Text, SMS, and RCS
SMS marketing works because people are constantly checking their phones. A well-timed, well-targeted message lands right where your customers already are.
But everyone’s catching on to the power of SMS, which means your customers’ phones are getting louder and busier. To get the most out of this communication channel, you need to know what kind of messages to send during each part of the customer journey.
We’ll show you the main types of SMS marketing campaigns that actually get results. You’ll see real examples and learn how to build campaigns that consumers will welcome, not ignore.
1. Promotional SMS marketing
Promotional SMS marketing drives sales and conversions. Use them when you want people to buy something, request a demo, or sign up for your newsletter. These messages also work well for highlighting offers, product launches, and sales events.
Let’s say you have a new feature release coming up and want to showcase the functionality for your current users and potential future customers. You could create a promotional SMS campaign with a link to the landing page where people can learn more and sign up for notifications once the feature goes live.
Other promotional SMS examples:
- Send discount codes to subscribers before they make a purchase
- Announce a seasonal sale with a deadline
- Give loyal customers a free upgrade as a thank you
When you’re sending promotional SMS campaigns, keep your value proposition and call-to-action clear. Anyone who receives the message should feel compelled to take action immediately. This sense of urgency makes the timing for these SMS messages crucial because your offers won’t last forever.
Include trackable short links so you can see who clicked through. This lets you follow up with interested subscribers.
2. Transactional SMS marketing
Transactional SMS campaigns are triggered when customers take specific actions. These messages serve functional purposes like order confirmations, shipping updates, appointment reminders, and account notifications.
If you run an eCommerce store, transactional SMS keeps customers updated on their order status and next steps. You can also use these messages for account needs like requesting updated credit card information or reminding new users to complete their profiles.
Keep transactional messages short. Skip the fluff and include only essential information. Use a custom domain for your links so people recognize and trust them immediately. You’re handling sensitive information, so trust matters.
3. Conversational SMS marketing
Conversational SMS marketing consists of personalized, one-to-one campaigns based on your customer data and behavior. This approach helps you connect with your audience at scale by using their actions and preferences in your text communication.
Let’s say you have a customer who’s been using your product for three years. You could send them a conversational SMS thanking them for their loyalty and offering a discount. You can personalize messages with customer-specific offers like:
- Product recommendations based on their previous searches
- Upgrade offers based on their account activity and needs
- Article and support recommendations based on their feedback
Dynamic content insertion makes this easier because you can send bulk SMS with specific information for each recipient. Link analytics tools provide the insights you need to create smarter audience segments. You can build separate lists and tailor SMS messages to individual subscribers with relevant personalization details.
4. Time-sensitive SMS campaigns
Time-sensitive SMS campaigns use urgency to increase conversions for limited deals and offers. Like promotional campaigns, these messages push consumers to act fast.
Flash sales and limited-time offers are the most common examples. You can also implement time-sensitive campaigns for other goals. For example, if you have an upcoming event and want to build excitement, a time-sensitive SMS with a countdown timer works well.
Communicate urgency in your message content. Provide clear deadlines and employ urgent language like “Shop Now” or “Sale Ending Soon!” Rebrandly’s link expiration feature works well for these campaigns because you can automatically change or rescind links on a concrete timeline. Even if someone clicks an old link, they can’t access the expired offer.
5. Bulk SMS marketing
Bulk SMS marketing involves sending high volumes of messages to large audience segments or your entire list at once.
Send a bulk message if you have a company-wide announcement that affects every user. Examples include major feature announcements, broad promotional campaigns, or upcoming changes to user accounts.
Keep the messages as relevant as possible by segmenting your audience properly. Even your most significant announcements won’t apply to your entire subscriber list if it includes both customers and potential customers. Strong deliverability matters here because the larger your audience, the more likely mobile providers will flag messages as spam.
Scalable link creation tools help when you need to generate high-volume links that keep up with your SMS platform’s pace.
6. Evergreen SMS campaigns
Evergreen SMS campaigns are ongoing, automated SMS messages that run continuously based on a specific trigger action. Think about this type of SMS marketing as a way to communicate important, static information to subscribers without needing to reach out manually whenever the trigger action occurs.
Examples of evergreen content are:
- New account onboarding
- Educational content for understanding a purchase or account sign-up
- Recurring reminders of account best practices
- Loyalty program updates.
Let’s say you have someone who’s just signed up for an account with your service. Your evergreen SMS campaign would start as soon as they’ve completed the purchase, in tandem with the transactional messages about their order details. Once someone’s finished the final step of account setup, you could easily trigger another evergreen campaign to send educational blog articles on how to get more value from their account with additional features.
Your evergreen SMS campaigns will require more automation than other campaigns, as there will be multiple messages triggered by the subscriber, and they need to go out on a reasonable cadence. Evergreen campaigns require performance monitoring of both open and click-through rates to ensure the correct actions occur whenever a subscriber receives a message.
7. SMS surveys and feedback collection
SMS surveys and feedback requests use the urgency and intimacy of text messages to gather customer opinions and data. This approach helps your team learn about audience characteristics and preferences while making each person feel heard.
If you’ve just released a new product that’s selling well, but you only have feedback from internal audiences or existing customers, SMS surveys let you poll new customers about their experience automatically. You can also use these campaigns for NPS surveys, service quality checks, and polls to discover what your audience wants.
Keep questions simple since text is a straightforward channel. Optimize every message for mobile since most people will answer on their phones. Offer incentives for feedback requests. People participate more when they get something valuable in return.
Finding the right types of SMS campaigns for your strategy
Choose your SMS marketing mix based on your goals, your audience, and where users are in their journey. A well-rounded strategy blends transactional, promotional, personalized, evergreen, and time-sensitive campaigns that keep your brand top-of-mind.
Combine intelligent segmentation, automation, and branded link management to turn SMS into a high-performing channel that drives loyalty, conversions, and trust.
Interested in seeing how Rebrandly can help you make the most of all kinds of SMS campaigns? Sign up for a demo.