SMS marketing is an increasingly important channel for brands trying to break through the noise. When done right, SMS can boost sales and improve relationships with your best customers.
If done wrong, text messaging can frustrate subscribers and even land you in legal hot water. In this guide, we’ll show you how to do SMS marketing, the right way.
Bonus: Get a free, easy-to-use Customer Service Report Template that helps you track and calculate your monthly customer service efforts all in one place.
What is SMS marketing?
SMS marketing is the practice of sending marketing messages by text message.
It’s a form of opt-in marketing that requires contacts to subscribe. This differentiates it from social marketing, where the marketer posts public content that people can choose to like or follow.
Common types of short message service (SMS) marketing examples include:
- personalized promotions
- offers or discounts
- remarketing
- surveys
How does SMS marketing work?
In SMS message marketing, brands interact and reach customers and prospects using text messages. In fact, two-thirds (66%) of all customers worldwide say they use SMS messaging to engage with companies.
Source: eMarketer
To run an SMS marketing campaign, you need software to manage contacts and communications (more on that later!). In terms of SMS marketing pricing, Statista estimates that brands worldwide will spend $790,000,000 on SMS marketing in 2024.
With numbers like that, it’s essential to understand the various ways you can use text messages for marketing (keep scrolling!).
3 types of SMS marketing campaigns (with examples)
1. Promotional SMS marketing
This is probably the first thing you think of when you think of SMS marketing. A brand offers a discount, promotional offers, or another incentive to encourage consumers to opt-into their promotional SMS messages.
Source: Shoppers Drug Mart
To really incentivize a customer, your offer here needs to be a good one. SMS is a direct route to consumers’ phones, so they won’t give out their number without a good incentive.
However, once consumers do opt into SMS targeted messaging, they tend to be quite responsive to offers: 82% view reading an SMS from a brand as valuable. Think of your SMS subscribers as your most interested customers (and potential customers) and target your promotions accordingly.
2. Transaction updates and confirmations
SMS is an effective method of communication for real-time updates you don’t want customers to miss. Receipts, delivery updates, appointment reminders, and other transactional details are all good candidates here.
Source: Skip the Dishes
However, this is an under-utilized form of SMS marketing. Gartner found that only 10% of customers received an SMS during a recent purchase experience, even though 87% said purchase-related SMS messages are valuable.
Your payment provider may offer a digital receipt service incorporating SMS messaging opt-in from your point of sale terminal. This is an easy way to get started without using dedicated SMS marketing tools.
Source: Little oOties Mini Donuts
3. Customer service and satisfaction
SMS is also an effective channel for customer satisfaction surveys. For example, Shaw Mobile makes it easy for customers to respond when all they have to do is send a single number.
Source: Shaw Mobile
More than half (52.3%) of U.S. marketers who use text message marketing say it’s their most efficient channel for customer service or tech support. It’s an efficient way for consumers to get real-time help. Everyone, take note.
The benefits of SMS marketing
Reach a wide audience
Almost everyone owns a cell phone. In the United States, 97% of adults have one and among Americans aged 18 to 49, that number rises to 99%.
Source: Pew Research Centre
That gives SMS messages a wider potential reach than any social platform. Facebook, i the highest-reach social network among Americans, reaching 68%, pales in comparison.
While the percentage of Americans who own a cellphone has remained unchanged since 2021 (since it has virtually no room to increase), the percentage of people who use a smartphone continues to rise.
For marketers, this means that messages featuring images, GIFs, and link previews will work for more consumers.
Source: Booking.com
Get more engagement
More than sixty percent (60.5%) of U.S. marketers who use text message marketing say they see higher engagement levels from customers than on other channels. And more than half (53.5%) say they see higher open and clickthrough rates than on other channels.
If you’ve been struggling with low open and click-through rates, SMS marketing may provide a more effective way to engage with customers.
Close more sales
With more engagement and click-throughs, come more sales.
SMS is a natural environment for guided shopping since it allows customers to ask questions and get shopping advice in real-time. Incorporating an AI-powered chatbot can automate your sales recommendations and steer customers to the products they’re most likely to purchase.
Re-engage existing customers
Whether it’s someone who left a product in their cart or someone who used to be a regular customer but hasn’t purchased for a while, SMS messages are an effective way to reengage with existing customers,
For abandoned carts, a “forgot something?” message with a discount can motivate people to complete a purchase. Likewise, a “we missed you” offer may reactivate a dormant customer.
When engaging with existing customers, be sure to personalize your offers for the best results.
However, remember that you must have consent before sending a text message. If someone has not clearly opted-in to reminder SMS messages, you’re better off using email or social channels for re-marketing.
Support other sales and marketing channels (online and offline)
SMS marketing works best as part of an omnichannel sales and marketing strategy. That means your teams need to work together to understand each other’s needs and determine how text can support other sales and marketing efforts throughout your organization.
Since SMS will likely outperform all other channels for open rates, it’s important to collaborate so that you save your most valuable offers, updates, and promotions for this channel.
Remember, SMS messaging can reach just about everyone, making it an important tool for supporting customers who primarily interact with your business offline.
SMS marketing best practices
Get a clear opt-in
You probably already collect phone numbers from your customers. But that doesn’t mean you can start mass SMS marketing. Much like email marketing, SMS message marketing requires a clear opt-in.
You can ask customers to opt-in to text messages on your website or other channels. But, before you start sending, you should get a text confirmation that they really do want to subscribe.
One way to do this is to send one SMS (and one only) thanking them for subscribing and asking them to confirm their opt-in with a simple Yes or No. If they don’t respond, don’t text them again. And, obviously, if they text No, don’t text them again either.
Include instructions to opt-out
This is a best practice (and often a legal requirement) for all marketing communications. But it’s especially important for a more personal method like SMS. Repeatedly texting people who don’t want to hear from you is likelier to lose customers than lead to sales.
You should include unsubscribe information even for transactional messages like shipping updates or appointment reminders. Not everyone wants to get these kinds of details by text.
Source: PC Optimum
Since open rates for SMS messages are consistently much higher than those for email, your unsubscribe rates will be higher, too. (SMS messages have a 98% open rate!) Don’t panic if you see a spike in unsubscribes after a message goes out.
But do analyze your unsubscribe rates over time. Once you’ve fully implemented your SMS marketing strategy, you can establish an unsubscribe baseline.
Check all future messages against that baseline, and look for any outlying results. If unsubscribes are unusually high or low, analyze the message to see if you can identify what led to the change in result.
Comply with privacy regulations
SMS message marketing is subject to privacy regulations and other compliance guidelines. In the United States, those regulations and guidelines are found in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s Short Code Monitoring Handbook.
The rules can be quite detailed, but they are based on common-sense principles:
- Include a clear call to action in your opt-in so people understand what kinds of messages they are signing up for
- Only send messages to numbers that have opted-in – no purchased lists or number scraping
- Include your brand name so people know who the message is coming from
- Include a clear opt-out option on every message
Send at the right time
Choosing the best time is important for any marketing message. But for SMS, it’s critical. That’s because people are more likely to have notifications turned on for text. And while some people put their phones on Do Not Disturb, they don’t want to be interrupted.
Recognizing the intimate nature of text messaging, the TCPA stipulates that business-related texts can only be sent between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone.
The good news is that area codes make it relatively easy to identify your target audience’s time zones. Rather than sending bulk SMS marketing messages to everyone at once, choose an appropriate time and send your messages in stages.
If you have an in-person business, sending SMS messages right after an appointment is another great option. You’re already on the customer’s mind, and you know they’re up and about.
Pro tip: It’s a good idea to do some testing to see what times get the best response and the lowest unsubscribe rate.
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Identify yourself (and make it easy to add your number to contacts)
Identifying your business is a requirement of SMS compliance regulations in the United States. It’s also a best practice since consumers otherwise won’t know who’s texting them from your unknown number.
You may want to ask SMS subscribers to add you to their contacts or even send a contact card. 
Source: Local Laundry
Know your character count
SMS messages max out at 160 characters. That’s not much to work with when you’ve got to identify yourself and provide an opt-out option. You’ll need to know exactly what you want to say and not waste any characters.
Get to the point quickly, and use links (and link shorteners) to fill out the details of your message.
Make it worth customers’ while
81% of U.S. consumers unsubscribe when they think brands send too many messages. And that doesn’t just mean text messages. That means messages across all channels.
SMS is a form of direct contact that needs to contain unique or time-sensitive offers so that subscribers feel it’s worth the intrusion.
The offer also needs to be personalized in a way that consumers won’t see it on a more passive channel like your website or social channels. That way you can facilitate the option for real-time guided purchasing.
SMS marketing software for 2024
SMS marketing and SMS customer service require more than a simple messaging app on your phone. Here are some SMS marketing platforms to help you incorporate SMS into your marketing and customer service strategies.
Sparkcentral by Hootsuite
Sparkcentral brings all your customer service messaging—from SMS, social media, WhatsApp, and apps—into one inbox. Since customers may reach out across multiple platforms, this is a key way to ensure your SMS customer service response is part of a unified customer care approach.
Sparkcentral also allows you to incorporate chatbots. Routine care requests can be handled automatically without overwhelming your customer care team. When it’s time for an agent to step in on SMS, they’ll have access to data from your CRM and the existing chat. They’ll be well-equipped to delight your customers with the most helpful response possible.
You can connect Sparkcentral to CRM systems such as Zendesk, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Salesforce CRM.
Psstt: To learn more about Sparkcentral or request a demo, check out the Sparkcentral product page.
EZ Texting
Source: EZ Texting
EZ Texting allows you to send mass SMS marketing campaigns to your opt-in list. Your SMS marketing campaign can involve contests, coupons, promo codes, and transactional messages like appointment reminders.
They also offer built-in opt-in tools and an AI composition tool.
SlickText
Source: SlickText
SlickText offers a number of opt-in tools, including website pop-ups, landing pages, social links, QR codes, and checkout forms. You can use this service to run contests and surveys or offer coupons and loyalty rewards.
SlickText offers list segmentation capabilities so you can target the right subscribers with the right offers, at the right time.
SimpleTexting
Source: SimpleTexting
SimpleTexting allows you to send one-to-one or bulk SMS marketing messages. Its built-in compliance features help you stay on the right side of regulations.
This service offers automation and behavior-based messaging, allowing you to reach consumers at the right time in their purchase journey.
Manage conversations from all your support channels — including social media and SMS — in one place with Sparkcentral by Hootsuite. Resolve customer requests faster, and easily report on engagement and satisfaction. See it in action.
Manage every customer inquiry on a single platform with Sparkcentral. Never miss a message, improve customer satisfaction, and save time. See it in action.
