Eighty-one percent of Americans text at least weekly and open those texts within 3 minutes of receipt. SMS marketing (texting) can be a great and cost-effective way to reach your audience and market your products. If you’re just learning about SMS marketing, we’re here to help in this beginner’s guide. The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

What Is SMS Marketing?

SMS (short message service) marketing uses text messages to communicate with your customers. 

There are two types: SMS and MMS. SMS marketing is text-only messages, while MMS (multimedia messaging service) is text plus images, GIFs, audio clips or video. 

Every mobile network service provider offers some form of SMS service. But not all providers offer MMS. 

SMS Marketing Stats and Trends You Need to Know

As more people rely predominantly on mobile devices, traditional forms of marketing communications like email have become less effective. On the other hand, SMS marketing is gaining traction. 

Check out these stats:

• SMS messages have more of an impact on consumers versus email due to email fatigue. Text messages are 134% more likely to be read than emails.
• A “good” email marketing campaign open rate is considered 20% to 25%. In contrast, SMS has open rates as high as 98%, often within 5 minutes of receipt. 
• The global pandemic threw SMS marketing into overdrive. SMS marketing grew 8.5% from February to March 2020 and by another 20% in April 2020. 
• Sixty-nine percent of consumers across all age groups would like to be able to contact a business via text, and 54% are frustrated when they are unable to do so.
• Eighty-four percent of consumers have received a text message from a business.
• Text messaging usage is three times higher than Facebook Messenger, six times higher than WhatsApp and 11 times higher than Instagram. 
• In our experience, SMS response rates range between 10% and 30% (depending on vertical, use-case and promotion type). In contrast, email marketing response rates average 6%. 
• Based on various industry data, SMS unsubscribe rate varies from 1% to 5% and depends on the message content and frequency. That is comparable to email. 
• For some, the redemption rate for SMS coupons is 10 times higher than for paper coupons issued for the same promotion. 
• Some of the most successful SMS marketing tactics involve abandoned cart campaigns. A gentle nudge can result in a 16% clickthrough and a 9% conversion rate. 

For all these reasons and more, it's worth giving SMS marketing a try. 

Tips for SMS Marketing for Beginners

If you’re interested in exploring SMS marketing, here are some basics to getting your marketing plan off the ground. 

When and How to Use SMS 

SMS marketing works best for short information, such as confirming appointments, opt-ins or orders, reminders for renewals, upcoming appointments and events, and other messages like those. If you are sending time-sensitive information, SMS is the best choice.

SMS are limited to 160 characters, which includes spaces and punctuation. If you exceed 160 characters, the provider will divide the messages into a series of 160 character messages and hopefully, deliver them sequentially.

MMS, on the other hand, works best when you want to add visual interest to your messages to highlight sales and promotions, welcome a new customer with fanfare, advise them of a special event or remind them that certain products are on sale or running low in inventory. 

MMS limits characters to approximately 1 MB, which is 1 million characters or equivalent to about a 1 minute video. It gives you more options to deliver your messages with a bit more flair. 

Not every cellular provider allows MMS so that you could have bounce-back. However, SMS and MMS are considered text messages, so your customers won’t be charged for the data.

You can get more detailed information about SMS vs. MMS here, including the costs of sending each type of message. 

Building an SMS Subscriber List

Before you can start an SMS marketing campaign, you need to build your audience. There are a couple things to keep in mind before you start sending any kind of electronic messaging to your customers.

The Opt-in

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) administers the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was enacted in 1991 to protect consumers from spam email, faxes, telemarketing and robocalls. 

While not mentioned specifically, it has grown to encompass SMS messages as well. For a business to send marketing messages to a consumer, certain rules apply. In a nutshell, businesses must get express written consent from the consumer. 

Be sure to understand all the rules and regulations that apply for opting into SMS text messages before you get started.

Building Your List

When it comes to building an SMS subscriber list, you have lots of options: 

• Website widgets: From a simple “subscribe for updates” widget to a home page pop-up, site footer or a sliding subscription box that gathers more information as users continue, these are the most common widgets and easiest to incorporate into your website. 
• The check out: Customers can opt-in when checking out to receive order status notifications and future marketing. If you ask customers to opt-in for order status updates, make sure you clearly explain they are also opting into marketing communications. 
• Offering a discount or other promotion as an incentive: People will often take advantage of this kind of opt-in if they can use the code right away. This can be applied to any type of opt-in promotions you display.
• Advertising your SMS number: Say you’re a brick-and-mortar store. You can display an opt-in keyword, such as “text FASHION to 77777 to get a weekly list of sales.” This strategy is effective when combined with a first-time subscriber discount. They will still have to confirm they want to receive future messages by responding to a follow-up SMS message with the opt-in language.
• Using polls or quizzes: Engage customers in a fun way who can then opt in to see poll results or the answers to a quiz. 

Doing SMS Marketing Effectively 

How do you effectively use SMS marketing? While not an exhaustive list, here are some top tips:

Segment Your Audience

Your platform should allow you to segment your audience based on their previous orders, website activity, shopping preferences, demographics, geographic location and other attributes. 

The more information you can track on your customers and their preferences, the better you can deliver the most relevant messages to each user, which drives better performance. 

Personalization also limits the number of messages each user gets, reduces opt-outs and keeps costs low. Ninety-one percent of consumers say they’re more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations.

Make It Conversational 

Language matters. The language you use should reflect your brand and your audience, and be clear, concise and conversational. 

Something as simple as using “you” when addressing your audience in a text message makes a person feel significant. And it could be the difference between an “ignore” or a sale.

For more on this, see Designing a Chatbot That Matches Your Brand. 

Use Automation

Automation is integral to SMS marketing success but not every messaging platform will offer it. Trigger-based marketing is a highly effective, economical way to drive revenue at a low cost. 

Some trigger-based SMS messages include:

• Reorder reminders for products customers have previously purchased.
• Abandoned cart reminders for customers who added items but didn’t complete the checkout.
• Special promotion notifications for customers who had previously clicked on items but didn’t purchase. (For example, “Those jeans you were checking out just went on sale!”) 

Measure ROI

In general, there are a several ways to measure ROI and success in SMS marketing:

• Click-through rate (CTR), where a customer reads the SMS and then clicks through the message to your website for more information.
• Conversion rate, which results in a sale from the click-through.
• Earnings per message (EPM)--the amount of money earned divided by the number of messages sent.
• Unsubscribe rate--anything under 3% is typically OK. 

Final Thoughts

With an estimated 4.78 billion people using mobile phones across the globe, SMS marketing is a simple and strategic choice to increase your reach and profits. 

SMS marketing campaigns use similar resources to executing email campaigns, and costs are similar--but SMS marketing ROI can be 15 to 50 times the investment, in our experience. 

Plus, SMS marketing is easily scalable--you can start with simple text-only campaigns and grow as resources and expertise increase. A good messaging platform will allow you to segment,  personalize and automate your SMS messages for optimal results.