SMS marketing is one of the most powerful tools for businesses today. However, crafting effective marketing text messages is key to running a successful campaign. With more industries adopting SMS marketing, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to make your messages stand out.
This article covers the best practices for SMS marketing, including getting customer consent, personalizing messages, and adhering to legal guidelines. Follow these tips to optimize your SMS campaigns and improve your customer engagement.
Don’t have time to read this entire guide? Watch our video for a quick overview of SMS marketing best practices!
Best Practices for an Effective SMS Marketing Campaign
01. Obtain Clear Consent (Opt-In)
Start by ensuring you have express written consent before sending any SMS messages. This keeps you compliant with privacy laws, like the TCPA, and ensures your audience is receptive.
02. Identify Your Brand in Every Message
Always start your message with your company name or a recognizable sender ID. This helps build brand identity and establish trust and credibility with recipients, ensuring they know who’s texting them.
03. Include a Clear Call to Action (CTA)
Your SMS should always have a strong call to action (CTA) that encourages recipients to act. Place it at the end of the message. Examples include: "Buy Now," "Act Fast," or "Limited Time Offer."
04. Send at the right time
People today tend to have their phones with them all the time, but that doesn’t mean you can text them at any time. Studies have shown that mid-to-late afternoon is the most suitable time to send a message. Consider time zones if your audience spans different regions.
It would be best to prefer texting during typical business hours and choose to be transparent about what customers should expect from your campaigns. That way, no one feels resentful toward your SMS advertising, and fewer people will feel the need to reply "STOP."
05. Personalize Your Messages
Segment your audience and personalize your SMS content based on their preferences, demographics, and behavior.
Also, you can send personalized birthday messages, anniversary messages, or holiday wishes to show your appreciation for your loyal consumers. These meaningful remarks increase consumer loyalty and promote a great brand image.
06. Provide Value in Every Message
Value creation is one of the most important aspects of any text marketing campaign as it encourages people to sign up and remain loyal and subscribed.
Therefore, ensure your SMS offers real value. Whether it’s appointment reminders, transactional updates, or special promotions, recipients should feel they’re gaining something beneficial from each message they receive.
07. Be consistent
Prepare a text marketing plan and stick to it. Consistency will lead to greater engagement and increase the favorability of your brand.
To keep track, create a content calendar and maintain a regular sending schedule. This allows you to plan in advance and effectively engage with your customers. Regular communication not only keeps your audience informed and engaged but also builds anticipation.
However, be careful not to overdo your SMS marketing.
08. Create a welcome message
Send a welcome message to subscribers who opt-in to receive SMS from your brand. This not only confirms their subscription but also establishes expectations for the type and frequency of messages they will get. A well-crafted welcome text message can enhance the onboarding process.
09. Use SMS Keywords for Easy Opt-Ins
Simplify the subscription process by allowing customers to opt in by texting specific keywords to your designated number. This makes it simple for them to show their interest and sign up for your marketing list.
10. Send Reminders and Confirmations via Text
SMS is ideal for sending appointment reminders, order confirmations, shipping notifications, and promotional text messages. These transactional messages enhance the customer experience and reduce missed appointments.
11. Keep Messages Short and Engaging
Text messages generally have a limit of 160 characters. Therefore, limit your SMS content to 160 characters and ensure your messages are concise and actionable. The first few words should grab attention and convey the message’s value.
12. Offer Exclusive Deals to SMS Subscribers
Reward subscribers with exclusive offers, early access to sales, or special discounts. This sense of exclusivity incentivizes more people to sign up for your SMS list.
13. Integrate QR Codes for Easy Access
Enhance the user experience by including QR codes in your messages. These can link to special offers, product pages, or other relevant content.
14. Support Multiple Languages
If your audience speaks multiple languages, consider sending SMS messages in their preferred language. This increases engagement and demonstrates inclusivity.
15. Shorten and Include URLs
Include relevant links in your SMS, such as product pages or blog posts. Make sure these links are responsive and pertinent to the message's content. Use online URL shorteners to ensure the link is clean and easy to click.
Read More: How to Add URLs to SMS Marketing
16. Manage Send Frequency to Avoid Fatigue
It's essential to understand the optimal frequency of sending messages to customers to avoid overwhelming them.
Sending too many messages can lead to "message fatigue," where customers become irritated or disengaged. On the other hand, too few messages can result in your brand losing visibility and relevance.
The goal is to maintain top-of-mind awareness—keeping your brand fresh in their minds—while ensuring that each message provides value. Striking this balance is key to building trust, enhancing subscriber retention, and fostering long-term engagement with your audience.
17. Provide an Easy Opt-Out Option
While this is something you never want to happen, you should consider it. The texts you send to the recipients shouldn’t be forced. To make sure you don’t intrude on the privacy of your customers, only send texts to subscribed users.
Also, make opting out easy. Include a simple “Reply STOP to opt-out” instruction to give recipients control over their subscriptions.
18. Collect Feedback via Surveys
Use SMS to ask for feedback or send surveys on a regular basis. This not only keeps subscribers engaged but also provides valuable insights for improving your marketing strategy.
19. Test and Optimize SMS Campaigns (A/B Testing)
A/B testing is essential to finding out what works best. Test different messages, CTAs, and send times to see what works best for your target demographic. Insights derived from data contribute to more effective campaigns.
20. Recover Abandoned Carts with SMS
Send timely SMS reminders to users who abandoned their carts, offering incentives like discounts to encourage them to complete their purchases.
21. Offer Real-Time Customer Support
SMS can be used to provide real-time customer service. Responding to questions or resolving issues via text offers a convenient and efficient way to improve customer satisfaction.
22. Leverage MMS for Enhanced Content
MMS allows you to send images, videos, and other multimedia content along with text messages. Use it to showcase products or add visual appeal to your SMS marketing messages.
Conclusion
These 20+ best practices for SMS marketing in 2025 will help you run more successful, personalized, and legally compliant campaigns. As SMS marketing continues to grow in popularity, don’t miss out on this profitable way to connect with your audience.
If you're ready to streamline your communications, consider using Falkon SMS. Schedule a free demo today and see how we can help you elevate your SMS marketing strategy.