How to Write SMS Marketing Messages That Convert

An SMS has no subject line, no preview image, and usually no second chance - the whole message is read in the time it takes to glance at a lock screen. That constraint is actually a gift: it forces clarity. The businesses that get the best results from SMS marketing tend to follow the same handful of rules.

Lead with the point

Put the offer or the reason for the message in the first sentence. Nobody scrolls a text message looking for the point - if it's not near the top, it's missed. "Hi Thabo, your appointment is tomorrow at 10am" works. "We hope you're having a great week! Just a friendly reminder about something coming up soon..." does not - by the time the actual information arrives, most readers have stopped paying attention.

One call to action, not three

A marketing SMS should ask the reader to do exactly one thing: click a link, reply YES, show this text in-store, call this number. Messages that try to do everything at once - announce a sale, ask for a reply, and promote a new product - end up doing none of them well. If there's a link, keep the URL short; a long, ugly link eats into your character count and looks like spam.

Personalise beyond the first name

Inserting a first name is the obvious use of a template variable, but it's rarely the most useful one. A message that says "Hi Sarah, your loyalty balance is 340 points" or "Hi Mr Naidoo, your invoice of R1,200 is due Friday" is doing real work - it's telling the reader something specific to them, not just decorating a generic blast. SimpliSend's templates support any field from your contact list as a variable, not only a name, so a reminder, a balance, or a reference number can be dropped straight in.

Respect the length

A standard SMS is 160 characters. Going over that doesn't cut the message off - it splits it into multiple linked parts - but a message that reads like a paragraph loses the snappy, urgent feel that makes SMS effective in the first place. If a message needs three sentences to explain, it's usually better as a short text plus a link to a page with the detail, rather than a text that reads like an email.

A quick before-and-after

Before: "Hi there! We just wanted to let you know that this weekend we're running a really great promotion on a lot of our products, so feel free to pop in and check it out if you get a chance!"

After: "Hi Lindiwe, 20% off everything this Sat–Sun only. Show this text in-store. - [Shop Name]"

Same offer, a fraction of the words, and a reader who knows exactly what to do next. That's the whole discipline of SMS copywriting in one example.