SMS Marketing: A Practical Guide to Text Message Campaigns

SMS marketing is sending promotional and informational text messages to customers who have agreed to receive them. Texts are short, arrive on the device people carry everywhere, and are usually read within minutes, which makes SMS ideal for time-sensitive messages: flash sales, back-in-stock alerts, appointment reminders and delivery updates. Because it's so direct, SMS is also the most tightly regulated marketing channel, so getting consent and timing right matters more than clever copy.

What SMS is good for

• Time-sensitive offers: flash sales, last-chance reminders, event-day messages.
• Back-in-stock and price-drop alerts for customers who asked to be told.
• Abandoned cart reminders, alongside email.
• Transactional updates: order confirmations, shipping and delivery notices, appointment reminders.
• Two-way conversations: customers reply to book, confirm or ask a question.

SMS is a poor fit for long content, frequent newsletters or anything that isn't worth an interruption.

Building an opt-in list

• At checkout: a separate, unticked box for marketing texts, apart from order updates.
• Keyword opt-in: "Text JOIN to…" on signage, packaging and receipts.
• Web pop-ups and forms that state what they'll send and how often.
• Confirm the opt-in with a first message that names your business, says what to expect, and explains how to stop ("Reply STOP to opt out").

Writing texts that work

• Identify yourself at the start of every message.
• One message, one action, with one short link.
• Keep it within one segment where you can: about 160 characters with standard characters, fewer if you use emoji or accented characters, which switch the message to a different encoding.
• Use a branded short link rather than a public shortener domain; carriers often filter messages with shared public short links.
• Include opt-out wording ("Reply STOP to opt out") at least in the first message and regularly after.

Timing and frequency

Send during daytime hours in the recipient's time zone. In the US, federal rules and several state laws restrict when marketing texts may be sent, so many businesses stay within roughly 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. local time. Two to four marketing texts a month is plenty for most brands; watch opt-out rates after each send.

The rules, region by region

• United States: the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) requires prior express written consent for marketing texts sent with automated systems, and violations carry statutory damages per message. Carriers also require business texting on ordinary 10-digit numbers to be registered through 10DLC (brand and campaign registration), toll-free numbers to be verified, and STOP and HELP keywords to work. Unregistered traffic is filtered or blocked.
• Canada: CASL applies to commercial text messages just as to email: you need express or implied consent, must identify yourself, and must honour unsubscribes within 10 business days.
• United Kingdom: PECR requires consent for marketing texts to individuals, with the same "soft opt-in" for existing customers as email, and every message must offer a free, simple way to opt out.
• European Union: GDPR and each country's ePrivacy rules require specific, recorded consent, and some countries restrict sending times further.
• Australia: the Spam Act 2003 covers SMS: consent, clear identification of the sender, and an unsubscribe actioned within five business days. Australia has also legislated an SMS Sender ID Register, run by the ACMA, to stop brand impersonation; if you send from a business name rather than a number, check whether it needs registering.

Across every region: keep a dated record of each person's consent and where it came from, suppress opted-out numbers across every campaign, and separate transactional messages from marketing.

Measuring SMS campaigns

• Delivery rate: a sudden drop usually means carrier filtering or bad numbers.
• Click-through and conversion, using a tracked short link per campaign.
• Opt-out rate per send: your early warning that you're texting too often.
• Replies, if you run two-way SMS.

Choosing an SMS marketing tool

Look for consent tracking and automatic STOP handling, 10DLC or sender registration support where you send, scheduling in the recipient's time zone, segmentation, templates with merge fields, link tracking, and two-way replies in a shared inbox. Check how messages are priced: per segment, and per country.

ZingaConnect sends SMS through your own Twilio, Amazon SNS or MSG91 account, so your provider bills you for delivery at its rates, and it keeps SMS, email and WhatsApp on the same customer record. SMS templates with merge fields, broadcasts scheduled by date and time with send windows, drip campaigns, consent-aware lists and replies in a shared inbox are included. For link tracking in texts, Zingalinks is included with paid plans. Compare with WhatsApp for business messaging, which many customers in the UK, Europe and Australia prefer.