Your text lands on someone's lock screen right next to their group chat.
That's why SMS works, and it's why people unsubscribe the second one feels like spam, especially if it shows up during dinner.
We run SMS alongside email for a lot of our brands, and here's what we've learned keeps people subscribed.
What normal looks like
Klaviyo's 2026 benchmarks, across more than 183,000 accounts, put the average SMS campaign click rate at 5.6% and automated SMS flows at 9.65%. The top 10% of brands hit 10.44% on campaigns and 16.6% on flows. Flows also convert much better, with a 1.9% ecommerce order rate on average compared to 0.27% for campaigns (Klaviyo). Flow revenue per recipient is about $1.83 in food and beverage, $2.09 in health and beauty and $2.31 in clothing.
So start with flows. A text triggered by something the customer just did will beat a scheduled blast almost every time.
Three flows to build first
Welcome. One text right after signup with the offer and a single link.
Abandoned cart. Klaviyo's October 2026 data has the SMS version of cart recovery at $4.48 per recipient with a 10.3% click rate (Klaviyo). We usually send the first cart reminder by email and use SMS as the second touch, around 24 hours later.
Shipping and delivery. People want these, and in our experience they get customers used to opening your texts.
How often to text
For campaigns we'd start at two to four texts a month for most consumer brands and only go higher for launches or sale weeks. That number comes from what's worked in our own accounts. Save SMS for things that are time-sensitive or exclusive, like a drop, a restock, early access or the last day of a sale. If it can wait a day, we put it in email instead.
Write like a person texting. Stick to one idea and one link, and keep it under 160 characters when you can. Put the brand name at the start so people know who it's from, and skip the all-caps and the five emojis.
When to send
Federal rules under the TCPA limit marketing texts to 8am to 9pm in the recipient's time zone (Infobip). Several states are stricter. Florida, Oklahoma and Washington cut it off at 8pm, and since September 2025 Texas limits marketing texts to 9am to 9pm Monday through Saturday and noon to 9pm on Sunday (MessageIQ). If you text nationally, we keep sends between 10am and 7pm local time Monday through Saturday and noon to 7pm on Sunday. That clears every quiet-hours rule above.
Consent and opt-outs
Marketing texts need prior express written consent. The customer has to actively opt in and know what they're signing up for. You also can't make it a requirement to buy. Customers can sue for $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 if a court finds you did it knowingly, and there's no cap on the total (Infobip).
The opt-out rules also got stricter. Since April 11, 2025, opt-outs have to be honored within 10 business days, and replies like stop, quit, revoke, opt out, cancel, unsubscribe and end all have to work. The grace period that let brands handle opt-outs one message type at a time ended April 11, 2026, so if someone texts stop to your shipping updates, assume that covers your marketing texts too (Pamela Jones Marketing). The FCC's "one-to-one consent" rule that had everyone worried in 2024 never took effect. The Eleventh Circuit vacated it in January 2025.
Your SMS platform handles most of the mechanics. You're still responsible for how you collect the number, so check that your signup form spells out what people are agreeing to. This is general information, not legal advice. If you're texting at scale, have a lawyer look at your opt-in language.
How we run it
sound like you?
Want texts people actually open?
We plan SMS and email as one calendar for the brands we work with, so nobody gets hit three times about one sale. If you want us to look over your program, start a project.
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Written by
Hana Brenner-Katz is the founder and creative director of Beyond Bright Creative. She started her own design studio in 2018 and turned it into a full-service agency in 2023.
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