How to Write About Discounts in SMS: Recommendations and Templates

What Should an SMS Be Like to Grab the Recipient’s Attention, Make Them Read It, and at Least Visit Your Website? Below is a collection of examples that contain ready-made text for discounts and promotions. Take a template — adapt it to your needs, and send it out!

Rules for Creating Discount SMS Campaigns

Here are the basic rules for crafting a proper SMS for your campaign. Just four points.

1. Start directly with the offer, and be specific. Phrases like “15% Off”, “Sofa Sale”, “New Dress Collection” attract the recipient’s attention much better than “Attention”, “Alert”, or “Only With Us”.
2. Sell the value. In other words, explain why the recipient should continue interacting with your company. This could be not just savings, but also exclusivity or a pleasant emotion.
3. State the purpose for which you are making all this effort. That is, the Call to Action (CTA) — “Reserve”, “Choose”, “Download the App”, “Visit Us”.
4. Limit the duration of the offers or the quantity of the product. How exactly you do this depends on your target audience, the product itself, and your goal. Most people respond best to scarcity, but in some cases, this may trigger the opposite reaction. For example, if you are selling luxury lingerie sets or expensive software.

This is how you can construct such a text for discounts.

Example 1:

“Sneaker sale, sizes from 34 to 46, full-size! Get ready for autumn weather. Buy at the best price until November 20, website:…”.

In this message:

• Offer — “sale”;
• Specificity — sizes, including not just the most popular ones;
• Value — twofold. For everyone — “autumn weather”. Also, people with very small or very large foot sizes will pay attention to this emphasis;
• Time limit — designed to sell the autumn batch of goods before the cold weather starts.

Example 2:

“20% off kitchen knives from brand XXX. Be your own chef! The offer is valid until August 29, details on the website.”

• Offer — discount;
• Specificity — percentage and manufacturer. If the brand is well-known, the chances of increasing sales are significant;
• Value — the opportunity to assert yourself and cook not just deliciously but beautifully;
• Time limit — until the end of summer, when store sales are lower and need to be boosted.

Important!

In SMS campaigns about discounts, the text can also start with an unexpected reason. For example, a resident of your city won a gold medal at the Olympics. Why not use this fact for a marketing campaign?

However, conciseness remains crucial: SMS messages longer than 160 characters with spaces in Cyrillic may not be accepted by mobile operators.

Types of Discounts and Templates for Them

We have selected templates for the most common types of discounts, but there are many more.

For example, “closed” discounts — these are targeted exclusively at corporate employees or business partners of companies. Campaigns sent to this base are a necessity, but the approach to crafting the text will be different.

There are also special discounts for customers with whom the seller is particularly interested in maintaining a relationship. Is it necessary to send SMS in this case? Perhaps, but they certainly won’t be sent en masse.

There are times when you need to sell products with defects, such as manufacturing flaws. Is an SMS campaign about the sale needed in this case? The seller decides this, considering their reputational risks. The same applies when selling “unsellable” items: the last size or a product nearing its expiration date.

Standard Discounts

This is the most common type. A few years ago, information about discounts and promotions was printed in advertising newspapers or flyers. Now this format has “moved” to the Internet.

However, SMS campaigns sent to customer databases work better because they catch the buyer’s attention.

The key is not to spam and to send offers not to the entire customer base, but to specific groups.

“Discounts on XXX brand smartphones with a super camera up to 20%. Buy by 01.11 and shoot videos like at the Oscars. Website:…”

Holiday Discounts

These include public holidays such as New Year or Independence Day, marketing holidays like Valentine’s Day and Black Friday, as well as important events for the store, such as an anniversary or the opening of a new sales location.

If religious occasions are valuable for your business, be sure to carefully check the dates, as the calendar has undergone many changes.

Examples of promotional SMS messages:

• “The best gifts for Christmas! Up to 30% off Christmas decorations until 31.12!”
• “We’ve opened! Get 10% off all services until the end of the month.”

Bundled Discounts

These are offered when purchasing multiple items at the same time. Such promotions are conducted in several variants.

The most typical ones:

• “Buy two notebooks and get the third one for free. Offer valid until October 1. Details on the website.”
• “The more you buy, the less you pay! For 10 notebooks — 10% off, for 100 or more — 50% off. Offer valid until December 7, details on the website.”

Seasonal Discounts

Shoppers often wait until the end of summer to buy a swimsuit or fan at an attractive price. Similarly, purchases of heaters, down jackets, and thermal underwear are often postponed until the end of the winter season.

Example:

“Stay warm! Premium quality thermal underwear set — 20 USD off! Free postal delivery. Website:”

Bonus Discounts

These are also known as discount or loyalty bonuses. Some businesses link informing customers about their bonuses to loyalty cards or apps. However, it’s sometimes worth reminding customers of their accumulated bonuses via SMS, especially if a pleasant amount has been accrued.

Example:

“Dear customer, your account balance is 20 USD, and you can use it to pay for up to 30% of the product cost until the end of the year”.

In Conclusion:

There are businesses where SMS has become the primary marketing tool, taking precedence over other forms of promotion. For instance, one transportation company increased its sales by 30% using an SMS campaign service.

This result didn’t come immediately, but through testing, they were able to determine both the best time for sending messages and the optimal offers for different audience groups. The company’s conclusion was concise: you have to try; you won’t know unless you do.