SMS Campaigns 101

Discover best practices around how & when to text your SMS List.

Studies show that 77% of US online shopping traffic originates from mobile devices — communicating via SMS enables your brand to meet shoppers where they spend most of their time and direct them to your website. While SMS and Email Marketing differ in many ways, they also have the potential to work harmoniously and create a seamless shopping experience for your list.

In this article, we will discuss:

1. The differences between Email and SMS Marketing
2. Best Practices
3. Ideas + Examples

The Differences Between SMS and Email Marketing

If you’re new to SMS Marketing, there’s 3 main differences from email that you should take into consideration:

SMS Compliance is a bit stricter than Email.

• While email marketing allows for implicit consent, SMS Marketing requires that contacts submit their phone number on a sign up form with a legal opt-in disclaimer + then confirm sign up by replying ‘Y’ to a Double Opt-In Text.

  Learn more about SMS Consent.

• Carriers enforce Quiet Hours, which restrict your business from sending messages between the hours of 8PM and 9AM in your recipients’ time zone.

  Learn more about Quiet Hours.

SMS is a much more intimate channel than Email.

Sending text messages is a very direct, personal way to communicate. Keep in mind that your messages will be delivered the same way one’s family and friends are staying in touch with them — as a business, you don’t want to abuse that.

You have a lot less real estate to work with when sending text messages.

By design, text messages are shorter and fit in a smaller, tighter space than an email might. You also have less opportunity to use visuals such as images.

All differences aside, Email and SMS are both effective ways to stay in touch with your audiences. When used in a thoughtful manner, they can complement each other and get you some amazing results.

SMS Campaign Best Practices

Given the differences between Email and SMS, there’s a few things you might want to consider when honing your SMS strategy:

Send Time

There are a couple things brands should consider when sending text campaigns:

Quiet Hours

Avoid sending or schedule text messages late into the evening. Messages scheduled or sent after 8PM in someone’s time zone will be queued up to send the following morning. Late night texts are also more likely to be ignored or receive more unsubscribes, and your shoppers likely won’t be in the mindset to take action late at night.

Subscribers' weekly and daily activities

Generally, most people work Monday through Friday and have the weekends off. When sending during the week, it’s smart to send messages around 9am (before workdays ramp up), 12-1pm (during lunch breaks), and between 5-8pm (as people unwind for the day). You also want to be mindful of any relevant holidays and whether or not they should impact your sending schedule.

Send days and times will vary by industry and audience — trust your intuition when it comes to who your subscribers are and when they might want to receive your messages!

Sending Frequency

Since SMS is a far more intimate channel than email, it should be used with great care!

Your monthly Growth plan text limit is 6X your number of textable contacts; Privy also considers texting your list between 1-6X a month to be a good practice. Exceeding 6-8 text messages a month can lead to more unsubscribes.

Your sending frequency may vary depending on what’s going on with your brand. You might have a month where you don’t have a ton happening, therefore you only send out 1-2 texts; the following month, you might drop a new collection or announce a big sale which will warrant more text sends.

Content

The personal, direct nature of SMS also impacts what type of content you send. Text messages are most effective when used for time-sensitive updates such as:

• Sale Announcements and Reminders

• Product Drops

• Flash Deals

• Low Stock Notifications

• Restocks

Furthermore, with a limited amount of space and attention, content should be short and sweet. Privy recommends messages to be 240 characters or less, and we have a hard limit of 400 characters in a message.

Remember to include a short link in all text campaigns  — this allows your recipient to interact with your message and enables Privy to track clicks + revenue associated with the message.

Ideas and Examples

Got a sale coming up?

Consider sending these 3 messages to stay top of mind for your subscribers:

Dropping a new product or collection?

Drive anticipation by teasing it the day before, and/or give your SMS List an exclusive preview before the drop. Send a message as soon as it’s live, too!

Running low on a best seller? Restocking a customer favorite?

Notify your SMS List and drive urgency:

Want to reward your SMS list?

Give them an exclusive flash sale or mystery deal. Text subscribers are more likely to open and act in real-time than email subscribers!

Shipping or pre-order deadlines looming?

Let your subscribers know when they need to place their order to get it in time for special holidays or occasions: