10 Best Practices for SMS Marketing in 2025
Many business owners think SMS marketing is no longer useful because newer channels like social media platforms are better. If you think like them, you’re wrong.
SMS marketing is still one of the most affordable and effective methods for reaching out to customers and generating leads. You can’t find any other channel with an open rate of 98% and an average ROI of around 30%.
Of course, the industry has become more professional so you can’t reach good results with old-fashioned text messaging methods. That’s why we’ve tried to gather the best SMS marketing practices to help you boost and grow your business.
1. Understand your audience
First and foremost, you have to know your audience to create an SMS marketing plan according to their personalities.
This will help you write the text message so that they’re more likely to interact with you. For example, if your customers are mainly women, you need to tailor the tone and content of your message to feminine characteristics.
Of course, sometimes you might have various types of audiences. So you must segment them according to different factors like age, gender, location, and previous shopping habits.
2. Compliance with regulations
Sending a text message is really simple but even this simple service is highly regulated. You need to comply with GDPR, TCPA, and some local regulations when it comes to SMS marketing.
Remember that if you don’t comply with these regulations, you might face charges and financial losses.
Here are some tips for SMS marketing best practices for compliance:
Obtain Consent: You have to be sure that your recipients have opted in to receive your messages.
Provide Easy Opt-Out Options: You need also include a clear and simple way for users to unsubscribe from your messages. Otherwise, they might be annoyed and this will dent your reputation.
Keep Records: You need to keep records of your messages to use them in case you face any legal charges.
3. Crafting clear and engaging messages
SMS marketing is the realm of being concise and clear. You can’t send lengthy text messages and expect your customers to read all of them.
So you don’t have any choice but to be as creative as possible. It’s difficult to convey your message in several words and ask something without being rude.
Here are some tips for creating concise and action-oriented messages:
Be direct: You have to avoid details and go to the point quickly.
Ask nicely: Although you want to ask recipients to do sth in a short sentence, you shouldn’t be rude. If your sentence seems like an order, it leads to a high opt-out rate. So work on your tone and language.
Offer something valuable: consider someone who asks you to do something in a short message without any offer! You’ll definitely reject it. So try to include discounts, coupons, or other incentives to encourage them to do what you want.
Clear CTA: Last but not least, ask your request clearly. For example, you can write: “Click here for a limited-time offer,” “Check out our homepage,” “Visit our web page,” or “Watch our webinar.”
4. Using SMS automation
You can’t run large SMS marketing campaigns using traditional methods. Thanks to automation tools, you can easily automate your messages to be sent without your intervention.
This will save you time and money and let you outperform your competitors. Of course, you need to determine certain triggers to send SMS. Here are some types of automated text messages:
Welcome Messages: You can automatically greet new subscribers with a welcome offer.
Birthday Messages: It’s good to send personalized birthday wishes so that your customers feel they’re part of your story. You can also include special offers.
5. Timing and frequency
The time you send your SMS and also the number of repetitions can significantly impact the result of your SMS marketing campaigns.
Imagine if you receive an advertisement SMS at 3 a.m.! Of course, you’ll out and will not buy anything from that company. So as a business owner or marketer, you have to pay special attention to timing.
The best SMS marketing practices for timing & frequency
Limit the number of messages: If you send too many text messages, you'll face a high opt-out rate because many customers get annoyed. So try to keep your messages between 2-4 per month.
Conduct industry-specific research: There is no certain formula to find the best time for sending SMS. However, you can estimate it by searching through your business. Overall, Thursday at 2 p.m., Friday at noon, and Saturday at 7 p.m. are the best times with higher engagement rates.
Run A/B testing: You can try several intervals and track the results to find the best time to send an SMS to your audience.
6. Two-way messaging
If you want to strengthen your relationship with your customers, you need to run two-way messaging campaigns.
This way, your customers think you have given them a say and they’re playing a role in your business. Of course, this is one of the best practices for SMS marketing and getting higher conversion rates.
The benefits of two-way messaging
Customer support: You can use two-way messaging tools to have efficient customer support at an affordable cost.
Feedback and Survey: You can get feedback from your audience and make sure what they want from your business.
Exclusive offers: You can send exclusive offers and ask them to respond with a short “Yes” or “No” message.
The question is how to do that on a large scale. Don’t worry! There are lots of tools out there that help you receive and manage your customers’ SMS along with sending bulk messages.
For example, some WordPress plugins offer a two-way SMS add-on so that you can send and receive SMS directly from your business website.
7. Personalization and customer experience
People don’t like promotional messages too much. Surveys show that over 60% of customers like to receive personalized advertisements. So you need to send messages that seem specifically written for that specific user.
You might ask how we can do it in our bulk messaging campaign. Here are some of the best SMS marketing best practices for personalization:
- Include the name of your customer in the message.
- Have an intimate greeting.
- Include the previous interactions, purchase history, and habits of your customers.
- Mention the location of your customer.
8. Incorporating SMS with other channels
SMS marketing works best when you combine it with other marketing channels like email, social media, and your ecommerce website.
In fact, you have to avoid separate marketing efforts because the ROI and efficiency of this approach are not acceptable. Instead, you can cross-promote your SMS campaigns using other channels.
For example, when you send an advertisement via email, you can send an SMS to remind the customer of your offer.
Also, you can leverage the power of other platforms to make the most out of your SMS marketing channel. For instance, if you use SMS plugins to send SMS from your website, you can use your website to complete the list of your subscribers.
A seamless integration between SMS tools and other channels can significantly increase conversion rates and boost your sales.
9. Tracking and analytics
You might think everything is finished when you send an SMS. This is not true! You need to constantly track the performance of your SMS marketing campaigns to see if everything is OK.
Remember that you need to continuously improve your SMS marketing efforts. Otherwise, you’ll lose the competition in the end.
So try to understand key metrics in SMS marketing and analyze your campaign to find if there is room for improvement or if there is any weakness for modification.
Key metrics to monitor in SMS marketing
Delivery rate: The percentage of messages that were delivered on your customers’ devices.
Open rate: The percentage of recipients who opened your message.
Click-Through rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who clicked on the link you included in your message.
Conversion rate: The percentage of recipients who did what you wanted. For example, making a purchase or signing up for an event.
Opt-Out Rate: The percentage of recipients who unsubscribed after receiving your message.
10. Future trends in SMS marketing
Here are some trends in the best practices for SMS marketing in 2025:
Personalization using artificial intelligence
You must have heard about AI tools in your business. AI technology will play a significant role in all aspects of marketing, and SMS is no exception.
One of the aspects of SMS marketing that can be enhanced by AI is personalization. AI tools can analyze the behavior of your customers and automatically personalize the message without your help. This will reduce the time and effort you need to put on this task.
Rich communication services (RCS)
RCS is an upgrade to traditional SMS. It offers creative features like multimedia, carousels, and suggested replies in your SMS and will make it more interactive for users.
Increased focus on orivacy
As you know, there are growing concerns over data privacy, transparency, and ethical data when it comes to marketing. As a result, the SMS marketing industry will increase the focus on the privacy and security of your data in the future.
Final thoughts
SMS marketing can boost your business if you have a strong strategy and use suitable tools. Try to follow the best practices we suggested to make the most out of your campaigns. Remember that you shouldn’t push too hard for it because your customers might get annoyed and choose to opt-out.
Nothing is more important than creating a long-lasting partnership with your audience. So try to appear friendly rather than too promotional.
Finally, don’t get disappointed if you fail in your first campaign. Find your weaknesses and remove them to optimize your future SMS marketing campaigns.
FAQs
How often should I send SMS marketing messages?
It depends on your industry and audience preferences. Overall, it’s best to avoid sending more than 2-4 messages per month. If you send more messages, the rate of opt-out will increase because many people get annoyed.
What are some common regulations I need to follow in SMS marketing?
There are certain rules you need to follow before sending an SMS. First, you need to obtain audience consent before sending messages. Also, you have to provide an easy opt-out option. It’s also necessary to comply with GDPR, TCPA, and regional laws.
How can I personalize my SMS messages?
Some techniques make your SMS appear more personalized. For example, use the recipient’s name and reference past purchases or interactions. Also, change the content according to their preferences and behaviors.
What is RCS, and how does it differ from traditional SMS?
RCS stands for Rich Communication Services. As it comes from the name, it’s something more enhanced than SMS. In fact, using RCS, you can include some items like multimedia, carousels, and suggested replies in your messages. Of course, these features will increase the creativity of your messages, leading to higher engagement rates.
What metrics should I track to measure the success of my SMS campaigns?
Here are important metrics to measure the performance of your SMS campaigns:
- Delivery rate
- Open rate
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate
- Opt-out rate