Dispensary customer segment · Communication preferences
Dispensary SMS marketing: how to text your opted-in customers
Use the channel people actually read, sparingly
The SMS Opted-In segment in Sticky Cards includes every dispensary customer who has opted into SMS and MMS marketing.
The most direct reach you have. It costs credits and attention, so every send should earn both.
What is the SMS Opted-In segment?
Everyone here has opted into SMS and MMS marketing. It is the most direct channel in your account and the one customers guard most closely.
That closeness is the whole value and the whole risk. A text gets read within minutes, which no other channel can claim. It also sits in the same place as messages from their family, so a message that was not worth sending costs you more than a wasted email ever does.
Cannabis adds a second constraint. Carriers filter messages on content, so texts avoid explicit product terms and stick to what the customer already knows: their card, their points, the counter, what is in store. The customer signed up with you, so you never have to spell out what you sell.
How Sticky Cards builds this segment
- Category
- Communication preferences
- Membership
- Dynamic, recalculated from your POS
- Find it in the app
- Customers > Segments > Communication Preferences
This row is usually the smallest of the four and the most valuable per person. Treat it as a budget rather than an audience. A store sending four texts a month to this list is spending something that does not show up on an invoice, and the cost appears later as a shrinking list.
What should a dispensary send to your text subscribers?
The time-bound messageSMS
Something happening today or this week. Urgency is the one thing text does better than every other channel, and it is wasted on a message with no date in it.
The limited drop, when it is realSMS
Real scarcity earns a text. Used sparingly it is your strongest message; used monthly it stops meaning anything and the list starts leaving.
The high-value win-backSMS
Worth the credits when the customer is worth recovering. Cross with your top spenders and the absent lists rather than texting every lapsed customer.
The counter-hours changeSMS
Practical information people need today. Closing early, opening late, a change of address. Useful rather than commercial, and it earns goodwill for the next ask.
Ideas to try
The send budget
Decide how many texts a month this list gets and hold to it. Not a campaign, and the single most valuable thing on this page. Over-sending shows up as quiet opt-outs long before anyone complains.
Sample subject line
No subject line: this one is a limit you set once
The high-value crossing
Cross this segment with Top 20% Spenders and No purchase in 30+ days before you spend credits on a win-back. A text to a valuable customer who is slipping is worth many texts to a list.
Sample text
Not seen you in a few weeks. Your points are on your card and we have plenty new in. Reply STOP to end.
The compliant template
Write one text you are happy with and reuse its shape: who it is from, one reason, what to do, the opt-out. No product terms, no effects, no urgency you have invented.
Sample text
It is Friday and we are open until late tonight. Show your card at the counter. Reply STOP to end.
The consent ask at the counter
This list grows at the till rather than in a campaign. Compare its size against your email row, and if the gap is wide the fix is what staff ask when someone signs up.
Sample subject line
No subject line: this one is a question at the counter
Related segments to pair it with
- SMS Engaged (Last 30 Days)The part of this list that responds. Cross the two when a send has to count and you do not want to pay for the rest.
- Top 20% SpendersCross them before spending credits on a win-back. Text is worth it for a customer worth recovering and wasteful across a whole lapsed list.
- Last purchase 0-7 daysDon’t send toSet this as your exclusion on promotional texts. Someone who paid you three days ago does not need a text about coming in, and that is the send that costs you the opt-out.
What to measure
Opt-out rate per send, watched as closely as revenue. It is the price of the campaign in a currency that does not appear on the invoice, and once a number leaves this list you do not get it back. Alongside it, revenue per recipient, because text costs credits and a message that does not clear that cost is worth knowing about.
Questions we get
What can I say in a cannabis text message?
Keep explicit product terms out of it and write to what the customer already knows: their card, their points, the counter, your hours, what is new in store. They signed up with you, so the message never has to name what you sell.
How often should I text this list?
Less than you want to. Set a monthly limit before you need one. Over-sending shows up as opt-outs rather than complaints, so by the time you notice, the list is already smaller.
What happens when someone replies STOP?
They come off the list and stop receiving your texts. Opt-out is handled at the carrier level and it applies regardless of what else they have agreed to.
Should I text or push?
Push first whenever the message would work on a lock screen, because it reaches the Sticky Card without drawing credits. Save text for things that are time-bound or important.
See this segment running on your own customers
We connect your POS, build the list from your own orders, and walk you through the first campaign on it.
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