Best Practices — Business SMS Campaigns
An effective SMS campaign rests on 3 pillars: precise targeting, impactful content, sending at the right time.
1. Optimal send timing
| Context | Recommended window |
|---|---|
| General B2C | Tuesday–Thursday, 10h–12h or 17h–19h |
| Weekend promotions | Friday 16h–18h |
| Appointment reminders | 24h before the appointment |
| B2B | Tuesday–Thursday, 9h–11h |
Never: before 8h00 or after 21h00 (legal requirement in France).
2. Effective content
- 160 characters maximum to stay within a single SMS (savings + readability)
- Start with the brand name:
"WebTic: Your invoice..." - A single clear call to action (CTA): link, number, promo code
- Personalisation: include the first name when possible
- Avoid excessive abbreviations — SMS remains a professional channel
3. Segmentation
- Segment by behavior (active vs inactive customers, last order)
- Exclude opt-outs and numbers in error before each send
- Clean the database every 6 months: remove numbers with permanent errors
4. Handling replies and opt-outs
- Configure a delivery webhook to track statuses in real time
- STOP keyword: automated processing within 24h maximum
- Keep an audit log of opt-outs (GDPR)
5. A/B testing
Test on 10-20% of your list before the full send:
- Two versions of the message (different send time or different CTA)
- Wait 2h to measure the click/conversion rate
- Send the winning version to the rest of the list
6. KPIs to monitor
| Indicator | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Delivery rate | Share of SMS successfully received |
| Click rate (link) | Share of recipients who click the link |
| Unsubscribe rate | Share of recipients who reply STOP |
| Conversion rate | Depends on campaign objective |
Compare your own results from one campaign to the next to keep improving.
