9 Do's and Don'ts of SMS marketing

Texts are about as personal as it gets in messaging space, much more personal than email or snail mail. The open stats and response figures for SMS are also significant, but the powerful tool needs to be used carefully.

Here are our 9 Do’s and don’ts, little rules of thumb to keep your SMS marketing on the up and up…

Don’t send texts just because you can

Just because you have someone’s phone number doesn’t make texting the obvious choice. SMS isn’t just another channel.

Do have a good reason to use SMS instead of email

Text messages are for time sensitive and important messages.  If your message isn’t time critical why interrupt your recipient with an SMS when an email will do the job without the friction

Do support other communication channels

Email and SMS working together can be a real powerhouse.  Check out our dedicated post on this

Don't forget to offer an easy way to opt out

Few things frustrate customers more than being able to easily opt-out of a service. Don’t take that chance with your SMS campaigns. Make it clear from the start and rather than getting more opt outs as a result you will actually gain brownie points for being clear and above board.

Do keep your messages short

Respect the 160 character limit

Do personalise as much as possible

Rather than sending the same message to everyone, you’re likely to get better results if you tailor the message to the individual as much as possible. If you can’t personalize it any other way, using their name certainly doesn’t hurt.

Don’t forget about the time

A text in the middle of the night is unlikely to get the positive reaction you are hoping for. Make sure any automated responses are sending in sociable hours.

Do stay away from marketing speak or jargon

Use a friendly, conversational tone and avoid being overly promotional.

Do limit your frequency

Less is more.