SMS marketing: the complete guide for businesses

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing is the strategy of sending text messages (SMS) to a contact base in order to promote products, publicize offers, send reminders, confirm transactions or strengthen the customer relationship. Because it is a universal channel that any cell phone receives without needing an app or internet, it reaches practically 100% of the audience.

Unlike email, which competes for attention in crowded inboxes, SMS lands straight on the device screen and is usually read almost immediately. That makes SMS marketing especially powerful for messages with a sense of urgency, such as limited-time promotions, verification codes and important alerts.

One distinction clears up a lot of confusion: SMS marketing is not the same as bulk SMS. Sending the same text to an entire list is the fastest way to burn your base. What works today is segmented sending, triggered by a real customer event: a sign-up, an abandoned cart, a deposit, a due date. All on the channel and at the moment when that message makes sense.

Why invest in SMS marketing?

The main advantages of SMS marketing for businesses are:

• High open rate: around 98%, far above email.
• Immediate reading: most messages are read within the first few minutes.
• Universal reach: works on any cell phone, with no internet or app.
• High engagement and conversion: ideal for direct CTAs and offers.
• Cost-effectiveness: low cost per message with significant return.
• Automation: you can integrate via API and send messages at scale.
• Algorithm independence: no platform decides who sees your message. Unlike social media, reach is not auctioned.
• Resilience: when an app goes down, mobile data is unstable or the device is old, SMS keeps arriving.

If you still have doubts about the channel's relevance, this is worth reading: why SMS is still the best communication tool for businesses.

Types of SMS: promotional, transactional and OTP

Not every SMS has the same goal. And, more importantly, not every SMS has the same rules and the same technical urgency. The main types are:

Learn more about the differences and when to use each one in SMS marketing and SMS OTP: which is the best option. Beyond SMS, Pushfy also offers RCS, voice, push and WhatsApp API, enabling an integrated omnichannel strategy with the same balance, the same report and the same API.

How an SMS marketing campaign works

Building an effective SMS marketing campaign involves a few steps:

1. Build an opt-in base Gather contacts who have authorized receiving your messages, recording when, where and for what purpose consent was given. That record is your defense against any challenge.
2. Clean and normalize the base Remove duplicates, invalid numbers and anyone who has opted out. Standardize everything in the international E.164 format (+5531999999999). A badly formatted number is money spent with no delivery.
3. Segment the audience Split contacts by interest, behavior or funnel stage. A well-segmented base of 10,000 people yields more than 100,000 generic sends, and costs ten times less.
4. Write a clear message Be direct, identify your brand right at the start, include a call to action and a trackable short link. You have 160 characters: every word has to work.
5. Choose the best time Respect appropriate time windows to avoid annoying people, and test your own. For transactional and OTP, the best time is always "now".
6. Send and monitor Track delivery, clicks and conversions in real time. If the delivery rate drops mid-send, you want to find out during the campaign, not in next week's report.
7. Optimize with data Use the results to improve your next campaigns: test one variable at a time (copy, time, offer, sender) to know what really moved the needle.

How to write an SMS that converts

The structure that works best is simple: brand → benefit → action → exit. Identify yourself right away, deliver the value in one sentence, give a single path to action and offer the way out.

• Identify the brand at the start. Without that, the message looks like a scam and gets reported.
• One CTA only. Two action options in 160 characters split attention and drag down clicks.
• Short, tracked link. Besides saving characters, it is what lets you measure clicks and conversion.
• Personalize in moderation. The first name helps; a text stuffed with variables sounds artificial.
• Be careful with emoji. A single emoji outside the GSM-7 alphabet cuts the limit from 160 to 70 characters and can double the cost of the send.
• Always offer opt-out. Besides being a legal requirement for promotional messages, an easy exit protects your base's reputation.

The metrics that really matter

Most SMS reports stop at the delivery rate. That is the minimum, not the goal. These are the metrics that tell you whether the operation is healthy:

At Pushfy, these numbers appear in dashboards by channel and by campaign, in real time, with full report export and a consolidated view when you run more than one brand.

Best practices for high delivery and conversion rates

To get the most out of SMS marketing, follow these recommendations:

• Use a reliable platform with good carrier routes and redundancy: when a route degrades, delivery needs to continue through another.
• Keep the base clean, removing invalid numbers and anyone who has opted out.
• Separate critical traffic from promotional, with a dedicated route for OTP.
• Be brief and direct: clear messages convert better.
• Include a CTA and a trackable short link.
• Personalize with the name or the offer relevant to the contact.
• Control frequency. The number one cause of opt-outs is not content, it is overload.
• Test times and messages and compare the results.
• Monitor DLRs. The delivery report is your alarm system: any out-of-pattern variation deserves immediate investigation.

Go deeper in SMS marketing: how to ensure high delivery and conversion rates.

SMS marketing for betting operators and iGaming

The betting market in Brazil is one of those that benefit most from SMS marketing. Thanks to its speed and high delivery rate, SMS is ideal for activating players, communicating bonuses, reminding them about deposits and reducing churn. It is also a market where the difference between a good route and a cheap route shows up directly in revenue: an OTP that takes 40 seconds is a lost sign-up, and a bonus alert that arrives after the match is worthless.

The moments when SMS decides the outcome in an iGaming operation:

• Sign-up (OTP): the code has to arrive before doubt sets in. It is the operation's first conversion.
• First deposit (FTD): immediate confirmation, with the bonus included, is what turns the first deposit into the second.
• Pre-match: campaigns at the right time, personalized and tracked, before kickoff.
• Bonus and cashback: credit and message at the same instant: the player feels looked after.
• Reactivation: a player with no deposit for X days enters an automated flow with a relevant offer.
• Surveys and NPS: the reply comes back to the platform and becomes input for the next campaign.

See how to apply it in practice:

SMS marketing and LGPD: opt-in, opt-out and compliance

In Brazil, any SMS marketing strategy must comply with the LGPD (General Data Protection Law, Law No. 13.709/2018). The essential points are:

• Opt-in: only send promotional messages to people who have expressly authorized receiving them.
• Opt-out: always offer a simple way to stop receiving messages, and process the request immediately.
• Purpose and transparency: make it clear why you are collecting the data and what it will be used for.
• Appropriate legal basis: promotional messages rely on consent; transactional and OTP messages usually arise from performing the contract with the data subject.
• Consent record: keep the date, time, source and exact text shown at the moment of acceptance.
• Security: protect the contact base against unauthorized access, with permission controls and audit trails.
• Retention: do not keep data longer than necessary for the stated purpose.

For regulated industries, such as betting, see the rules for sending SMS marketing in Brazil.

SMS, RCS, WhatsApp or email: which to choose?

Each channel has its role. SMS stands out for reach and immediacy; RCS adds visual and interactive elements; WhatsApp favors conversations; and email is good for long-form content. The ideal is to combine them in an omnichannel strategy, with automatic fallback between them so no customer misses the message.

To start the comparison, read SMS or email campaigns: which is the best strategy. In practice, the decision is rarely "one or the other": the most efficient design is usually RCS first, with automatic fallback to SMS, securing the visual experience when the device supports it and delivery every time.

Mistakes that sink a campaign's results

• Buying contact lists. Besides being illegal under the LGPD, it destroys the delivery rate and the brand's reputation.
• Sending without identifying the brand. The message reads as a scam and gets reported.
• Ignoring opt-out. Continuing to send to people who asked to leave is a legal risk and a waste of budget.
• Using the same route for OTP and campaigns. The promotional peak delays the code for someone trying to log in.
• Excessive frequency. The base does not complain: it leaves silently, and rebuilding it is extremely costly.
• Long, untracked links. They eat characters, look suspicious and make it impossible to measure anything.
• Emoji without intent. It changes the encoding, cuts the limit to 70 characters and can double the cost.
• Measuring only delivery. Delivering is not converting; without a tracked link you do not know what worked.
• Not testing. Without A/B testing, every copy and timing decision is a guess.

How much SMS marketing costs

SMS is billed per message sent. The unit price varies with contracted volume, type of traffic (promotional, transactional or OTP) and the route used. Three factors affect the real cost of a campaign and almost never show up on the price list:

• Concatenation: going over 160 characters splits the message into parts, and each part is usually billed. An emoji outside GSM-7 cuts the limit to 70 and can double the cost of the same text.
• Dirty base: every invalid number is a paid message that would never arrive. At Pushfy, numbers identified as bad are suppressed automatically: you do not pay for dead numbers.
• Cheap route with unstable delivery: saving cents per message and losing delivery costs more when you close the month. The right indicator is cost per conversion.

SMS marketing glossary

SMS

Short Message Service. A text message of up to 160 characters carried over the carriers' network, without depending on the internet.

GSM-7 and UCS-2

Encoding alphabets. GSM-7 allows 160 characters; when you use characters outside it (most emojis, for example), the message becomes UCS-2 and the limit drops to 70.

OTP

One-Time Password. A single-use code with short validity, used for sign-up verification and two-factor authentication.

DLR

Delivery Receipt. Delivery confirmation returned by the carrier. It is the basis of every reliable deliverability metric.

MO

Mobile Originated. A message sent by the user back to the company, such as a reply or an opt-out request.

Opt-in / opt-out

Authorization to receive messages and the request to cancel. Both must be recorded and respected.

Sender ID

Identification shown as the sender of the message, which can be numeric or alphanumeric depending on the route.

E.164

International telephone numbering standard (+5531999999999). Normalizing the base in this format avoids delivery failures.

Throughput

Sending capacity per second. It determines how long a large campaign takes to finish going out.

Fallback

A rule that resends through another channel when the first one does not deliver. For example, RCS that falls back to SMS automatically.

Idempotency

A guarantee that the same event does not generate two sends. It is what prevents the customer from receiving the same offer twice.

CPaaS

Communications Platform as a Service. A platform that delivers communication (SMS, RCS, voice, push) as a service, via dashboard and API.

How to get started with Pushfy

Pushfy is an SMS marketing platform that brings SMS, RCS, voice, push and WhatsApp API together in one place, with a high delivery rate, real-time reports and API integration. You can create campaigns, segment contacts and track results simply. And, as the operation grows, automate everything by event with Flow Builder.

1. Create your account for free and validate your registration in minutes.
2. Import your base via CSV or send contacts via API, already normalized in E.164.
3. Build your first campaign with segmentation, variable-based personalization and a tracked short link.
4. Send and track delivery, clicks and conversions in real time on the dashboard.
5. Automate what works: turn the campaign into an event-triggered flow that runs on its own every day.

Create your Pushfy account and start sending SMS marketing campaigns now. If you prefer to integrate directly, the API documentation includes a Postman collection, OpenAPI and delivery and reply webhooks.

Frequently asked questions about SMS marketing

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