Campaigns Tips & Tricks

Tip 1 - Frequency of campaigns

The sweet spot for SMS frequency largely depends on what your customers expect from you. Effective frequency means fewer opt outs/blocks!

General Best Practices to consider

• No more than once a week or 2-4 texts a month
• Send high quality and high value texts
• Do not repeat the content sent via email campaigns
• Reusing assets and brand content is ok; just don’t use the same exact message again!
• Send campaigns to the right target audience (use segmentation)
• Send campaigns aligned with the reason they opted in

Tip 2 - Time of Day for sending campaigns

Keep customer time zones in mind - most people don’t enjoy being woken up with a marketing message.

• TCPA requires that SMS campaigns only be sent during 8AM-9PM in the timezone of the recipient. Since for most users their location is not known (area code is not a reliable indicator of location), this practically means 8AM-6PM Pacific Time
• Best practices
• Day of the week - Wednesday through Friday
• Time of the day - 10 am to 1pm; Winning time is 11 am 

Tip 3 - When to send an SMS Vs MMS?

When to send an SMS?

• No Image
• Less than 160 characters.
• No emojis (you can send an SMS message with emojis but the character limit in that case is 70 characters.)

When to send an MMS?

• Images (.jpg, .png, .gif)
• Longer text blocks. Character limit has a max of 1600 characters
• Unlimited Emojis
• If you want to preserve the order of image and text
• Note: MMS is ~2X more expensive per message than SMS

Tip 4 - Using Media in campaigns

High quality, powerful messages start with the content - keep devices in mind

.jpg/.png and gif images can be used in a MMS campaign

• File size for .jpg/.png - Optimal performance under 300kb, max of 500 kb
• Prefered Image Orientation on mobile devices - Portrait, Tall(Aspect Ratio 16:9) or Square 

.gif images can be used in a MMS campaign

• File size - Preferably 400 x 400 with max file size of 500 kb
• Consider adding text in the image, or using the MMS Subject Line (20 characters)

Tip 5 - Personalizing content

If using segments, personalize the copy to the segment, perhaps with incentives (ex: ‘A Summer Deal You Don’t Want to Miss’ or ‘Loved {CE Product}? This SPF is a must add to your routine.’) 

• Just for you: Use words like “Just for you “ , “ Looks like you’re … “, “Your skin will thank you…” and/or trying variations with the person’s name in the greeting message
• Consider the look of notifications: have a cadence where some messages are text only, some with text first and image after, in addition to the ones with image only.
• Be Timley: Utilize upcoming holidays and seasons in the copy to add a personal touch

Tip 6 - Limited time Deals and discounts

• The simple form factor for SMS makes it ideal for deal alerts (Ex: Price drop alert, new product drop alert)
• Encourage engagement by asking the user to provide a reply that unlocks a code or link with the discount embedded in the URL
• Let users come to SMS and use a keyword to pull up all the deals (ex: DEALS)