SMS campaigns: high-ROI examples, pricing and complete guide

From a new product launch to the last call before the sales end, an SMS campaign is a powerful driver of conversions. Discover the high-ROI campaigns to run, and the key steps to make your sends a success with WAX.

To lay the foundations of your strategy, read our complete guide to SMS marketing (campaigns and automations).

High-ROI SMS campaign examples to run with WAX

Launch a product

Product Launch Campaign

By scheduling a targeted send as soon as a new item comes out, you:

• Spark your audience’s interest straight away
• Drive qualified traffic
• Turn the initial excitement into a purchase

This strategy is particularly effective with WAX, reaching up to 10% conversion among your recipients.

Boost your sales and promotions

Sale Launch

Sending a promotional SMS campaign to kick off your sales or a limited-time offer is an ideal way to trigger an impulse purchase. It brings immediate traffic to your website or shop, with a conversion rate of up to 8 to 10%.

Sale Ending Soon

As your promotional campaigns draw to a close, a reminder to hesitant customers makes the most of the urgency before your offer expires. One last send encourages your contacts to complete their basket, capturing up to 6 to 8% additional conversions.

Build customer loyalty

NPS + Repeat Purchase Incentive

Collecting your customers’ feedback after a purchase enriches your satisfaction data. And by offering them a targeted deal on their next order, you improve the customer experience and can generate up to 12% conversion on repeat purchases.

Drive to Store

A geo-targeted SMS campaign is ideal for bringing customers into your shops and triggering a purchase. Sending an exclusive offer to prospects near your stores can increase footfall by up to 12%.

Revive purchase intent

Low Stock / Almost Gone

Letting customers know a product will soon be out of stock creates a sense of urgency that speeds up their decision. This incentive triggers an immediate purchase, with a conversion rate of up to 9%.

Back in Stock

An SMS campaign telling customers a product is back in stock rekindles their intent to buy: a service that can generate up to 12% conversion.

How do you create an SMS campaign with WAX?

Create your WAX account

To get started, install the WAX app and invite your colleagues to run your projects as a team. Then connect WAX to all your e-commerce (Shopify, PrestaShop), marketing (Klaviyo, Yotpo, Splio) and support tools (Gorgias, Zendesk, Crisp).

Finally, secure access to your workspace by turning on two-factor authentication via WhatsApp or email.

Collect opt-ins

Under the CNIL’s rules (France’s data protection authority), you must obtain your audience’s explicit consent before contacting them. Several methods help you build that audience:

• In store: collected directly at the till
• Welcome pop-up: a form on your website as soon as a new visitor arrives
• Checkout page: a tick box when the basket is confirmed
• Email campaigns: moving your email subscribers onto your mobile channel
• Dedicated landing page: collecting numbers at key moments such as Black Friday or the festive season

Create your campaigns

In WAX, the “Campaigns” tab brings together the management and tracking of all your sends. You can build your flows from scratch or save time with our ready-to-use templates.

To get the best results, you can also build A/B tests into your scenarios. Comparing several versions of the same text quickly shows you which one performs best with your subscribers.

Analyse your performance

To measure the impact of your actions and make your next campaigns more profitable, WAX gives you a complete analytics dashboard:

• Volume and cost: the number of conversations started and the overall budget of the campaign
• Delivered: the total number of messages successfully delivered
• Read: the percentage of messages opened by your recipients
• Interacted: the click rate generated
• List health: new consents (opt-ins) and unsubscribe requests (opt-outs)

SMS campaign checklist: 7 things to check before you send

To get the most out of your SMS campaign, check these seven key points carefully:

• HLR cleaning: check your contact list to confirm that every number is valid and active before sending
• Sender ID: show your brand name as the sender to reassure customers when the message arrives
• Link and UTM: test your URL and add tracking parameters to measure your conversion rate precisely
• STOP opt-out: make sure the unsubscribe option (such as “STOP to 36XXX” in France) is there and works, to respect your recipients’ consent
• Test send: send a test to different phones (Android, iOS) to make sure it reads well
• Sending hours: schedule your sends within the hours set by the af2m’s code of conduct in France (between 8am and 9:30pm)
• Server capacity: make sure your website can handle the surge of traffic from your SMS links

How much does an SMS campaign cost?

An SMS campaign generally costs between €0.04 and €0.08 excl. VAT per message sent. At WAX, our pricing is tiered: the more contacts you have, the lower the cost per send, to make the most of your mobile marketing budget.

An SMS is also limited to 160 characters (149 with the “STOP to 36XXX” mention in France). Beyond that, your message is counted as several sends. WAX still displays the text to your recipients as a single message.

How do you fix an underperforming SMS campaign?

Increase your delivery rate

If your campaign’s delivery rate is below 95%, it usually points to a problem with the quality of your contact list. Out-of-date numbers or landlines stop your message from arriving and hurt the profitability of your campaigns.

To fix it, run an HLR cleaning before every send. This service, available in WAX, checks that every mobile number in France is valid, so your messages reach their recipients.

Improve your click-through rate (CTR)

A click-through rate below 3% often means your message lacks clarity or your offer is not attractive enough. If the call to action is confusing or pushed to the end of the text, the reader’s motivation drops as soon as they finish reading.

Rework your hook to spark interest and move your link higher up in the text. This strengthens engagement and improves the conversion rate of your campaigns.

Reduce your unsubscribe rate

If your unsubscribe rate is above 1%, your marketing pressure is probably too high or your targeting not precise enough. Sending irrelevant offers to all your prospects harms the customer experience.

Refine your audience segments and space out your messages: as a rule, send no more than 2 to 4 messages a month per customer.

RCS: the future of your SMS campaigns

RCS is a major step forward for mobile messaging, enriching traditional SMS. Unlike plain text messages, it lets you include:

• High-definition visuals
• Interactive carousels
• Clickable action buttons

These features catch your customers’ interest as soon as the message arrives and enhance your brand image. RCS is a channel worth adding to boost engagement and improve the conversion rate of your campaigns.

RCS and SMS work hand in hand to make your sends more effective. WAX, for instance, includes an automatic fallback: if a recipient’s phone or network does not support RCS, the message is sent as an SMS instead.