Digital communication is king in 2024 - just as it has been for at least 20 years. 

However, SMS marketing has emerged as an efficient market for savvy e-commerce brands that don’t want to try and outspend their competitors in other saturated ad verticals. In turn, text message marketing is becoming more competitive, and poor SMS deliverability can severely impact your brand's ROAS and overall ROI. 

Luckily, the team at Emotive has put together a comprehensive guide on SMS deliverability so that your messages reach their intended recipients, enriching your customer engagement and boosting your marketing effectiveness.

Ready to step your game up?

1. Ensure Compliance with Regulations

Why Compliance Matters

One of the most critical aspects of SMS marketing is adherence to regulations, such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the United States or the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. Non-compliance can lead to penalties, legal issues, and a damaged reputation.

How to Stay Compliant

  • Obtain Explicit Consent: Always get explicit consent from customers before sending them marketing messages. This can be achieved through sign-up forms, checkboxes, or text-to-join campaigns.

  • Provide Clear Opt-out Options: Make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe from your messages. A simple "Reply STOP to opt-out" at the end of each SMS can suffice.

  • Keep Records: Maintain detailed records of consents and opt-outs to ensure you can demonstrate compliance if needed.

2. Segment Your Audience

Benefits of Segmentation

Segmentation allows you to send targeted messages to specific groups within your audience, increasing the relevance of your content and improving engagement rates.

Effective Segmentation Strategies

  • Demographics: Segment your audience based on age, gender, location, etc.

  • Behavioral Data: Use past purchase behavior, browsing history, and engagement metrics to create tailored segments.

  • Preferences: Allow customers to set their preferences for the types of messages they wish to receive.

Proper segmentation is tough to achieve if you aren’t working with accurate first-party data. If your attribution is questionable, your campaign results often will be as well.

3. Optimize Your Message Content

Crafting Engaging Messages

An effective SMS should be concise, engaging, and valuable to the recipient. Poorly crafted messages can lead to high opt-out rates and a negative impact on deliverability.

Tips for Optimizing Content

  • Personalization: Use the recipient's name and tailor the message to their interests and behaviors.

  • Clear Call to Action (CTA): Make sure your CTA is clear and compelling, guiding the recipient towards the desired action.

  • Timing: Send messages at optimal times when recipients are likely to engage, such as during lunch breaks or early evenings.

4. Use a Reliable SMS Provider

Importance of a Reliable Provider

The quality of your SMS provider can significantly impact your deliverability rates. A reliable provider ensures that your messages are sent promptly and efficiently, without getting caught in spam filters.

Choosing the Right Provider

  • Reputation and Reviews: Look for providers with positive reviews and a strong reputation in the industry.

  • Delivery Rates and Speed: Ensure that the provider offers high delivery rates and fast message transmission.

  • Support and Integration: Choose a provider that offers robust customer support and seamless integration with your existing systems.

5. Monitor and Analyze Performance

Continuous Improvement

Regular monitoring and analysis of your SMS campaigns are crucial for identifying areas of improvement and optimizing your strategies for better deliverability and higher ROAS.

Key Metrics to Track

  • Delivery Rate: The percentage of sent messages that were successfully delivered.

  • Open Rate: The percentage of delivered messages that were opened by recipients.

  • Click-through Rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who clicked on a link within the message.

  • Unsubscribe Rate: The percentage of recipients who opted out of receiving future messages.

Working with a professional SMS platform will also let you develop unique data points for your brand to focus on. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to SMS deliverability or sky-high ROI, but our experienced team at Emotive has helped thousands of brands achieve success at both.

Kickstart Your SMS Campaigns with Emotive

Improving SMS deliverability is essential for maximizing the ROI of your marketing campaigns - but you can waste a lot of money trying and failing if you don’t have proper guidance .

That’s where the dynamic team at Emotive comes in.

We’re experienced, we’re constantly working to stay ahead of SMS marketing trends, and we’re easy to work with.

Most importantly, our clients see over 5x ROI and increased deliverability on SMS campaigns.

Still not sure? 

We’ll give you $100 just to see if we can talk the talk.

Sign up for a demo today ↓