Email and SMS are better together

FAQs

• What is SMS marketing?

  SMS marketing is a strategy that involves sending offers, notifications, and personalized content directly to your customer or prospect's mobile phone through text messages, otherwise known as SMS (Short Message Service). It's a direct and immediate way to engage with customers, and drive engagement or conversions through concise and targeted messaging.

• Why should I use SMS marketing?

  SMS marketing offers several advantages for businesses. Most importantly, it provides a direct and immediate way to reach your audience, as most people carry their mobile phones with them at all times. Its concise and targeted nature makes it ideal for time-sensitive promotions, reminders, or urgent updates. Text messages also have high open and read rates, which improves the odds of your content being seen. Additionally, SMS marketing is a great channel for personalization, and can be used to engage customers with exclusive offers and content. When used right, it can be a powerful tool for driving engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.

• How do I do SMS marketing?

  Best practices for bringing SMS marketing campaigns into your business include:

  1. Get consent: Obtain permission from customers to receive SMS messages by offering opt-in opportunities through your website, social media, and email campaigns.

  2. Keep it brief: Create concise and engaging SMS messages that provide value to your audience. Make use of personalization, a clear call-to-action, and a sense of urgency when appropriate.

  3. Know your audience: Use SMS marketing automation to divide your subscribers into segments based on demographics, preferences, or purchase history. This allows for targeted messaging and better response rates.

  4. Test and optimize: Experiment with different timing and message formats to dial in the resonance with your audience. Use analytics to track performance and make data-driven optimizations.

  5. Make unsubscribing easy: Even though you have consent to send text messages, people have the right to change their minds. Include a simple unsubscribe link (or instructions) at the end of every marketing text.

  With solutions such as Mailchimp, you can optimize your SMS marketing campaigns with collected data and analytics in real-time. Mailchimp provides the automated text messages and SMS marketing tools you need to engage your audience, drive conversions, and enhance customer relationships.

• Does Mailchimp offer SMS marketing?

  Mailchimp is a multichannel marketing platform, and SMS marketing is available as an add-on for all paid Mailchimp plans. Use SMS (and MMS where available) to engage directly and efficiently with customers, send automated discounts, target customers by location, and more—all integrated with your email campaigns.

• How do I get access to SMS?

  SMS marketing is available to Mailchimp users in select markets with a paid marketing plan. After you agree to the terms, submit an SMS Marketing application, and get approved, you can purchase SMS credits from the SMS overview page, the SMS settings page, the SMS editor, or through an email link sent to the primary email address associated with your Mailchimp account.

  Learn more about SMS marketing

• How does SMS marketing work?

  There are two main types of SMS marketing: transactional and promotional. Transactional SMS informs your customers in real-time when something relevant happens, such as a shipped order or a confirmed appointment, while promotional SMS lets customers and prospects know about offers, sales, and opportunities. Both require opt-in consent—though each has a different set of additional legal regulations that apply to them—and both can be personalized to drive engagement, conversion, and loyalty.

  While SMS marketing has some unique benefits and considerations, such as the direct nature of text messages and a greater need for concise wording, it's similar in many ways to other marketing channels like email and social media. Acquiring consent, knowing your audience, staying on brand, personalization, and data-driven optimization are necessary strategies that apply to all forms of digital marketing, SMS included, and all can benefit from automation and segmentation to direct your marketing to the right people at the right time.

  If you're using a marketing platform like Mailchimp, which offers SMS marketing tools, automations, and analytics that work alongside your email and social media campaigns, you can take advantage of everything SMS marketing has to offer your business without a lot of extra effort.

• How do I use SMS marketing?

  How to best use SMS marketing depends on the kind of business you have, your marketing strategies and goals, and the other forms of digital marketing you plan to use in your campaigns.

  If you have an e-commerce business, transactional SMS can help you build a stronger relationship with your customers by providing notifications when orders are received, shipped, and delivered. You can also send promotional text messages with discounts and sales, making use of SMS automation and audience segmentation to reach customers you think would be more likely to engage based on their purchasing behavior.

  If you have a business that takes appointments, transactional SMS can help reduce your cancellation and no-show rates by texting appointment confirmations and reminders. And just as with e-commerce, you can reach out to customers with personalized offers, as well as suggestions to book again if it's been awhile since their last appointment.

  Whatever your business, Mailchimp can help you integrate SMS into the rest of your marketing efforts with a powerful set of tools, automations, and analytics that work alongside your email and social media campaigns.

• Is SMS marketing effective?

  SMS marketing can be very effective. Recent research shows that a majority of consumers prefer to receive marketing communications through SMS, and open rates for text messages can be extremely high. SMS marketing offers a direct, immediate, and personal channel to reach customers with timely notifications and offers. When used strategically and in compliance with regulations, SMS marketing has the potential to drive conversions, increase customer loyalty, and strengthen relationships with your brand.

• How do I collect mobile numbers for SMS marketing?

  There are a number of ways to responsibly collect numbers for SMS marketing campaigns, including:

  1. Opt-in forms: Allows visitors to voluntarily provide their mobile numbers on your website or landing page to receive updates or promotions through SMS messages.

  2. Mobile keyword campaigns: Promote keyword campaigns where customers can text a specific word or code to a designated number to opt-in for SMS messages.

  3. Contests and giveaways: Organize contests or giveaways where participants can enter by providing their mobile numbers, giving you permission to send SMS marketing messages.

  4. Customer checkout process: During the online checkout process, offer an opt-in checkbox for customers to receive SMS updates or exclusive offers.

  Remember to clearly communicate the purpose, frequency, and content of the SMS messages to gain customers' trust and ensure compliance with privacy regulations.

• What is an SMS short code?

  An SMS short code is a special telephone number that’s shorter than a regular telephone number. They’re usually five or six characters long. SMS short codes can be easier to read and remember, and may improve engagement because it is faster-sending and can be more professional-looking.

• Does Mailchimp offer SMS short codes?

  As of December 12, 2024, Mailchimp offers short codes to customers with SMS marketing enabled. Get pricing and other information here.

• How do I enable SMS short codes?

  Once your SMS application is complete, visit your SMS Dashboard and submit a request for a short code. We’ll get back to you ASAP to complete registration! From start to finish, the process can take 8 to 12 weeks. You can use your existing number for SMS marketing while your application is pending.

• How can SMS marketing drive website traffic?

  Text messages can work like a shortcut straight to your site. When you send customers a message with a link to a new product launch, blog post, or special landing page, they can click through immediately without having to search for your website.

  The key is making it worthwhile with exclusive early access to a sale, a limited-time discount code, or content they specifically signed up to receive. Since SMS open rates are incredibly high compared to other channels, you'll see more people actually clicking through and landing on your site.

• How can sellers set up SMS campaigns?

  Getting started with an SMS campaign is simple with most SMS marketing platforms, especially Mailchimp. You'll first need to build your subscriber list by getting explicit permission from customers — this could be through a signup form on your website, a keyword they text to your number, or a checkbox at checkout.

  Once you have subscribers, you can create your message, choose your audience, and schedule when it goes out. The best SMS marketing service options let you segment your list so you're only texting people who'd actually be interested in what you're offering.

• What are the key features to look for in SMS marketing platforms?

  The right platform needs to handle the basics well while giving you room to grow. Look for strong automation capabilities that let you set up messages triggered by certain customer actions.

  Segmentation tools are crucial because you need to divide your audience by demographics, purchase history, or interests so you can send targeted, relevant texts.

  Personalization features like merge fields let you include customer names and other details to make messages feel custom. Integration with your existing tools, especially your e-commerce platform and email system, makes everything work together smoothly.

  Also, if you're managing large lists, you'll want a platform that supports high-volume sending with proper carrier rate management.

  Most SMS marketing platforms provide reporting tools that track the metrics that matter. You'll want to watch your delivery rates (how many messages actually reached subscribers), open rates (though these are typically very high for SMS), click-through rates if you included links, and conversion rates showing who took action.

  You should also monitor unsubscribe rates — if people are opting out frequently, your messages might be too frequent or not relevant enough.

  A/B testing different message versions helps you figure out what timing, wording, or offers get the best response so you can keep improving your SMS marketing strategy over time.

• What are some SMS marketing strategies for increasing sales?

  The most effective strategies focus on timing and relevance. For instance:

  • Abandoned cart reminders work incredibly well because you're reaching people who already showed purchase intent.
  • Flash sales with a countdown timer create urgency that drives quick decisions. You can convert email to SMS subscribers by offering exclusive text-only deals that reward people for signing up.
  • Post-purchase follow-ups asking for reviews or suggesting complementary products keep the relationship going.
  • Product restocks and back-in-stock alerts help you capture demand you might otherwise miss.

  The key across all these strategies is timing. Send SMS messages when customers are most likely to act, not just when it's convenient for you.

• Does Mailchimp's SMS marketing software have API capabilities and no-code automation?

  Yes on both fronts. Mailchimp recently launched SMS Contacts via the API, which lets developers and sophisticated users build custom integrations. Shopify already uses this to pull SMS contacts into Mailchimp.

  For no-code automation, automated workflows gives you a drag-and-drop tool to create and automate coordinated email and SMS campaigns.

  Automated campaigns work by setting up triggers that send messages based on actions customers take or specific dates. For example, when someone abandons their cart, an automation can send them a reminder text an hour later. Or if a customer's birthday is coming up, you can send them a special discount with automation.

  Many SMS marketing platforms offer no-code tools like Mailchimp's automated workflows that make this easy — you simply drag and drop different steps to map out your customer journey, choosing what action triggers each message and when it should be sent.

• Does Mailchimp's SMS marketing software allow personalized messaging and audience segmentation?

  Yes. You can personalize messages using merge fields to include customer data like names, and segment your audience based on demographics, interests, and purchase history to send highly targeted and relevant texts.

• How can Mailchimp's SMS marketing tools help me engage my audience effectively?

  Mailchimp's SMS tools provide a direct, immediate communication channel that complements your email strategy. You can send highly personalized and time-sensitive messages like flash sale alerts, appointment reminders, or order updates, which get high open and engagement rates.

  By unifying customer data from email and SMS, you create targeted segments and automated journeys that reach people with the right message on their preferred channel at the perfect moment.

• Is Mailchimp a good SMS marketing platform for managing large subscriber lists?

  Mailchimp supports SMS short codes (5-6 digit numbers) that send up to 100 messages per second and manages carrier rate limits through throttling, ensuring compliant delivery to audiences of up to 200,000 per day for certain carriers.

  Advanced segmentation tools and scalable pricing — where costs per message decrease with volume — make it cost-effective for large-scale campaigns.