Ten years ago, SMS was a popular way for users to communicate. Now, personal interactions have moved to messengers, and SMS has evolved into a powerful business channel. Today, it’s used to send emergency notifications, organizational messages, and some advertising — many brands include it in their annual budgets. What is SMS marketing for businesses, and how can this tool be best used today? Read on.

From Christmas to Customer-Focused Marketing  

SMS was born in 1992 when British engineer Neil Papworth sent the first-ever text message, “Merry Christmas”. However, SMS entered the commercial world much later — when mobile phones became widely available, and businesses recognized its potential.

This potential still exists. Through messaging, businesses inform customers not only about banking transactions but also about discounts, promotions, and new products. This specific area of marketing:

• positively impacts the company’s image;
• increases engagement (building relationships with customers or users takes time);
• complements other promotional methods and boosts sales.

What is SMS marketing? In marketing terms, it is the simultaneous delivery of essential information to a large number of people who have previously interacted with the business — ordering oil, batteries, using taxi services, or asking about fitness schedules.

Additionally, it’s a tool that organizes business operations and underscores customer focus. Automated notifications about transactions, package shipments, or stock availability address many issues for both customers and vendors.

Five Stages of Creating an SMS Campaign  

The process involves five stages: 

1. detailed,
2. cost-effective,
3. creative,
4.  technical,
5. analytical.

Stage 1. Building a Contact List  

This is the most labor-intensive task. The good news is that a quality database works long-term and becomes one of the significant sources of business success. The bad news is that filling this source and maintaining its cleanliness must be approached with maximum care.

We remind you that SMS marketing should be conducted exclusively on a self-created database; otherwise, the economic or image result is unpredictable.

When managing the database, you should record at least the phone number, name, estimated age of the client, and what exactly they are purchasing from you. At best, you should note additional parameters of the purchase or even the buyer’s characteristics, if it is relevant to your business. For example, the person chose a cheaper product, focused on the brand, or on the shape of the bottle.

Stage 2. Audience Segmentation

This step is your shield against the “leakage” of your advertising budget. Segmentation helps make messages more personalized. And it’s not just about addressing the client by name — different types of buyers sell the same product in different ways.

Stage 3. Creating the Message

This is a creative step that begins with the answer to a simple question: who am I writing this for and why? What should the recipient understand and do?

The standard formula for writing an SMS usually looks like this:

“Offer + Value + Call to Action”

But there is always room for creativity within the standard.

Example:

A cosmetics store wants to draw attention to a certain line of its perfumes. It decides to sell it with a discount of up to 25%, emphasizing that these are autumn fragrances. Considering the types of female buyers, the segmentation of the database and SMS dispatch for each segment can be as follows:

• Women who follow fashion and prioritize novelty, style, and exclusivity.

“Stay on trend! New autumn fragrances in our store. 25% off the limited collection. Details on the website.”

• Women who value the quality and longevity of a fragrance and prefer certain manufacturers:

“Lasting temptation! Until the end of November — 25% off perfumes from brand XXX. Details on the website.”

• Women who are not afraid to experiment and be extravagant:

“25% off perfumes with dizzying scents of rain and spices. Find your autumn favorite! Details on the website.”

• Women who prefer advantageous and economical offers:

“Collection of autumn perfumes — 25% off the regular price. Discover a new you! Details on the website.”

• Loyal customers who often choose a specific brand. For them, it’s important to offer additional discounts or bonuses:

“Discount on all autumn fragrances — 25%. Discount cardholders get +300 bonus points from the purchase.”

Stage 4. Sending SMS Messages

Messages can be sent manually, but this is extremely risky — there are restrictions both in the current legislation and from mobile network operators. It’s easier to use specialized services — this way, you can avoid many troubles and significantly ease your work.

In particular, you can set up personalization parameters, schedule sendings in advance, and track opens, clicks, and other performance indicators.

Stage 5. Analyzing Results

After the campaign is complete, it’s essential to analyze the results — what percentage of the audience opened the message, who clicked the link, and so on. This helps optimize future advertising campaigns. For instance, focusing on a specific part of the audience, changing the tone of the message, or offering a discount on a completely different group of products.

Conclusions

SMS is a concise format, limited to 160 characters in Latin and 70 in Cyrillic. It still does not support multimedia files — it is impossible to “attach” photos or videos to the text. However, this is a case where the disadvantage is an advantage, and mass SMS sendings pay off fully.

Over 90% of users view the text within three minutes of receiving it. No other marketing promotion channels available today can boast such results. How many people click on the link and make a purchase depends entirely on the relevance of the offer and successful database segmentation.

For example, a travel company spent $51 on a bulk sending to a database of 4,000 numbers. 320 people visited the website. Three people bought the offered tour, each of which cost significantly more than $51.