14 SMS Marketing Campaign Ideas for Summer

SMS Marketing Campaign Ideas for Summer

Leverage Summer SMS marketing to boost your sales in 2025!

SMS marketing has proved its capabilities as a great channel for promotional and transactional communications.

In this blog post, we’ll review 14 creative SMS ideas for Summer campaigns to generate new leads and convert them into loyal customers.

We’ll also introduce the capabilities of WP SMS for bulk messaging to help you run a successful Summer SMS marketing campaign.

Does Summer SMS Marketing Work?

The short answer to this question is a big YES!

SMS marketing is one of the most effective ways of seasonal marketing, especially in Summer. Here’s why:

  1. Instant Reach: SMS has an immediate nature, which means many people open their messages within minutes. This makes SMS far better for time-sensitive campaigns compared to other channels like emails.
  1. Wide Reach: SMS is accessible to all people everywhere at any time. On the contrary, other channels like emails and social media platforms need applications, internet connectivity, and smartphones.
  1. Personalized Marketing: You might post something attractive on social media but you can’t be sure that everyone sees it. Also, you can’t create a specific post for everyone. SMS, on the other hand, allows you to send targeted messages based on customer preferences, location, and past purchases.

So you must think of SMS as a special channel in your omnichannel marketing strategy.

14 SMS Marketing Ideas to Heat Your Summer Sales

Now, let’s review some of the most successful SMS marketing ideas to boost your sales in the upcoming Summer:

1. Summer Flash Sales

Summer shoppers love discounts in flash sales and limited-time deals. This is a great opportunity to target them by sending exclusive SMS offers with countdown timers to encourage them to buy from your business.

Look at the following SMS sample for a Summer flash sales to see how it works:

Message

🔥 24-Hour Summer Flash Sale! Use code SUMMER20 to get 20% off sitewide. The sale ends June 15 at midnight! Shop now at bit.ly/sale. Txt STOP to opt-out.
Summer Flash Sales

2. Holiday & Event Promotions

You can combine your Summer SMS campaigns with special events like Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day. Send SMS reminders with special discounts like BOGO deals for these events to encourage more purchases.

Here is how:

Message

🎆 Happy July 4th, Sarah! Celebrate with BOGO deals on your favorite items. Today only! Shop now: bit.ly/BOGO. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.
Holiday & Event Promotions

3. Exclusive Summer VIP Deals

You should always have a special offer for your loyal customers. Take advantage of Summer deals to reach out to your VIP customers with special offers.

Try to reward them with perks like early access to summer sales or exclusive VIP-only deals. SMS is the best tool to do that because you can segment your loyal customers and send them customized text messages like the following:

Message

Hey Alex, VIPs like you get early access to our summer collection! Enjoy 30% off today only. Shop here: https://bit.ly/VIP. Opt-out: STOP.
Exclusive Summer VIP Deals

4. Back-to-School Promotions

If you have school-related products/services, you must start your back-to-school promotions in the middle of Summer.

Try to offer discounts for these products and send messages to relevant customers. For example, you can send the following SMS template to parents to buy school essentials:

Message

📚 Back-to-school starts now! Get 15% off school essentials with code SCHOOL15. Offer ends Aug 1. Shop now: https://bit.ly/BTS. Txt STOP to opt out.
Back-to-School Promotions

5. SMS-Exclusive Giveaways

Contests or giveaways are the best methods to engage your customers. You can devise creative contests with valuable prizes for Summer campaigns.

Here is an example of SMS-exclusive giveaways for your Summer campaigns:

Message

🎉 Enter our summer giveaway! Reply ‘WIN’ for a chance to win a beach getaway. Winners announced July 10! Reply STOP to opt out.
SMS-Exclusive Giveaways

6. Vacation Essentials Promo

Summer is the best season for traveling so it’s a great opportunity for selling travel-friendly products/services.

A great idea is to offer essential packs for Summer and promote them using various channels, especially SMS. 

Look at the following SMS sample to see how to do that:

Message

✈️ Off on vacation, Mia? Pack light with travel-sized essentials! Get 10% off today. Shop here: https://bit.ly/vacation. Opt out: STOP.
Summer SMS Marketing
Vacation Essentials Promo

7. Local Event Invitations

Many businesses choose Summer for holding events. If you want to plan for one, you’d better start creating your event promotion SMS templates and reminders.

Here is an example of a Summer event invitation:

Message

🎶 Mark your calendar! Live music this Saturday at The Shoreline Café. RSVP now: https://bit.ly/music. Txt STOP to unsubscribe.
Summer SMS Marketing Local Event Invitations

8. Weather-Based Promotions

Summer is all about the heat! Use this as a chance to launch weather-triggered SMS campaigns, and send promotions based on real-time weather conditions.

Imagine that you have a coffee shop. When you see the air temperature is so high, it’s the best time to send a limited-time offer for ice cream, iced coffee, or other related products. The following SMS sample shows how to do that:

Message

☀️ It’s 95°F today! Cool off with a free iced coffee when you buy any pastry. Today only! Redeem: https://bit.ly/summer. Reply STOP to opt out.
Weather-Based Promotions summar SMS idea

9. Summer-Themed Loyalty Programs

Giving rewards to customers is a smart idea to boost your sales in Summer. Try to encourage repeat purchases by offering double reward points for those who bought from you last year or those who repeated their two times this Summer.

Giving points instead of discounts can bring more revenue for you and also keep customers loyal to your business. Here is how:

Message

🌟 Double the points, double the fun! Earn 2X rewards on all summer purchases this week. Redeem: https://bit.ly/DoubleRewards Txt STOP to opt out.
Summer-Themed Loyalty Programs

10. Last-Minute Hotel Deals

SMS is the best tool for promoting last-minute sales. Imagine you have a hotel. You can try to leverage the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) to entice guests to book your rooms.

Other industries can also use the same Summer SMS marketing technique to boost their sales in Summer.

Here is an example:

Message

🏝️ Need a weekend getaway? Book a last-minute stay at Seaside Resort & save 25%! Limited spots. Book now: https://bit.ly/book. Txt STOP to opt out.
Last-Minute Hotel Deals

11. Customer Re-Engagement Campaigns

Although loyal customers are important, you can’t focus solely on them. Many customers might go for other brands for various reasons.

You need to think of ways to return them using enticing offers like Summer discounts. For example, if you have an ecommerce website, you need to reconnect with inactive customers by sending a special summer discount or incentive.

Here is an example:

Message

We miss you, Jake! 🌞 Here’s 15% off to welcome you back. Use the code WELCOME15. Shop now: https://bit.ly/engage. Opt-out = 11
Customer Re-Engagement Campaigns

12. Poolside & BBQ Specials

An important part of all summer travels is swimming, going to the pool, and doing other fun things like grilling. This is a unique opportunity for food-related businesses or outdoor products.

Try to highlight your summer-friendly items in your Summer SMS campaigns and encourage people to buy them. 

You can use special language and tone to make your SMS more creative for food lovers. Here is an example of how to do that:

Message

🔥 Fire up the grill! Get 10% off all BBQ essentials this weekend only. Shop now: https://bit.ly/BBQ. Reply STOP to opt out.
Poolside & BBQ Specials

13. Personalized Recommendations

SMS is the most personal communication tool so you have to use it to offer products specifically related to your audience.

Try to use your customer’s data on your website to send tailored offers based on their previous purchases.

For example, if a customer has previously bought a product related to swimming, you can offer other relevant products. Here is an example:

Message

Hey Emma, ready for summer? We’ve handpicked new swimwear just for you! Check them out: https://bit.ly/offer. Reply CANCEL to unsubscribe.
Personalized Recommendations

14. Sunset Deals (Evening-Only Discounts)

You need to think of a way to increase your sales during typically slower periods of the day, especially evenings.

Sunset deals are a marketing strategy to tackle this problem. Sunset deals encourage your customers to shop during the evening hours. Of course, you need to offer something special like exclusive, time-sensitive discounts.

This is actually a method to create a sense of urgency by a discount. The following example shows how it works:

Message

🌅 Sunset Special! Get 15% off after 6 PM. Tonight only! Use code SUNSET15. Shop now: https://bit.ly/sunset. Reply STOP to opt out.
Sunset Deals (Evening-Only Discounts)

‌Best Practices for Summer SMS Marketing

Having creative SMS ideas is great for a successful SMS campaign in Summer but it’s not enough. You need a stronger strategy to make the most of your Summer sales.

Here are some tips to maximize your sale in Summer 2025:

Build an Omnichannel Marketing Strategy for Summer 2025

SMS is good but not as a single marketing channel. To reach maximum sales in Summer 2025, you need to take advantage of all possible marketing channels.

Fortunately, SMS can perfectly match with other channels like:

  • Social media
  • Email
  • Event marketing
  • Digital marketing

For example, you can include shortened links to your sales web pages in your text messages. As a result, you can drive traffic to your website and help it grow in terms of SEO.

Try to cross-promote your products/services on all channels with a consistent tone and style to build a professional identity. This way, you can target potential customers on all channels.

Comply with Regulations

When you want to send promotional messages, you have to get clear consent from your audience. Also, you must provide a simple way to unsubscribe if they don’t want to receive your messages.

These are just part of the regulations you need to comply with when it comes to SMS marketing. Make sure you know everything about GDPR, TCPA, and other local regulations to avoid any legal problems in your Summer SMS campaign.

Create a Sense of Urgency

As said earlier, SMS has a sense of immediacy, making it perfect for limited-time promotions. To encourage potential customers to make their purchasing decisions, try to leverage this aspect and create a sense of urgency.

In other words, you need to make them feel they might lose something valuable if they don’t buy your products/services. 

Talk to Customers at a Personal Level

People don’t like generic cold advertisements. Try to build an intimate friendship with them instead of focusing solely on one product.

A great approach to do this is personalization. It’s good to include as many personal details in the message as possible such as:

  • First name
  • Previous purchases
  • The customer’s browsing history on your ecommerce website
  • Previous comments, complaints, reward points, etc.
  • Personal details like birthdays and membership anniversary

Of course, you can’t do that manually so think of a great automated bulk messaging tool with personalization capabilities.

It’s also essential to segment your audience according to important factors like age, gender, location, loyalty, etc. This way, you can send more targeted SMS messages for your Summer marketing campaign and get higher engagement rates.

Prepare Your SMS Templates Long Before Summer 2025

Don’t wait until Summer and start creating SMS templates for various types of Summer campaigns from June or even May. 

You need to make your brand memorable so that when customers need something in your industry, they choose your brand first.

Schedule Your Message for the Best Hours & Days

You need to send your messages at the best time to increase the chance of being opened and get maximum exposure.

Remember that if you send promotional messages late the night or early in the morning, you might face a high unsubscription rate.

Fortunately, WP SMS offers advanced scheduling and repeat messaging that helps you send your text messages at the intended time.

You just need to write your message and then in the Option, activate the SCHEDULED MESSAGE button.

SMS Scheduling Feature of WP SMS

Now, you can select the exact date and time you want to send the SMS message, activate the Repeat option, and set the frequency of sending it.

Repeat feature on WP SMS

You can then track your message from the Scheduled option in the SMS menu on your WordPress dashboard.

Scheduled messages on WP SMS

Run A/B Tests

Sometimes you can’t be sure about the effectiveness of your Summer SMS strategy. A great way to solve this problem is to run an A/B test to find the best version of your messages.

For example, you can consider items like the offer, the CTA, and timing. Then, you have to consider two versions for each one and create these two SMS formats to two segments of your audiences. This way, you can check which one works best.

Constantly Track Your Performance

You need to consider specific metrics like conversion rate, click-through rate, and opt-out rate and track them during your Summer SMS campaign. 

Try to find the weaknesses and strengths of your Summer SMS marketing strategy to optimize it for future campaigns.

Looking for a Solution for SMS Marketing in Summer 2025?

Even the best marketing strategies can’t bring a high ROI if you don’t use the right tool. If you want to send personalized messages at a large scale and interact with your customers, you must use a tool with the following features:

  • Automation
  • Dynamic content
  • Scheduling
  • Easy integration with existing platforms
  • Two-way messaging
  • Affordable plans

So consider your resources and requirements and choose an effective SMS marketing tool accordingly. 

If you have an online shop or work with a WordPress website, the best choice for you is WP SMS.

It allows you to send bulk messaging through 300+ SMS gateways without switching from your WordPress dashboard.

WP SMS offers a free plan with basic features and diverse pricing packages for advanced features and add-ons.

Conclusion

Summer is a golden opportunity to connect with your customers and boost your sales. You need to use all the available channels like SMS marketing to make the most of it.

To make your SMS campaign different from that of your competitors, you have to come up with creative ideas and enticing offers.

We mentioned 14 creative Summer SMS marketing ideas to help you send compelling promotional text messages. Also, you need to use an effective SMS tool like WP SMS to run efficient campaigns and reach a high ROI. It’s good to take a look at the demo of WP SMS to get familiar with its capabilities and then go for premium plans.

FAQs

What is the best time for SMS marketing?

There is no specific formula to determine the best time for SMS marketing. However, you can consider 10 a.m. until 10 a.m. the best time interval for sending your messages. 

Is SMS marketing illegal?

Yes! However, you need to comply with communication and data privacy regulations like GDPR and TCPA. For example, you have to offer a way for unsubscription and also get consent from your audience.

Does SMS marketing work for Summer campaigns?

Yes, of course! SMS is the most personal communication channel and is best for sending customizable offers to your customers. Also, it has an immediate nature, which makes it perfect for time-sensitive offers like Summer campaigns.