The Ultimate Guide to SMS Marketing Campaigns

• An SMS marketing campaign is a series of text messages sent to a specific audience with a single goal, like driving sales or confirming appointments.
• To plan a successful campaign, you must first define a clear goal and key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll use to measure success.
• SMS campaigns are highly effective because they are instant, personal, and have higher open rates than most other marketing channels.
• To stay compliant and avoid carrier blocks, you must get clear, written consent from customers before sending them marketing texts.

Ever had that “whew!” moment when a last-minute text message reminds you about a dentist appointment that totally slipped your mind? You can thank SMS marketing campaigns.

SMS marketing is your direct line to your customers, sending everything from flash sale alerts to shipping updates — and yes, those helpful appointment reminders — right to the one device they never put down.

Why do SMS campaigns work so well? Because text messages are instant, personal, and get opened more often than just about any other channel.

In this blog you’ll learn everything you need to know about SMS campaigns, including the types of messages to send and example templates you can use. We’ll also cover best practices like how to time your messages, stay compliant with local laws, and track your SMS campaign performance.

What is an SMS campaign?

An SMS marketing campaign is a marketing campaign conducted through a series of SMS text messages. Compared to one-off texts your company might send, it usually involves a series of text messages designed to make customers take a particular action.

Effective SMS marketing campaigns contain several elements:

• An intended goal
• A defined audience segment
• An offer or call to action (CTA)
• A timeline or cadence
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success

Because SMS marketing campaigns are delivered directly to a customer’s phone, they are governed by opt-in requirements similar to email.

Customers must consent to receive text messages before you can reach out, and should the customer reply STOP, all communication must cease.

In addition to STOP, you can utilize the keyword HELP, which will allow recipients to quickly access support by providing your website URL or business phone number.

SMS campaigns are especially valuable for small businesses because they reach customers directly, and if built correctly, are often more immediate and actionable than email campaigns.

They also require less customer data to start than some forms of marketing — usually just a phone number and a name. This makes them flexible for use in promotional, action-based, or informational campaigns.

Types of SMS campaigns

Categorizing your campaign will help you define the campaign elements, like goal, audience, and KPIs. And with the right campaign categorization, you can use the most effective strategy.

For each of the campaign types listed below, we’ve provided SMS marketing examples to help spark some SMS messaging ideas. These campaign types will work for small businesses, local retailers, service providers, and nonprofits and are flexible enough for companies in any industry to use under the right circumstances.

Promotional and revenue-driving campaigns

Promotional and revenue-driving campaigns look to drive customers to take quick action to make a purchase. Promotional offers may include buy-one-get-one-free or coupon offers, flash sales, and limited-time offers that last only a couple of hours or days.

This campaign could also be used to announce a product launch, back-in-stock alerts, and abandoned cart reminders. These aim to bring customers back into your store or website. Here are some example texts:

• Don’t miss the holiday deals! Our sale ends Saturday. Click site-example.com to shop the sale.
• Forgetting something? Looks like you left an item in your cart. Go to site-example.com to checkout before it’s gone.

Event and appointment campaigns

Event and appointment campaigns keep customers engaged and aware of their upcoming appointments and events. These campaigns can also allow them to confirm or reschedule appointments depending on the circumstances.

Event campaigns can boost attendance for online and in-person events like webinars, meet-ups, and networking events. Here are some example texts:

• James Sully has an appointment on January 7. Reply Y to confirm, or call 555-555-5555 to reschedule.
• Join PythonNet tonight at Fleet Street in Germantown for our monthly event. Reply RSVP to claim your seat.

Loyalty, VIP, and customer retention campaigns

VIP and loyalty campaigns boost engagement and retention for special customer segments like:

• Customers who consistently purchase or convert
• Customers with a history of large purchases
• Customers in danger of churning due to inactivity

Send these customers special deals, updates to rewards programs, exclusive access alerts, and winback campaigns that emphasize exclusivity and special care. Here are some example texts:

• We haven’t seen you in a while! Use code MISSYOU at checkout for 25% off your next purchase. Tap to shop.
• Thank you for 3 great years! Show this text at your next appointment for a VIP gift.

Operational and service-based campaigns

Want to answer fewer questions about deliveries or what time your team will show up? SMS campaigns can provide updates automatically. Use SMS to text order updates for shipping and delivery, confirm times for service calls, and notify when team members are on their way.

These campaigns can also be used to advise customers of delays and ask for post-service feedback. This saves service professionals time and lets text take care of awkward conversations. Here are some example texts:

• Good news! Your order #12345 from FunCo has shipped. Tap here for tracking info.
• Your technician Gary will be at your residence at 2 p.m. Please secure dogs and open gates.

Surveys, reviews, and customer feedback campaigns

SMS marketing campaigns can help you gather customer feedback after a completed service or purchase. Follow up customer interactions with satisfaction surveys, polls, review requests, or net promoter score (NPS) questions.

Customers are much more likely to provide useful feedback when their interaction is fresh in their mind. Here are some example texts:

• We want to know: On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend LiveChat service to a friend?
• Did we answer all your questions today? Help us grow by leaving a review on Google.

How to plan an SMS campaign step by step

Like any new marketing tactic, begin your SMS marketing journey with a small project you can scale and improve over time. Follow these five steps for your first campaign to send your SMS with confidence.

Step 1: Define your goal and primary KPIs

First, choose the intended outcome for your campaign and which KPIs will indicate success.

For a revenue-driving campaign, your KPI may be total order size or total order amount. For an appointment reminder campaign, you may want to measure success by the ratio of missed to met appointments.

Choose a campaign that will improve outcomes for your company and has a clear measurement of success.

Step 2: Build and verify your SMS list and consent

Now for your list:

1. Confirm that customers have opted-in for SMS marketing messages to comply with Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) laws in the U.S.
2. Clean the list by deleting duplicates, incomplete data, and any numbers that are out of service.
3. Ensure your contacts are eligible to receive text messages at the number they provided.

An SMS marketing platform like Constant Contact can make this task easy with automated checks, verifications, and data cleansing.

Step 3: Segment your audience and connect data sources

Go back to the goal you set in step 1, and find contacts on the list that meet the criteria needed to achieve your goal.

You may need to supplement your list by connecting ecommerce or customer relationship management (CRM) data. These will provide information about customer history, purchase types, or custom data unique to your company.

For example: for a promotional send, you may want to build an audience segment that made at least three purchases from your company in the past year. This would require you to reference your ecommerce purchase history.

Step 4: Write your message and set your cadence

Now for the fun part: Draft a concise message that provides context and directs the customer’s next step with a CTA. Look at the best practices at the bottom of this article for more direction.

At this point, you’ll also want to set your cadence as either a broadcast or automated send. Broadcasts send immediately or at a scheduled time. Automated messages send based on a specified campaign trigger, like completing a purchase or signing up for an appointment.

Step 5: Test, QA, and schedule your campaign

The final step is to test your campaign by sending it to yourself or a colleague. Be sure to test all of the links, and check that the personalization and deliverability settings are correct.

At this point, make sure you’re satisfied with your opt-out language. Then, double-check your final send time before setting the campaign live.

When is the best time to send an SMS campaign?

The best time to send an SMS campaign depends on your market and customer base, but some general guidance applies in all situations:

• Avoid very early or late hours that may disturb customers.
• Aim for mid-morning to early afternoon on weekdays.
• Consider the contact’s local time zone before sending.
• Respect quiet hours, generally 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. local time.

To find the best time to send an SMS campaign to your customers, schedule test sends by segment. Divide your contact list into even segments, and send the campaign to each list at a different time.

Choose the winner based on the metric you chose to measure campaign success. Then, continue to test that time against other times for future campaigns.

You can also try rolling send-time tests or adjusting send times seasonally. For any time-based tests, keep the message the same, only changing the send time.

How to track SMS campaigns

In addition to the KPI you identified to measure campaign success, you’ll want to track other SMS campaign metrics to understand how well sends perform against one another and the health of your list. Keep an eye on these metrics:

• Delivery rate: Percentage of the SMS messages that were delivered vs. sent.
• Click-through rate: Percentage of link clicks out of the total number of sends.
• Response rate: Percentage of responses to the message out of the total number of sends.
• Revenue per message: Total revenue attributed to the campaign divided by the number of messages.
• Unsubscribe rate: Percentage of contacts who opted to unsubscribe out of the total number of contacts.
• Carrier blocks: Total number of contacts that blocked the number out of the total number of contacts.

To get the most from your performance metrics, implement urchin-tracking module (UTM) parameters. These are kinds of links that tell analytics tools where traffic came from, how it arrived, and which campaign brought it, if applicable. UTMs help you better understand your traffic when you review channel performance in Constant Contact analytics.

According to recent SMS marketing statistics, two-thirds of consumers engage with SMS marketing once or twice a week. About 50% of consumers consider taking action after receiving a text message from a brand.

If you find that your results don’t fall into line with those benchmarks, take another look at your messages. Is the ask and action clear? Do the links work as intended? Does your CTA support the metric you want to improve?

In the case of high opt-outs, consider whether your audience is segmented correctly — are the messages relevant to the people receiving them? — and whether your campaign cadence should be adjusted — are you sending too many or too few messages?

Key compliance and 10DLC guidelines for your SMS marketing campaigns

Before beginning your SMS marketing campaign, check your compliance with regulations and standards. In the U.S., the TCPA and Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) guide SMS campaigns.

TCPA requirements

TCPA requires prior express written consent (PEWC) for marketing SMS. PEWC is clear, not a condition of purchase, given via an affirmative action, and listed separately from other terms and conditions agreements.

TCPA also requires clear opt-out language in every message. For example, Constant Contact automatically includes instructions with a command (STOP) in every text message.

Opt-out commands must be honored immediately, and messages can only be sent during local times of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

CTIA requirements

CTIA adds several other standards that must be met to avoid being blocked by carriers. Namely, opt-in forms must include the program’s name, message frequency, and that “Msg&data rates may apply.” SMS campaigns must include that plus opt-out and help commands.

With Constant Contact’s SMS services, you won’t have to worry about that. Constant Contact has CTIA regulations built into its services, so you always stay compliant.

More crucially, CTIA restricts content. It bans adult or age-restricted content, illicit services, and scammy or deceptive offers.

Constant Contact stays ahead of the curve by prohibiting messages containing donation solicitation, illegal substances, third-party lead generation, high-risk financial services, gambling, and multi-level marketing.

Enforcing SMS regulations

In order to enforce these regulations and standards, U.S. mobile carriers maintain The Campaign Registry (TCR). This verifies senders and their messages before carriers will send your message.

TCR works with the 10-digit long code (10DLC) brand and campaign registration standards. This is a 10-digit phone number approved businesses can use to send SMS messages.

To become an approved business requires you to submit verification data about your company and the campaigns. This process is somewhat labor-intensive, but it does result in high sendability. But with Constant Contact, getting your 10DLC is as easy as enabling the SMS Marketing feature.

And, TCR isn’t your only option. Your company may choose to send messages via dedicated short codes or toll-free numbers. However, these typically come at higher costs, setup times, and filtering risk.

SMS campaign best practices

As with any marketing campaign, following these tried-and-true text message marketing best practices will help increase your deliverability and customer response:

• Keep messages concise: 120-160 characters per message is recommended. While longer text can be sent, it’ll be split into multiple messages for the customer.
• Front-load value: Identify your brand and your value proposition early in your message to make sure it gets seen.
• Use one CTA per message: Keep your ask simple.
• Use compliant short links: Short links save character count while giving you the option to include UTM parameters for analysis.
• Use a branded sender ID: Make sure your customer can recognize your brand either through your brand name or a representative.
• Segment your list: Targeted offers based on lifecycle stage, purchase behavior, or location work best and feel more authentic to the customer.
• Pay attention to regulations and standards: In the U.S. that includes TCPA and 10DLC, but do your research. It’ll keep your brand from getting banned by carriers (or worse).
• Layer SMS campaigns with traditional methods: Consider sending reminder emails along with text messages to layer your coverage and get the best results.

Put in a little more work to plan and stay compliant with regulations. This will help your small business keep your campaigns efficient, compliant, and impactful, without requiring extra time or resources.

Build and send SMS campaigns with Constant Contact

When you’re ready to set up your SMS marketing campaigns, the right tools can help you get results you want with less time and effort.

An AI content generator can help you write content that fits within SMS character count limits, and automated tools can make short links for you. Combine these capabilities into easy-fill forms, and you can quickly create and send SMS campaigns to your audience.

Constant Contact’s SMS marketing software makes it easy for small businesses to create, send, and automate text campaigns from one place, especially if it’s where they’re already managing their email and social campaigns.

Constant Contact helps you segment your audience, personalize messages, and trigger SMS automations based on actions like signups, purchases, or event activity.

These advanced tools save time and hassle while adhering to regulatory standards and industry best practices. Other useful features include:

• Scheduled broadcasts for one-time offers
• Reminders that come just in time for appointments or promotions
• Combined email and SMS automation paths for multichannel campaigns
• Compliant growth tools like Text-to-Join that improve opt-in numbers

See how you can grow your small business when you try Constant Contact’s SMS marketing software. Sign up for a free trial today or add it to your current plan.