Latest / The Retention Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Email, SMS, and Loyalty for Repeat Customers / How a Tea Brand Uses SMS to Build a Subscription Habit
Transcript
- Lucas: So there's this tea brand called Steep & Sip — launched in 2021, sells premium loose-leaf teas direct to consumer. They had a problem a lot of DTC brands have: strong first purchase, but then customers just kind of drifted away. Luna: Right, the classic one-and-done. Tea is a consumable, you'd think people would reorder, but they don't. Lucas: Exactly. So about a year ago they started testing an SMS sequence aimed specifically at converting those first-time buyers into subscribers. And the results were pretty striking. Luna: What did they do differently? I mean, every brand sends a 'thanks for your order' text. Lucas: Yeah, and most stop there. Steep & Sip's insight was timing. They send the first SMS exactly seven days after the order arrives. Not three days, not two weeks — seven. The message is super simple: 'How's the tea? Reply with a photo of your brew setup.' Luna: That's clever — it's a check-in, not a sales pitch. And it invites engagement. Lucas: Right. They got about a 12 percent reply rate on that first message. And then two days later, they send a second SMS — this one personalized based on what the customer ordered. So if you bought the jasmine green, they'd recommend the 'Morning Ritual' blend, which has a similar flavor profile. Luna: So they're using the reply data to inform the recommendation? Or just the initial purchase data? Lucas: Both, actually. If the customer replied with a photo or any text, a human on the team logs preferences. But the baseline is the purchase data. The second SMS includes a one-tap link that adds the recommended tea to a subscription with four-week frequency. No cart, no checkout flow. Luna: One tap. That's huge. The friction of entering payment info kills so many subscription starts. Lucas: Exactly. And they had already stored the payment method from the first purchase, so it's legit one tap. The third SMS comes five days later if the customer hasn't subscribed. It's a gentle urgency message: 'Your first box ships in 48 hours — lock in your subscription now and get 15 percent off.' Luna: So three messages total over about two weeks. That's disciplined. A lot of brands would send seven or eight. Lucas: And that discipline paid off. Within three months of launching the sequence, their subscription conversion rate from first-time buyers went up 34 percent. Their subscriber churn actually dropped too — customers who came in through SMS stayed about 20 percent longer than those who subscribed via email. Luna: Why do you think SMS subscribers were stickier? Is it the channel itself or something about the sequence? Lucas: I think it's both. SMS feels more personal — you opted in to get texts from a brand you like, so there's intent there. And the sequence built a habit: the check-in, the recommendation, the urgency. By the time they subscribe, they've already engaged three times. Luna: It's like a mini onboarding. But I wonder, does this feel intrusive? If I got a text from a tea brand asking for a photo of my brew setup, I might find it a little weird. Lucas: Yeah, that's the fine line. Steep & Sip's data shows that opt-out rates on that first message were under 2 percent, so most people didn't mind. And the reply rate was healthy. But the key is the tone — it's casual, not pushy. They use emojis, first names, and they're genuinely asking, not pretending to care. Luna: Right. If it felt automated or spammy, it would backfire. So what about brands that don't have a consumable product? Could this work for, say, a clothing brand? Lucas: It's harder, but not impossible. The consumable angle makes it natural — you run out of tea, coffee, shampoo. For apparel, you'd need a different hook. Maybe a 'how are you styling this piece?' check-in, then a recommendation for a complementary item. But the repurchase cycle is longer and less predictable. Luna: So the sweet spot is brands with a short repurchase cycle and a product that people consume regularly. Snacks, coffee, skincare, pet food. Lucas: Exactly. And the SMS channel is especially good for that because it's immediate. Email gets buried. SMS sits in your notifications. Steep & Sip saw open rates over 90 percent on their sequence, compared to maybe 25 percent for email. Luna: That's wild. But let's talk about the dark side — what happens if someone unsubscribes from SMS? Do they lose them forever? Lucas: Not necessarily. Steep & Sip moves them to an email win-back sequence. But the opt-out rate was low enough that it wasn't a major concern. The bigger risk is over-messaging. They're very strict about the three-message limit. Luna: Three messages, two weeks, one tap. It's a tight funnel. I like how they used a human touch for the photo replies — that's not scalable, but for a brand of their size, it probably makes a difference. Lucas: Yeah, they have about 50,000 active subscribers now. The photo replies are handled by a team of three, and they report that those conversations often lead to upsells. Someone sends a photo of their tea setup, the team member spots they're using a different brand's teapot, and they send a recommendation for Steep & Sip's teapot. Luna: That's smart cross-selling. So the SMS sequence isn't just about subscriptions — it's opening a dialogue that can lead to higher lifetime value. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the deeper lesson. Retention isn't just about sending the right message at the right time. It's about creating a relationship where the customer feels heard. Steep & Sip's approach does that without being overly promotional. Luna: I think that's why it works. And it's a good reminder that sometimes less is more — three well-timed texts beat a barrage of emails. Lucas: Totally. And on that note — if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work, we do keep this show ad-free, and listener support is what makes that possible. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep the conversations going without commercial breaks. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to help us keep digging into tactics like this one. And we appreciate every bit of support. Lucas: So to wrap up: Steep & Sip's three-message SMS sequence — check-in, recommendation, urgency — boosted subscription conversions by 34 percent. The key takeaway for any brand is to think about timing, personalization, and reducing friction. One tap matters more than we think. Luna: And the human touch can turn a simple text into a real conversation. I'm curious to see how this evolves as they scale. Lucas: Me too. Next time we'll look at a brand that's using AI to personalize SMS at scale — but that's a whole other story.