SMS marketing examples: 9 ways to use text message marketing
We've picked 9 of our favorite SMS marketing examples that you can use immediately for your business, team, or online store.
Text message marketing is powerful. In fact, text message marketing generates response rates as high as 45 percent. And about 89 percent of U.S. consumers have now opted in to receive texts from at least one business, up from just 66 percent in 2021.
Beyond the typical sales and discount alerts, the following are nine SMS marketing examples you can use to engage with your target audience.
| Example | Best for |
|---|---|
| Promote new content | Driving your most engaged subscribers to fresh content |
| Announce new products or services | Launches, with an exclusive pre-order angle |
| Remind customers about abandoned carts | Recovering the roughly 70 percent who don't complete checkout |
| Notify when products are back in stock | Faster action than an email alone typically gets |
| Request customer feedback | Reviews and honest insight, good or bad |
| Share online, in-person events | Webinars, Lives, and in-person happenings |
| Appointment reminders | The single most valued type of business text |
| Connect with customers who've gone MIA | Simple win-back messages tied to real timing |
| Thank your customers | A personal touch that email struggles to match |
Promote new content
If you're publishing a blog as part of your content marketing, consider notifying your text subscribers about new posts.
This is a great way to promote the reach of your content to the consumers who are most likely to find value in it.
- Sample Text Message
- Hi Amy we just updated our blog with some details about Cyber Monday: https://www.dailystory.com/blog
- Great! Look forward to shopping the new catalog 🙂
Announce new products or services
If you have a new product or service that you're launching, text message marketing is a great way to get the word out.
To make the text stand out, you can include a photo or emojis. But if you want to make sure subscribers feel special, you can offer exclusive pre-orders, for example.
Remind customers about abandoned carts
With the average shopping cart abandonment at about 70 percent, distraction is at an all-time high that often beats out initial desire to purchase.
In that sense, your text message marketing should include an abandoned shopping cart automation reminder. Remind them of what they are missing out on with a thoughtful message. You can even throw in a discount code to make it that much more compelling to complete the purchase.
- Sample Text Message
- Hi Mark you left some things in your cart. Use coupon 15OFFNOW for 15% off if you purchase in the next 24 hours: example.com/cart
- Thanks! I totally forgot, I'll go check out now!
Notify when products are back in stock
If you're an ecommerce company, then you're used to the idea of items being in stock and out of stock. Ideally, you should offer the ability for consumers to sign up for back-in-stock notifications not just through email or text messages.
Consumers do check their text messages more frequently than email, so by texting them that an item they're interested in is back in stock, you are more efficiently reaching them. That way, they can act quicker on the purchase. Make it as easy as possible by including a link to the product in question.
Request customer feedback
Customer reviews offer social proof that helps your brand build credibility and trust, which is critical for any business. When you ask customers for feedback, you collect not just reviews but also valuable insight that can help improve your brand in a number of ways moving forward.
And just because a review is negative, doesn't mean you should ignore it.
You can make it easier than ever for customers to give you feedback by making the request through text message. You can include a link as well and, if necessary, an incentive to give the customer even more of a reason to share their experience with you (for better or worse).
- Sample Text Message
- Thanks for shopping at our Seattle store today. How was your experience?⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Reply: 1 = poor to 5 = fantastic
- 5
- Wow, thank you! Would you consider leaving us a review? Here's a direct link: example.com/review
Share online, in-person events
If your company hosts webinars, Instagram or Facebook Lives or in-person events, consider lettering your text message marketing subscribers know.
Depending on your CRM (customer relationship management) platform, you likely can get pretty granular with your text invites leading up to the event itself.
Appointment reminders
About 64 percent of consumers say that appointment reminders are the most valuable form of business text messaging. It's not just a preference either: SMS appointment reminders are associated with the lowest no-show rates of any reminder method, roughly 19 percent, compared to higher no-show rates for email or phone call reminders.
- Sample Text Message
- Hi Christy, it's Steve at Dr. Frank's office. Just a reminder about your appointment tomorrow at 8amReply back if you need to make changes
- 👍
Connect with customers who've gone MIA
Text message marketing is a great way to reconnect with customers who've purchased from you in the past but haven't done so lately.
It could be a "we miss you" message to customers who haven't purchased in three months. The sky is the limit here, but think through who you want to reconnect with to decide the best approach with your text message marketing.
Just remember that these reconnections are a great way to encourage more purchases, especially when you're catching the customer at a time when they're about to run out of an item that they may need to buy again.
Thank your customers
You can never be too appreciative of your customers. Because texting can feel more personal than email, a "thank you" text after a purchase or appointment can build your customer relationships in a more meaningful way.
Of course, your "thank you" also can include a discount that can be used on the customer's next purchase. It just depends on your goals.
In conclusion
Remember to always follow text message best practices when sending any type of text message:
- Always ensure you are only sending to opted-in subscribers
- Be considerate about the frequency of your text messages
- Pay attention to carrier guidelines to ensure you stay in compliance and avoid carrier violations.
Hopefully these SMS marketing examples give you some ideas for how you can leverage your text message marketing to engage with consumers and help grow your business. Consider who your target audience is, what they need and what your goals are. By experimenting with what's possible, you'll learn what works best along the way.
Ready to build this into a fuller strategy? See our guide to building and optimizing SMS campaigns that convert, and once your campaigns are live, how to measure the success of your SMS marketing campaign.