From 5,000 subscribers to $400K

Tiny Texts is a library of real SMS messages from real brands. Riste Tashev is one of the people who use it.

Riste is an email and SMS strategist who works with DTC brands across beauty, apparel, and wellness. Today he talked to me about the inspiration that helped rebuild a beauty brand’s broken SMS program.

The list had roughly 5,000 subscribers, an overpriced platform, inflated attribution, just two flows and two monthly broadcasts. He rebuilt the program from scratch and by the end of the year he could confidently say it was driving $400K in revenue.

What’s ahead:

First, let’s take a glance at how Riste re-invented this lackluster SMS program.

The first thing Riste looked at was how much the brand was spending on its SMS contract. His conclusion - their platform was too expensive compared to what else was out there. Plus he said, "Attribution was unrealistically high. Everything looked sketchy to me." Riste made the case to migrate to a new cheaper platform and rebuild everything from zero.

Across e-commerce brands, flows are the lifeblood of any SMS program. But this brand was woefully under-flowed. Riste built the stack from scratch: a welcome series, browse / cart / checkout abandonment, post-purchase, VIP flows, and win-back. By the end of the year, 50% of their SMS-attributed revenue came from these flows. [This is a benchmark you can use too. On average, flows account for ~8% of sends, and drive 45% of total SMS revenue, according to a recent Klaviyo report]

They were sending two campaigns a month. Riste scaled that to four or five, and up to nine or ten in peak months. After every major campaign, he added a last-call follow-up — one extra text to people who didn't convert the first time.

The brand had roughly 365 planned email campaigns. Riste aligned SMS to that same calendar so subscribers weren't getting mixed signals across channels. SMS subscribers still got exclusive perks — early access, subscriber-only drops — but the broader messaging stayed coordinated.

The brand sells products where customers have real questions. Riste added educational campaigns to the rotation — not to drive an immediate click, but to build the kind of trust that converts later. A text that answers a question is a longer-term asset than a coupon.

A few examples from his swipe file: Clare leads with a PSA — "Lighting can make your walls look way different. Avoid color regret." Short, useful, nearly impossible not to click. Bobbie opens with the exact question a new parent is already asking: "But how much should my baby be eating?" The hook does all the work. Topicals gamifies it: a product quiz with a 15% coupon if you get it right. Three different approaches to the same goal: teach something, earn the click.

One of Riste's recommendations for making a small list punch above its weight: give subscribers access that feels genuinely exclusive, like early product drops and opportunities to interact with the founder. Offering texts or zooms with the founder is one thing a small list can do that a large list can’t. Use the small size to your advantage as you grow.

Riste created a constant flow of new popup tests, including discount offers, educational angles and more. For this brand, 'spin to win' popups performed best.

"Asking for feedback via reply-to is so undervalued these days. You might not make revenue from them, but you have no idea how much valuable information you can get.”

Send a question. Ask people to text back a number or a letter. No link required. No discount necessary.

“I don't recommend using MMS often,” he said, but when the visual does work that words can't, it's worth it, like this gif from Bella Santé promoting a Lymphatic Reset Massage. The subscriber feels the service before they click.

Huge thanks to Riste for giving us a peek into his practice and his swipe file. Connect with him on LinkedIn or via the agency Email Profits.

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Thanks for reading and see you next week!