SMS Marketing Best Practices: How to Boost Engagement and Sales

SMS marketing is a total game changer in digital marketing. It provides an instant connection with customers, giving a direct and effective way to drive sales, boost engagement, and build long-term loyalty.

In fact, US marketers use text messages for marketing, thanks to their higher customer engagement and higher open and clickthrough rates.

So what is SMS marketing? Short for “short message service,” SMS marketing refers to sending promotional or transactional messages to customers’ mobile phones. Unlike email marketing or other marketing channels, SMS marketing has a 98% open rate and is a very effective way to reach customers and drive conversions.

Keep reading to uncover why SMS is a great marketing channel to leverage, learn the best practices for SMS campaigns, and learn tips to help you increase engagement and sales with Postscript as your marketing ally. 

A strong SMS subscriber list is the base of any SMS marketing strategy. By focusing on permission marketing and segmenting your audience, you can make sure your SMS campaign hits the right people at the right time.

SMS marketing is built on trust, so it’s crucial to get explicit written consent from potential subscribers. The TCPA governs this. 

Sending SMS without permission isn’t just ineffective – it can also harm your reputation and get you in legal trouble. 

A clear opt-in process means you’re only reaching people who want to hear from you, which means higher engagement and better conversion rates.

Growing your SMS subscriber list starts with providing value. Here are some SMS strategies for increasing sign-ups naturally: 

• Incentives: Offer discounts, promotions, or early access to new products for subscribers who sign up.

• Clear Value Proposition: Tell subscribers what they’ll get by signing up, such as shipping updates, exclusive deals, or appointment reminders.

• Custom Popups: Use popups on your site that match your brand to collect phone numbers and encourage sign-ups.

Segmenting your SMS subscribers means you can send more targeted messages, get higher response rates, and have a better customer experience. By sending SMS campaigns to specific groups, you can reach consumers by: 

• Personalizing your text messages

• Sending to high-value targets

• Avoiding sending to the wrong target audience and them using the opt-out option 

Here are some ways you can segment your SMS list:

• Demographics: Age, location, or gender to make your SMS marketing campaign more relevant

• Purchase History: Send messages based on previous purchases to encourage repeat business

• Behavior: Use data like browsing habits or cart abandonment to send messages that match a customer’s actions

While there’s always a use case for full-list sends, especially for big product news, launches, and big sale cycles like Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BCFM), segmenting your list with the above will make your SMS marketing effective, engaging, and compliant.

Writing SMS messages is an art of brevity, personalization, and timing. Put together, these three will make your SMS marketing efforts engage your audience and drive action without overwhelming them with too many messages. 

With 160 characters to play with, clarity and impact is key. 

A short and direct message grabs attention and communicates your value quickly. Avoid long words or too many special characters and stick to the point to stay focused.

Also, focus on making your CTAs incredibly impactful. A good call to action (CTA) will get your audience to act. 

Whether it’s “Shop Now,” “Claim Your Discount,” or “Shop Now,” a strong CTA should be clear, urgent, and actionable. Add time-sensitive offers or early access promotions to boost response rates even more.

Personalized SMS messages feel more relevant and can prompt quick action. 

Use dynamic content like customer names, previous purchases, or preferences to tailor messages for each person. This will get better response rates and more engagement.

After all, addressing customers by name or referencing their purchase history makes your communication feel less like generic marketing messages and more like a message designed for them. This builds trust and rapport.

The timing of your message can make or break your campaign. It is always good to test sending SMS messages at odd hours (see our best practices during busy seasons like BCFM).

Source: HubSpot

Test different send times to see what works with your audience. You can use A/B testing to compare how customers respond to a text message sent at different times of the day. These insights will help you refine your SMS marketing and get more engagement.

To get the most out of your SMS marketing, you need to tie your campaigns to specific business goals. 

Whether you’re looking to drive sales, customer engagement, or timely updates, tailoring your approach will get better results. 

Let’s see how to use SMS for specific purposes.

SMS is perfect for creating urgency around promotions around time-sensitive offers and discounts. Use limited-time offers or flash sales to your SMS subscribers. 

For example, “Flash Sale! 20% off all products for the next 4 hours. Don’t miss out—shop now!” will get people buying fast.

SMS is perfect for creating urgency around product launch announcements. Use limited-time offers or flash sales to your SMS subscribers. “Be the first to try our latest product—available exclusively to our SMS list! Click here to shop,” can create excitement and drive traffic.

Boost customer engagement with conversational commerce through SMS. Postscript's platform excels at building personalized SMS campaigns, like exclusive loyalty rewards and targeted product recommendations based on customer behavior. This interactive approach fosters stronger relationships and drives sales through engaging, SMS-powered conversations."

SMS is a great way to remind customers about abandoned carts. A timely message like “Looks like you left something behind! Complete your order now and get 10% off” can get customers to come back and complete their purchase, reducing cart abandonment.

It’s also important to keep customers engaged after they’ve purchased by sending follow-up SMS messages. 

For example, “Thanks for your order! Here’s how to get the most out of your [Product Name]. Need help? Reply to this message”.

Post-purchase engagement builds trust, encourages repeat business, and allows you to offer additional products or services.

Throughout this post, we’ve covered the SMS marketing best practices to help you drive engagement, sales, and customer retention with a wide audience. 

From building your subscriber list, writing great messages, and the best response to using SMS marketing software for specific goals like boosting your conversion rate and customer engagement, these will supercharge your marketing and your business while helping you deliver the best SMS marketing campaigns. 

The bottom line? 

Consistency is a must, and measuring your results is even more important to refine your text message marketing. 

By continually optimizing your approach, you’ll get the most out of your SMS marketing campaigns and stay ahead.

Get started now with Postscript!