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SMS marketing

SMS marketing is a store's use of text messages and messenger apps such as Viber, WhatsApp or Telegram to send customers offers, reminders and order updates.

How it works

SMS and Viber charge for each message. SMS providers such as Twilio charge per segment: 160 characters, or only 70 once the text contains Cyrillic or even one letter such as č or ř. WhatsApp charges per delivered template message, at a rate set by its category and the recipient’s country.

Viber sends promotional and transactional messages, with SMS as a fallback. A Telegram bot cannot start a conversation: the customer has to write to it first. Choosing a messaging channel compares them for stores in Ukraine, Czechia and Slovakia.

Texts need marketing consent, ideally asked for each channel separately. EU rules treat SMS like email: you need prior consent, unless you offer your own customers similar products and let them opt out in every message. WhatsApp requires the recipient’s opt-in. The same channels can send automated messages, as email flows do.

Formula

Cost of a send = recipients × segments per message × price per segment

Where you see it

In GA4, visits from text-message links fall into the SMS channel when the link’s UTM source or medium is exactly “sms”.

Example

Example store, not client data.

The tableware shop sends a sale announcement to 2,000 customers who agreed to SMS, at 1.5 per segment. Its 120-character Czech text with diacritics needs two segments: 2,000 × 2 × 1.5 = 6,000. The same text without diacritics fits one: 2,000 × 1 × 1.5 = 3,000.

Right and wrong readings

  • Wrong: “Customers who subscribed to our emails can get our texts too.” Right: a customer may want emails but not texts, so Klaviyo advises separate consent fields for each channel.
  • Wrong: “Our Telegram bot can announce the sale to our whole customer base.” Right: it can write only to customers who have messaged it first.

Sources