7 SMS Marketing Examples to Inspire Your Next Campaign

Are you interested in seeing how other companies do text message marketing? Whether you’re struggling with crafting compelling copy or brainstorming new SMS marketing campaign ideas, having a list of SMS marketing examples on hand can help you get unstuck.

To save you time, I’ve collected the best SMS marketing examples I could find from real campaigns so you can see what brands like yours are sending to their customers. 

SMS marketing examples:

1. Welcome new customers: “Thanks for joining our texting list!”
2. Retain loyal customers: “Exclusive VIP sale, just for you!”
3. Warm up cold leads: “Do you have any questions I can answer for you?”
4. Recover abandoned carts: “You’ve left something behind. Snag it now!”
5. Increase customer engagement: “Share a photo of you and your pet for a chance to be featured.”
6. Ask for honest feedback: “What’s one thing we could do to improve your experience?”
7. Set up exclusive alerts: “Don’t miss the lowest prices of the season.”

Related Reading: 11 SMS Marketing Use Cases to Explore for Your New Text Marketing Program

Welcome text messages are your chance to reinforce that signing up for your texting program is a wise choice. You can do this by setting clear expectations and providing value up front.

Shannon Green, the owner of the e-commerce store Welstand Boutique, found that adding a 10% discount code in her welcome texts helped strengthen her relationship with her customers and give them a reason to stick around.

“Text messages are great for promoting sales or special offers, and it’s exclusive to the people who signed up for my mailing list, so they feel like they are getting something of value. It helps me build that relationship with my customers.” –Shannon Green, owner of Welstand Boutique

Welcome text message example:

“Thanks for joining our texting list! Use the code BEAUTYTEXTS10 for 10% off your order. Stay tuned for exclusive discounts, expert beauty tips, and more.”

In a world where the cost of acquiring new customers is on the rise, you could increase your return-on-investment (ROI) by focusing your SMS marketing strategy on repeat customers.

It’s why the e-commerce brand INTO THE AM sends exclusive text messages to their most loyal customers. They’ve found that text campaigns to this segment lead to higher click-through and conversion rates, which can increase retention rates in the long run.

INTO THE AM’s team created a VIP customer segment that includes anyone who has spent a specific amount, placed a certain number of orders, or purchased frequently in the past few months. 

Customer loyalty text message example:

“We’re running a sale on t-shirts tomorrow, but you get early access as a VIP customer! Shop now: https://txt.so/KCSLDO”

These text messages include phrases like “early access” or “just for you” to create a sense of exclusivity and make their customers feel valued.

Our texts to VIP customers consistently have a higher click-through rate and conversion rate since they are highly engaged and loyal.

Brian Lim

CEO

When sales leads go dark, a quick follow-up text can get the conversion going again.

New View Roofing found that the best way to re-engage cold leads is through SMS marketing campaigns that align with their brand. 

They don’t just follow up with a standard, “Is there anything we can do for you?” message. Instead, they turn to memes and GIFs to keep it lighthearted while getting the point across.

It’s lighthearted and it’s a different approach and usually it’s just enough to make the phone ring or start a text conversation that typically ends in an appointment being set.

Burton Hughes

Project Manager

Even if GIFs and memes aren’t your thing, a friendly and personalized text can remind your prospects why they started talking to you in the first place.

Sales follow-up text message example:

“Hi Kyle! Still looking for a roofing company? (relevant image or meme under text)”

Direct-to-consumer fine jewelry brand, Noémie, uses SMS marketing to remind potential customers that they’ve left items in their online shopping carts, which often inspires them to complete their sale.

Their approach to their abandoned cart texts is to include a deal with a quick expiration date. According to CEO Yuvi Alpert, it, “encourages shoppers to treat themselves in the spur of the moment”.

Abandoned cart text message example:

“You forgot something in your cart! Snag it now before it’s gone: https://txt.so/VCUIDW”

Music Minds is a music publication that features the latest music news, album reviews and releases, music events, and exclusive Q&A with musicians.

They try to keep their text messages fun and ensure that they’re providing their audience with something valuable. 

With that in mind, they usually only send text messages with discounts and important news. Occasionally, though, they’ll do something a little more interesting.

One campaign they ran for SMS engagement was titled “Show Us the Sound That Moves You.”

Customer engagement text message example:

“Send us a video of you playing an instrument or singing (good or bad) for a chance to be featured on our social media! 🎵”

They asked users to submit a short video of them playing an instrument or singing — no matter how badly.

“We were doing it as a contest and ended up getting a lot of amazing submissions! While there was nothing to convert there, it helped cultivate goodwill.” –Adam Chase, President

Obánj is a luxury jewelry company where members can borrow Dior, YSL, Gucci, and more for a monthly membership as low as $29/month.

The use of text messages to reach their customers came about organically. They started by reaching out to a few members for feedback on their experience and how they could improve. 

This led to in-depth and honest conversations about the difficulties they faced during the pandemic and what little things the brand could do to help them feel a sense of normalcy.

Customer feedback text message example:

“Hi Jen, thanks for your recent purchase! What can we do next time to improve your experience?”

Obánj is also in the process of launching options for their members to select their jewelry pieces through text. Customers don’t even need to go to their website, but can instead text a number or a screenshot of the pieces from a collection that they would like to borrow next.

We want to make the process of selecting and switching out jewelry pieces much easier for our customers—while increasing customer engagement with our brand. We are also looking to see if this process can then be translated to make onboarding new customers easier, too.

Niya Panamdanam

CTO

E-commerce store Big Phone Store buys and sells used phones, which means they have data on which phones their customers own. With this in mind, they designed an SMS marketing campaign that alerts customers when their phone is in demand.

The idea behind their campaigns is to monitor the prices of the phones their customers purchased from them. When a phone model’s sale price is at its peak, the customers who have opted in to these alerts will receive a text letting them know that their phone is now worth more than ever before.

Promotional text message example:

“Dee, demand for the iPhone 11 is surging! See price trends and how to sell it: https://txt.so/BYUDO”

The goal is to attract as many customers as possible to sell their device back to them so that they can refurbish it and sell it again. 

While the primary goal is to increase Big Phone Store’s profits, this SMS marketing campaign benefits their customers by helping them get as much money as possible for their devices.

See a text messaging campaign that could work for your business? Sign up for a 14-day free trial of SimpleTexting’s SMS marketing platform to try it for yourself.

This piece was originally published February 28, 2023. It was refreshed May 30, 2023. Drew Wilkinson authored this piece, and Dani Henion contributed to it.