Maya Freya dresses up the Dutch with colourful leggings and increases conversion rate with SMS
Industry:
Products used:
Headquarters:
About Maya Freya
Maya Freya is an e-commerce company specialising in women's athleisure workout clothing. The company caters to a broad target group with a wide age range and offers clothing from size XS to 3XL to create an inclusive universe. Maya Freya's collections are known for their colourful and printed designs, but also offer solid neutrals, so there's something for everyone.
The company turns five years old in August and was founded by Iben Hedegaard Birkebæk, who started packing orders in her living room. Later, her brother, Jonas Hedegaard, joined the company, which today consists of 15 employees across the organisation. Things have gone really fast for the young company.
Challenge: A broad audience requires a broad presence
Maya Freya has been using inMobile for about a year to send campaigns in Denmark and Sweden, where SMS marketing has been a great success. Prior to this, the e-commerce company experienced several challenges that made it necessary to consider SMS marketing as a possible solution.
While social media works really well for a large part of their target audience, it was difficult to reach the older segment who are not present on media like Facebook and Instagram.
"By using SMS, we wanted to reach the parts of our target audience we couldn't reach through other channels, such as social media. Although Facebook is our best social media platform, we saw the potential in reaching those without a smartphone via SMS."
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
Another significant challenge was that this segment does not check emails as frequently, and those who do may be more cautious and insecure about clicking on links in emails.
SMS as an extra channel in your marketing strategy
The decision to try SMS marketing was primarily made to solve some of the communication challenges Maya Freya was experiencing. When Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya, received SMSes from other brands, she saw the genius of this form of communication. Adoption wasn't a difficult decision.
After thorough market research, they found the right solution with inMobile. Mette and the rest of her marketing team found it reassuring that several major brands already used inMobile for SMS marketing and that they would have an experienced sparring partner in the process.
"The package was good, and it was nice to have someone who had tried it before and who I could write or call if there was an issue."
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
The fact that inMobile is so intuitive and doesn't require large amounts of time is important for Mette who says that this is what she values most - that things work!
Today, the SMS channel is typically used as a supplement to their grander marketing strategy, a good complement to their other channels. "SMS campaigns are usually executed at the end of a campaign period and act as a really good spike," she says.
"When you have customers aged both 80+ and 20+, you have to think in slightly different channels, which is why SMS marketing became an important part of our strategy to ensure that all segments of our broad target audience are reached effectively."
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
They send SMS campaigns to everyone in their permission base, since they can see that everyone in the target group, across age and interests, interacts well with SMSes. Only customers who have recently received an SMS are excluded from a broadcast. According to Mette, it should be "nice and easy - it doesn't have to be super complicated!"
SMS is always considered - at Maya Freya, they always evaluate whether SMS should be part of a campaign. SMS marketing has become a valuable player, on par with email and other channels.
New market creates new opportunities
Their work with SMS marketing has been so successful that Maya Freya is now ready to implement SMS marketing in Germany and the Netherlands. Maya Freya has decided to start with the Netherlands, which is their third-largest market - a market that is growing very fast. "When something works well in other markets, we want to try it out in the Netherlands as well," This is particularly exciting because the Netherlands is known for using WhatsApp, almost on par with email and social media.
"We like to try something new, and the only way to find out if it works is by doing it."
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
That's why Maya Freya reached out to inMobile in spring 2024 to gain insight into performance figures and trends in the Dutch market. The e-commerce company also needed advice on possible restrictions and integration possibilities between inMobile, Shopify, and Klaviyo.
SMS marketing accounts for approximately 30% of SMS traffic at inMobile, and with a constant focus on the digital world, inMobile has earned the status of "go-to partner" among e-commerce companies looking for a strong partner for SMS. It's a status that demands that we stay up-to-date in our field, and obligates us to do so. One way we do this is by working closely with our customers, which is why we decided to create the first SMS campaign together and share all the exciting insights we gained from the process.
"The collaboration gives us the opportunity to spar with inMobile, where we can benefit from inMobile's perspective and experience. This gives us the best chance of achieving good results."
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
Maya Freya has collected almost 4,000 SMS permissions in the Netherlands in the past few months. Their permissions are collected at checkout in connection with purchases, so lead quality is high.
💡 Facts about SMS permissions collected at checkout
High engagement
- Willingness to pay: Customers who are willing to complete a purchase are more likely to be loyal and engage with future offers.
- Active action: When a customer gives permission on a checkout page, they are already engaged in a buying process so interest in the products/brand is assumed to be high.
High value
- Data quality: Customers typically provide more accurate and correct information during the buying process as it is necessary for the transaction. This results in higher quality of the collected data.
🔎 Mini case: First SMS campaign for Dutch customers
Maya Freya's exclusive Flash Sale promotion, which offers 30% off the entire shop, runs for two days. The campaign kicks off in the morning with a flow consisting of an email, social media adverts, and the SMS message as a "follow-up" on the evening of day one - in line with previous campaigns. The message text itself is kept short (under 160 characters) following the "to the point" principle and, of course, to keep the price low.
"The first campaign can fly or flop, and maybe campaign 2 or 3 will be more accurate in terms of how the Netherlands in general reacts to SMS. Sweden, for example, was more reluctant at first, but the more common it became to receive SMS, the better the performance became," says Mette Andersen.
Result: The Netherlands is ready for more text messages
For every pound Maya Freya has spent on SMS in Denmark and Sweden, they have received an average of 97 and 89 pounds back over the past year. Mette Andersen believes that the great results are mainly due to their loyal customers who recognise the quality of their products.
"We never deviate from quality, fit, or size, so if you like the colour and pattern, customers know the rest of the journey."
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
The result for the SMS debut in the Netherlands is slightly different, however, generating a ROAS of 4.5 and a CTR (Click Through Rate) of 7%. The lower ROAS is partly due to the cost of SMS, which is more than twice as high in the Netherlands compared to Denmark. It is also to be expected that there is some invalid data among the collected numbers. Invalid phone numbers, which in this first broadcast were 14%, are automatically removed from future broadcasts, so performance is expected to improve over time.
The unsubscribe rate after the first campaign is 1.8%, which is considered acceptable according to a study conducted by Klaviyo in 2023. To put it bluntly, the remaining 98.2% have opted to stay signed up and agreed to receive future campaigns.
"I'm really happy with the broadcast, and the whole marketing team is delighted that the first SMS in the Netherlands has been so well received. This clearly confirms that they need more of them!"
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
Mette and the rest of the team are optimistic about the future and believe that it's just a matter of recipients getting used to it, just like they experienced with their Swedish customers. "For us, it's been great to see that purchases are made via SMS. We have no unhappy customers after the weekend broadcast, so it's been OK for them to receive the SMS too. We look forward to continuing to send them SMSes and growing data on that channel," she says.
The future with SMS
Maya Freya has long recognised the potential of SMS as a powerful marketing channel and has several concrete plans to maximise the benefits of the channel in the future. As the next step in the company's SMS strategy, they will focus on implementing a back-in-stock flow. "This has taken some time to put in place, but we are confident that it will be a valuable addition to our marketing mix. By informing customers as soon as an out-of-stock item is back in stock, we can increase customer satisfaction and potentially convert more sales," says Mette. In addition, the team has a goal to develop more personalised SMS campaigns. So far, SMS campaigns have functioned as a support leg for other channels, but in the future, Maya Freya will explore its potential as an independent marketing channel.
"We want to build more individual SMS campaigns where SMS is not just a sidekick or support, but stands alone."
Mette Andersen, CMO of Maya Freya
The next SMS market to enter is Germany, where they are booming. We look forward to following the development of Maya Freya's global SMS strategy.