How to Send SMS Campaigns That Keep Customers Coming Back

SMS campaigns are one of the most effective ways to reach your customers directly. With higher open rates, SMS gives businesses a quick and personal way to connect with their audience.

However, success in any campaign depends on how you craft messages to keep customers engaged.

SMS marketing can help you build strong relationships with customers. It allows you to send promotional offers, updates, reminders, and more.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to create SMS campaigns that capture attention and build lasting relationships. From understanding your audience to creating personalized messages, you’ll learn how to turn SMS into a powerful tool for growing your business.

What is an SMS Campaign?

An SMS campaign allows businesses to send targeted text messages to customers who have agreed to receive them. 

Although outgoing text messages don’t have a strict 160-character limit, they are expected to be concise and straight to the point and can often include an image that conveys more information.

Businesses must first obtain customers’ permission to send SMS marketing messages. This is typically done through website sign-up forms, in-store promotions, or social media.

Once customers have opted in, you can craft and send messages through a text message marketing platform like Textellent. This platform helps manage subscriber lists, schedule messages, and track campaign performance.

There are many types of text campaigns:

• Promotional SMS: Used to offer discounts, special promotions, or limited-time offers
• Transactional SMS: Sent after a specific action, such as purchase confirmations or delivery notifications
• Reminder SMS: Used to remind customers of appointments or events

Why SMS Campaigns Work?

SMS marketing campaigns are effective because they offer direct access to customers’ mobile phones, where most people spend a lot of time.

Unlike emails or social media notifications, text messages are usually read immediately. SMS marketing is one of the fastest and most reliable ways to communicate with customers.

Text messages are delivered within seconds, with most mobile carriers averaging less than 10 seconds for SMS delivery. 

This quick delivery makes text campaigns highly effective, particularly when timing is crucial for reaching your audience.

Since text messages are short and easy to read, recipients will likely engage with them quickly. The click-through rate (CTR) for SMS marketing averages 19%. Customers are more likely to act on your SMS messages by clicking a link, redeeming a coupon, or visiting your store.

How to Send an Effective SMS Campaign

Now that we’ve covered the benefits and effectiveness of text campaigns, let’s explore the process of setting one up. Below is a detailed step-by-step guide with actionable instructions on how to launch a successful SMS messaging campaign.

Step 1: Choose the Right SMS Marketing Platform

The first step to running an SMS campaign is choosing the right platform for your business. There are several SMS marketing tools available, each offering different features and pricing. 

Your choice should depend on your business size, the scale of your campaigns, and any additional features you might need (like automation, analytics, or segmentation).

Step 2: Upload Your Subscriber List

Be aware that before starting a promotional-type SMS campaign, gathering a list of subscribers who have opted in to receive messages is essential. 

This ensures you reach an audience genuinely interested in your offerings and protects your business from violating regulations like the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). This opt-in requirement is not necessary for transactional and reminder-type messages, but it is still a good best practice.

To build your promotional marketing subscriber list:

• Use opt-in forms on your website, such as incentives like discounts or exclusive content
• Encourage in-store or social media signups

Textellent makes managing and growing your subscriber list easy. Unlike many SMS platforms, Textellent allows businesses to use shared short codes or long codes for inbound sign-ups.

What sets it apart is that all responses come from a real phone number, not a short code. This gives your messages a personal touch that many other SMS marketing tools lack.

Step 3: Craft an Engaging Text Marketing Message

SMS messages should be short, direct, and contain a clear call-to-action (CTA). With SMS marketing, your message must prompt action, whether to click a link, schedule an appointment, or redeem a coupon.

For a successful SMS:

• Be concise and to the point. While SMS has no strict character limit, it’s best to keep messages short to retain attention and consider including an image to convey more 
• Personalize messages by using the customer’s name or referring to their past interactions with your business.
• Create a sense of urgency by offering time-limited deals or promotions.

It’s easier to send promotional text messages with Textellent. This platform offers template libraries for text and media (MMS) that ensure you can craft and send personalized messages.

Additionally, this platform allows multiple tags to be applied and segmentation, so you can target specific customer groups based on their preferences, purchase history,r past events, or a combination of thereof.

Step 4: Schedule Your SMS Campaign

Scheduling your SMS campaign is essential for maximizing its impact. Messages typically arrive within seconds of being sent, with most mobile carriers delivering them in seconds. 

Choosing the right time to send your campaign will increase its likelihood of being read and acted upon.

For effective timing:

• Avoid early-morning or late-night messages and send them during business hours when customers are more likely to engage.
• Use analytics and previous campaign data to determine the best times to send messages based on your audience’s behavior.
• Test different send times to see what works best for your specific audience.

Textellent’s scheduling capabilities allow you to manage messages at different customer journey stages. 

Another differentiator for Textellent is that it integrates easily with third-party calendar apps and even provides its own integrated robust calendar if needed. 

As a result, Textellent provides a full suite of pre- and post-appointment messages, such as appointment confirmations, reminders to complete intake forms, review requests, and even follow-up messages for setting up additional appointments. 

This can lead to increased customer engagement and revenue, something many platforms don’t offer at the same depth.

Step 5: Use Segmentation for Targeted Messaging

Instead of sending the same message to everyone, you can use SMS segmentation to create targeted campaigns.

While using a recipient’s name in the message is a basic form of personalization, it can make a big difference. You can personalize messages based on:

• Customer behavior: Send messages triggered by actions like recent purchases, browsing history, or abandoned carts.
• Location: Use geographic data to send relevant offers or updates, such as promoting events or sales happening nearby.
• Loyalty or membership status: Reward long-term customers with exclusive deals or early access to new products, showing that you value their loyalty.

For example, instead of a simple “Hi John, get 10% off,” a message could say, “Hi John, as a loyal customer, you get early access to our VIP sale! Shop now and get 15% off before anyone else!”

Textellent offers segmentation capabilities that can segment your audience based on various criteria, including customer preferences, events they’ve attended, actions they’ve taken (such as receiving an estimate), or purchase history.

Step 6: Automate and Optimize with Drip Campaigns

Drip campaigns are a series of automated messages sent over time, and they can be effective for nurturing leads and following up with customers.

Textellent offers automated, personalized drip campaigns that can be triggered based on specific events, such as an inquiry, a new purchase, or a preference change, etc.

Automated nurturing campaigns can help you keep customers engaged without requiring manual follow-ups. It can also follow up with drip campaigns to secure an appointment or convert a lead into a customer.

Step 7: Track and Measure Success

Monitoring the performance of your SMS campaign is essential to improving future campaigns. Textellent makes this easy by providing tools to track these key performance indicators (KPIs) directly from the platform.

Textellent can track response rates and conversions when links are included in your message. For example, if your message directs customers to a purchase site, Textellent’s system can track how many recipients clicked the link and completed a purchase.

Step 8: Monitor Compliance and Offer Opt-Out Options

Finally, ensuring compliance with legal regulations like the TCPA is essential. Always provide a clear way for recipients to avoid receiving future messages. This not only keeps you compliant but also builds trust with your audience.

Textellent helps ensure compliance by providing easy-to-use opt-out management tools, including the ability to use artificial intelligence to monitor sentiment analysis. 

This means that if someone indicates they had a bad experience with your company but didn’t say they wanted to opt-out, they can be automatically prevented for receiving future messages and flagged for review.

Best Practices for Sending SMS Campaigns

To ensure the success of your text campaigns, you should follow certain best practices that improve the effectiveness of your messages and the experience for your subscribers. Below, we will discuss several best practices that can help you maximize your campaign’s potential.

Use SMS for Customer Feedback

SMS is an excellent channel for gathering quick customer feedback. After a transaction or interaction, sending a short survey via SMS can help you gather insights and improve your services. Customers are more likely to respond to a simple text survey than to a lengthy email form.

For example: “Thanks for visiting us! How would you rate your experience? Reply with 1-5.”

You can also follow up with more detailed questions. After receiving a rating, you could ask, “Thanks for your rating! What could we do to improve your experience?” This helps gather more detailed feedback, giving you a better understanding of what your customers need.

Use SMS to Re-Engage Inactive Customers

If a customer hasn’t made a purchase or responded in some time, a simple text can remind them of your business and encourage them to return. One effective method is offering a special incentive, like a discount or exclusive deal.

A message like “We miss you! Here’s 20% off your next purchase. Use code WELCOME20” can grab their attention and motivate them to return.

Timing is also important. You should reach out when the customer is most likely to respond positively, such as when they’ve been inactive for a certain period. A well-timed offer can push them to re-engage with your business.

Combine SMS with Other Marketing Channels

While SMS is powerful, integrating it with other marketing channels can amplify its effectiveness.

For example, you can use SMS to remind people about an email they might have missed. A quick text like “Check your inbox for our latest offer!” can prompt them to open your email. This way, SMS helps increase engagement with your email campaigns.

SMS can also drive traffic to your website or social media. A message like “Check out our new blog post here [link]” can encourage customers to visit your site. An SMS reminder can boost participation if you’re running a social media contest.

Use MMS for Richer Engagement

While SMS is text-based, a Multimedia Messaging Service allows you to send images, videos, or GIFs with your text messages. MMS can add a visual element to your campaign to make it more engaging and memorable.

For example, you can include an image instead of sending a plain text message about a new product. Visuals are much more appealing and can help convey the message.

MMS is also great for sending promotional materials like coupons or event invitations. Instead of sending a text saying, “Come to our sale this weekend,” you can include a visually appealing coupon or an image of the sale banner.

Send Seasonal or Holiday Messages

Take advantage of holidays or seasonal events by sending timely SMS messages that align with your marketing calendar. These messages can promote special sales, new product releases, or holiday greetings.

You can offer exclusive deals for holidays like Christmas, New Year’s, or Black Friday. A message like, “Celebrate the season with 25% off! Use code HOLIDAY25” encourages customers to take advantage of the offer. Since holidays are prime shopping times, a well-timed promotion can drive sales.

Automated birthday messages are also very effective. Sending a personalized message on a customer’s birthday, like, “Happy Birthday, Sarah! Enjoy 15% off your next purchase,” makes them feel valued and gives them a reason to return. It’s a simple way to build customer loyalty and drive sales.

These messages don’t always have to be about discounts. You can simply acknowledge the occasion, like “Happy Holidays from [Business Name]! Wishing you joy and happiness,” which adds a personal touch without being sales-focused.

Maintain Consistency in Messaging Frequency

While it is important to avoid overwhelming your subscribers with too many messages, you also don’t want to go too long without reaching out. Consistency is key to maintaining a good relationship with your audience.

You must establish a regular schedule for sending SMS campaigns. For most businesses, sending 1-2 monthly promotional messages works well without being too intrusive.

It’s also important to adjust your frequency based on the type of content you’re sending. For time-sensitive promotions or special events, you may need to send more frequent reminders leading up to the event.

Conversely, if you’re sharing general updates or tips, less frequent messages may be more appropriate.

How Textellent Makes SMS Campaigns Easy For Your Business

Textellent is a powerful tool that makes creating, scheduling, and managing text campaigns easy. Here’s how to get started:

1. Go to Textellent’s website and sign up for an account.
2. Choose a plan that fits your business needs (Textellent offers a range of pricing models depending on the number of messages you plan to send).
3. Set up your account by entering your business details, creating a profile, and verifying your phone number.
4. Once logged in, explore Textellent’s dashboard to familiarize yourself with the tools for building and managing your text campaigns.

Textellent offers personalized messaging, scheduled campaigns, customizable template libraries and powerful analytics to track your campaign’s performance. It’s ideal for businesses of all sizes, offering a user-friendly interface that makes SMS marketing simple and effective.

Textellent offers flexible and scalable pricing plans designed to fit the unique needs of any industry:

• Essentials Plan: $49/month for one user and 750 SMS credits—ideal for businesses looking to grow their messaging
• Standard Plan: $99/month for two users and 2,000 SMS credits—perfect for businesses ready to scale their SMS efforts
• Premium Custom Plan: Custom pricing with options for more users, SMS credits, and advanced features

For Accounting and Tax services there is a special package that offers ready to go tax specific campaigns and immediate integration with a wide range of tax software packages. Try the tax pricing calculator to get an exact estimate based on the number of returns you manage.

Optimize Your SMS Marketing for Success with Textellent

Textellent is the perfect solution if you’re looking to create personalized connections that turn leads into loyal customers. It focuses on three key areas—generating leads, nurturing them with personalized messages, and following up to drive conversions.

With Textellent, potential customers get instant, personalized responses when they show interest or make inquiries. The platform’s drip campaigns send targeted messages based on customer actions, encouraging them to take the next step, like booking an appointment or purchasing.

Textellent supports your entire customer journey, from initial contact to ongoing loyalty. If you’re looking for an effective way to manage and grow your campaigns, Textellent is the best texting platform.

Sign up for a free trial or schedule a demo consultation today!

FAQs About Sending SMS Campaigns

What are shared short codes, and how do they differ?

A shared short code is a 5-6 digit number used by businesses to send SMS and sometimes receive messages, while a long code is a standard 10-digit phone number used for messaging. Shortcodes are great for sending important notices and alerts and can work for mass marketing but can feel impersonal, while long codes provide a more personal experience.

Textllent offers the best of both worlds. Their unique approach allows a business to share their short code 87000  for advertising purposes to promote opt-ins, yet the response comes from a real phone number to make interactions more authentic. 

For example, “Text the word DECK to 87000 to get 15% off your first project with us”. In this example, a coupon would be sent back to the inquirer from the contractor’s real phone number so a conversation can be started.

What is the best time to send an SMS campaign?

The best time to send text messaging campaigns falls during regular business hours, between 10 AM and 6 PM. This is when customers are most likely to see and respond to your message.

You should avoid sending texts early in the morning or late at night, as this can annoy customers. You can experiment with different times to find what works best for your audience based on their engagement patterns.

How do I know if my SMS campaigns are working?

You can track the success of your SMS campaign by analyzing metrics like open rates, click-through rates (CTR), response rates, and conversion rates. Most SMS platforms provide built-in analytics that shows how many messages were delivered, how many links were clicked, and what actions recipients took.