Promotional text messages are easy to overlook as a viable marketing strategy for businesses of all sizes. But, with click-through rates of up to 30% and conversion rates of around 9%, it’s a channel too good to ignore.

As with other lead generation efforts, success lies in the execution. So, that’s exactly what we’ll discuss below: how to write promotional text messages that generate more sales.

Benefits of Sending Promotional Text Messages to Customers

Many of the benefits of promotional messages align with other text message marketing efforts. That said, here are the main ones that specifically apply to promotional text messages.

1. Higher Open Rate

As mentioned, promotional text messages can have click-through rates of up to 30%. Compared to email (which sits around 12%), this is a major increase.

2. Increased Exposure

Sending promotional offers to existing customers can be a great way to draw in new business. How? Quite simply, your existing customers forward the text to their friends and family, so they can all share the code.

3. Direct Sales Conversion

Promotional text messages are a form of direct marketing, which is great for generating more sales from existing customers. It’s easy to personalize text messages and group customers based on buying preferences and demographics.

4. It’s Cost-effective

Promotional text messages are an incredibly cost-effective form of marketing. The study linked above found that the earning per message for promotional text messages averaged more than $8.

How to Write Promotional Text Messages

Writing text messages isn’t difficult, but writing promotional messages that convert can be a challenge. Once you’ve got some, though, you can set up SMS templates for marketing that you can reuse in the future.

Here are some tips for writing promotional text messages that deliver results.

• Be sure to mention your business, as the customer might not have received contact from you before.
• Keep it concise. SMS messages have varying character counts, but you should ideally keep it shorter than one message.
• Use a CTA. After all, the goal is to generate leads, so make sure you direct your customer to action.
• Don’t shorten URLs. Some service providers see shortened URLs as potential phishing scams, so always use a full, branded URL.
• Add emojis. Gone are the days when emojis were unprofessional. That said, don’t overdo it.
• Add an image. While not always necessary, if you’re promoting a product, adding an image will work in your favour.
• Always get permission. Make sure a customer has opted in to receive messages from your business.
• Send at the right times. Also, ensure you’re sending messages during normal business hours. This applies to all SMS marketing but is worth mentioning here.

What is the Best Time to Send Promotional Text Messages?

While nothing is stopping you from sending promotional texts every week, there’ll come a time when your audience loses interest. As such, it’s best to save them for specific events. These include:

• Holiday promotions (Christmas, Black Friday, etc.)
• Seasonal sales
• Flash sales
• Product launches
• Launching a prize draw

Whatever event you choose, make sure your promotional message aligns with the goal you’re trying to achieve. For example, there’s no point telling customers about Black Friday deals in March.

Flash sales and seasonal discounts are perfect for getting rid of old stock at the end of a season. Of course, promotional messages of this kind are best done as part of a wider marketing strategy, but they’re great for generating business.

Promotional Text Examples: Templates

As mentioned, writing promotional text messages isn’t difficult once you’ve got the hang of what generates leads. Sometimes, the best way to do this is with templates.

So, here are some promotional text examples that you can use as SMS templates for marketing.

After reading through them, spend some time putting together a few messages of your own just to get a feel of what promotional messages need. You could always test campaigns on small demographics to get a feel for their success.

1. Holiday Sales

Ding-dong merrily in a high-end fashion! Get your loved ones something extravagant this Christmas with 25% of designer labels.
Shop today using the code MERRY25 and receive free shipping too.

2. Discount Codes

As a thank you for being a loyal customer, get 15% off your next shop with us!
Got friends who will love our products, too? Send them the code NEW10 for 10% off every new order.

3. Flash Sales

Get on it! We’re running a flash sale on all departments for the next 2 days ONLY!
Treat yourself to that new bedding set you’ve been eyeing up and receive up to 50% off across our product line. Visit our site for more details.

4. Product Launch

The time is nearly here for our new church boots to go live! Lines are limited, but use the link below for early access and get them before they’re gone!

5. SMS Campaign

Are those winter blues getting you down? Bring some sunshine back into your life with a fresh new do at Slinky Cutz. Book an appointment with your favourite stylist here.

Keeping in Touch with Textr

Keep in touch with your customers and plan promotional messaging campaigns using Textr’s business texting app. Set up promotional text messages to generate more leads and close more sales for your business.

Textr offers flexible price plans for businesses of all sizes. So, whether you’re looking to expand or just getting started, we have a plan to suit your needs.

Better yet, use Textr’s Free Carrier Look Up tool to get vital information about your customers’ phone numbers before developing your campaign. It can help you tailor your services, streamline demographics, and more.

Final Thoughts on Promotional Text Messages

As you can see, promotional text messages hold plenty of value for businesses. Sending out discount codes is great for generating leads and bringing in new business.

Use the promotional text examples above as inspiration for your own, and don’t forget to follow the best practices!