How the “fun, fashionable, functional, and ‘ffordable” sunglasses brand found an SMS strategy to match their one-of-a-kind voice and vibe.

goodr sunglasses aren’t made for athletes who take themselves seriously. The brand’s sunglasses are perfect for active people—especially those who need good-quality, no-slip, no-bounce, all polarized, all fun sunglasses that won’t break the bank. 

But the brand is much more dedicated to fun than it is to perfectionism, which shines through in everything—from goodr’s website copy to the names of the sunglasses themselves.

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From one-to-many to 1:1

In their early days with SMS, Jared Grawrock, goodr’s Director of Digital Marketing, and his team used the channel to broadcast new product launches with one-to-many blasts. “Whatever product we’d launch, we’d just send an SMS, and that was our strategy for the longest time,” says Grawrock. 

The team knew they could carry out more inventive tactics with the right platform, however. They sought out a solution that would allow them to reach the right customers at the right time, with the right message. They already had a unique and fun brand voice on their side; now they needed a way to leverage it to engage with customers, both online and in-store.

Grawrock and his team set their sights on finding an SMS platform that would allow them to carry out a targeted, higher-caliber, and above all else, a fun strategy that leaned into segmentation, A/B testing, and a more varied launch schedule. “We wanted to move away from, ‘Here’s another pair of sunglasses,’” says Grawrock. Also, because goodr’s products are already so affordable, they wanted a hook to interact with audiences that wasn’t based on offering discounts.

They found that partnership with Attentive. Now, they’re able to send a range of well-segmented messages that are optimized through A/B tests, and they’ve also tried out a number of tactics to capture customers’ attention “IRL”—all using the brand’s trademark fun voice.

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Taking a team approach to sending the perfect SMS

If the goodr brand has one untouchable edge over the competition, it’s their brand voice. As Grawrock explains, “Our copy is incredible, and we owe that to our copy team, who writes a lot of our emails and website content.”

Grawrock knew this voice needed to be just as clear in the SMS marketing he and his team cooked up, so he—and the rest of his team—went through the “goodrfication congregation,” a class taught by goodr’s copywriters that breaks down the brand voice and how it translates to each communication channel. 

Making sure everyone gets that education is what enables the marketing team to be truly collaborative with SMS copy. “We get together to create our own promo copy,” says Jared, which sometimes can lead to brainstorms via Slack threads that are 20-30 messages long. 

“Someone will say, ‘Here’s the copy I think we should set up for this campaign,’ and we’ll all just add on.” The process is creative and has a real anything-goes vibe to it. “There’s puns, there’s some crossing the line,” says Grawrock, but at the end of the day, the best one wins and ultimately goes out the door. 

A recent favorite of Grawrock’s was a message linking to goodr’s best-selling products page: “We sent it out on a Sunday, and it said, ‘It's Sunday funday. You're spending it with your besties. Here's some of our besties.’”

The team’s commitment to finding fun ways to get their message across, even for non-promotional campaigns, is impressive and it’s what allows them to keep pushing the envelope.

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The hidden QR code to skyrocket in-store signups

It’s not just goodr’s SMS copy that’s fun. Partnering with Attentive allowed them to take on some truly innovative integrated SMS campaigns that take subscribers on a unique ride. 

One of the brand’s ongoing—and most successful—welcome journeys to date is “You found Carl,” a secret and ingenious way to capture SMS sign-ups in-store. 

Here’s how it works: at goodr’s brick-and-mortar store in Venice, California (nicknamed The Cabana), there’s a QR code that’s hidden next to a mirror. When shoppers go to take a picture of themselves trying on sunglasses, a link pops up. 

Once they scan the QR code, they’re encouraged to sign up for SMS marketing. And once they provide their phone number, they get 10% off two or more pairs of sunglasses. As Grawrock says, this welcome journey is, “a really cheeky way to capture sign-ups.” 

And despite being a secret, it’s been wildly successful. As Grawrock explains, “We don’t talk about it at all, so when you find it, it's kind of like this little bit of surprise and delight, and then we get the first-party data. We've seen a 9% increase in our AOV in the store alone.” They’ve seen a 17% increase in sign-ups from the welcome journey.

SMS subscribers have come to expect an experience that’s offbeat, engaging, and just plain fun, making for a brand extension that fits right into the company’s overarching experience. 

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Staying true to what’s goodr

When asked what advice he’d give to other brands looking to refresh their marketing strategy, Grawrock keeps his guidance simple: just be authentic. “Whatever your brand voice is, stay true to that,” he says, and it’s easy to see how that commitment has served goodr well. “Your customers will gravitate towards that and respect it more than if they feel like you're using terminology that might be either too youthful or too old,” he elaborates.

And for companies that don’t yet have a well-defined brand voice? Grawrock is quick to assure you that you can find it with the right methodology. “You can use A/B testing to find out what resonates with your audience,” he says. “It's always that learning piece that will make you better as a brand, and will make your outreach and conversational SMS better.”

It’s that openness to learning what works that’s made the goodr team a master of their craft, and it’s clear they’re not about to rest on their laurels anytime soon.