company that provides a bulk SMS (short message service) solution to brands and enterprises.
• API: An abbreviation for “Application Programming Interface,” an API is a set of programming instructions that allow software to interact with other software. In the context of messaging, an API would allow a chat app to connect with a carrier in order to send and receive SMS messages.
• Carrier: Carriers, or wireless service providers, are the companies that you buy your cell phone service from. Some major carriers are AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. They are responsible for building and maintaining the networks that your messages travel on.
• Direct-to-carrier: As the term suggests, this is a direct connection between a sender and a carrier. This is the most reliable way to ensure that messages are delivered, but it’s also the most expensive.
• Filtration: In the context of this article, filtration is also called message filters. These are special software programs that scan messages for certain keywords or content and can block them from being delivered if they are found to be in violation of regulations.
• Routing: In telecoms, routing refers to the process of delivering messages from the sender to the intended recipient.
• SMS: An abbreviation for short message service, an SMS refers to a text message that is limited to 160 characters.
• Telecom: An abbreviation for telecommunications, telecoms refers to the electronic transmission of data, usually in the form of text or voice messages.

Now, we’re ready to break down the filtration process and explore how messages get sent from AIQ to the intended recipient.  Let’s break it down.

Step-by-Step: How AIQ SMS/MMS Campaigns Get Delivered 

Step 1: Marketing campaign is built in AIQ & scheduled to be sent. 

Step 2: AIQ sends the campaign through a carrier aggregator (i.e: Twilio, InfoBip, Sinch, etc.) in order to push the message from our platform to wireless carriers. Aggregators are essentially gatekeepers to carriers and maintain complex backend systems that allow platforms to build on top of them through API’s. 

Step 3: The aggregator pushes the text to the wireless carrier, who then sends it to the end consumer. In some cases, aggregators block usage before it even ends up at the carrier, however, AIQ has a best in class partner reputation that bypasses aggregator filtering.

Step 4: Message reaches each wireless carrier (180+) to undergo a system of checkpoints to determine deliverability.

Step 5: Filtration

Once the carrier receives requests to send to the intended recipients, your campaign content is put through an algorithmic validation process to determine if the message could be considered spam, violate any terms of service, etc. 

If your message is flagged as spam, it will be blocked by the carrier, prohibiting it from being delivered.

If the message passes the filtration checkpoint and is not flagged as spam, it is then delivered to the intended recipient by the carrier.

Step 6: Message Delivery

Once your message passes the filtration checkpoints, it will be sent out for delivery to the recipient’s phone. 

It’s important to note that ALL carriers charge you for your message whether it delivers or not. This process occurs for every message or bundle of messages of a certain scale depending on the carrier. This is the reason why sometimes you will receive a message but other consumers might not. 

Why Carrier Filtration Occurs 

In short, carriers are bombarded with spam messages via aggregator APIs constantly. 

These messages are typically phishing hacking attempts, payday loan offers, and other undesirable actors that utilize burner accounts and backdoors to gain access to send via carrier aggregators to customers without their consent. 

Unfortunately, some legitimate markets (regulated or not) are caught in the crossfire, and filtration algorithms adversely affect them. 

In between 2021-2022, a term called “10DLC” was introduced to the telecom community. Essentially this meant that all legitimate use cases could be registered with the carriers and their filtration + fees would be far lower. Think of this like a TSA precheck at the airport. You do a large upfront screening and then it’s much more efficient moving forward. 10DLC registration is available in the AIQ system for applicable industries. 

Unfortunately, some regulated markets cannot register due to their federal status even though a product or service might be acceptable via state laws. This means your traffic must run in an “unregistered” state where spam/ phishing/ etc cause filtration.

Learn more on 10DLC Registered & Unregistered Traffic.

Main Methods of Carrier Filtration 

To optimize your campaigns & maximize deliverability, let’s break down the three main methods of filtration used by carriers so you can structure your messaging accordingly:

Image Recognition: Carriers use advanced bots to scan for any content that may be deemed inappropriate, such as certain symbols or words. This is especially important for marketers in regulated markets to keep top of mind when curating any visual content for campaigns.

Brand Name Recognition: Carriers are able to identify messages that use the brand names or logos of companies that are not authorized to use telecom networks for messaging. Most commonly, this occurs for marketers who work in an industry not yet federally legal. Removing your brand name or logo from all text message content is the most effective workaround here. Any relationship to an unauthorized company in your message will most likely lead it to being flagged and therefore, fail to send.

Keywords: The most common filtration method, and easiest to vet is keyword filtering. This is when carriers block messages containing words and/or phrases that could be potentially inappropriate, seem like spam, or go against regulatory guidelines. 

Although there is no definite list of every word that will get flagged, it is a good idea to keep your messages as simple as possible, refraining from including terminology like:

• Promotional language like discounts, offers, and rewards (Advanced carriers also read your text with AI for “promotional intent”. Even if it contains no bad keywords, it will break apart your message intent) 
• Regulated product types and/or product names 
• “Payday loan”, “donate”, “gift card” etc.

Numbers/ Domains/ IP addresses and attached assets: 10DLC users typically use 49 numbers and assign each of them to a group of users who they message. This allows them to send the maximum number of messages out per second. Unregistered traffic is also limited by per second intervals for sending and is closely watched. This is why AIQ automatically buys numbers and assigns them to your CRM user list ahead of time.

Let’s look at an example message you might send:

This message seems harmless enough. Unfortunately it has promotional intent, potentially flagged product names, and it has a link to an unknown domain. It’s plausible that this message bypasses carrier filtration for a period of time, but it will eventually be flagged for one of the reasons mentioned. 

One of the things a lot of providers do not tell you in unregistered environments is that carriers have manual auditors. When an algorithm thinks something might be spam, it will surface that to an auditor. These auditors click your links and read your message. 

They then can hit a giant red button that flags that content from sending in the future. This will database all of your messages with the carrier and flag not only that message but also the image in it, the domain, the phone numbers, etc.

This is why AIQ buys dedicated domains/ servers/ IP addresses and phone numbers for your account only. It means you are “fresh” to the carrier and don’t have previous infractions. 

Some providers in the market do not possess AIQ technologies to protect your company assets when sending. If you are unregistered and send out your brand’s domain via text, you will likely get that domain banned on every platform across every telecom vendor for future sends. 

If you experience filtration on your assets, you can simply refresh them under Settings -> Text settings in the AIQ dashboard. You can do this in bulk automatically as your system follows your filtration profile or you can do this manually by buying/ releasing numbers.

However, even as you look to optimize your content and maximize deliverability, it is important to note that there is still no guarantee a text message will be delivered. For 99% of 10DLC registered users, texting is a walk in the park, but on unregistered pipelines this is much more time consuming. 

Here’s why:

• Varying Standards: Carriers filtration standards are different across the board. A message that is not considered spam by one carrier could potentially be considered spam by another. 
• Evolving Standards: Carriers are continuously evolving and updating their filtration systems and standards for flagging. What was allowed yesterday, may no longer be allowed tomorrow. 

This makes it increasingly important to diversify your marketing channels and move away from SMS/MMS messaging.

Diversifying Channels to Combat Filtration 

To truly combat filtration, the most effective method is to begin incorporating new marketing channels into your messaging strategy overall. Prioritize obtaining opt-ins for email, push-notifications, and voice-drops from customers to optimize your campaign performance and maximize reach, using more reliable channels to deploy customer communications to sustain growth long-term.

For more information on diversifying your marketing channels, checkout Communications Beyond Texting.

Cart upsell is a technique commonly used in online retail to encourage customers to add additional items or upgrade their existing selections while they’re in the process of checking out. This feature is now available for all AIQ Ecommerce users, giving retailers the ability to optimize their online shopping experience with strategic product recommendations based on three primary data sources: purchase history, brands, and price. 

AIQ Ecommerce Cart Upsell Data Sources:

1. Purchase History: Populates product suggestions based on the customer’s previous ten orders. 
2. Brands: Select up to five brands, with the option to prioritize selections, showcasing certain brands first. 
3. Price: Set a price range for products to upsell. Pricing is pre-discount, therefore discounted items will only upsell if they fall into the price range established prior to being placed on sale.

Users can implement any combination of the three data sources, with prioritization tools available when more than one is in use. This is so retailers can be more strategic with their upselling efforts. By giving users the flexibility to leverage more than one data source, retailers can effectively maximize their upselling opportunities while still being able to prioritize one product recommendation over the other. 

This feature ultimately benefits both the retailer and the customer by increasing average order value, maximizing revenue, moving inventory more efficiently, and improving the customer experience with enhanced product discovery. Let’s break it down. 

The Benefits of Cart Upsell

• Increase Average Order Value (AOV): Giving customers recommendations at checkout entices shoppers to add more items to their cart, increasing AOV. 
• Improve Customer Experience: Upselling gives customers the opportunity to learn about products they may not have known about, discover new drops from popular brands, or be reminded of products they enjoyed from previous purchases. This has the potential to increase customer satisfaction as it connects customers to more products.  
• Maximize Revenue from Existing Traffic: New customer acquisition is an expensive part of retail. Upselling to shoppers actively in the check out process is a cost-effective way to increase revenue without having to invest heavily into acquiring new traffic.
• Move Inventory Efficiently: Upselling is a prime opportunity to strategically highlight products that need a push. Whether it’s an item that’s overstocked, or a product about to expire, upselling is a great strategy to help move inventory more efficiently. 
• Enhance Product Discovery: Strategic upselling increases visibility on products, generating awareness for items that shoppers may have missed if they’re not navigating through your entire menu. 

Ready to get started with AIQ Ecommerce? Schedule a demo today.