<h2>What Makes an Effective SMS or Text Promotion?</h2><p>You’re probably here because you want an SMS campaign idea that you can plug and play. Rest assured,&nbsp;<em>we’re going to give you several</em>. But we also think it’s helpful to understand the elements that make text promotions effective. If you want to attract new customers or bring existing ones back, your messages should have the following three elements:</p><h3>Personalization</h3><p>It’s possible to send a mass campaign, and make each text unique without extra work. Using&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://help.simpletexting.com/simpletexting-academy/improving-your-targeting/personalizing-messages-using-custom-fields">custom fields</a>, you can include your customers’ first names at the beginning of your messages. Of course, personalization isn’t just about addressing your contacts by their names. It’s also about sending relevant messages. Don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to your SMS marketing. Be sure to use&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://help.simpletexting.com/simpletexting-academy/improving-your-targeting/creating-audience-segments">segments and lists</a>&nbsp;to keep your audience organized by location, age, interest, opt-in source, etc. Then send each of these groups personalized messages.</p><h3>Timeliness</h3><p>SMS has a significantly&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://simpletexting.com/email-vs-text/">higher open rate than email</a>. Research shows that somewhere around 98% of texts are read. Still, when you send your message is important. Consider when you want your contacts to take action. If you run a restaurant and needs to bring people in for lunch, it’s a good idea to let people know about your daily special around 11:30—when stomachs begin to rumble. If you manage an entertainment venue that needs to sell tickets to an upcoming event, you should probably send your message with more anticipation so that people have time to plan. Either way, there’s no need to sit with your finger on the send button. Using&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=scheduled+texts+simpletexting&amp;oq=scheduled+texts+simpletexting&amp;aqs=chrome..69i57j69i61j0l4.2792j0j4&amp;sourceid=chrome&amp;ie=UTF-8">scheduled texts</a>, you can set your message to go out ahead of time.</p><h3>A Good Call-to-Action</h3><p>Every text promotion campaign has two calls-to-action (CTA). One asking people to sign up for messages, and another in the message itself. Both of these should tell people why they should care, and what they should. For the first CTA, it’s crucial to tell people what they’ll be getting when they subscribe to your SMS list. This isn’t just best practice, it’s required for&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://simpletexting.com/sms-compliance/">SMS compliance</a>. And as for the content of your texts, be sure to give customers a next step—whether that’s buying something from your e-commerce store or reserving a spot at your next event.</p><h3>Avoid Overhyping Your Offer</h3><p>There’s no need to use ALL CAPS. And definitely avoid excessive use of exclamation marks or words like free. If you do,&nbsp;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=280yPTyei0U">you risk coming off like this</a>. Remember, customers know a good deal when they see one. If you’re confident that what you’re offering is enticing, then you don’t need to promote it with gimmicks or flowery language.</p>