Introduction: What is SMS Marketing and Why It Matters
SMS marketing is a powerful form of digital marketing that uses text messaging to connect businesses with their customers. Whether you’re promoting a sale, sending a timely reminder, or offering exclusive deals, SMS marketing delivers messages directly to a customer’s mobile device—often within seconds.
Unlike email marketing and other marketing channels, SMS (Short Message Service) offers immediacy and visibility. In fact, text messages boast a 98 percent open rate, making them one of the most effective ways to capture your audience’s attention.
You may have also heard the term “text marketing”—a phrase often used interchangeably with SMS marketing. While both involve sending promotional content via text, SMS typically refers to messages with a 160-character limit, whereas text marketing may also include MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) and other forms of mobile messaging.
Whether you’re new to SMS or looking to improve your current SMS messaging strategy, this guide covers everything you need to know about what SMS marketing is, why it works, and how you can use it to grow your business. You will learn how to reach customers through SMS Marketing.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing refers to the use of short message service (SMS) to send promotional or transactional messages directly to consumers’ mobile phones. These messages are typically limited to 160 characters and are designed to quickly inform, engage, or prompt action from recipients.
Unlike other marketing methods, SMS marketing works as an effective communication channel by offering a unique combination of speed, accessibility, and effectiveness. It’s used for a wide range of purposes, such as:
- Promoting sales and discounts
- Sending order confirmations or appointment reminders
- Sharing exclusive updates or alerts
- Gathering customer feedback
What makes SMS marketing so valuable is its directness. Instead of relying on email campaigns or social media, you’re landing directly in your audience’s text message inbox—a space most people check multiple times a day.
Text messaging marketing is a core feature of the DailyStory platform. We’ve built powerful tools to help you design, send, and track SMS campaigns with ease. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced marketer, our platform can support your efforts and scale with your goals, making it one of the best ways to reach your ideal customer.
Next, we’ll explore how text marketing compares to SMS, and whether there’s any real difference between the two.
What is Text Marketing? Is It the Same as SMS Marketing?
The terms text marketing and SMS marketing are often used interchangeably—and for good reason. Both involve sending promotional or informational messages to customers via text. However, there are some subtle differences worth noting.
SMS marketing specifically refers to messages sent through the Short Message Service, which limits messages to 160 characters and supports only plain text. In contrast, text marketing is a broader term that can include:
- SMS messages (plain text)
- MMS messages, which allow for images, videos, and longer content
- Messaging over platforms like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger in some contexts
So, while all SMS marketing is text marketing, not all text marketing is strictly SMS.
The overlap between the two makes them functionally similar in most marketing strategies. Both are mobile-first, highly engaging, and ideal for reaching customers in real time. Whether you call it SMS or text marketing, the goal is the same: deliver clear, compelling messages that drive action.
Let’s start by looking at the benefits of SMS marketing:
Why you should use SMS marketing
If you’re on the fence about incorporating text messaging into your digital marketing efforts, the following are the benefits of SMS marketing:
1. High Open and Conversion Rates
One of the most compelling advantages of SMS marketing is how reliably your messages are seen at the right time. SMS messages boast a staggering 98% average open rate, which is significantly higher than email or social media engagement. Which means your SMS marketing offers are actually seen. It’s simply a very direct form of communication that is hard to ignore, while emails can get overlooked or not seen at all (if lost in a spam folder). SMS marketing messages reach your target audience, unlike social media marketing.
Even better, the conversion rate for SMS marketing hovers around 45%, while the average email conversion rate is about 15 percent, meaning your calls-to-action are more likely to drive real results. In other words, SMS marketing will help you increase sales.
With messages being concise and direct, your offer or update gets the spotlight it deserves—no distractions, no inbox clutter. SMS marketing is a an easy way to see high engagement rates.
2. Cost-Effective With a Strong ROI
While SMS isn’t free, it’s a cost-effective marketing channel, especially when compared to platforms like paid social or Google Ads. It’s also two-way and conversational, allowing your audience to reply, ask questions, or take action without jumping platforms.
DailyStory offers the ability to use SMS text message marketing and can break down the cost for you at a level that serves your small business best.
But just considering the return on investment alone, text messaging is a cost-effective digital marketing tool, which should be a part of your digital marketing strategy.
3. Mobile-friendly option
As small businesses aim to be more mobile-friendly for consumers who are using their mobile devices more and more, texting is a great show of mobile-friendliness.
According to Statista, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 51.53 percent of global website traffic as of 2020, consistently hovering around the 50 percent mark since the beginning of 2017.
And mobile internet usage is only growing. Gone are the days when we can assume that most website visitors are viewing your website on a full browser.
Mobile optimization is about making sure that visitors who access your website through mobile devices have an outstanding experience that’s customized to their device. The most successful mobile optimization should feel seamless for the mobile user. And that’s where text messages enter.
Check out our six reasons why mobile optimization matters, as well as 14 expert tips to improve your mobile marketing specifically.
4. Complements other types of marketing
An effective SMS marketing strategy doesn’t have to stand alone. It’s a tool that can actually be paired up with all the other ways you market your business.
Some ideas include:
- Generating interest in your social media channels
- Exclusive offers for anyone who buys through your website
- LImited-time offers
- Following up on a promotional email that was sent out regarding a special offer (with different messaging based on whether they’ve opened that email or not)
Consider the digital marketing campaigns that you’re already doing. Where can SMS fit into those? And how can it make those campaigns more successful?
Check out these eight surprising ways you can use text message marketing.
5. Strengthening customer engagement
Text message marketing isn’t just a broadcasting medium. Similar to social media, it gives an opportunity for consumers to engage with you. You could integrate SMS with a welcome message and ask follow-up questions. Again, two-way communication is another text message marketing benefit.
This makes your business more accessible for them, which can help it become more of a part of their lives as you continue to build stronger relationships.
To better prompt that engagement, check out our tips to write an effective marketing text message.
6. Flexible and customizable
Another text message marketing benefit: Text messages are extremely versatile. Depending on how you segment your audience and what goals you have for different groups of contacts in your database, you can easily send different messages to different consumers.
New subscribers could get one type of message. While those who have shopped with you in a while could get a “miss you” message. Others could bet a “don’t forget” message. This works to drive sales for those who’ve abandoned their shopping cart on your website and/or an exclusive discount offer. The sky’s the limit.
In addition, you can personalize these text messages with something as simple as the recipient’s first name. That alone can make your messaging that much more impactful.
Learn more about personalization, as well as our eight benefits of personalization in your digital marketing.
Of course, SMS marketing is even better alongside other digital marketing tactics, such as email marketing.
SMS marketing complements email marketing
Case studies show that about 90 percent of business leads would rather receive a text message than a phone call.
If you are a B2B digital marketer, here are a couple of relevant stats:
- About 64 percent of consumers are likely to perceive a company contacting them by text in a positive light.
- And, 98 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 in the U.S. own a device capable of receiving a text message.
And thanks to smartphones and tablets, the use of text messaging is at an all-time high.
What you need to know before starting your first text message campaign
If you haven’t started your first text message campaign yet, you might be unsure of where to start. The important piece is that you want to get started.
SMS marketing campaigns have an engagement rate that’s three to seven times higher than with emails and a nearly six times conversion rate. You don’t want to miss out on achieving higher marketing results for your business.
The following are six things you should know before starting your first texting campaign.
What’s a text message campaign?
First things first, an SMS marketing campaign allows you to interact with your customers through text messages, which can feel more personal than emails, providing a higher customer experience.
What do you want to achieve with your texting campaign?
Thinking through your goals will help guide the direction of your first texting campaign. Setting goals increases the success of your marketing strategy by about 429 percent. Consider your overall business goals and how SMS marketing can support any or all of them.
What texting campaign service should I use?
It’s important to identify and sign up for the technology that will enable you to create and deploy texting campaigns.
When surveying what text marketing services are out there, you’ll want to understand all the features available, whether those features make sense for what you want to achieve (or if you need something more) and the total cost associated with a subscription.
DailyStory offers SMS text messaging features, as well as email marketing and more as well. Explore with our free edition.
Who can I text?
Before you launch your first texting campaign, it’s critical that your customers gave you permission to send them SMS messages. You don’t want to begin sending messages to customers who didn’t give you permission. That will not lead to high response rates, nor great customer satisfaction.
Of course, there are many ways to opt-in your customers and even potential customers, including:
- A contact phone number field and permissions checkbox in your contact or sign-up forms.
- Using a “text to join” strategy to build your SMS list, where consumers text a keyword to a specific number that you give them.
- You can also ask them to join a loyalty program. In return, you are able to send them SMS promotional messages.
What should I text?
The sky’s the limit within 160 characters, creatively speaking. But you do have some guidelines to follow to avoid getting carrier violations and the resulting impacts from them.
A carrier violation occurs when carriers (such as Verizon, AT&T and such) receive an outbound SMS and opt to not deliver the message to the destination phone number. In other words, carriers monitor and filter SMS traffic, and if your message triggers a perceived violation from the carrier’s perspective, your text will not be delivered.
How should I track my texting campaign?
The metrics tied to texting campaigns aren’t as robust as what you might be used to with email marketing due to technological limitations.
Within whatever texting campaign service you choose to use, you should be able to track the number of sent SMS messages as well as the click rate. You also should be able to see your deliverability rate, depending on the service.
How do I warm-up my sending numbers?
Prior to sending your first SMS campaign, you will want to warm up your sending numbers. Warming up your sending numbers is especially important when sending to recipients that have not received an SMS from you in the past 60 days or have previously received messages from another number.
The power of your SMS marketing begins with an effective strategy
Every business should have an SMS marketing strategy as part of its larger digital marketing efforts.
SMS marketing is the use of text messages to convey your message to potential (and current) customers. It’s also the way many consumers prefer to communicate.
We have eight tips for you to consider to specifically maximize your SMS marketing strategy:
- Send drip campaigns via text.
- Create exclusive text-only deals and offers.
- Use keywords for SMS opt-ins.
- Prioritize responsiveness.
- Focus on education before the “sell.”
- Be functional with reminders and confirmations.
- Consider running a contest.
- Gather feedback and monitor performance.
Get creative with your SMS marketing campaigns
How creative are your SMS text message marketing campaigns? Are you seizing every opportunity to engage with your subscribers and ultimately boost sales with your ideas?
Beyond using SMS for reminders or order confirmations, the following are more SMS marketing ideas to help you leverage your SMS text message marketing to grow your reach, increase your conversion rates, and build trusting relationships with customers:
- Welcoming subscribers
- Subscriber-only flash sales
- Blog (or other content) promotion
- Running giveaways
- Event promotion
- Capturing abandoned carts
- Offering more than a thank you
- Use photos and videos
How to be successful using SMS marketing
How can you do SMS text message marketing “right”? The following are SMS marketing best practices to make your text messaging efforts as successful as possible:
- Get permission.
- Include all necessary disclaimers.
- Establish consistency with your sending frequency.
- Consider the timing of your texts.
- Think exclusivity.
- Be responsive.
- Use concise language.
- Personalize your content as much as possible.
- Offer an easy, clear way to opt out.
- Measure your SMS campaign performance.
We’ve put together a great SMS Text Message Marketing guide that details SMS marketing best practices.
How to write a text message that won’t get ignored
The character limit of an SMS text message is 160 characters, so writing a compelling message in so short of a space can be challenging. We have eight tips for writing a text message that won’t be ignored:
- The shorter the text message the better.
- Relevancy is key.
- CAPS aren’t all bad in a text message.
- Consider personalization in your text message.
- Include a strong call-to-action.
- Avoid ‘text speak’ and special characters.
- Factor in the timing of your text message.
- Include the option to opt-out.
Avoid carrier violations
Your SMS marketing success can suffer from simple mistakes that will get your message blocked by phone carriers. A text message may not be delivered to a person because they have opted out, the mobile number is invalid, or because the carrier blocked your message.
There are many reasons why a text message won’t deliver:
- Carrier has blocked your message (carrier violation).
- Mobile number is undeliverable.
- Mobile number is not MMS capable.
- Mobile number is outside your approved sending geography.
- Message contains spam or illegal words.
- The recipient has previously blocked your message.
A carrier violation occurs when carriers (such as Verizon, AT&T and such) receive an outbound SMS and opt to not deliver the message to the destination phone number.
DailyStory sends millions of SMS and MMS messages for our customers. And while carriers do not share their exact and unique triggers for a violation (so that spammers can’t game the system), we’ve put together some tips to avoid carrier violations during your text message marketing.
What is 10DLC and how does it impact SMS marketing?
10DLC is a registration process for sending SMS marketing traffic. It requires registration of the ten-digit long codes (10DLC) with the phone carriers.
If your business uses or plans to use SMS marketing, you’ve probably heard about A2P 10DLC requirements.
The details around this constantly changing, but we clarify what is happening and what you need to do.
Why use 10DLC in your SMS text marketing?
Using a long code for your SMS marketing is substantially more affordable than using a short code:
- Low-cost option
- Local phone number recognition
- Both text- and voice-enabled
- Higher messaging volume (but not the highest)
SMS text message marketing is a powerful tactic that businesses should be using in their overall digital marketing strategies. And 10DLCs can help you drive results.
Boost your SMS marketing by using images in your text messages
Using images in your text messages (otherwise known as MMS marketing) is a great way to convey brand identity and other important content in your text message marketing.
ImportantUsing MMS will impact your text message marketing budget.
It is often said: “A picture is worth a thousand words,” which can help you communicate more than the typical character limit for a standard text message. Plus, using MMS can also help avoid carrier violations!
But, as great as it sounds, it’s not as simple as just picking an image and sending it. There are important considerations for the type of image and implications surrounding delivery.
Sample terms of service for SMS marketing
SMS marketing, or text messaging, is a popular way that businesses can share offers, deals, and updates with their customers.
DailyStory is a marketing automation platform and includes SMS marketing capabilities. We put together an example SMS marketing terms of service that covers the minimum requirements for text message marketing.
Grow your SMS marketing audience organically
With strict opt-in procedures required, you can’t leap into your first text message campaign before you have a confirmed subscriber list (regardless of how many contact phone numbers you might already have simply through conducting business).
The good news is that about 91 percent of consumers would opt-in for text messages from brands. We have four tips to help grow your text subscribers the right way:
- Advertise your SMS marketing program on all channels.
- Use a memorable, but simple, keyword.
- Offer an incentive to text subscribers.
- Be upfront about your texting frequency.
Leverage your SMS marketing to retain customers
SMS text message marketing is a great way to reach mobile-first consumers, but you can use it to boost your customer retention rate as well.
Customer retention refers to the rate at which customers stay with a business for a given period of time. Increasing your customer retention rate by just 5 percent can increase your profit by 25 percent to 95 percent.
Text messages can help you foster trusting relationships with your customers, which can grow brand loyalty and ultimately customer retention.
We have five ways that you can use SMS text message marketing to improve customer retention:
- Offer (and engage through) customer loyalty rewards programs.
- Provide helpful information.
- Request feedback from customers.
- Deliver excellent customer service.
- Leverage personalization in your text messages.
The do’s and don’ts of SMS text message marketing
It’s tough to beat SMS text message marketing when it comes to digital marketing tactics. Text messaging is fast, direct, efficient and relatively inexpensive when compared to other advertising tactics (such as Google Ads).
The following are nine do’s and don’ts of SMS text message marketing that you should be aware of:
The do’s of SMS marketing
- Keep it brief.
- Include a call-to-action.
- Make your text recipients feel important.
- Pay attention to timing.
- Keep it legal.
The don’ts of SMS marketing
- Bombarding your recipients.
- Using text slang and abbreviations.
- Always selling.
- Forgetting to use segmentation.
How to measure the success of your SMS marketing campaign
It’s impossible to create and execute successful SMS marketing campaigns without measuring key metrics. SMS marketing involves sending promotional campaigns or transactional messages for marketing purposes using text messages.
The following are seven ways to measure the success of your SMS marketing campaign. These metrics will help you track progress toward your goals and maximize your efforts:
- Interaction rate
- Conversion rate
- Delivery rate
- Unsubscribe rate
- List growth rate
- Customer acquisition costs
- Return on investment
Your SMS marketing campaigns can deliver results for your business. However, you must track these important metrics along the way to best optimize your campaigns and pivot when necessary.
