KidCoachApp is a tool that inspires parents to have meaningful conversations with their children. It prompts interesting chats by asking questions like ‘is luck a real thing?’ or ‘would chocolate rain be a good thing?’ The app’s founder, Kavin, came to FireText with an open mind; to introduce texting as a quick, snappy channel to capture the attention of the world’s busiest audience, parents.
What was KidCoachApp’s objective?
Kavin’s initial goal was to experiment with a new channel. Having previously used emails and in-app notifications for a range of purposes, he felt it made sense to invest in texting: ‘I was really curious to explore [texting], particularly as the use case we’re trying to encourage is a quick, snappy fun conversation’.
‘80% of the time of a child’s waking hours is spent at home with parents, and only 20% at school’, which is why introducing SMS as a personal, direct channel makes sense: it helps parents to maximise this time with their children and have those high-five parenting moments.
What was the challenge?
Kavin said putting this content into parents’ hands at the right is critical, so the initial challenge was to capture the busiest people at the right moment. Push notifications contribute to usage, but Kavin believes they don’t have the same effect they did five years ago.
They also send emails, ‘but email inboxes are flooded, right?’ For KidCoachApp, Kavin says he sees emails are better nowadays for general awareness, and not specific content per se. ‘It’s like an arm wave from the room like ‘hey, remember us?”
So SMS was the next natural step. It not only offered a new avenue for KidAppCoach to reach out to parents, but for the right purpose of sending quick-fire, snappy questions.
What kind of messages do you send from FireText?
Texting presented the perfect opportunity to send clear and concise messages to parents.
The sort of content KidCoachApp send is for this purpose, while also encouraging parents to head into the app to engage. To give an idea of this, the app is made of up a library of open-ended questions that parents and children can explore, for example:
If you could uninvent anything, what could it be?
If you were part of a football team and you were losing at half-time, what would you say?
Kavin says they’ve also used SMS to send out a feedback survey, asking parents how useful the sequence of questions via SMS was from 1-10, and receiving replies using KidCoachApp’s dedicated reply number. The feedback has been positive.
What results have you seen so far with FireText?
Kavin set out to use FireText as a trial by delivering a sequence of messages over 20 days, sending them out at around 3pm just before the school pick-up. The results so far have been impressive, with a 95% delivery rate and a consistent click-through rate of around 10% for the call-to-action links they include across their campaigns.
This is even more impressive with SMS, as it has a consistently high open rate (of up to 98%). Especially compared to their email click-through rates of around 2-3%, which are often based on smaller open rates.
Kavin says ‘I’m really glad I’ve tried this out, and my feeling is validated that SMS messaging is still an underused and upcoming channel to reach users.’ It’s perfect for the bite-sized content Kavin creates, with texting acting as a great delivery mechanism for these fascinating, family-centred questions.
What made you choose FireText?
FireText stood out to Kavin from his first inquiry. After writing an intro email to a number of SMS providers, Kavin heard back from our account manager, Alannah, and immediately recognised that FireText was ‘head and shoulders above the rest’ in the support and personal advice he received.
Kavin says their experiment was encouraging. It was a success because of the support of the FireText team, and specifically KidCoachApp’s account manager, Alannah.
‘You were fantastic, you were very patient, you answered all my questions, you weren’t pushy, you gave me the options and made it accessible so I wasn’t breaking the bank to get started’.
What are your plans for the future?
Kavin says they’d like to keep testing, trialling and figuring out the best role for each communication channel, as part of a complete omnichannel strategy. He sees a lot of potential in using SMS mostly as a top-of-funnel marketing channel, where you run a message campaign to get parents familiar with your content and push them to the app.
Kavin would also like to look into more automated campaigns with us, where an action (such as when somebody signs up) triggers a message sequence.
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