What is promotional SMS?
Promotional SMS refers to text messages a business sends out for marketing or advertising purposes.
Promotional SMS marketing messages typically advertise products, services, deals, coupons, or events. You might send promotional SMS messages that announce a new product launch, tell customers about an upcoming sale or deadline, or give the opportunity to take a poll or quiz.
They can also encourage someone to make a purchase, click a link that takes them to a particular landing page, fill out a survey, write a review, browse products, or many other things!
What are the key differences between promotional and transactional SMS?
The differences between promotional and transactional SMS messages lie in how you use them. Broadly speaking, promotional SMS are messages that you send to advertise your business, while transactional SMS are for letting customers know about the status of their order or transaction.
In the U.S., the government’s definitions of promotional and transactional SMS messages are pretty clear. In fact, the rules in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) spell out different sets of laws and requirements associated with each.
Here are a few ways to understand promotional vs transactional SMS:
Marketing vs non-marketing goals
Promotional SMS messages sent for marketing purposes have a marketing goal. The business is attempting to achieve something such as new revenue, higher click through rates, higher conversion rates, more opt-ins, or various other forms of customer engagement. Transactional SMS messages don't typically have these same goals.
If you’re in need of inspiration for crafting promotional messages, especially for occasions like Black Friday, be sure to check out our Black Friday marketing guide for valuable insights and ideas.
Promotional SMS is sent with marketing intent
Typically, promotional SMS marketing is used to capture your audience’s attention and drive them to take a particular action that aligns with your marketing objectives. Companies send them as one-off text messages, or as part of entire promotional SMS campaigns – but in any case, they’re sent to people who’ve explicitly opted in to receive them.
Transactional SMS messages, on the other hand, generally focus on providing a customer with essential information specific to a transaction or account activity, like logging in from a new device. You’ll see more examples of this later.
Commercial messaging vs customer care
Promotional SMS typically involves sending text messages to market products, services, or special offers, and SMS can serve as a valuable channel for businesses to engage with customers and provide customer service. But transactional text messages are more about providing essential information or updates related to transactions or account activities. For example, a shipping update is transactional because it directly informs the recipient about the status of their order and ensures a satisfactory delivery service, enhancing customer satisfaction and trust.