Context
The undisclosed e-commerce company I worked with aimed to boost SMS marketing sign-ups. The company believed the effort involved in having to double opt-in (signing up a 2nd time on their phone to complete the flow) was a problem. They partnered with a vendor to introduce a feature that they believed would help reduce this friction.
I was originally brought on to help facilitate the implementation of this new feature. However, because this feature came with unforeseen technical constraints, I ended up creating multiple workarounds to overcome these limitations.
Role
Lead Product Designer (in-house)
UX Methods
Data Analysis • User Flows • Wireframing • A/B Testing • Prototyping
Team
1 Product Manager • 3 Developers • External Vendor
Project Type
Commercial
Year
2023
Duration
2 Months
Goal / KPIs
Increase in SMS marketing sign-ups
Increase in conversion rate
Problems
Due to technical constraints and new found data, we ended up rescoping the project to focus on two problems we previously were not aware of:
First, not all eligible users interested in promotions were aware of SMS.
Additionally, many users were unaware that they had to opt in a 2nd time on their phone to complete the SMS flow. This led them to believe they signed up for SMS when they didn't.
New Emails
Users who input a new email would be taken to the "email confirmation" screen giving them a discount and prompting them to sign up for SMS.
Recognized Emails
Users who input a recognized email would not be prompted to sign up for SMS. Instead, they were shown an error letting them know that we already have their email.
Solution
We did not use the vendor's product. Instead, I built on our original experience using data I collected during the course of this project. I expanded the flow to include users with recognized emails, while also making slight UI adjustments to the double opt-in screen. This resulted in more than 100% increase in SMS opt-ins.
*To maintain professional integrity, I’ve omitted certain details from this case study and recreated the mocks with a fictional brand*
The company’s goal was to increase SMS marketing sign-ups. The company assumed the effort involved in having to double opt-in (signing up a 2nd time on their phone to complete the flow) was a problem. They partnered with a vendor that would introduce a new feature to help solve this.
Originally, users would have to navigate to their text message app, then write and send a message to complete the sign up-process. Now with this new feature, users would be automatically taken to their text message app with a pre-filled, ready to send, opt-in message. We called this “two-tap functionality”.
What I learned:
About 30% of entered emails were recognized emails.
Analysis:
This confirmed we needed email validation. Without it, many users would be misinformed and be told that they had a discount when they didn't.
It made us cognizant of a new problem: not all eligible users interested in promotions were aware we offered SMS marketing.
Recommended Solution: Expanding the SMS Flow
This solution was created in case we could get both email validation and create a separate branched experience. The benefit is that it would provide a bigger opportunity since it solves for the original assumed problem while also solving for the new discovered problem. The trade off would be that it would require more work from the engineering team.
Alternate Solution #1: Only a Copy Change
This solution was in case email validation was not possible. While this solution was not recommended, it provided a low lift way to test the vendor’s new feature. However, the tradeoff was that users would more than likely miss the informative copy, leading to customer confusion and frustration.
Alternate Solution #2: Showing an Error Message
This solution was created in case we could only get email validation. This is exactly what we originally had in production. The benefit was that it can test the new SMS feature without misinforming users. The trade off was that we’d be losing out on an opportunity for more sign-ups because it doesn't solve for the discovered problem.
One tradeoff with using the vendor’s modals was we couldn’t include a step from our original new customer promo flow called "micro yes". In a previous project, the "micro yes" resulted in an increase in emails. By removing it, we knew it would result in a drop in emails. However, the drop was more than anticipated.
When I first tested "micro yes", there were two variants. The first variant was the one we originally had in production (where users were asked if they wanted a discount before seeing the email capture screen). The second variant didn't have a separate screen but instead had a copy change within the email capture modal.
Both variants performed better than the no micro yes group, with variant one outperforming all groups. Since I couldn’t use variant one due to technical limitations, I tried to implement variant two in hopes that it would offset the drop in emails.
I wanted to identify if there were any other opportunities that we could still capitalize on to improve SMS sign-ups.
What I learned:
Desktop SMS opt-ins were up, but the two-tap functionality (vendor’s feature) didn’t exist for desktop users.
Analysis:
I hypothesized that users were unaware that they had to opt in a 2nd time to complete the SMS flow. I also assumed that the UI differences between our original double opt-in screen and the vendor’s double opt in screen resulted in the increase.
Using the data I collected, I was able to get alignment to rescope the project. Instead of working on the business' original assumed problem, we agreed to focus on the 2 problems I learned during this process.
First, not all eligible users interested in promotions were aware of SMS.
Additionally, many users were unaware that they had to opt in a 2nd time on their phone to complete the SMS flow. This led them to believe they signed up for SMS when they didn't.
I expanded the flow to include users with recognized emails. This solved the problem that not all eligible users interested in promotions were aware of SMS. I also changed the UI of our double opt-in screen to more closely emulate what the vendor had. This addressed the issue regarding users' unawareness of needing to opt-in again via text message to complete the SMS flow.
Adding a Financial Incentive
It's a common business modal to offer a financial incentive for SMS. It gives users a better reason for signing up. To test it, we would need to clear it by various teams, but it could provide another boost to SMS opt-ins.
Expanding the SMS flow to include logged in users
Similar to what we did with recognized emails, we could increase visibility of SMS by showing users who are already logged in. By increasing visibility, we could feasibly increase the amount of users opting into SMS.
