When it comes to Marketing SMS, the smallest changes to your campaign can make a great difference.

Learning from ones’ mistakes or commonly known as “experience” can go a long way.

We have gathered our experience and compiled some of the most common practices to help you get on your feet and become a master in SMS marketing.

Send at the right time of day

Make sure you are familiar with your customers’ schedules and time zone restrictions.

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❌Don'ts:
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1. Don’t send on Sundays and public holidays.
2. Don’t send before 8:00 and after 20:00.

To get a better idea on when would be the best time of day to send your campaigns, check out our “Time Analysis”, which will be available on the right side of your dashboard according to the country of your first campaign.

Choose your sender ID wisely.

Sender ID (SID) is a name or number the recipient will see on their mobile devices as the sender of the message.

Note that some routes might rewrite the Sender ID, and display random numeric digits instead.

3. Characters limit

The standard limit length of a single message is 160 characters (first names and link included). Messages over 160 characters are split according to 153 character segments, sent and charged as multiple messages (up to 1600 characters). For example a 165 character message will be split in 2 messages: 153 characters message + 12 characters message.

When using eastern characters and letters including grave accent marks; à, è, ì , the message is encoded as UCS-2 and limited to 67 characters.

Don’t:

Don’t stretch the limit.

Remember the first name of your customer and the short link of your campaign are also characters.

Dos:

If you are using letters with grave accent marks, try removing the graves and gain more message length.

4. Language

Use the same language as your customers.

5. Message Content

Offer your clients a product or an offer they actually need and can benefit from.

Become a pro in marketing SMS writing by trying out and testing numerous ad variations for the same campaign.

*The text messages above are concept ideas only and are not to be used in actual campaigns

Don’ts:

Avoid sensitive words that might get flagged and filtered, such as “bonus”, free”, “win”, etc.

Don’t write long and complicated messages.

Dos:

Keep it short, simple, to the point and as related to the landing page that will follow as possible.

Add minimum 2 text versions, making even the smallest changes to your text, for example removing a currency sign or an exclamation mark.

6. Contacts list

Send campaigns to customers who have opted in to your service.

Make sure the campaigns are relevant to the type of services your customers have opted for.

HLR is recommended but not mandatory.

7. Opt-Out

Give your customers the option to unsubscribe.

This will also improve your campaign performance, leaving you only with relevant contacts on your lists.

Opt-Out is required in the following countries:

United States

All EU Countries

8. Personalization

Add first names whenever you can to improve campaign performance.

9. Landing Page

Make sure the landing page is responsive and adapted for mobile view.

Limit the text on on the page, focus on sparse navigation, and capture only the most basic contact info - the less fields the more likely they will convert.