Discover and grow your audience with the checklists in our free guide.
The email you entered is invalid.
Thank you for subscribing.
By entering your email, you indicate that you have read and understood our Privacy Policy and agree to receive marketing from Squarespace.
A text message is a powerful and personal way to communicate with your customer. Quick and efficient, a text message reaches a person where they are and is read and triggers a response within three minutes.
Text message marketing, also known as SMS marketing, is an important and cost-efficient strategy for small businesses to nurture and strengthen customer relationships. It includes every text interaction with clients or customers, from discounts and appointment reminders to events or requests.
This guide will explore what SMS marketing is, including best practices, benefits and challenges, and some tips on including it in your overall marketing strategy.
What is text message marketing (SMS marketing)?
SMS marketing is when businesses send short promotional or informative messages to customers on a mobile phone. For example, an exclusive discount code sent via text message is a common SMS marketing tactic.
To get messages, customers have to give the business their mobile phone number and opt into SMS marketing. Businesses often draft and automate messages ahead of time, so there’s no manual writing or sending to each number.
SMS marketing is a complementary strategy in your overall marketing efforts. There are many different channels, content opportunities, and pathways to engage and nurture your customers to make purchases, confirm appointments, or capture feedback.
How does SMS marketing work?
SMS marketing gives your customers information in a text message. That information can be based on user behavior, such as appointment reminders, order confirmations, or an abandoned cart. Other messages are sent as promotional tactics for new product launches or seasonal discounts.
An example of how SMS marketing works is a hair salon sending a text appointment confirmation and reminder to clients. That same hair salon may also send a message to a client about discounts on specific services, like special occasion styling during wedding season or the holidays. SMS marketing is great because it can be customised to reach specific customers or clients. You can segment messages using information such as demographic, purchase history, engagement and response, and preferences or interests.
SMS marketing is similar to email marketing: both require specific audience information—in this case a phone number—to send information to and are collected as part of a subscriber list. A customer must opt-in to receiving text messages from a business. Then, they’ll receive a message from a short-code, which is a five or six digit number.
Benefits and limitations of text marketing
Before folding SMS messaging into your small business’ marketing strategy, consider both the benefits and limitations of it and whether it’s the right fit for your specific needs.
Benefits
High engagement rate: Text message marketing has one of the highest engagement rates of any channel. SMS marketing open rates are often in the high 80 to 90 percent, whereas email marketing averages between 15 to 25 percent.
Business-owned channel: Unlike search, you control how and when you show up and how you communicate in SMS marketing. That gives you more control over your messaging and brand.
Easy to measure and test: You can track real-time open and click-through-rates and optimize for a higher success throughout an SMS campaign.
Limitations
Filtering and delivery issues: Sometimes mobile phone carriers will label these legitimate, opted-in messages as spam and your delivery rates may suffer because of it.
Character limit: You only have 160 characters to deliver your message to a customer. This can be an exciting challenge, but a challenge nonetheless, to keep your messaging brief and impactful.
How to work SMS marketing in your marketing strategy
SMS marketing fits into your marketing plan like a puzzle piece: it has to contribute to the big picture while serving a unique purpose.
SMS marketing pairs particularly well with email marketing. Sending emails through a tool such as Squarespace Email Campaigns gives you more space for visuals or longer copy to engage your customer. But after a customer takes action from an email, SMS becomes a faster, easier method to re-engage them.
Try not to send exact duplicate information in both channels. Also remember that while text messages are a great and immediate way to connect with your customers and clients, poorly timed or too many text messages in addition to multiple emails can get them irritated. Customers won’t hesitate to unsubscribe if they feel like they’re bothered. Pace your messaging by triggering emails or SMS messages based on need or customer behavior.
6 common SMS marketing use cases for small businesses
SMS marketing is used in a number of different ways by all types of small business owners. Below are 6 of the most common use cases with messaging examples to try on your own campaigns.
1. Sales and promotions
A primary reason to use text message marketing is to alert customers of an upcoming sale or send promotional information such as discount codes.
There are a few common subtypes of sales and promotional text messages you can send:
Welcome discounts: Incentivize new customers with a discount code for a percentage off their first purchase or for signing up for texts.
Flash sales: Deep sales events for only a short period of time.
Giveaways and contests: Offer customers an opportunity to reply to or post about the brand to be included in a giveaway.
Holiday or event sales: Run a limited sales event targeted to specific holidays or seasonal selling opportunities, like i.e., Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with more chances to save.
There are elements of urgency and exclusivity for customers with this type of text message. To make this text actionable and easy for your customer, keep the copy short and emphasize the discount or promotional event. Include a link to your website for easy access.
Example welcome message:
Glad we’re text friends! Welcome to [BRAND NAME]. Here’s your 15% off code for your first purchase.
2. Appointment reminder
Service businesses such as hair salons, counsellors, or coaches use SMS marketing to remind their clients of upcoming appointments. Users can usually select how and when they want to be notified of their appointment. For example, you can offer your clients a reminder 48 hours in advance of an appointment or one hour before. You can also enable clients to confirm or cancel an appointment by providing them with a number or letter to send as a reply.
This type of text message needs to be brief and informative. Your client needs to know the name of who they’re seeing, where, and at what time.
Example appointment reminder:
Your appointment with [BUSINESS/PRACTITIONER] is in 1 hour at 12 p.m. EST at [BUSINESS NAME]. We’ll see you soon!
3. Abandoned cart alert
Customers love to add items to their online shopping carts. Sometimes they get distracted, or are just window shopping, and don’t finish checkout. An abandoned cart text message can nudge them back to your website to complete a purchase. This is an opportunity for you to offer a small discount to encourage the sale.
This is a typical scenario for email marketing as well. Best practice here is to pick one channel, so you don’t overwhelm your audience with a lot of messages. People are more likely to be responsive to a text message alert because of its immediacy.
Try to keep the copy for this text message short with a personalized message.
Example abandoned cart text:
Hey [CUSTOMER NAME]! We noticed you left some things behind in your cart! We don’t want you to lose out, so here’s a 15% off code to complete your purchase.
4. Order confirmation and shipping
Let your customer know about the fulfilment journey every step of the way. From order confirmation to shipping to delivery, you can keep your customers up-to-date on the whereabouts of their purchase.
These messages should be short with a URL that sends users to the shipping providers tracking system.
Example order confirmation and shipping texts:
Hey! Thanks for ordering from [BUSINESS NAME]. Your order # is [NUMBER]. Track your it here [LINK].
Your purchase is on the way! Track it here [LINK].
5. Event promotion
If you’re running an event at your business, like a product launch or a community support initiative, you can send a text about it to customers or clients.
Think of this text message as a digital flyer. Give customers or clients a heads up for events or giveaways you’re running in-store, at a location, or online. Keep the text brief and provide a URL for more details or a link to register if needed.
Example event promotion text:
We’re having a party! We want to celebrate our supporters with fun, games, discounts, and maybe a giveaway or two. Learn more and register here [LINK].
6. Reward loyal customers
Customers and clients love feeling connected to a business. SMS marketing works well for businesses with a loyalty program, subscriptions, or a loyal customer community.
For example, you may want to give your loyalty customers an advanced shopping day or weekend with an additional promo code as an incentive to make a purchase. This rewards them for being dedicated customers, and will likely continue that relationship.
The key to this messaging type is to personalize it by including their name and saying thank you for their business. Include a promo code if relevant or the early bird dates they can make a purchase.
Example loyalty discount text:
Hey [CUSTOMER NAME!] We’re having a sale and want to say thank you for your support this year by inviting you to the party early! Get an extra 15% off your purchase with code [CODE] from [SALE DATES]. Get started on your cart now!
SMS marketing best practices
Now that you know what texts you can send with some examples of how to make them engaging, it’s important for you to understand best practices to maximize their effect for your customers.
1. Get consent and create a clear opt-out
Your customers need to understand what they’re signing up for. User consent is more important than ever, and may be required, depending on where you do business. Make it clear what information they’ll receive and how to opt-out if they wish. Usually, customers or clients are able to opt-out by responding STOP or something similar in the messaging thread.
2. Understand legal requirements
Before creating and deploying an SMS marketing campaign, make sure you read up on any local, national, or international regulations about telemarketing, commercial messaging, or personal data protection of your customers. Not complying with these regulations may have consequences for your business.
3. Try informing instead of selling
Not every text message needs to have an explicit sales pitch. Sometimes you can motivate a customer to make a purchase by informing them of something rather than telling them to buy it. For example, your business could be launching a new product. SMS marketing lets them know about it and its benefits with a link to more information, instead of to a product page.
4. Keep your message concise and deliberate
With so few characters to work with in your message and with text being such a direct communication platform, your text message needs to be simple but meaningful. Each text needs to have a clear purpose. While not every message must have a call-to-action or require your customer to do something, there should be a deliberate reason for you to send it.
5. Personalize messaging to your customer
Personalization is a huge motivating factor for customers. They want to connect and feel special because of their relationship with a business. Remember to include their name in the message. Sending a text to a customer about some of their recent shopping behavior, such as an abandoned cart or waitlisted products back in stock, is a great way to give them a nudge back to your website.