SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is the practice of sending text messages to customers who have opted in to receive communications from your business. It spans a wide range of use cases: promotional campaigns (special offers, flash sales, event announcements), transactional messages (appointment confirmations, booking reminders, payment receipts), and conversational interactions (two-way SMS where customers can reply and get responses). With a 98% open rate and average read time under 3 minutes, SMS is the highest-reach, highest-immediacy marketing channel available.

Why SMS Works

Text messages go where people are — their phones — and they arrive in the same inbox as messages from their closest contacts. This intimacy is what makes SMS so effective and also what makes it necessary to use responsibly. Customers who opt into your SMS list are giving you significant access to their attention; abusing that with too-frequent or irrelevant messages leads to opt-outs and a damaged relationship. Used well, SMS is the fastest and most direct channel for reaching customers with time-sensitive or high-value communications.

SMS vs. Email

SMS and email serve complementary roles. Email is better for longer-form content, complex offers that require explanation, and communications where design and imagery matter. SMS is better for time-sensitive messages, simple high-value offers, two-way communication, and reaching customers who have low email engagement. The highest-performing marketing programs use both channels together, leveraging each for the use cases where it performs best.

Compliance

SMS marketing in the United States is governed by the TCPA, which requires prior written consent before sending marketing texts, clear opt-out mechanisms (replying STOP must immediately unsubscribe the recipient), and restricted sending hours (8am–9pm in the recipient’s local time zone). Non-compliance can result in significant fines — working with a reputable SMS marketing platform that handles compliance automatically is essential.