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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is boosting digital marketing strategies everywhere.
It’s there in email campaigns, ensuring your subject lines hit the mark every single time. social media drives ad targeting and helps ecommerce brands connect with the right audience.
However, AI isn’t just about emails and ads—it’s making a big impact on SMS marketing too. That means instead of simply shooting SMS to your customers, you can now send the right texts, at the right time, to the right people.
Curious to learn how? Scroll down!
SMS marketing works because it’s personal, fast, and cuts through the noise. (That 98% open rate speaks volumes.)
So, there’s no doubt that SMS is a powerful marketing tool—but when you add AI to the mix, it becomes unstoppable. Here’s how:
Below are 6 AI-driven strategies that you must leverage to run your SMS marketing campaigns:
Personalization isn’t just about adding the recipient’s first name to the SMS text. Today, you can craft entire experiences that are unique to each recipient using AI.
Here’s how it works: AI analyzes everything—from a customer’s purchase history to browsing patterns to even device preferences. Based on these insights, AI can automatically suggest the right content for each recipient.
For example, let’s say a customer recently purchased eco-friendly skincare products from your online store. Now, you can use AI to send a text like “Hi Emily! We’ve just restocked your favorite organic moisturizer—grab it before it’s gone!”
In fact, you can also rely on AI to predict what a customer might want next and then initiate a series of texts based on that. Here’s what this would look like:
It can be tricky to craft SMS copy that grabs attention and drives action—all within just 160 characters. Thankfully, AI writing tools like GPT or Jasper can help you generate bulk copies that not only read well but also resonate with your brand.
For example, in the image below, we asked GPT to suggest 10 SMS copies for a retail brand launching its seasonal summer sale, and the tool generated results in less than a minute:
And you know what’s the best part about using AI writing tools for SMS copies? They can craft messages tailored to your brand, target audience, preferences, and tone!
Even if you’re a small brand with only a hundred customers, you can’t possibly keep up with all the queries, responses, or complaints they shoot across your way.
That’s where AI-powered chatbots come in. They not only engage with customers on your behalf, but they can decode the mood or the sentiment of the customer to provide the right response.
For example, if a customer sends you an SMS saying, “I didn’t get my order, and no one’s responding to my email,” AI can flag this as a negative sentiment and automatically trigger a priority response.
This can be something like “We’re sorry for the inconvenience! Our team is on it and will get back to you shortly.”
In fact, AI can also understand positive or even neutral sentiments and establish meaningful connections with your customers.
Beyond customer support, you can further use AI-powered chatbots to drive sales by initiating conversations at the right time. So, if you run a restaurant, the chatbot could automatically send a text to the customer like “Hungry? Check out our new menu! Reply with “YES” to get a discount code.” at lunchtime.
If you’re not setting up behavior-triggered SMS campaigns, you’re missing out on golden interaction opportunities.
For example, when a customer adds a pair of jeans to their cart but abandons it without checking out, you can shoot a reminder SMS that goes like “Those jeans you loved are still waiting for you! Complete your order now.”
Or you can leverage AI to personalize SMS campaigns using various variables for customer milestones like birthdays or subscription renewal dates. And then you can hit them up with a friendly reminder like this:
This approach makes your SMS relevant and actually engaging, rather than the generic texts customers usually receive.
In fact, you won’t believe that you can also set triggers when a customer doesn’t do anything at all! That is if the customer has gone “dormant,” you can send them a re-engagement message like, “Hey, we miss you! Here's 10% off your next purchase—just for coming back!
Localization is the secret sauce of any marketing strategy, especially if you’re targeting a diverse audience that is spread across multiple regions.
But how do you bring that to your SMS campaigns? Answer: By incorporating AI.
Take language, for example. All you need to do is draft the message in your native language, and AI will automatically translate it into the recipient’s preferred language.
That’s not all. You can even get AI to create segments based on behavior, engagement level, location, purchase history, etc and utilize location-based data and tailor your offers/recommendations accordingly. For example, “It’s 45°F in Seattle today—warm up with a pumpkin spice latte for $3 at our [cafe outlet location].
Instead of guessing which message will perform better, AI allows you to create and test multiple SMS variations simultaneously. For example, if you’re promoting a sale, you can test the following two versions:
AI will then automatically send each version to a sample group and identify the winner version based on sms campaign metrics like open rates and conversions.
If you’re serious about leveling up your SMS campaigns, here are five AI marketing tools that can make all the difference:
Convertway is the go-to ecommerce marketing tool if you’re all about personalized SMS and WhatsApp messaging. This platform leverages AI to create hyper-targeted SMS campaigns that feel like a one-on-one conversation.
Using Convertway, you can automatically segment your audience, gamify customer interactions, and even deploy a WhatsApp bot for smart customer support.
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True to its name, SimpleTesting makes SMS marketing…simple. But don’t let that fool you—this tool is packed with AI-driven features to streamline your SMS campaigns.
You can mass text, have two-way conversations, and set up event-based triggers for automated SMS. SimpleTexting also provides you with a Data Collection tool to gather customer information for hyper-personalization.
Klaviyo is a heavyweight in the SMS marketing world, especially for eCommerce brands. One of its most impressive features is AI-assisted segmentation, which lets you deep dive into customer data and group users based on their behavior and preferences.
However, this platform does come with a learning curve. So, if you’re new to SMS marketing and automation, it might feel a bit intimidating at first.
Twilio is perfect for businesses that want to build completely customized SMS campaigns from scratch.
That means you can design workflows tailored to your specific needs (like sending order updates or appointment reminders) and even integrate SMS with other channels like WhatsApp or email.
On the flip side, Twilio is best suited for marketers who have a technical background or access to developers.
Omnisend is a plug-and-play solution for multichannel marketing, including SMS. It has pre-built automation workflows for different scenarios like cart abandonment, order confirmation, and even birthdays.
However, it’s a great choice for brands looking for a cohesive approach—email as well as SMS marketing.
The AI-driven SMS marketing strategies we’ve explored above are indeed powerful, but they’re only as effective as the marketer behind them, that is you.
So, it’s time to move from learning to doing. And Convertway’s SMS marketing platform can help you with exactly that.
Whether it’s SMS or WhatsApp marketing, we can help you target global audiences and engage them effectively. With our tool, you can craft hyper-personalized messages, automate dynamic SMS workflows, and analyze campaign performance to refine your strategy.
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