160 characters, infinite revenue: The SMS framework every brand needs
In this podcast episode Jimmy Kim and co‑host Chase Diamond break down the unique constraints and opportunities of SMS marketing. They explain why SMS differs from email—limited 160‑character space, immediacy, intimacy, and higher cost—and introduce a simple 3‑part copy structure (hook, value, action). The conversation walks through concrete formulas for common SMS use‑cases (abandoned cart, replenishment, VIP/early‑access drops, flash or mystery sales) and shows how to tailor timing, tone, and link destinations. They share detailed AI prompts that generate and compress SMS copy, enforce character limits, and produce multiple variations keyed to psychological triggers (urgency, scarcity, curiosity, social proof, loss aversion). Testing best practices are covered: isolating one variable at a time, experimenting with message length, emoji usage, CTA wording, and send timing while monitoring clicks, conversions, and opt‑out rates. Common pitfalls—over‑wordy messages, excessive frequency, and lack of segmentation—are highlighted, followed by advanced tips such as leveraging micro‑moments, personalizing landing pages, and scaling variation testing with AI. The episode also includes sponsor plugs for Omnisend and SuperScale and promotes the upcoming Commerce Roundtable Retention Roadshow.
Chapters
SMS always needs to be contextual. If they've abandoned a cart, reference the cart. If they bought 30 days ago, reference replenishment. You've got to be pretty clear.
The reason being SMS is more intrusive. You just don't want to hammer people.
Popular way to use SMS. It's all about timing, convenience.
You know, SMS needs to be human, not corporate-y.
You've got to check your opt-out rate because if your opt-out rate spikes, something's usually a bit wrong.
First mistake is being too wordy. You know, people are trying to fit way too much into a Less is more with SMS.
Say one thing clearly. That's the number one cardinal rule.
From the open to the click, they're the masters of the flow. Just watch your list grow and your leads turn to go. Did we retain you so far, or do we have to extend it? If you want results, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it. Yeah, you know you gotta send it.
Welcome back to the Welcome back to Send It, where we discuss anything and everything retention marketing, specifically in email and SMS marketing and e-commerce. My name is Jimmy Kim and I'm here with my co-host.
Chase Diamond.
All right, Chase, this is confession time because everybody needs to hear this because the truth is, well, when I first started writing SMS copy, I basically took like subject lines and set them as text. You remember that?
Yeah, definitely relatable. Probably all did that to some degree, right? You do something like, hey, check out our new collection, and then you just have a link, right?
Right. And it didn't really work often. Usually the click rates were kind of terrible and opt-out rates were pretty high. And I think we learned that was that we basically learned that SMS is completely different medium. Basically, it's a different psychology, a different constraint, and there's really ultimately different expectations when it comes down to it.
Yeah, exactly. You really just cannot shrink an email. I think SMS copywriting is its own skillset that people deserve to pay more attention to.
And look, I'll add something else to that. I think it's actually harder than email often because you have less space to make your point.
Yeah, it's like what Twitter and X was, I guess, back in the day when it was confined by characters, but even shorter and, and therefore harder. You know, you have like 160 characters to Grab attention, create desire, and drive some sort of action.
Yeah. So today I wanted to do a pod where we're breaking down the formulas that actually work, including some AI stuff, like things like abandoned carts, replenishment, VIP drops, flash sales, and all of that stuff, right? And because I think that sharing these AI prompts that we use personally to generate SMS copy, because I think it's, I think this is where AI is actually really good at this and it happens when it's prompted correctly because AI forces the economy of language and, you know, you can also tell it to only write everything on 160 characters and cut the fluff out ultimately, right?
Heck yeah. Well, without further ado, let's dive in. All right.
Well, let's start with the fundamentals because I think that's where we always start and I always feel like it's good for the listeners here. So why do you think SMS copywriting is so different than email?
Yeah, that's a good question. I think there's kind of 4 primary differences. I think number one, first and foremost, is the obvious, which is the space. Then we have things like context as well as intimacy, right? Being in someone's actual phone, a little bit different than being in their inbox. And the last part is the cost. So starting with the space, as mentioned, 160 characters, dude, that can be kind of brutal. That's really not that much when you think about it. That's like Maybe 2-ish sentences, right?
Yeah, I think it's about 2. And don't forget, you know, things that people always often forget is not just 160 characters, but this includes your spaces, your brand name, and even the link ultimately.
Right. So say your link is 20 characters and your brand name's 15, you're really only left with 125 characters for the message that you're trying to send to people.
So essentially every word that you put in has to almost earn its place.
Yeah. Whereas with email, it can be flowery and kind of descriptive, where with SMS, it's more thought of to be surgical. And I think, as you mentioned, AI is actually quite good and helpful here because you can ask it to compress your message without losing the core idea. So I'll often write like a longer version of what I actually want to say, and I'll tell the AI to compress it to like 130, 140 characters while really keeping the urgency and value proposition there.
Yeah, I definitely agree with you on the AI side because it's way better at cutting these words than I am because I'm generally too attached to my words.
Look, AI has no feelings. They have no ego.
Yeah.
Your second one you said was context. When someone's reading an email, they're usually at their computer or they're like checking their email actively on their phone ultimately. But SMS is interruptive, right? Whatever they're doing, they're getting interrupted by that thing or that message or that popup and they're in line at a store or driving. Well, Hopefully not reading and driving, but that might be happening. And then, or they might be even meeting. So basically you were getting like 3 seconds of attention, right?
Right. Yeah. If that. So your message really needs to be instantly scannable. You know, the person on the other end that's receiving it should instantly understand, you know, the value and the action in one single glance.
Yeah. Which ultimately means that the message has to be front-loading the most important information right up front.
Exactly. And, you know, you don't want to bury the lead. If it's a sale, say that first. If it's about to expire, then say that first. And then the third difference that I mentioned before was intimacy. SMS is a lot more personal than email is.
Yeah, man. Text messaging is, well, it's usually from people you know, like your friends, your family, maybe your boss or some work colleague. You know, that's usually who's texting you.
Right. So this marketing text is really an interruption to someone's personal space.
Which means, I would add to that, it means that you need to earn intimacy, right? You need to earn that intimacy and you can't be overly salesy or even too corporate.
Exactly. SMS should feel like giving, you know, advice to a friend, right? Giving a friend some kind of heads up, not some sort of corporate billboard that shouts at you.
Yeah. And this is why I think tone matters so much in SMS. You have to sound as human, as authentic as possible.
Right. You know, contractions, casual language, and even things like sentence fragments are fine. You know, sale ends tonight is better than our sale will be ending tonight.
Yeah, good point. All right. So the 4th one, what was that? Oh, it was cost, right? Because I think this is something people forget. Email is unlimited often or very low cost and SMS, Well, not only are you taking up space in their message app, but it costs a lot of money.
Yeah. And if you're on a plan with limited texts, it's literally costing you money to send and them money to receive.
Yeah. Which means you better be delivering value because every text needs to be worth it.
Yeah, exactly. And frequency also matters so much more here with SMS. If you text someone the same frequency as email, 3, 4, 5, 6 times a week, people are going to opt out pretty quickly.
Unless every text is genuinely valuable or time-sensitive, right?
And with that, it just kind of solidifies the need to segment better and segment harder with SMS than email. You really only want to send to people who actually need the message right now. And by the way, I know kind of hot off the press, but did you see Omnisend lower their SMS prices to like What was it like 0.007 or something?
Yeah, I saw that.
Dude, what a wild move, right? Like, I remember when texts were a penny or 2 a cent. So pretty cool of Omnisend to actually make that drastic move and cut costs for SMS. So with that, right, let's talk now about the actual formula for writing effective SMS copy.
Okay. Yeah, that's a good place to go to next. Okay. So I think a high-performing SMS message follows like a 3-part structure.
Okay. What structure do you think that looks like?
It's like hook, value, action. That's really it.
So if they don't open the text, this is all they see, right?
Yeah, exactly. The hook is like your first like 5 to 10 words. It's like the preview, right? It shows exactly in that notification side of things.
Got it. So that's, sorry, that's what I was talking about, the preview, correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then what makes like a good hook?
Well, a good hook does one of 3 things. It usually creates urgency, it creates curiosity, or It states like an immediate value.
Do you have any examples for these ones?
Sure. Urgency, things like sale ends in three hours might be your hook, right? Or you might have curiosity, like something like you're not going to believe this, and dot dot dot, right? Or value. I think value is a simple one, which is like your order just shipped early, for example.
Nice. I like those, and I believe that these work because they give the reader an actual reason to. Open and pay attention right away.
Yeah, because things like hi Chase is not a hook. That's kind of filler information.
Right. So people don't need to be wasting characters on those types of pleasantries, right?
Oh yeah, dude, you gotta get right to the point.
For sure. And I think the second part you mentioned was value, and, and that's really answering like what's in it for them. Is that right?
Hey, quick 60-second break to shout out our title sponsor, Omnisend. If you don't know them, Omnisend is an all-in-one email and SMS platform built specifically for e-commerce. They've trusted by over 155,000 merchants with a 4.8 rating star on Shopify's marketplace with over 2,800+ reviews. People love using them. Their support is incredible, responsive team, great help docs, and they actually show up when you need them. Look, everyone loves saving a buck. They've got great features and great pricing. Listen, I've heard this inside the community that someone actually dropped their bill by almost 50% and then included their SMS costs, which is absolutely wild. Another agency that we talked to shared He shifted all his clients over when he discovered that he can save them 30 to 60% off of their actual monthly bill. And taking that money and reinvesting into ads, and that real money is going to come back into your pocket too because you're helping them out or whatever it might be. With all this, I literally just helped Chase migrate his personal list to Omnisend not too long ago. It was super easy. They got team, they have an automated solution. It's really great. So if you're looking to scale your email and SMS game, check out omnisend.com/sendit. Tell them Chase and Jimmy sent you. Now back to your pod. Yeah, that's where you state the benefit or offer and why they should care ultimately.
Cool. Do you have some examples of those ones?
Yeah, like a good value benefit offer would be like, your cart is still waiting, grab before it sells. It's pretty straight to the point. Or like restock now and save 15% or early access to our new drop starts now.
Nice. So you're really being specific about what they're going to get.
Right, because it's not check out our store or grab your cart or restock now. These are really vague terms. You want to get to the point because that's all the time you have.
Exactly. And you're really trying to tie it to what they've already shown interest in, right?
Yeah. So SMS always needs to be contextual. If they've abandoned a cart, reference the cart. If they bought 30 days ago, reference replenishment. You've got to be pretty clear.
Absolutely. And the last part that you mentioned, I think part 3 was around the action. You know, that's basically answering like, what do you want them to do?
Yeah, dude, it's the same thing like the last part right here. You've got to be crystal clear. One action, simply stated.
What are some examples for those ones?
Dude, this is easy. Things like shop now link or reorder here link or claim yours link. You know, you've got to be so straightforward.
Yeah. So being here, short, clear, direct, and actionable.
Yep. And the link should be shortened so it doesn't eat up 50 characters. Let me just add that there too.
Yeah, good point. Um, and I think like a best brand practice here is, you know, using branded short domains like yourbrand.link instead of a fake looking URL if possible, right?
Yeah, that's right. So look, let's put this together real quick. So here's like a full SMS formula in action right here. So you might have that emoji where it's like the siren and it's like, sale ends in 3 hours. Your favorites are still in stock. Grab them before midnight. Link. Pretty simple, right?
Perfect. Perfect. So let's break that down so it's clear. The hook would be sale ends in 3 hours with the alert, kind of the alert emoji for visual urgency.
Yeah. And then you got the value, which is like your favorites are still in stock. So you're kind of making that personal and relevant for them.
And then the last part is the action that says grab them before midnight, which is super clear. And drives that urgency.
Yeah. And that total character count to that SMS is about 85 characters, plus of course the link. So it's pretty clean and effective. Yeah.
And the key there is also what's not there, right? It doesn't say, hey Jimmy. It doesn't say from, you know, X, Y, and Z brand. There's just no fluff.
Yeah, right. Because essentially every word earns its place when you do it this way.
Exactly. So now let's get into some more specific formulas for different types of SMS, yeah?
Okay, yeah, because, you know, abandoned cart SMS is different from, like, a replenishment SMS, I would say, right?
Yeah. Let's run through some big ones. So I'd say abandoned cart's probably the most common SMS use case. What's the formula here?
Dude, it's so simple. It's hook with the product, value with an urgency action with a friction removal, basically.
Do you mind sharing like a tangible example?
Yeah, something simple. Let's try to keep this simple. It's like, your product name is still waiting. Are you still interested? Complete the checkout in one tap. Here's the link.
Nice. So you're naming the specific product that they abandoned. You're being very specific and direct.
Yeah, because honestly, if you write just like in your cart versus like your black running shoes or whatever they added, it's such a different intense, like, Value-add text ultimately.
100%. And then like complete checkout in one tap is going to reduce any amount of friction possible.
Yeah. And even if it's not completely true, you're making it sound very easy.
In terms of the timing, when should this actually send, do you think?
Yeah, my favorite timing around this is like 2 to 4 hours after abandonment, not immediately, because, well, often, especially if they're shopping on mobile, they kind of forget.
And you only send 1 SMS here, not 3 like you might with email?
Yeah, like 1 SMS, maybe a follow-up in about 24 hours or so if they don't convert, but that's really it.
Right. And the reason being SMS is more intrusive. You just don't want to hammer people.
Yeah. And if you're thinking about something else, I mean, I think you mentioned it earlier, which is replenishment SMS, which is another popular way to use SMS. It's all about timing and convenience.
And what's the go-to kind of formula for this one?
Okay, so this one would be like hook the usage timing, value with convenience, and then action with a one-click reorder again.
You know, I'm going to ask, but what's the example? Okay.
Okay. So running low, it's been 30 days since your last order, restock with one click.
Love it, dude. So with this, you're acknowledging the kind of natural usage cycle that someone might be in.
Yeah. And you add that restock in one click to emphasize how easy it is.
And what are your thoughts including— in terms of including incentives for this type of SMS?
I'm indifferent here. I think if you really want to, you could put like restock now and save 10%. But honestly, convenience is often mostly enough.
Right. If someone likes a product and they actually need it, they're going to reorder, right? You don't need to discount.
Yeah. And that's exactly right. And, you know, AI can help you with test variations of this. I'll ask it to generate 5 versions of different emphasis from like urgency, convenience, value, scarcity, and habit. And you know, it gives you a lot of options.
Yeah, and with that you have to just test to see what performs best for the given specific audience.
Yeah, that's right.
What are your thoughts about like VIP or early access drops?
Those are one of my favorite use cases for SMS. This is all about exclusivity and status that you can earn.
Do you have an example for this?
Yeah, dude. This one's again, super simple. Hook with an exclusivity line, value with some drop detail, and then you'll have an action with the time constraint.
Cool. And then make that tangible. What is— what does this sample message look like?
Yeah. So VIP early access starts now. Shop the new collection before everyone else. 24 hours only. And there's a link.
Love it. You're making them feel special, which is going to go a long way.
Yeah, that whole VIP early access reinforces the status part of that.
And the before everyone else creates that FOMO.
Yeah, and then you've got last plus the 24 hours only. That's the urgency formula part of it.
Yeah, what are your thoughts on telling them the actual product or keeping it a bit more vague?
You know, I think that depends. If it's a known drop, you want to be specific. Like you've got a specific product, your Nike Air Maxes restock is live, for example, VIP access for 24 hours.
Mm-hmm. But if it's a surprise or new collection?
Yeah, I would keep it vague because you want to kind of create the curiosity and say something new just dropped, you get first access.
Yeah. And I think the kind of the flash sale angle, it's probably the most common promotional SMS text that people send, right?
Yeah, brands love a good flash sale. And I think the formula is pretty straightforward. It's just pure urgency.
Yeah.
What does that look like?
I think like hook them with a time constraint because everyone hates time constraints. And then you add some value with an offer, an action with an immediate call to action.
All right.
Give me an example.
Dude, this one's easy. Like I put like a little lightning bolt and then I'd be like, 4-hour flash sale, 30% off everything, ends at midnight. Here's a link.
Easy, dude. Sure, urgent, and super clear.
And I love the little lightning emoji because it adds this like visual urgency for people.
Yeah. Have you ever run, or how do you think about like a mystery sale kind of style where you don't actually reveal the discount upfront?
Dude, I've tested this before. Flash sale happening now. Tap to see your discount. It kind of works really well for clicks because it works for a curiosity-driven audience.
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Yeah, you might get better clicks, but the conversions quite aren't there as much because you're gonna get a lot of, you know, Clickbait clicks, I guess, is what you think about. So, you know, people want to know what they're getting before they click. I think that's really what it comes down to.
For sure.
All right, Chase, so let's move on to AI prompts because that's where I wanted to head this conversation to. Let's share some AI prompts in SMS copy.
Let's do it. You know, we've been talking about this, but AI is amazing here once you prompt it correctly.
Yeah, so the key, I think, with any prompt is to be very specific about the character count, the psychological approach. You wanna kick us off with a good SMS prompt that you use?
Yeah. Okay. This is a bit meaty. Maybe we should link this somewhere in the show notes or something. But in terms of like a base SMS prompt, you're basically, it's gonna go like this. So write an SMS message for, you know, this use case. So for example, abandoned cart, and then here's the actual context. So A customer banded this specific product this long ago, right? So X, Y, and Z product, you know, X number of hours ago. And the goal here, right, is to drive them back to be able to complete their purchase. And with the brand voice, you wanna tell the AI to be casual, funny, premium, friendly, et cetera. And then in terms of the requirements, so you wanna make sure that you let AI know that this is a text with a maximum of 140 characters. And that is excluding kind of the link placeholder. And then you're gonna use this structure. So hook, right? So maybe urgent or curious, and then value, and then clear action. You wanna use maybe one emoji at max. Using conversational language is super important here, and contractions are actually fine. Don't include greetings or some sort of sign-off, and make sure that you end this with an action phrase plus link placeholder. So that's that part. And then what you're gonna do is one step further. You're gonna say, generate 5 variations using the following psychological triggers: urgency, something like time's running out now, scarcity, something's running low, social proof, AKA others are buying, loss aversion. So you have the chance of potentially losing this, and then value, whether that be some sort of price or benefit-focused message. And for each of these, give me the specific character count and note which trigger you actually used. I know that was kind of a lot.
No, I mean, dude, that was very comprehensive and that's how you create a prompt so that you can really get it 80, 90% of the way the first time. And you know, I'll add that you asking for a character count and a psychological breakdown is so key here.
Exactly. Because then I can see which approach might work best. And you know, I'm gonna also know too, like how much space I have to work with.
And I'll add the conversational language that you put there. Contra— contractions are fine. That's kind of important for SMS.
Right. You know, SMS needs to be human, not corporatey. What about you? Do you have a prompt that you can share here as well?
Yeah, I've got one I use when it's written something too long. Basically, I will write something and I wrote this SMS message because it's too long and I'll paste my message and then I'll say, Rewrite it for under 140 characters while keeping the core value proposition, maintaining urgency and psychological triggers, using shorter words and contractions, removing any filler words while keeping it conversational, human, and provide 3 compressed versions with character counts.
Dude, nice. That's sick. We need to make sure that people want these and need these, they have them. You know, whatnot. So, um, if you want these prompts, we're gonna try to include them. If we forget, just drop a comment letting us know prompt or something. But, um, this is good. I think this is really smart for when you have a message and it's just slightly long, right?
Yeah, dude. AI is perfect for this thing because it's such good, so good at finding the fat of the things that you do. Yeah.
And by asking for the 3 variations and the, or versions, you get options.
Yeah, dude. Sometimes getting like that second variation is tighter than the first one and sometimes variation 3 just hits So talking about testing, that's where we're kind of leading this to. You have a good prompt that kind of leads to good testing?
Yeah, I do. So in terms of like generating different test variations, so we're gonna say something to AI like, here's an SMS that's performing well. And in this instance, you're going to paste, you know, an existing SMS or 2 alongside kind of performance metrics. The more you can provide, the more details, et cetera. And what I want you to do is I want you to generate 5 new variations that test different psychological approaches. Keep the same structure, the hook, the value, and the action. Again, always stay under the 140-character limit, and you really need to maintain the same brand voice of the samples that we sent you. And each variation should test different things. So a different opening hook, whether that be urgency or curiosity. A different value framing. So whether it be the benefit or kind of the loss aversion, a different type of emoji. So change or remove different call to action wording, and then a different tone. So friendly, direct, serious. And for each, explain what you're testing and why you think it might perform differently.
Dude, I'm a big fan when you're feeding it what's working. I think this is something people don't do enough about in the market that gives AI Almost like a baseline of what it should expect.
Right. And then you're systematically testing variations of those specific elements.
And you know what I'll add? You're not just randomly generating, you're actually strategically testing AI.
That's right. And, and this is how you learn what works for your audience. Okay, so what about a replenishment prompt? You know, those are popular, right? Like I know our friends at Bold Commerce have a tool called Repeat. That does that?
Yeah, dude. Replenishment is probably one of the most underutilized SMS tactics in the market. So let's talk about it. If you're not using a tool like Repeat and you want to do it yourself, I'd give it a prompt like, generate SMS copy for a replenishment reminder. The context may be things like, here's what the product is. So like if it's a consumable product like coffee or something, customer's last order 30 days ago, for example, and the average user cycle is 30 days or 35 days. And current day versus expected reorder is like, I expect most people order around day 25, for example, right? And then I would add requirements and say, here are my requirements under 140 characters. Acknowledge timing naturally. Don't be creepy about it. Don't tell them exactly the dates. You want to emphasize convenience over urgency and make the reorder effortless. Mention one-click, for example, there. And then you want to generate 3 versions. One, it's a reminder. It's neutral. It's helpful. 2, gentle nudge basically that you might be running low, or like 3, which is that low urgency because they might be probably out, right? So for each, note the tone and when the cycle is best used. That's the prompt.
Dude, nice. Yeah, this is great because replenishment SMS does need different tones depending on where they are in the cycle.
Yeah, because if you're like 5 days early, you don't want to use urgency because there's Still there. And if you're 5 days late, you probably wanna add urgency there.
Dude, nice. This, this has been solid. Um, and you know, AI can generate the right tone for each of these scenarios. I think we should close today's pod out with kind of some testing frameworks and common mistakes. What do you think?
Yeah, that sounds good because even with good copy, you still need to test and optimize. That's definitely something you gotta add to this thing.
What should brands be testing with SMS?
Man, so I think there's 4 things I think about. So number 1 is like the psychological trigger, which is like the urgency to curiosity versus value. That's obvious. 2 is message length. More is not better always. 80 characters versus 140 characters. Try going shorter because people don't have time to read and you want to kind of keep the whole sell the sizzle, not the steak kind of situation here. Emoji usage, right? Try one, try none. I always try to tell people emojis are kind of Pretty, you think they create action, but on a text message, well, you've got their attention. And then, of course, the biggest thing that I love talking about, which is CTA wording, right? Shop now versus get yours versus claim it. Find that CTA that really works.
For sure. And I know you are, but I have to ask so the listeners know. You're most often testing one variable at a time, correct?
Yeah. There's no such thing as multivariable testing in SMS. You have to test one though. SMS, you have less volume than email, so sometimes you need to test bigger swings basically.
What about timing? When to send?
Yeah, I think that's worth testing too because an abandoned cart at 2 hours or 4 hours or 8 hours after abandonment, they all could work. It really depends on your brand and your price point.
Of course. And you're measuring click rate, conversion rate, et cetera, right?
Oh yeah. You've got to check your opt-out rate because if your opt-out rate spikes, something's Usually a bit wrong. Okay, let's talk about some common mistakes because I think this is what I think most people fail at. What do you see most when you go through common mistakes with SMS? Real quick one for you. Big news, Commerce Roundtable is hitting the road this June with Retention Roadshow. We're hitting 4 cities, New York, Miami, LA, and Austin. And here's what's really cool, this is a half-day workshop-style event built specifically for retention marketers. That's you. We're talking about tactical sessions with email, SMS, AI, and lifecycle. This is the stuff that moves the needle on repeat purchasing and LTV. And these will be small rooms. We're talking 75 to 100 people max. There won't be any fluff or high-level theory. This is really walking into the practicality. Plus, you're going to walk away with strategies that you can implement that week. Plus, we're going to include breakfast, lunch, and of course, plenty of networking to have real conversations with the great people around you. Look, tickets are limited because of the room sizes, so you can go over to commerceroundtable.com/roadshow. We're gonna put the link below and use this code SENDIT to get $25 off a ticket. It's not very expensive anyways to go. Again, we're coming to New York, Miami, LA. commerceroundtable.com/roadshow, code SENDIT. Come hang out with me, come hang out with Chase, Hang out with a bunch of retention marketers. Back to the pod.
Yeah, I'd say the first mistake is being too wordy. You know, people are trying to fit way too much into a single SMS.
Yeah, I agree with that. I see that all the time with brands I'm part of. Less is more with SMS. Say one thing clearly. That's the number one cardinal rule.
Exactly. And then the second mistake would have to probably be sending too frequently. You know, brands sometimes are texting 3, 4, 5 times a week, dude.
Yeah, I agree. That can be too much. What do you think is a good guideline for brands to listen to on this?
I'd say for most brands, it's somewhere in this ballpark of like 1 to 2 per week max. And some of those should be transactional, not just promotional.
Yeah, because like things like order confirmation, shipping updates, shipping delivery, those are like expected, but promotional should be rare.
Yeah, exactly. And then the third mistake would be no segmentation. They're sending Every SMS to the entire list, dude.
You know, I rant about this on social all the time. We learned this 20 years ago with email, but yet we do it on SMS. You should text people who are in the specific need of that message. I think that is the key here that you've got to think about.
100%. And if it's a cart abandonment SMS, only send it to cart abandoners. If it's replenishment, send it to people due for replenishment.
Yeah, you definitely got to respect the medium of SMS because SMS is intimate. You don't want to abuse it.
Okay, those are great. Let's get a little bit more advanced now. What comes to the head first here?
Okay, so if I'm thinking about tips that are more advanced, so the first tip I say is use SMS for micro-moments, not campaigns. That's probably my biggest tip.
Will you elaborate?
Yeah, dude. SMS works best for like time-sensitive, high-intent moments, cart abandons, replenishment windows, flash sales, back-to-stock alerts. These are things that SMS works really well with.
Trigger-based channel, right? Not just a broadcast channel.
Yeah. Email is for campaigns and storytelling. SMS for like the act now moment. What about you? You got a tip?
Yeah, I'd say the next one would be like personalizing the link, not just the message.
Okay. What do you mean by that?
So when someone clicks your SMS link, you know, they should land on a page that matches the message. If the SMS says your cart is waiting, do they need to land on the cart, not the homepage?
Yeah, because SMS is removing friction. You don't want to make them search for what you promised in that message. Yeah.
Exactly. And then another tip would be like leveraging AI to test multiple and different kind of variations at scale.
Yeah, I agree with that because instead of manually writing 5 versions, if you can generate 20 with AI and then pick the 5 best to test, makes it pretty easy, you'd say, right?
Yep. And over time you're going to learn which psychological triggers and structures work best for your brand.
Yeah, I'll say one of the things that I'm really appreciative of AI is it really accelerates your learning curve on the things that we do, especially in retention marketing. All right, let's wrap this thing up. Quick recap of the pod today. So far we went through SMS copywriting is different, 160 characters, different context, it's more intimate, higher cost. I think that was the first thing we talked about.
Yep. Yeah. I liked this, the hook. Value, action, right? The formula. So a hook, 5 to 10 words, value, 5 to 15 words, and then the action, let's call it 3 to 5 words plus the link.
Yeah. And then we talked about, oh, the best use cases formulas were like abandoned carts, which is like name, product, urgency. Then we had replenishment, which was timing, convenience, and then VIP drops, which was exclusively and FOMO. And then you had flash sales, which were time plus constraint. Those are the simple formulas that you can, Just kind of remember in the back of your head, and that really encompasses most things SMS.
We also dropped some killer AI prompts. So the ones that specify character count, different psychological triggers, brand voice, and how to ask for multiple variations with actual explanations.
Oh, and the importance of testing psychological triggers like message lengths, emoji use, timing, and watching those opt-out rates closely. That was a big one we talked about. Yeah.
And the last thing we talked about was common mistakes. So too wordy, too frequent, no segmentation. And then a couple advanced tips we gave were using SMS for micro-moments, personalizing landing page, and then of course leveraging AI to test at scale. Yeah.
That feels good, man. I feel like that's a wrap for today. I think we're gonna call this pod something like the SMS or the 160-Character SMS Masterclass. I like that. If you have a great performing AI prompt or SMS copy that you use, share with us below in the comments. Comments on social, wherever you're seeing this pod here. We want to you know we want to see what's working for you because we're always learning just as much as you are. With that being said, thank you for tuning into the pod as always. This is Jimmy and Chase. We'll see you next week.
From the open to the click, they're the masters of the flow. Just watch your list grow and your leads turn to go. Did we retain you so far, or do we have to extend it? If you want results, you know you gotta send it. Yeah. You know you gotta send it, yeah. You know you gotta send it, yeah. You know you gotta send it.
