How to Create Effective SMS Marketing Campaigns: Benefits and Best Practices

When it comes to SMS marketing, generalized, one-way mass texts won’t cut it. Your texts should be so personalized, conversational, and valuable that your customers want to respond.

So what makes a compelling text? According to our research, your customers want interactive texts sent at relevant times with content specifically tailored to their history with you.

Of the types of promotional messaging content you can send, consumers most want messages with incentives, loyalty offers, and updates on inventory.

And when it comes to SMS messaging media, consumers are loud and clear. Did you know that over half of your consumers are more likely to engage with multimedia messages? To increase engagement, make your messages interactive by keeping the links, GIFs, and pics (even emojis!) rolling. 😎🙌❤😘

• 41% of consumers are more likely to engage with text messages that include images, GIFs, or videos.
• 52% of consumers are more likely to engage with text messages that include a link to more information online.

So, if you want to connect with your customers, opt to start texting. Send text messages that keep them informed and entertained, such as appointment reminders and personalized discount codes.

What is text messaging for marketing?

Text messaging, when used in marketing, is an effective method of sending promotional texts and marketing messages via text to consumers’ mobile phones and devices such as tablets. Generally, customers have to sign up for text message and SMS marketing, but once they do, it’s a good way to stay in touch directly.

3 Benefits of Text Messaging Marketing

Text message marketing works well for businesses for several reasons. Some of the top reasons to consider an SMS and text messaging campaign include:

SMS Is Ideal for Time-Sensitive Messaging

Whether it’s a customer’s birthday, you want to send out a limited-time promotion code, or you have another time-sensitive message to get across, SMS messaging is the way to do it. SMS messages go out as soon as you hit send, letting those text messages land directly where customers are most likely to be looking—their phone screens. And, when customers see a discount right away or get an appointment reminder? They stay engaged, improving engagement rates over time and reducing customer churn.

SMS Messaging Is Easy To Create and Manage

Creating an SMS message is straightforward, which makes it a good option for those who want to keep marketing simple and personalized. Since text messaging tends to have a limited character count, you can compose several texts and send them out to specific target groups, improving personalization, too. SMS message services also have a two-way option, so you’ll connect to your customer’s phone number directly and get a response from the same place, in most cases.

SMS Is Highly and Easily Customizable

On the topic of personalization, remember that SMS is highly, and easily, customizable. As you build your audience and send messages through a message service, you’ll find that certain people fall into different groups. As you segment them into those groups, you can create specific SMS messages tailored to what they want to see. Businesses that do this tend to see an increase in conversion rates.

10 SMS Campaigns Best Practices

Let’s get down to brass tacks. As a local business, you want to use SMS marketing campaigns to engage new customers, increase customer lifetime value, and drive more revenue. You don’t want to run afoul of applicable laws and regulations and damage relationships.

The real goal is to give your texting campaigns the feel and value of one-to-one interactions. There are a few specific practices you can keep in mind to achieve this with your SMS text marketing message efforts:

Do’s

Address customers by name. Just because it’s not 1:1 doesn’t mean it shouldn’t sound like it. Use your messaging system to address each customer by name when you send or receive texts. As we mentioned, using a customer’s name in business conversation is crucial for human sound and feel.

Identify yourself and your business. Identifying the sender of your promotions makes your messages feel authentic and humanlike. From welcome messages to marketing promos for long-term customers—50% of consumers are more likely to respond to a text message from a business if they introduce themselves.

Use conversational language. One of the biggest turn-offs with marketing messages today is that businesses sound like they’re shouting, “BUY NOW!” “OFFER ENDS TODAY!” To appeal to your customers, keep messages light-hearted, short, and conversational—just like you’re talking to a friend.

Include a CTA. If you miss the CTA, you miss the point of SMS marketing. Messages should include a direct call to action such as “reply to get 10% off your next order!”, “check out our new inventory!”, “schedule an appointment!” or “stop by!”.

Drive urgency. Nobody enjoys feeling as if they’re about to miss out on a great opportunity. That’s what makes driving urgency such a powerful tool to boost conversion. This can be done by communicating the duration of your promotion—how long an offer will last—or by creating scarcity, “only ten left in stock!”.

Don’ts

Use slang. While slang (dang, freakin’, lit) certainly increases the casual feel, it risks unprofessionalism and misunderstandings with your customers. You should also avoid wordplay, superfluous words, and anything that could be misleading.

Forget to identify yourself. Figure out how to do this creatively with each successive message so it doesn’t get old. You might try versions such as “This is Stella at Oak & Table!” “We’re so excited that you loved your Oak & Table dining set.” “Hoping to see you at Oak & Table soon!”

Send long messages. Whenever possible, your messages should be 160 characters or less. Messages above 240 characters risk being split by careers and sent out of order, making your promotion unclear and confusing.

Create friction. Your goal should always be to reduce friction in your messages, making it as easy as possible for a recipient to take action. If you send out an SMS campaign text announcing a new product, link out to that product information page. If you want your customers to schedule an appointment, insert a link to the scheduler.

Use long links. Don’t let your links eat up the valuable space in your messages. You can use third-party link shorteners or purchase an SMS marketing system that includes a native link shortener so customers can engage with you conveniently.

10 Common Use Cases of SMS Marketing Campaigns

SMS marketing has a variety of use cases that can revolutionize the way you engage with your customers and drive revenue. Here are some of the most popular use cases and examples of how to use them in ways that convert.

1. Direct Incentives. This use case includes coupons, deals, and offers to promote certain products or services. It’s the most popular type of campaign SMS marketing.
2. Product Launches. This use case is designed to generate interest in new products and services.
3. Events. Event promotions are intended to generate interest or drive traffic towards a physical or virtual event.
4. Seasonal promotions. Seasonal promotions are promos associated with the changing seasons and can account for anything around anticipated problems, wants, actions, etc.
5. Holidays. Holiday promos include promotions associated with a particular holiday or event, like a birthday, and often account for anticipated behaviors and purchases.
6. Referrals. Messages with this use case require individuals to refer someone to be eligible for a promotional offer.
7. Reminders. Messages with this use case include notifications and alerts designed to remind customers of an upcoming service or appointment.
8. Educational texts. Texts of this category provide insights, tips, and advice on products and services.
9. General business updates. These texts communicate important changes in business operations.
10. Back-in-stock updates. These messages inform customers when their favorite products are back in store.

Podium: Personalize Your Text Marketing

Personalizing your text marketing makes your customers feel seen and improves the customer experience. With Podium, you can create AI-powered marketing texts that improve open rates to 98%. With Podium’s AI Employee, you can respond immediately to your customers, beating the competition in response time and customer service. See how you can personalize your marketing texts, impress your leads, and get more conversions with Podium. Get a demo here.