What is an SMS drip campaign? (Complete guide + examples)

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SMS drip campaigns help you gain influence with your audience using automated text messages that trigger at optimal moments in their customer journey.

Your messages are prewritten and configured to send based on customer actions, changes in their status, timing, or a set schedule.

Examples of drip texting include welcome series, order confirmations, renewal prompts, abandoned carts, and re-engagement messages. Each serves a strategic purpose beyond promotion, guiding customers through different stages of the buying journey.

Join us below for a complete guide to text message drip campaigns, including examples and tips to make your efforts worthwhile.

SMS drip campaign — what is it?

Think of SMS drip campaigns as conversations that run on autopilot. You set up the trigger, craft the messages, and determine the timing — then your platform takes care of the rest while you focus on other marketing efforts.

These automated text messages engage customers after they trigger a workflow, such as shoppers joining your list or abandoning their cart, guiding them toward conversion without manual follow-up.

How SMS drip campaigns work:

• Your customer activates a trigger (signup, purchase, cart abandonment)
• Your SMS marketing tool initiates the pre-planned message sequence
• The campaign ends when the customer converts or the sequence completes

Benefits of an SMS drip campaign

SMS drip campaigns nurture customer engagement with texts that build on past interactions. Here’s why they’re a powerful addition to your marketing strategy:

Revenue generation

Omnisend research shows that automated text sequences outperform campaigns for revenue generation. In 2024, they accounted for 18% of orders while making up just 9% of sends. 

Here’s a snapshot of the data:

Our research proves that drip campaigns and other automated sequences for abandoned carts, checkouts, and browsing sessions are among the best tools for increasing revenue.

Enhanced engagement

Your messages get sent in response to customer actions and at scheduled times, ensuring no opportunity gets missed, even outside business hours or during peak seasons.

Below is an example of a welcome SMS sent alongside an email:

Create drip texts that trigger when customers are most receptive, such as right after signup, cart abandonment, or when there’s a delivery update.

Personalization

Turn customer data into conversations that build relationships and generate more sales. For instance, you can create personalized content based on purchase history, browsing behavior, demographics, or just the customer’s name.

Here’s an abandoned checkout SMS example with the customer’s first name (the placeholder [[contact.first_name]] is Liquid syntax):

Additional personalization opportunities with Liquid syntax include last name, city, country, state, and postal code.

Increased conversion rates

Your well-timed promotional and follow-up texts can address common conversion obstacles like shipping times, return policies, and product quality.

Adding actionable CTAs, links, and references to positive past interactions (reviews, purchases, wish lists) can increase conversion rates even further.

Time and resource efficiency

Drip SMS campaigns can generate sales without input and free up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.

Plan your messaging strategy once, build the sequence, and let it handle customer interactions without demanding daily attention.

Strengthens multichannel marketing

Complement your email marketing with text messages that handle time-sensitive alerts while emails cover detailed product information and storytelling.

For instance, your customer can receive an email with complete promotional details, as well as a short text alert with the discount code and a link.

Watch this video for a comparison of email and SMS marketing:

How to set up an SMS drip campaign

Map out your SMS drip campaigns before sending the first message. Each text should seamlessly build on the last, creating a cohesive customer journey that delivers value at key moments.

Here’s how to set up your drip texting campaigns:

1. Define your goals

Define a goal for your text sequence, such as boosting holiday sales, introducing new customers to your brand, or recapturing hesitant shoppers.

Your goals will dictate the best conversion strategies. For example, cart recovery campaigns require speed and incentives, while loyalty nurturing campaigns perform well with educational content and rewards.

2. Segment your audience

Create segments to maintain clean lists and target the right shoppers.

Demographic segmentation is the most basic type, although it isn’t a conversion machine. For better results, try segmenting those who buy certain products, join from particular signup forms, and separate high-spending VIPs from occasional buyers.

Omnisend has pre-built segments to kickstart your drip campaigns. For instance, you can create a Window shoppers or Deal hunters segment:

3. Craft your messages

Write SMS content that really packs a punch within tight space constraints. The 160-character standard SMS limit means every word counts and must earn its place in your message.

Skip the marketing jargon and speak to your customers in a way that resonates. Link your text to their recent actions, like reminding them about products they viewed. Then, include their name and finish with a clear, action-driven prompt like “Tap to view your discount.”

Need help planning your character count? Use Omnisend’s SMS calculator to estimate costs and message length. Here’s an example for sending a 99-character SMS to 1,000 contacts:

4. Set up a sending schedule

Dripping your SMS messages prevents subscriber fatigue while maintaining campaign momentum. Omnisend research shows that emails perform best when sent at 1 PM, 6 PM, and 8 PM, which are also good times for SMS.

Time your drip messages strategically based on their purpose. Abandoned cart reminders need quick follow-up when the purchase intent is high, while welcome emails benefit from the first message arriving immediately after signup. Meanwhile, anniversary emails could go out once yearly.

5. Monitor and optimize

Track performance metrics to refine your approach to each campaign. Beyond delivery and click rates, focus on conversion metrics directly related to sales.

Omnisend’s reporting tools show the effectiveness of your SMS campaigns and let you compare SMS revenue generation against email and push channels:

Test different SMS drip campaign approaches with alternative offers, CTAs, or timing to discover what drives action. These minor adjustments often produce significant improvements in campaign performance.

SMS drip campaign examples

Your SMS drip campaigns will connect with subscribers across their buying journey, from completing forgotten purchases to reactivating after periods of inactivity.

Here are some SMS drip campaign examples:

Welcome series

Welcome sequences introduce new subscribers to your brand. Your first welcome message should arrive on the day of subscription and can include a special offer to encourage shopping sessions or a link to a shopping guide for a more informative approach.

Here’s an example:

Following up with another text message a few days later can increase conversion rates. If they don’t use their welcome offer, send a final reminder two days before expiration.

Abandoned cart reminders

Cart abandonment campaigns recover sales from shoppers who leave items behind. Your first text should arrive within an hour of abandonment and could include a direct link to their cart or point them to a more detailed email with a discount code:

If they don’t complete checkout, follow up 24 hours later with social proof (“our best-selling item”) or address common objections (“free shipping on orders over $50”). These will help to bring shoppers back before they purchase elsewhere.

Re-engagement campaigns

Customers who stop engaging with your brand for 60-90 days will need an incentive to start shopping again, such as 20% off their next order.

Your drip campaign can automatically target inactive customers via segmentation and send a sequence that rebuilds the relationship. For instance, the text below offers 20% off and asks the customer to log in to qualify:

Start your message with a casual check-in, such as “Still with us?” and clarify your offer to convince dormant subscribers to shop again.

Top five tips for a successful drip text campaign

Even the most promising SMS drip campaigns need refinement to reach their full potential. Your initial setup serves as a foundation, but ongoing adjustments based on customer responses will transform good results into exceptional performance.

1. Personalize your messages

Adding customer details to your text messages makes them less transactional and more enjoyable. For instance, referencing a previous purchase when recommending a product is more likely to generate clicks than just mentioning the new item.

Omnisend lets you insert customer information directly into your messages. Add their name with [[contact.first_name]], reference their city with [[contact.city]], or include custom data you’ve collected to make your texts more personalized.

For contacts in France, you can automatically send “Bonjour!” while everyone else receives “Hello!” using conditional text.

2. Keep messages concise

SMS messages have a 160-character limit before they break into two messages. Keep your texts within that to avoid breaking customer attention and increasing costs.

Write one clear message with one action for the customer to take. Remove adjectives, use contractions, and replace wordy phrases with direct alternatives.

For example, “You are invited to shop our exclusive sale” becomes “Shop our sale now,” saving 24 characters while making the message more direct.

3. Include clear CTAs

Every SMS in your drip campaign needs a purpose and a corresponding call to action. Position your strongest CTA after you’ve built your case, not before. “Get 20% off” works better than “20% off available” because it tells customers what to do.

Experiment with visual punctuation like brackets, arrows, and emojis that create natural stopping points and direct eyes to your call to action.

4. Test and optimize

Adding customer names, quoting prices, changing discount tiers, and other minor changes can substantially improve the effectiveness of your SMS drip campaigns.

Test one element at a time to identify improvements in click-throughs, unsubscribe rates, and other metrics. Use the winning versions in future campaigns for better results.

5. Ensure compliance with regulations

TCPA regulatory fines for SMS marketing violations can reach $500 per message, sometimes exceeding $1,500. Compliance failures also damage customer trust and brand reputation in ways that marketing can’t quickly repair.

Use an opt-in process that documents consent for text marketing. Include an unsubscribe option in every message with simple instructions like “Reply STOP to opt-out.”

Wrap up

SMS drip campaigns foster strong customer relationships and generate sales when relevant, timely, and beneficial to the recipient.

Think about how text messages can improve customer experience and complement your email marketing strategy. Consider SMS opportunities like flash sale announcements, new product drops, order and shipping updates, subscription reminders, and abandoned carts.

To maximize impact, segment your audience based on demographics, interests, activity, behavior, and subscription status. Maintain a clean contact list and test different SMS versions to discover the highest-converting messages.