sales-sms-marketing

What this skill does

# SMS Marketing

Help the user with SMS marketing strategy — from opt-in collection and compliance through campaign design, automation, segmentation, and analytics. This skill is tool-agnostic but includes platform-specific guidance for Omnisend, Klaviyo, Attentive, Postscript, Brevo, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, and others.

## Step 1 — Gather context


If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated knowledge.

Ask the user:

1. **What do you need help with?**
   - A) Strategy — planning an SMS marketing program from scratch
   - B) Opt-in collection — building an SMS subscriber list
   - C) Compliance — TCPA, GDPR, consent management
   - D) Campaign design — what to send, copy, CTAs
   - E) Automation — triggered SMS (cart abandonment, welcome, post-purchase)
   - F) Segmentation — targeting the right contacts for SMS
   - G) Timing & frequency — when and how often to text
   - H) Two-way messaging — conversational SMS
   - I) Analytics — measuring SMS performance
   - J) Tool selection — choosing an SMS marketing platform
   - K) Something else — describe it

2. **What's your business type?**
   - A) E-commerce / DTC brand
   - B) SaaS / software
   - C) Local business / retail
   - D) B2B services
   - E) Creator / media
   - F) Other

3. **What platform are you using (or considering)?**
   - A) Omnisend
   - B) Klaviyo
   - C) Attentive
   - D) Postscript
   - E) Brevo
   - F) ActiveCampaign
   - G) Mailchimp
   - H) Not decided yet
   - I) Other

**If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step.** Lead with your best-effort answer using reasonable assumptions (stated explicitly), then ask only the most critical 1-2 clarifying questions at the end.

## Step 2 — Strategy and approach

### When SMS marketing works best

SMS is highest-value for:
- **Time-sensitive offers** — flash sales, limited drops, expiring discounts
- **Transactional updates** — order confirmation, shipping, delivery
- **Cart abandonment** — 2-3x higher conversion than email for cart recovery
- **Welcome offers** — immediate discount delivery after opt-in
- **VIP/loyalty** — exclusive early access for top customers
- **Back-in-stock** — instant notification for high-demand products

SMS is lowest-value for:
- Long-form content (use email)
- Cold outreach (use email or LinkedIn)
- Non-time-sensitive announcements (use email or push)
- B2B enterprise sales (SMS is primarily B2C/DTC)

## Step 3 — SMS marketing reference

**Read `references/platform-guide.md`** for detailed compliance requirements, campaign types, copy best practices, platform-specific guidance, timing, and metrics.

*You no longer need the platform guide details — focus on the user's specific situation.*

## Step 4 — Actionable guidance

### SMS program launch checklist

1. **Set up compliance** — configure quiet hours, opt-out handling, sender identification
2. **Create opt-in forms** — multi-step popup (email → SMS), checkout checkbox, keyword opt-in
3. **Welcome SMS** — send immediately on opt-in with a discount or value
4. **Cart abandonment SMS** — set up automation (1 hour after cart creation, stop on purchase)
5. **Post-purchase SMS** — review request or cross-sell 7-14 days after delivery
6. **First campaign** — flash sale or exclusive offer to SMS list (test with a small segment first)
7. **Measure** — track opt-in rate, click rate, revenue per message, unsubscribe rate

## Gotchas

1. **SMS consent is separate from email consent.** Never send SMS to someone who only opted into email. This violates TCPA and can result in $500-$1,500 per message in fines. Always collect explicit SMS consent.
2. **Emojis triple your message cost.** A single emoji switches encoding from GSM-7 (160 chars) to Unicode (70 chars), potentially turning 1 segment into 3. Know the cost before adding that fire emoji.
3. **Carrier filtering is real.** US carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon) actively filter marketing SMS. Avoid URL shorteners (bit.ly is flagged), ALL CAPS, excessive punctuation, and spammy language. Use your platform's built-in link shortener instead.
4. **SMS unsubscribes are final and expensive.** Unlike email where users might re-subscribe, SMS unsubscribes are permanent. Each lost subscriber cost you $2-$5+ to acquire. Quality over quantity — send fewer, better messages.
5. **International SMS costs vary wildly.** US: ~$0.01-$0.02/message. UK: ~$0.04. Australia: ~$0.06. Some countries: $0.10+. Always check per-country rates before launching international SMS campaigns.

- **Self-improving**: If you discover something not covered here, append it to `references/learnings.md` with today's date.

## Before recommending a specific platform skill

This skill covers a strategy domain across many platforms. **Before pointing the user to any specific platform skill** (any `/sales-{platform}` listed in `## Related skills`, e.g., `/sales-mailshake`, `/sales-klaviyo`, `/sales-apollo`), read that platform skill's actual `SKILL.md` first. The 1-line description in `## Related skills` is enough to *identify* a candidate — it's not enough to *commit* to it or to write a prompt that invokes it well.

**How to read it:**
- If `~/.claude/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md` exists locally, `Read` it.
- For `sales-*` skills, `WebFetch` directly from this repo: `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md` — e.g., for `sales-mailshake`: `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sales-skills/sales/main/skills/sales-mailshake/SKILL.md`.
- For non-`sales-*` skills (third-party), look up `{org}/{repo}` in `~/.claude/skills/sales-do/references/skill-sources.md` if installed and fetch the same `skills/{skill-name}/SKILL.md` path under that repo.

**After reading,** ground your recommendation in something concrete from the SKILL.md (its scope, a sub-flow, its `argument-hint` shape, or a "Do NOT use for..." negative trigger). Align any generated invocation with the platform skill's `argument-hint`. If the platform skill turns out not to fit the user's situation, swap to another or handle the question here directly rather than recommending a poor fit.

## Related skills

- `/sales-omnisend` — Omnisend platform help (SMS + email + push in one ecommerce platform)
- `/sales-klaviyo` — Klaviyo platform help (SMS + email for e-commerce, predictive analytics)
- `/sales-brevo` — Brevo platform help (SMS + email + WhatsApp + push)
- `/sales-activecampaign` — ActiveCampaign platform help (SMS in marketing automation)
- `/sales-mailchimp` — Mailchimp platform help (SMS add-on)
- `/sales-sendpulse` — SendPulse platform help (SMS + email + chatbots + Automation 360)
- `/sales-email-marketing` — Email marketing strategy (coordinate SMS + email cadence)
- `/sales-push-notification` — Push notification strategy (another engagement channel)
- `/sales-audience-growth` — Growing your subscriber list (feeds SMS opt-in)
- `/sales-checkout` — Checkout optimization (checkout is a key SMS opt-in point)
- `/sales-do` — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: `npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do`

## Examples

### Example 1: Launching SMS for a Shopify store
**User says**: "I run a Shopify clothing store on Omnisend. I want to start SMS marketing. Where do I begin?"
**Skill does**: Designs a launch plan — multi-step popup for SMS opt-in (collect email first, then phone), welcome SMS with 10% discount, cart abandonment SMS at 1 hour, and a weekly flash sale campaign. Explains Omnisend SMS credit costs and TCPA compliance setup. Recommends starting with 2 SMS/month and scaling based on engagement.
**Result**: User has an SMS launch plan with opt-in forms, 3 automations, and compliance configured

### Example 2: Choosing an SMS platform
**User says**: "We're on Klaviyo for email and considering adding SMS. Should we use Klaviyo SMS or switch to Attentive?"
**Skill does**: Compares Klaviyo SMS (integrated