How to Build Customer Loyalty with SMS Messaging in 2025?

Increase your customer loyalty via SMS campaigns.

Loyalty programs are essential parts of each marketing strategy, and brands try to boost their customer loyalty using various channels like SMS.

You can easily increase your customer loyalty and make current customers continue buying from your brand using SMS loyalty campaigns.

Of course, you need strong SMS-based customer retention strategies to reach success. In this blog post, we’ll explain how to increase customer loyalty with SMS marketing.

We’ll also introduce the capabilities of WP SMS to automate your SMS campaigns and reach a high ROI in your loyalty programs.

Can I Increase Customer Loyalty Via SMS?

The short answer to this question is a big YES!

Although social platforms have changed the realm of marketing and advertising, you can’t ignore the power of SMS.

Here is a why:

• Wide Reach: Although many youngsters use social channels, there is no platform that all people are active on. In other words, many people use Instagram, but many of them use other channels. On the other hand, SMS is used by almost everyone.

• Easy to Use: To use social chats, you need a smartphone, an Internet connection, and applications. SMS doesn’t need any of them.

• Direct Communication: Many people don’t check their emails for days and many people ignore social messages. On the contrary, SMS has an immediate nature and many people try to check their messages soon after receiving one. In other words, SMS is a real-time communication channel and will outperform other channels when it comes to time-sensitive campaigns.

• Cost-Effectiveness: SMS campaigns are budget-friendly and don’t require creating videos or working with influencers.

Steps to Run An SMS Customer Loyalty Program in 2025

Now that you know why SMS can be effective for loyalty programs, it’s good to know how to run an SMS campaign to increase loyal customers.

Here is a step-by-step guide to building a customer loyalty strategy using SMS messaging:

1. Define Your Objectives

Before running any marketing campaign, you need to determine what you want to earn. So, try to list what you want to achieve with your SMS-based customer retention strategies. 

Remember that your goals should be SMART, which means:

• Specific: Clearly write down what you want to accomplish. For example, “Increase repeat purchases from existing customers.”

• Measurable: Set metrics and determine a target. For example, “Achieve a 20% increase in repeat purchases over the next three months.”

• Achievable: Try to be realistic and consider your limitations, like budget and tools.

• Relevant: Your goals should align with your overall business objectives and brand culture.

• Time-Bound: Set a deadline and stick to it to know when you have to reach your goal.

Here are some common objectives you can define for your loyalty SMS campaign:

• Increasing repeat purchases
• Increasing the number of loyal customers
• Boosting customer satisfaction

2. Choose the Right SMS Platform

The SMS tool you use has a great impact on the performance of your campaigns. To run a successful loyalty SMS campaign, you need to segment your audience, customize text messages, automate and schedule messages, and analyze the performance.

So you need to choose the right tool that offers these features. Depending on your budget and the current platforms you’re using, you can select top SMS platforms.

For example, if you use a WordPress website or have an ecommerce brand, you’d better use an SMS plugin for WordPress. 

WP SMS is one of the best WordPress SMS plugins that you can choose for your loyalty SMS programs.

Here is why you have to choose this plugin for your campaign:

• Supporting 300+ SMS gateways and APIs.
• Integrating with platforms like WooCommerce, Booking, GravityForm, etc.
• Automation
• Scheduling
• Segmentation
• Dynamic content
• Affordable pricing packages

So don’t waste your time searching for other tools. Try the demo version of WP SMS and get familiar with its power.

3. Segment Your Audience

In your loyalty program, you need to talk to various groups of people. But the question is how you can do that when you have numerous subscribers.

Thanks to advanced features offered by SMS tools, you can now segment your subscribers and send different text messages to them.

Segmentation helps you send relevant messages to the recipient. So take advantage of the segmentation features on WP SMS and divide your audience based on factors like purchase history, demographics, or engagement levels.

Then, you can offer different perks to each group to increase the chance of conversion. For example, you can consider these segments for your loyalty campaign:

• High-Spending Customers: Offer exclusive loyalty rewards via SMS.
• Inactive Customers: Send personalized SMS for customer retention.

4. Prepare Diverse SMS Templates & Attractive Offers

Now, you need to think about various loyalty programs and prepare SMS templates for them. Please don’t ignore the importance of the content of your text messages.

You need to send a short, compelling, and valuable SMS so that your customers think you’ve specifically written the message for them.

Also, you need to include loyalty offers that fit the audience and the content of the message.

You can include offers like:

• Discounts on next purchases
• Early access to new products
• Invitations to VIP events
• Free shipping
• Bundle or package deal
• Birthday rewards
• Buy one, get one

Fortunately, the dynamic feature of WP SMS lets you define variables in your templates to customize the message according to the details of the recipient.

For example, you can include the first name, the offer, the date, the product, etc., in the message template. These fields will be filled when the recipient is determined.

5. Use Loyalty Points to Reward

You might ask how to reward customers and differentiate loyal customers from inactive subscribers. A great way to do that is by defining loyalty points and rewarding customers based on the points they earn.

You can then announce the actions they can take to earn loyalty points. For example, you can define the following criteria to obtain points:

• New purchase = 100 points per $100
• Referring a friend = 200 points
• Leaving a review or feedback = 50 points
• Engaging with promotional SMS (e.g., clicking a link or replying) = 20 points

6. Schedule Your Messages

You need to send your loyalty SMS messages at the best time to get maximum exposure. The suitable time depends on many factors including the industry, the time zone, and the type of audience.

Running A/B testing is one of the best methods to understand the best time to send a message and get the best result.

7. Combine SMS Marketing with Other Channels

Although SMS is great, you can’t solely rely on it for a successful loyalty program. You can create an omnichannel marketing strategy including SMS, social media, and email to make the most of your loyalty programs. Of course, you have to display a consistent style and tone across all channels so that customers remember your brand.

8. Analyze Performance and Optimize

Now, it’s time to analyze the performance of your SMS loyalty program using the metrics you defined and see if you’ve reached your goals. You can then optimize your strategy to reach better results and increase your customer loyalty with SMS.

SMS Samples for Loyalty Programs

As said earlier, the content of your text messages plays a crucial role in the success of your SMS loyalty campaign.

So it’s good to look at some SMS samples to see how you should write compelling content. 

Welcome Message

A warm welcome makes a perfect first impression and encourages people to stay in your loyalty club.

You can use a sample welcome message like the one below to appreciate their presence and make them believe that they’re part of your story, not just customers:

Also, offering something valuable, like a discount or loyalty points as a welcome gift, is a great idea to increase loyalty.

Loyalty Points Notification

Many businesses define various criteria for gaining loyalty points and reward customers in return for the points.

You can use automated SMS notifications to help your customers be informed about these criteria. Also, you can motivate them to reach milestones by earning a bit more points. 

For example, the following loyalty point SMS sample offers logging into the account and earning more points:

Exclusive Offer for Loyal Customers

One of the most important loyalty program strategies is to consider exclusive offers to loyal customers.  

In fact, you need to show them that you appreciate their loyalty and consider them different from other customers. This way, they’ll feel VIP and remain loyal to your brand.

Here is a sample SMS with an exclusive offer to loyal customers:

Re-engagement Message

Although loyal customers are important, you shouldn’t forget other customers. It’s good to reconnect with inactive customers and encourage them to get back to your loyalty programs. 

You can offer them some perks, like discounts, and ask them to resume shopping. The following sample SMS shows how to do that:

Time-Sensitive Promotion

Time-sensitive offers using SMS marketing also work well, especially when it comes to loyal customers.

Try to create urgency for loyal customers and encourage them to take immediate action in a limited-time campaign.

So don’t forget loyal customers in flash sales and send them an SMS like:

Event Notification

Event marketing and SMS marketing work well together. Try to promote your events and don’t forget loyal customers because they’re highly likely to participate in your events.

Look at the SMS sample below to promote a community-based event:

Conclusion

SMS marketing is one of the best channels to promote loyalty programs and make customers continue buying from your brand. 

Try to build a community of loyal customers and treat them differently by offering exclusive deals, early access, discounts, etc. 

Remember that apart from current customers, you need to pay attention to new customers and try to make them loyal to your brand. 

So prepare SMS templates for each group and consider specific offers for them to entice them to join your loyalty program campaigns. 

To do that, you need an all-in-one SMS tool to build a subscriber list, segment them, create SMS templates, and automate your loyalty SMS campaigns. 

So why wait? You can start with the free plan to see if it works for SMS loyalty campaigns.

FAQs