Jimmy KimCEO & Founder, Commerce Roundtable · Marketer of 17+ Years, 4x Founder. Former DTC/Retailer & SaaS Founder. Newsletter. Host of ASOM & Send it! Podcast. DTC Event: Commerce Roundtable

SMS Keywords: The 3 Every Brand Should Have

13 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this concise marketing video, Jimmy Kim outlines three essential SMS keywords that every brand should implement to drive sales and improve customer engagement. The first keyword, "restock," enables brands to send sold‑out alerts and notify customers when items are back in stock; Jimmy cites conversion rates of 25‑40% in certain categories, calling it the highest‑converting SMS trigger. The second keyword, "reorders," is designed for one‑tap or single‑response repurchases, simplifying repeat buying. The third keyword is a custom, high‑leverage term tailored to a brand’s most compelling moment—examples include “routine” for beauty, “bundle” for food, and “new drop” for fashion—so that when customers text that word, a specific, valuable action occurs. Jimmy emphasizes that the success of restock alerts mirrors proven email intent‑driven strategies, arguing that brands often overlook SMS because they underestimate the existing purchase intent when a product returns to stock.

Chapters

3 keywords brands should always have. These are the 3 that I would tip off to everyone. Number 1 should be like restock for like sold out alerts. That's pretty simple. Number 2 should be reorders. How can we help them make that one tap or one response repurchase? And a custom keyword tied to your highest leverage moment. That's my third one, which is like for a beauty brand, I might go with like routine or a food brand like bundle. For fashion brand, new drop, like something that gets people knowing that if they send that, something will happen. And the data on something like restock is wild. Restock notifications convert at like something like 25 40% in some categories. It's the highest converting SMS message that a brand can have in a trigger response, but people don't do it because they don't seem to understand that the intent is already there. The customer wanted to buy the product, it was out of stock, and now of course it's back and they want to buy. We already know that that works in email. It absolutely applies in SMS.