Let’s set the scene: You’ve been away from your phone or computer for two hours (either you had a long meeting or maybe just finished a movie). When you go to reconnect with the world, what’s the first thing you are going to do? If you’re like me, you’re going to check your text messages. It’s not just me—texting is the most used form of communication for US adults under 50.

In today's fast-moving, challenging competitive landscape, building closer relationships with your customers can be the difference between holding onto a user or seeing them lapse. But to make that happen, brands need to find ways to communicate with customers in ways that mirror how those users communicate with friends and family—after all, if you want to humanize your relationship with consumers, don't miss out on the channels that humans are using!

One way to do that is by including SMS as a channel in your brand's marketing channel mix. Thankfully, that's something that the Braze platform makes easy. Our flexible, open ecosystem allows marketers to integrate SMS into their existing cross-channel marketing strategy, amplifying the impact of this key channel. Plus, the drag-and-drop interface built into our platform's Canvas Flow customer journey tool supports easy construction and review of each user's journey as they receive various messages across channels and move toward deeper loyalty.

How to leverage SMS

The goal of an SMS is to send a user a message when they are not currently interacting with your brand and nudge them to visit your app or website. This is a premium channel and it’s at its best when it’s leveraged to deliver simple but compelling messages. Make sure that the messages you’re sending in this channel are urgent ones: After all, 90% of SMS marketing messages are opened within three minutes! Keep SMS as a high-value prop by limiting its use to these urgent, high-importance messages (especially transactional ones!). Messages that are very important but not urgent or messages that are time-sensitive but low-importance aren’t a good fit for SMS and, as a rule, should be sent through other channels.

Curious what effective SMS messaging campaigns look like? Check out these three impactful campaigns:

Campaign #1: Welcome Text

Setting up a welcome message is a crucial first-step to a positive user experience. Get off on the right foot by giving users a warm welcome when they join your text program. Offering a discount is a great incentive for users to opt-in to receiving your messages and could bring in new potential shoppers. This campaign can be set up as an action-based message that is triggered when someone texts your brand with a designated keyword, such as “JOIN,” as in this example. It makes for a great addition to any onboarding flow and allows users to opt in for another way to get in touch with your brand.

Campaign #2: New product promotion

Since SMS is a premium channel, it should be used to reach premium customers. Build dynamic audiences within Braze to identify your loyal users, and use SMS to show them how much you appreciate their loyalty and make them feel special. Giving text subscribers exclusive content, such as early access to new launches, is the perfect way to demonstrate that you value your customers while also driving sales. In this example, a promotional message can be scheduled to be sent at the time of the collection’s release. To keep the recipient feeling like a VIP, take advantage of Liquid personalization to tailor the messages to each recipient, like by addressing the user by their first name.

Campaign #3: Abandoned Cart Campaign

Looking to drive more engagement and revenue? Consider setting up an action-based campaign to follow up with users who have not made a purchase. Build this message by filtering your audience to those that have an item in their cart but haven’t converted. This example utilizes the Braze platform’s Connected Content dynamic content personalization feature to add in the name of the product and its related photo into the text to remind users of exactly what they’re missing. You can also make for an easy purchase by adding a deep link that takes the customer right to their shopping cart.

Final Thoughts

We want SMS to be part of your brand’s toolbox as you work to build out engaging customer journeys across many different channels. Looking for step-by-step examples for building effective campaigns? The Braze Inspiration Guide (BIG) provides targeted guidance on use cases for encouraging customer activation, monetization, and retention. ​​Get the full Braze Inspiration Guide and take your customer engagement to the next level.