June 16, 2025

What Are the Important SMS Marketing Best Practices You Need to Adhere To?

“How would SMS marketing benefit my business?”

This question may linger in your mind as a business owner who wants to achieve great results. SMS (short message service) marketing involves sending messages to clients to promote your services or products.

According to a report by Statista.com, 31% of marketing managers and business owners in the United States preferred using SMS marketing for its cost-efficiency and high open and click-through rates.

Let’s learn more about the key SMS marketing best practices you must adhere to for a competitive reach.

Get Permission From Recipients Before Sending Text Messages

Only send text messages to those who have permitted you to. It’s easy for subscribers to consent and opt-in to your marketing strategy. Some of the ways you can use to get permission include the following:

• Send an initial text with an option of replying “Yes” or “No”
• Getting customers to fill out a web form permitting you to send them text messages
• Clicking a checkbox

With Drop Cowboy, you can market the code for your promotion through various channels like social media. Clients can then send you the code you’ve provided, giving you the go-ahead to send them all the marketing you want and make them part of your marketing list.

Give Clear Opt-Out Options

Ensure you include an easy method for subscribers to opt out of future messages. Remember that SMS subscribers can opt-out if they no longer resonate with your marketing messages. Having more active subscribers in your marketing list will benefit your business and improve customer engagement.

Additionally, making it easy for recipients to unsubscribe is not only a legal requirement but will also foster trust and build your brand’s image.

Let Your Contacts Know What To Expect

People should know what they’re signing up for before using your text message campaigns. You can come up with one or two sentences explaining what your SMS marketing program will include. Introduce your brand and what it’s about to make clients more receptive, especially when they receive your text from an unknown number.

To ensure the success of your brand awareness campaign, keep your text messages short and to the point, preferably within the 160-character limit. Get rid of any irrelevant content to boost message clicks and open rates. You can use the following framework for your mobile marketing strategy:

• Name of your company
• Client’s name
• Enticing brand promotion or offer
• How to opt-in
• A call-to-action
• An option to opt-out

Additionally, feel free to add a shortened link as part of your marketing text message if you wish to include additional information.

Avoid Sending Text Messages Too Often

People use SMS as a personal communication; therefore, you should always respect it. Send a limited number of text messages every month to avoid exhausting your recipients. However, you can increase your sending frequency for a limited time for transaction updates, product drops, or seasonal promotions.

Also, don’t go silent for a long time. You must strike a balance to ensure your brand stays relevant without overwhelming your subscribers.

Send Text Messages During Regular Hours

Only text your subscribers during standard daytime hours. When you send messages in the middle of the night or too early in the morning, your subscribers will most likely not engage with your content or maybe be pissed off and decide to opt-out.

One of the significant goals of text message campaigns is receiving immediate feedback from your recipients. However, this isn’t possible if you send messages outside the standard awake hours.

With Drop Cowboy, you can optimize your SMS marketing strategy only to send messages at a particular time of the day. Furthermore, you can monitor the results easily and make changes where necessary.

Use Common Language For Your Text Message Campaigns

You can send one message to many people using mass text messaging services. Avoid using SMS shorthand during your campaign, as not many people may understand text abbreviations. Depending on the kind of audience you’re targeting, using acronyms and abbreviations may appear unprofessional.

If you need to shorten words or minimize characters using abbreviations, keep them to a minimum and use the most common SMS shorthand.

Ensure Every Text Message Provides Value

All the text messages you send to your customers should be worth receiving. Your messages should be engaging and fresh and provide valuable and timely information. In addition, you can choose to include discounts if you have to.

SMS marketing through Drop Cowboy allows you to poll customers for fantastic feedback on their opinions. You can also highlight images or videos that are relevant to your brand to build up interest in your services or products.

Also, your subscribers should feel like VIPs when receiving your marketing SMS. This will encourage click-throughs and fast replies.

Adhere to Legal SMS Marketing Regulations

Comply with the privacy laws and regulations set by the Telephone Consumer Protect Act (TCPA) during your SMS marketing strategy. Some of these regulations include the following:

• Always include the name of your company or business
• Give clear terms and conditions
• Respect the privacy and rights of your consumers

By adhering to these laws, you avoid legal issues and build the trust of your customers. Moreover, the Controlling Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act) requires all advertising messages to have an opt-out option. Also, according to the CAN-SPAM Act, all commercial messages must be indicated as advertisements and should not contain misleading or false information.

Learn SMS Marketing Best Practices With Drop Cowboy

With SMS marketing best practices, you can reach a wide range of your target audience and enhance engagement. Reaching your customers through channels where they’re most active increases your chances of keeping their attention. Experiment with various SMS marketing strategies before settling on the best for you and your customers.

Drop Cowboy provides an effective messaging service where you can create and send SMS marketing campaigns or voicemail messages in minutes. We have affordable plans catering to every budget and only charge when messages are delivered successfully.

Contact us today to reach your target audience with almost zero effort.