The holiday season is over and your customers are exhausted. Particularly from the avalanche of promotional messages that turned their phones into digital billboards between November and January.
If you’ve noticed your SMS engagement rates looking about as enthusiastic as a gym on February 1st, you’re not alone. The post-winter period represents a critical inflection point for SMS marketing programs, and the brands that treat it as business-as-usual risk accelerating customer fatigue that could take months to reverse.
The Real Cost of Winter Marketing Overload
According to Klaviyo’s 2024 consumer research, message frequency was the top reason customers unsubscribe from SMS marketing programs, with 45% of respondents citing “too many messages” as their primary complaint. During the holiday season, when brands increase their messaging cadence by an average of 60-70%, this problem intensifies exponentially.
The aftermath is predictable: open rates decline, opt-outs increase, and the customers who remain subscribed develop what psychologists call “habituation”. They’ve learned to ignore your messages entirely. A study published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing found that SMS engagement rates can drop by as much as 35% in the first quarter following aggressive holiday campaigns.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your customers’ thumbs are tired from deleting messages, their wallets are recovering from holiday spending, and their tolerance for being sold to is at an annual low. This is precisely why the brands that win in Q1 and beyond aren’t the ones shouting louder, they’re the ones offering genuine value.
The Value-First Approach: What It Actually Means
“Value-first content” has become something of a buzzword in marketing circles, right up there with “authentic engagement” and “customer-centric strategies.” But strip away the jargon, and the concept is refreshingly simple: give before you ask.
The Mobile Marketing Association defines value-first messaging as content that “prioritizes customer utility, education, or entertainment over direct promotional intent.” In practice, this means your SMS messages should answer a simple question: “Would I want to receive this even if I wasn’t planning to buy anything today?”
Research shows that customers who receive a mix of promotional and value-based messages demonstrate 28% higher lifetime value compared to those who receive promotions exclusively. The psychology is straightforward: when customers perceive your messages as helpful rather than intrusive, they maintain positive brand associations and remain receptive to future promotions.
Rebuilding Trust
1. Conduct a Message Audit (And Be Honest)
Before you can rebuild, you need to assess the damage. Review your SMS messaging from November through January and calculate your promotion-to-value ratio. If more than 60% of your messages included discount codes, urgent calls-to-action, or phrases like “limited time only,” you’ve likely contributed to the fatigue problem.
Look at your metrics honestly. According to SimpleTexting’s 2024 benchmark report, healthy SMS programs maintain open rates between 95-98% and click-through rates between 20-35%. If your numbers have declined significantly, your audience is telling you something and it’s time to listen.
2. Implement the 60-40 Rule
Going forward, aim for a content split where 60% of your messages provide pure value (tips, exclusive content, early access to information, helpful resources) while only 40% include direct promotional elements. Yes, this feels counterintuitive when SMS has traditionally been a high-converting channel. But remember: a 30% conversion rate on messages that 95% of your list actually reads beats a 40% conversion rate on messages that only 60% of your list opens.
3. Segment Like Your Engagement Depends On It (Because It Does)
Post-winter recovery isn’t one-size-fits-all. Your most engaged customers (those who opened and clicked throughout the holiday season) can likely handle more frequent messaging. Meanwhile, customers who went dormant need a gentler re-engagement approach.
Create segments based on recent engagement behavior and tailor your recovery strategy accordingly. According to research from Twilio’s Segment platform, properly segmented SMS campaigns show 76% higher engagement rates than broadcast messages. Your dormant segment might receive one valuable, no-strings-attached message per week, while your engaged segment receives a more balanced mix.
4. Deploy Value-First Content That Actually Works
What does effective value-first content look like in practice? Here are proven approaches:
Educational content: A fitness apparel brand might send workout tips or nutrition information rather than constant product promotions. “Quick question: are you stretching wrong? Most people are. Here’s the right way [link]” provides value while keeping your brand top-of-mind.
Exclusive insights: A beauty retailer could share ingredient education, skincare routines for different skin types, or early access to trend reports. These position your brand as an expert rather than just a merchant.
Entertainment and personality: Don’t underestimate the power of making someone smile. A restaurant chain that occasionally sends jokes, local event recommendations, or fun polls (with no purchase required) builds affinity that pays dividends when customers are deciding where to eat.
Utility-based messaging: Weather alerts for outdoor retailers, travel tips for luggage brands, or maintenance reminders for automotive companies all provide tangible value while naturally connecting to your products.
The key is ensuring this content is genuinely helpful, not just a thinly veiled product pitch. If your “educational” message about skincare routines conveniently ends with “If you still have questions, our beauty specialists are here to help,” you’ve missed the point entirely.
The Frequency Question: Less Is Actually More
One of the hardest pills for marketers to swallow: reducing message frequency often increases overall program performance. A case study from Postscript revealed that brands reducing their SMS frequency from daily to 2-3 times per week saw opt-out rates decrease by 41% while maintaining 89% of their revenue from the channel.
The math is elegant: fewer messages mean each one receives more attention, carries more weight, and preserves the channel’s effectiveness for when you truly have something important to say. Think of SMS real estate the way you’d think of texting a friend. If every message is an emergency, none of them are.
Measuring Recovery: The Right Metrics
As you implement your value-first strategy, track these indicators of improving customer sentiment:
- Opt-out rate trends: A healthy program sees opt-outs stabilize below 0.5% per campaign
- Response rates: Even simple “Reply YES if this was helpful” messages can gauge whether your value content resonates
- Time-to-open: Are customers opening messages more quickly? This suggests anticipation rather than obligation
- Reactivation rates: Are previously dormant subscribers re-engaging?
Don’t expect overnight transformation. Rebuilding trust takes time. Typically 4-6 weeks of consistent value-first messaging before you’ll see meaningful metric improvements. But the investment pays off in the form of a healthier, more engaged subscriber base that generates sustainable long-term revenue.
The Long Game
Good SMS marketing leaders understand that customer attention is a finite resource that must be stewarded carefully. Every message you send either deposits into or withdraws from your relationship bank account. The brands thriving in 2026 are the ones making more deposits.
The post-winter period is an opportunity to fundamentally reset your relationship with customers. By leading with value, respecting their attention, and treating SMS as a privilege rather than a right, you’ll build the kind of engagement that doesn’t just survive seasonal fluctuations but strengthens year-round.
Your customers’ thumbs will thank you and so will your bottom line.
