Grüns' SMS playbook

Grüns rapid ascent from startup to unicorn status means the brand squeezed a ton of learning into a short period of time. If we look carefully, we can see them testing and learning, then abandon or commit to a number of approaches.

In today’s newsletter we are going to look back at 2 years of texts from Grüns and see how they evolved their program, in terms of structure and messaging, and pull out ideas you can use in your SMS program.

What’s ahead:

Let’s get into it!

Grüns’ SMS program has evolved a lot over the years but there is one hard working text they have kept at the top.

“Your offer for up to 52% off is👇”

This is the first text a new user receives from Grüns and it has been the case since at least 2024. It links back to their offers page, and is a blunt instrument they use to convert new subscribers within a few minutes of subscribing. For the first few years of Grüns’ existence, this was the extent of the “welcome series.” And as Grüns grew by leaps and bounds and optimized every part of their business, this is one thing they kept exactly as it has always been.

The first takeaway: a sophisticated SMS program doesn't mean every message is sophisticated. The creative evolution visible in the rest of Grüns' program is concentrated on segments where nuance pays off. But for new contacts, a simple direct offer may consistently outperform anything more elaborate. It’s an argument for keeping it simple at the top of the funnel and investing creative resources deeper in.

For the first few years of Grüns existence, there was no welcome series beyond this text. By July of 2025, that changed.

Remember this was (reportedly) a period of especially steep growth for Grüns. In Inc. Magazine, Grüns reported a “nine-figure” annual run rate in May 2025, which translates to a little north of $8M in monthly revenue. By August 2025, they were at $25M monthly revenue.

So they were accelerating quickly that summer. It’s certainly not all attributable to SMS. They were also running nearly 1300 ad creatives on Meta at that time.

But there were some big changes made to SMS around this time. They introduced a welcome series for the first time in 2025 and customized it based on the subscriber’s primary self-reported problem, collected via a quizzified sign up unit.

Once the user signs up, then begins a 5 to 7 text welcome series, depending on which problem the subscriber selected. For example, here is what the welcome series looks like for the “Brain Health & Focus” customer:

Day 0: Simple Offer. The one-sentence offer text still goes first. “Your offer for up to 52% off is👇”
Day 1: Contact Card
Days 1 -4: Product education including ingredients, benefits and scientific studies
Day 5: Customer Reviews

Grüns pushes hard for conversion in the first 24 hours and continues messaging for the next 5 days. This cadence is mimicked over email as well.

And in this example, every message mentions how Grüns affects brain health. There is no message about energy, immunity or gut health since those aren’t the customer’s top priorities.

A takeaway for you: If you're not collecting a self-reported problem at signup, you're leaving critical information on the table. A single question at opt-in can give you enough information to split into benefit-specific welcome flows that will outperform a generic sequence.

So how did Grüns arrive at 4 paths (brain health, gut health, energy and comprehensive nutrition)? Over 2 years of texts from Grüns, we can see them experimenting with a number of narratives, some that stuck and some that didn’t. For example:

A weight loss narrative appears exactly once in a November 2024 testimonial from "Alicia" — and never again. For a supplement brand, that's likely a combination of FTC/FDA compliance risk, positioning conflict (weight loss attracts a different buyer with different expectations and higher churn), and weak performance data. Tried once, cut immediately.

In a tight Jan–Mar 2025 window, we saw Grüns experimenting with cost per day framing. In these texts, they frame the purchase as savings, not spending, but after these few tests this tactic never returned. Probably for the best - for subscription brands cost-per-day framing optimizes for trial conversion but attracts price sensitive customers who are less likely to stick around.

In early 2025 Grüns was citing external studies — "studies show magnesium may improve sleep," "studies show gummies have better bioavailability." It's a common credibility play but carries regulatory risk and reads as generic. They dropped it entirely, then came back later with their own observational study data: 3,000 people, 3 months, specific percentages. The 95% retention stat embedded in the study “95% still take Grüns 4-6x/week(80% daily)” helps conversion too.

The takeaway: If you're citing third-party studies, consider what it would take to generate your own data instead. A simple customer survey at 30, 60, and 90 days gives you proprietary proof no competitor can replicate.

In 2024 Grüns’ approach to Black Friday included 5 days of standard discount blasts — urgency language, countdown copy, nothing distinctive. In 2025 they built the entire period around a running joke where the marketing team was hiding the sale from their CFO Connor. Grüns differentiated themselves during a period when every brand's SMS sounds identical.

For your next promotional period, try building one narrative concept across three to five messages instead of sending separate discount blasts. Even a simple "here's why we're doing this sale" story can give subscribers more reason to engage than another countdown timer.

Want to dive deeper into Grüns SMS?

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Thanks for reading and see you next week.