Text Message Marketing: Annoying, Brilliant or Both?

Is text message marketing effective?

Text message marketing continues to deliver impressive results for businesses across all industries.

It creates a sense of urgency.

When your phone beeps or vibrates to tell you that you’ve got a text, you open it and read it right away. That’s why text messages have an average open rate of 98 percent, compared with just 39 percent for emails, according to recent industry data.

People trust text messages.

We trust texts far more than email, despite the rise in spam texts. Text messages achieve click-through rates of roughly 6 percent, compared with just 2 to 3 percent for email, making them more effective.

It’s inexpensive.

You can broadcast text messages in bulk for as little as 1 cent per send, which is similar to the sending fees for email broadcasting platforms.

Customers love the convenience.

When you use text messages to deliver offers and coupons to your customers, you are doing them a favor. Most people say they want to receive special offers via text message rather than email because texts are easier to find when they are in a store.

You get instant and measurable results.

Text message marketing campaigns generate immediate responses. That’s because 90 percent of them are read within three minutes, according to OpenMarket. You can also track message delivery, open rates and conversions much faster than you can with other marketing methods. If you’re having a slow day or week, a text campaign could drive additional revenue within minutes.

Pros of text message marketing

These are some of the reasons why brands should use text message marketing:

• You can launch a campaign instantly. Within minutes, you can send personalized messages to thousands of subscribers, making it perfect for flash sales or urgent updates.
• Recipients have opted in, so they’re interested. People voluntarily opt in to receive your messages. That’s a sure sign they like your business, and there’s a higher chance they’ll be interested in what you say.
• Texting is a popular messaging channel. A whopping 98 percent of U.S. adults own a cell phone, according to Pew Research Center, and text messaging remains the most widely used mobile feature across all age groups.
• Texting is easier for customers to use in the store. It takes only a couple of clicks to show your floor staff a voucher sent by text. Showing an email takes longer and is more of a hassle.
• It is very cost-effective. For example, you can send texts with leading SMS platforms starting at just $20 per month for small businesses.
• Text messages are great for personalization. Hook your messaging platform up to your customer relationship management (CRM) software to address customers by name and remind them of previous purchases.
• Texts can send appointment reminders. Text clients to remind them of their slot and ask if they’re still coming. Every missed appointment in a salon or health care clinic costs money.
• Texts keep customers in the loop. If you have a new product you want to promote or you want to share an update to an existing product, let customers know right away via SMS.
• Text messaging is a good form of two-way communication. Recipients can respond directly to your texts to ask questions, which is great for building relationships.

Cons of text message marketing

Some businesses hesitate to use text message marketing for these reasons:

• You need permission to send texts. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) requires explicit consent before sending marketing texts, with penalties up to $1,500 per unauthorized message.
• It’s harder to build big lists. People are more protective of their cell phone numbers than their email addresses. Many are reluctant to share their number, even if they like and trust you.
• You need to keep your messages short. Standard SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, though many platforms now support longer messages that are automatically split and reassembled.
• Some people get upset. Certain people may forget that they opted in to your list and get angry with you for messaging them.
• Scammers use text messaging. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers reported losing $470 million to text scams in 2024, making some recipients wary of commercial texts.
• It’s another communication channel to manage. Texts can represent more work on top of your email and social media marketing. 

Text message marketing best practices

To get the biggest returns from your campaigns, you must know the best ways to use text message marketing. Follow these best practices to achieve success with your text message marketing campaigns:

• Always get permission. Text message marketing laws under the TCPA and state regulations require explicit written consent before sending commercial texts. Use double opt-in processes to ensure compliance.
• Make it easy to unsubscribe. Never outstay your welcome. Always include an unsubscribe option at the bottom of each message. Don’t make it hard for people to stop receiving texts from you.
• Make every word matter. Focus on using only the words you need to convey your message and spark interest. 
• Account for people’s suspicions. Text-based attacks increased by 10 percent in the last year. Reduce consumer suspicion by always using your official domain name in links and consider adding your business name at the beginning of each message. 
• Time your message well. Send texts between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. in the recipient’s time zone to comply with TCPA regulations and maximize engagement. To increase your chances of success, try to time your messages for when people might actually need you. If you deliver pizzas and the big game is on, why not tempt customers with a match-day special an hour before kickoff?
• Tie in messages with events. Get your CRM system to send reminders to users who fill their online shopping cart but don’t end up ordering. Send them a link to take them straight back to their cart. You can send them birthday messages, too.
• Keep adding subscribers. Take every opportunity to get customers to share their cell numbers with you. For example, you could display a QR code that takes them to a website-based subscription form and include a business card containing an incentive to sign up for texts.
• Send the right number of texts. Research indicates that sending two to four messages per month strikes the optimal balance between engagement and annoyance for most businesses.
• Segment your list. The more you can tailor your message to appeal to what customers are actually interested in, the better. One way to do this is to segment your database by types of items purchased. [Read related article: Trends That Will Shape Market Segmentation in 2025]
• Leverage the fear of missing out (FOMO). Using limited-time offers or displaying how few of a particular item are left in stock can instill a strong sense of urgency, provoking recipients to respond.
• Test and optimize. Many text message marketing platforms allow you to send different messages to test which types and styles of texts generate the best response.
• Personalize your message. Integrate your texting platform with your CRM software to include recipients’ names, purchase history and location-based offers. Tailoring your messages will make them appear more relevant and legitimate to consumers.

Sam Bocetta contributed to this article.