Everything You Need to Know About Cascade Campaigns

Communication with customers is one of the top-priority tasks for companies. Timely notifications of promotions, order delivery or changes in plans is a must-do for businesses to have loyal customers and receive positive feedback. There's no single communication channel that all customers would use, that's why companies usually have several ones: social media, SMS, email, messaging apps, push notifications and so on.

According to statistics, even three communication channels instead of one increase sales by 287%. Therefore, it's beneficial for businesses to use cascade campaigns — a method that increases audience reach by sending messages with the same information to several channels. It gives businesses a chance to «reach out» to all customers and save the budget.

In this piece, you will learn about cascade campaigns: how they work and why they are beneficial to companies.

What are Cascade Campaigns

A cascade campaign is a method that involves the successive sending of identical messages to customers to different channels depending on their reaction. The next channel is activated if the previous one hasn't brought any results: the user hasn't opened the message or hasn't made a purchase.

Example. The first message is sent via push notifications. If the customer doesn't open it after a specified time, the next message is sent by email. If the message is still not opened, this customer receives a text message (SMS).

Cascade campaigns can be implemented through the following channels: SMS, push notifications, email, messaging apps, social media and so on. The first message is sent through the cheapest (or free) channel.

If the customer opens the message (or places an order) in some channel, it's not sent to other ones. Exclude such customers from the list for cascade campaigns so as not to irritate them with your messages and not to waste the company's resources.

Cascade campaigns can be used for:

• trigger messages;
• promotional offers;
• service messages;
• notifications containing useful information.

However, cascade campaigns are not always necessary. It's reasonable to start them only if you know for sure that your customers use different communication channels. It's also important to take their age into account. For example, you can use messaging apps if your audience is quite young. The main users of WhatsApp, for instance, are 25-34-year-olds. If your customers are significantly older, it's better to choose some other channel.

Advantages of cascade campaigns

Increase in audience reach

Your message is more likely to reach the recipient. One of the channels will definitely bring the result. That's why your company should work with all the data that customers provide to you: phone numbers, email addresses and social media profiles.

Example. A message about discounts was sent to 3500 users on Facebook, only 1110 of them opened it. The company has phone numbers of these users, so the same message was sent to the remaining 2390 users on WhatsApp and Viber. 1685 users opened the message there. Then, the same message was sent to the remaining 705 customers with the help of SMS, 615 people read it. Almost 98% of users were reached.

Customer loyalty

You will show your company in a favourable light if you choose a communication channel that your customers like the most. Let's imagine that there's some user who rarely opens their email box and your company uses only an email channel. It's inconvenient for your customer, there's a risk that the information won't reach them in time. If you send this user a notification to a channel that they use the most (for example, Telegram), their loyalty will definitely increase.

Saving budget

The first message could've been sent through an SMS channel whose open rate can reach 98%. However, this channel is not free and quite expensive compared to others. It will be quite pricey if you have a large customer database. That's why it's more reasonable to choose free or cheaper channels first. If you use an SMS channel, remember that you pay for all sent messages, not just for delivered ones. Your company definitely doesn't want to pay for sending messages to inactive numbers. On messaging apps and social media, the sender always knows whether the user has allowed texting to them and whether they read the messages.

Simplicity

Cascade campaigns only seem complicated. In reality, it's enough to set up a series of messages once, and it will work automatically further. This functionality is supported by Altcraft Platform. The service collects user data in a single profile and integrates with other communication channels. You only need to specify conditions and channels in a scenario.

Example of how to set up a cascade campaign in Altcraft Platform

Channel functionality

Each channel influences the user in its own way. Emails attract the user with their design and interactivity. Push notifications are simple and fast. Messaging apps allow you to send voice messages. If you select only one communication channel, you limit your company's possibilities to create more content and don't receive complete data on audience preferences. That's why it's important to use and test different channels.

How to Create a Cascade Campaign

What do you need for a cascade campaign:

1. Use analytics to select available and the most effective communication channels.
2. Specify the sequence of sending messages to these channels: which is the first, which are the next.
3. Think over the actions that will finish or continue the campaign. If the customer has read the messages or has purchased something, the same messages won't be sent to other channels. If there is no reaction within N hours (days), send the same message to the next channel.
4. Set up a scenario in the selected system.

It's not necessary to change the channel immediately if the customer doesn't open your message right after it was sent. Especially if the company doesn't have much data about the customer.

Example. The first channel that is used to inform customers about a new promotion of the online store is an email one. Three emails with different texts are sent: the first one with a general description, the second one is a reminder email and the third one contains a list of products for which the promotion is valid. Those customers who have left their phone numbers will receive messages on Viber. The final channel in this campaign is an SMS channel through which the users will receive two messages.

If you send several messages containing the same information to one channel, slightly change the text, otherwise your customers can consider them to be spam. For example, in the first message, the marketplace simply informs the recipient about delivery to the pick-up point. Two days later, in the second message, the customer is notified about the period within which their order will be stored. These two messages are practically the same — they remind the customer to pick up the order.

Examples of Cascade Campaigns

Cascade campaigns are suitable for marketplaces, retail stores, event organizers, clinics, beauty salons, fitness clubs and other organizations that collect customer data to send out information. Let's look at several examples.

Abandoned cart

1. A push notification that reminds the customer about the products in the cart in two hours.
2. The next push notification is sent in six hours.
3. The customer receives an email reminder about the products in eight hours.
4. One more email that shows that the products in the customer's cart are still in stock.

5. One more push notification with one product from the cart.

Discount on some product

1. Messages on Facebook to those customers who have agreed to receive them.
2. Push notifications for those users who have the company's mobile app installed.

3. Messages on WhatsApp to the customers from the phone number database.
4. Reminder emails with images of the products.
5. Text messages (SMS) with information about the discount and its period.

Reminder about a webinar

1. An email that reminds the user that the webinar starts in 60 minutes.
2. One more email reminder 10 minutes before the webinar.
3. A message in the Telegram bot that the webinar starts in 10 minutes.
4. An email that announces the start of the broadcast.
5. A message to the bot about the start of the webinar.
6. A text message (SMS) that the webinar has just started in the first five minutes.

Reminder about a specialist visit

1. An email containing the date and time of the appointment the day before.
2. A message on WhatsApp the day before.
3. A text message (SMS) two hours before.

Birthday promotion

1. An email with a gift (a discount) a week before the birthday.
2. A message on Facebook three days before the birthday.
3. An email on the customer's birthday.
4. A message on Facebook on the customer's birthday
5. A text message (SMS) after the birthday that the bonuses are about to expire.

Feedback

1. A push notification with a request to rate the purchased product in the app.
2. One more push notification with the same request.
3. An email with a request to rate the product.

Conclusion

Cascade campaigns involve sending messages to different communication channels successively to be 100% sure that the information is delivered to customers. The following channels are used for such campaigns: email, messaging apps, push notifications, SMS and so on. Cascade campaigns increase audience reach and customer loyalty, save the budget. Messages are first sent through free and cheap channels, and if the customer doesn't read them, the messages are sent through more expensive ones.

Cascade campaigns are used to send trigger and service messages, inform customers about their orders and discounts, collect feedback. If you want to introduce cascade campaigns to your marketing, you should have enough customer data and access to several communication channels. Cascade campaigns are set up manually or with the help of marketing services in which scenarios are created.