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

Why SMS Shouldn’t Copy Your Emails (And What to Do Instead)

6 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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In this segment, Jimmy Kim outlines two prevailing beliefs about SMS marketing: treating SMS as an independent channel versus integrating it into a unified, cross‑channel experience. He argues that the unified approach delivers a better customer experience because the same individual interacts across all touchpoints. He then presents his first rule for SMS content: never copy an email verbatim into an SMS. An SMS is a brief “ping,” not a PDF, and should be concise, punchy, and drive a single, clear call‑to‑action (e.g., “Subscribe to the pod”). The overall message is that SMS should be purpose‑built, not a repurposed email, to maximize engagement.

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One of the things that come into place is people are trying to still figure out how to run SMS. Now there's 2 core beliefs in the market. One, I've heard it, people say, oh, you should run them like independent channels. I don't think that's the right move, but that's what some people will say. And then number 2 is you should run them like a unified channel and experience. I personally have always believed in that regardless of if I'm with a provider or without a provider, I always think that you should be unifying that experience because it really drives a better messaging for the customer. It's the same single customer at the end. So first rule before we even go down to unified cadence is never copy Your email into your SMS. It's a ping, not a PDF. Like, I like to try to remind people that, like, don't copy everything you said on your email to your SMS. No one cares. Your SMS should be short and punchy and get them to do one action and one action only to make a click, right? Subscribe to the pod.