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SMS marketing

Maximize your SMS revenue

Quickly grow your owned marketing revenue by launching SMS, and sending weekly SMS campaigns. 

Launch a pop-up form targeted to your email subscribers encouraging them to join your SMS list. Set up an SMS welcome series and send at least one campaign per week.

Your SMS marketing checklist

Launch at least 1 form collecting SMS consent. Use click to text for mobile forms. 


Collect SMS consent at check-out––whether you use Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento 2, or another platform.


Collect SMS consent through Facebook Lead Ads and send those contacts to Klaviyo.


Launch an SMS-only welcome series flow. 


Include a virtual contact card in your welcome series. Virtual contact cards can reduce unsubscribe rates by 3x, according to Klaviyo research. Drop the contact card a few messages into your welcome 

series. Offer value in the first few messages before you ask someone to save your number in their phone. 


Launch at least 2 flows actively sending SMS. Besides the SMS welcome series, which should be SMS-only, these can be SMS-only or combined email & SMS flows. Prioritize the following flows: 


 

Send your first SMS campaign.


Send 4 SMS campaigns per month, at least one per week. 


Segment your SMS sends to increase volume to 2-3 per week with personalized messages.


Maintain a 7% SMS click rate. 
 

•  Welcome series

•  Abandoned cart

•  Order confirmation

•  Back-in-stock

•  Price drop

Best practices & strategic guidance

Follow the best practices below to grow your SMS list, optimize your SMS flows, build SMS campaigns, and drive more revenue. 

SMS forms and list growth

Use a multi-step form to collect both email and phone numbers.

Use the Klaviyo AI form optimization tool to A/B test form timing for optimal conversion.

If you’re importing historic SMS consent, make sure you are not reconsenting profiles that have recently unsubscribed. 
 

Quick tip

People who initially consented to SMS but later unsubscribed pose regulatory risk. To minimize risk, aim to import your SMS subscribers into Klaviyo as soon as you download the list from your previous provider. 

Learn more about importing SMS consent.

Regulatory risk & importing SMS consent

SMS flows

For attribution purposes, always include a shortened or branded link in SMS messages within flows. In Klaviyo, the “automatically shorten links” button is checked by default in your account. Do not uncheck it, and you’ll be good to go.

To avoid sending text messages outside of normal marketing communication hours, turn on SMS quiet hours for all SMS messages in your flows.

Use Smart Sending in SMS messages within flows, or filter them effectively to avoid any overlap across other flows. This is especially important if you have multiple abandonment flows live (i.e., browse, cart, and check-out abandonment).

Include virtual contact cards in your SMS welcome series to allow subscribers to save your contact. Adding your brand logo helps the user immediately recognize your brand to help cut through all the noise in the text message inbox.

Adhere to local compliance laws and regulations regarding what kinds of marketing messages you can send via text and when.

Quick tip

The Klaviyo defaults are set with compliance in mind. The compliance settings are best handled by teams with an outside counsel that want to adjust their SMS marketing to match regional normals. If you are new to SMS marketing, you'll find leaving the defaults enabled makes it easier. 

Klaviyo compliance settings

SMS campaigns

For attribution purposes, always include a shortened or branded link in SMS campaign messages. In Klaviyo, the “automatically shorten links” button is checked by default in your account. Do not uncheck it, and you’ll be good to go.

Do not put links at the beginning of a campaign. Campaigns with links at the beginning of the message have a 2% lower median click rate.

If you are considering using MMS—adding images or gifs to SMS—consider running an A/B test to see whether SMS or MMS will prove more effective for a given audience or campaign. MMS is more expensive, and 95% of A/B tests show that SMS performs the same or better in terms of click rates and order rate—at a reduced cost.

When considering if you should use MMS vs SMS, keep in mind that MMS also gives you more characters to work with, so if you are planning on sending a longer message (especially with emojis) it might make sense to send it as an MMS. Testing what works best for your brand and the type of message is important.

Quick tip

Write shorter SMS messages. 

Shorter SMS messages, in terms of characters and new lines, earn higher click rates.

Personalize your SMS campaigns. 

Personalized campaigns earn higher click rates. This can be as simple as adding in a first name, or more complex like targeting specific content to specific segments. 

A/B test emojis in SMS messages. 

Campaigns featuring emojis, on average, earn lower click rates and are generally more expensive. Consider A/B testing what works best for your brand.
 

How to improve your SMS campaign click rates:

If you do nothing else: Send at least one SMS campaign per week

Setting the stage matters: 
When adding the SMS channel, make sure you turn on an SMS welcome flow. This is a critical early step in launching your SMS program because it sets expectations with your audience. 

Not sure what to send? 
Get actionable SMS copywriting tips, or use SMS AI to generate optimized, compliant SMS copy suggestions in seconds.

While top-performing brands execute multiple tactics to see results, adding SMS as a channel is a top strategy to accelerate your business growth. If you aren’t already, start sending at least one SMS campaign per week.

Start sending texts

More inspiration & use cases 

3 SMS campaigns use cases from Fast Growing Trees, Otherland, and Linksoul

Learn more

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