To help you prepare for the upcoming shopping frenzy, we’ve curated a selection of ten standout email and SMS examples from successful Black Friday campaigns. These examples showcase effective strategies for engaging target audiences, creating a sense of urgency, and enticing customers with time-sensitive deals.

1. Make your Black Friday email promotions pop with countdown timers

A great way to drive clicks and sales is through urgency, scarcity, and FOMO (fear of missing out).

Adding countdown timers in emails gives a sense of urgency, and the design can make the email feel interactive and visually engage the reader.

Virgin Atlantic’s Black Friday email campaign is a great example of how to effectively use a countdown timer. The brand ingeniously combined an animated countdown timer with a boarding pass.

The whole ticket graphic looks personalized, with the first name field matching the email body copy. Now, imagine you’ve been searching flights to a particular destination, and then you get this email land in your inbox. Seeing your name on that ticket would certainly tempt you.

The email is undeniably on-brand and different from generic campaigns, so it stands out from the competition.

2. Showcase your brand values 

The Black Friday and entire Cyber Week period isn’t just about huge discounts. Campaigns that show your brand supporting a charitable cause or giving back to the community can be a refreshing change of pace that stands out and is well received by your audience, improving brand loyalty overall.

This campaign from clothing brand Everlane is as refreshing as the alpine air in the photograph used. The email lets readers know how their support of the brand has in turn supported cashmere farmers and the regeneration of Mongolian grasslands.

The brand shares what it’s doing for good, but doesn’t make it about them, rather about the support of the customers. It also educates, in a non-preachy way, letting people know why this is important.

The campaign’s mixture of blocks showing stats, meaningful copy, and real-life photography of gorgeous Cashmere goats makes it one of the best email examples out there.

3. Don’t be limited to Black Friday itself

This campaign from Thortful, a card marketplace, is a couple of years old now, but we still love it.

Black Friday is a busy day for inboxes, so don’t be afraid to think outside the box and make your own occasion.

From November 24 to 27, Thortful introduced “Thortsgiving” – a celebration that gives back to its creators. This unique take on a Black Friday message sends a powerful message to customers: Thortful is not just a place to buy meaningful cards; it’s a tight-knit community that stands by its creators and supports small businesses.

Thortful skillfully establishes an emotional connection with its customers, using the attention around holiday promotions to drive sales and build deeper connections with its audience, all the while remaining true to its core values.

4. Create memorable copy

Writing memorable copy is important during the holiday rush. With so many messages fighting for attention, your goal should be to create copy that stands out and leaves a lasting impression.

Use persuasive language to stimulate your subscribers’ curiosity and emotions, and create a sense of urgency that encourages them to take action.

For instance, Coach was able to successfully target its SMS subscribers during Black Friday by weaving a sense of urgency into its message, without resorting to shouty ALL CAPS messages with lots of exclamation marks.

In the brand’s typical quiet luxury style, the urgency is conveyed, but not pressured, with the copy emphasizing that it was the final chance for customers to save big on their purchases before the deals disappeared.

Why use SMS for Black Friday sales

SMS gets a click-through rate seven times higher than email at 25.7%. You can learn all of the basics on SMS marketing here, written by our SMS expert, Lucia.

SMS lends itself especially well to flash sales, which are very popular during Black Friday. We know that Black Friday is a hectic time for marketers, so adding SMS into your channel mix isn’t much extra work at all.

If you want to send cross-channel campaigns but are short on time, Dotdigital’s AI tools mean you can convert your existing emails into SMS messages in one click. It will automatically adjust your message to fit the character limit, suggesting copy that aligns perfectly with your email content.

5. Offer exclusivity with VIP deals

Technically, this is another example of Black Friday campaigns not being tied to Black Friday as it’s about a ‘spring Black Friday’ offer, but the part of this campaign we love is the exclusive early access for email subscribers.

Making your customers feel valued and giving them perks for being subscribed is never a bad idea. Dotdigital’s recent survey of 4,000 global consumers found that 27% of shoppers want loyalty schemes to offer early access to new products and sales.

This example from PLUSH + OAK tells subscribers that they’re on the brand’s VIP mailing list, so they’re getting access to a big discount a whole three days before other people will even know about the sale. This is extra valuable to subscribers as the email highlights how the brand anticipates certain items to sell out, so this pre-sale window is a valuable perk for email subscribers.

6. How to say more with fewer words

On Black Friday, shoppers are eager to find deals from their favorite brands quickly and effortlessly. As SMS messages have a limited character count, getting your message across in just a few words is necessary, but you can still build excitement.

BCBG’s SMS campaign is a great example of how keeping things short and clear can really pay off. During its Black Friday promotion, BCBG sent out a simple and clear SMS message to subscribers that provided all the essential information about the offer, without overwhelming recipients with unnecessary details.

In just a few words, the message tells shoppers:

• The crux of the offer (40% off everything)
• Highlights that it’s for a limited time only
• Evokes scarcity and FOMO tactics by saying things are selling fast
• And ends with a simple and clear call to action and link

7. Have fun with it

One way to leave a lasting impression during the Black Friday email scramble is to avoid using basic, overused design templates.

By creating a unique and cohesive design that stands out from generic email layouts, you can set your brand apart and draw attention to the content within.

Vans’ Black Friday email campaign is an excellent example of innovative and fun design.

The email features a mountain-side ski scene that offers a playful interactive game feel in the styling of the design and CTA button placements.

When it comes to the content, the campaign has something for everyone. From regular shopping CTAs to helpfully curated gift selections sorted by price range, and even a holiday playlist option so that people not looking to shop still get something to enjoy from the email.

8. When and how to use emojis

Emojis are part of modern communication and can be perfect for adding emotion and personality to text-based messages.

SMS is still a channel that’s used for chatting with friends and loved ones, so using emojis along with a conversational and relatable tone here can make the message feel less salesy and more natural.

Youth to the People’s message added a clock emoji to deliver the sale information in a more visually engaging way and to show an element of fun to the campaign.

When using emojis in your SMS marketing campaigns, moderation is key. Using too many emojis can overwhelm your audience and feel spammy.

And always be sure that you’re on top of your character count, as some newer emojis can count as two characters instead of one.

9. Prioritize mobile optimization

Across the month of November in 2025, mobile saw 52.8% of all online orders, and on Cyber Monday it accounted for 57.5% of orders, so your Black Friday email campaigns need to be optimized for mobile users.

Your promotional emails need to look good on every device. Whether someone opens them on a phone, tablet, or desktop, a well-formatted email makes it much easier for them to click through and buy.

Most email marketing platforms have mobile optimization built into the email builder, so this doesn’t need to be something you think about too hard. The main thing to check is that elements like CTAs and side-by-side content blocks stack into a single column on smaller screens, making your emails just as easy to read on a phone as they are on a desktop.

10. Send last-minute reminders

Last-minute reminders are a great way to make the most of Black Friday hype and give anyone who’s been on the fence a reason to finally hit buy.

Snacks brand, Nuts, used this SMS to make one thing very clear: this was their last chance to shop the Black Friday sale. The loudspeaker emoji helped dial up the urgency without needing to say much more.

The key is to be clear about what’s ending and when. And keep those deadlines genuine; repeatedly extending a sale can quickly frustrate customers, who’ll see through the urgency tactic. In the EU, brands have also faced fines for misleading practices around fake discounts and deadlines.

A well-timed reminder can bring back customers who missed, forgot about, or simply needed one final nudge to take advantage of your offer.

Get Black Friday ready

As we approach Black Friday, now is the perfect time to start planning your marketing strategy. It’ll be upon us quicker than you know it, and anything we can prep in advance will make it a lot easier. We hope these examples can provide a springboard for inspiration when designing your upcoming email and SMS campaigns. And remember, you’ve got this.

Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the UK’s largest charities, providing physical, financial, and emotional support to people living with cancer. With around 15 internal teams running fundraising and engagement campaigns, their marketing operation is complex, cross-functional, and always busy.

Alice French, Email Marketing Manager, and Michelle Escobar, Email Marketing Executive, sit within the Strategic Engagement Planning team, making sure every message lands.

Great content, wrong channel

Macmillan had been email-first for years. Supporters going through fundraising campaigns like Brave the Shave and Mighty Hikes received automated journeys full of useful content like:

• Event reminders
• Fundraising nudges
• Good luck messages
• Post-event follow-ups

The problem? Some of these emails were landing at exactly the wrong time. For Mighty Hikes, the good luck and well done emails were the lowest-performing messages in the entire journey. Supporters were out on the trail with no signal, or too busy on event day to open their inbox. Event packs weren’t being read. Post-hike photos weren’t being downloaded.

Meanwhile, one team had been experimenting with SMS through a separate provider. “There was no reporting and no way to see what supporters were receiving across channels. so that’s when we started looking into the Dotdigital offer,” Michelle explains.

Making SMS count

Alice and Michelle took a phased approach, with one guiding principle: every SMS has to earn its place.

“The email world is part of that trust building before we’re just sending texts,” Alice says.

Consolidating SMS into Dotdigital

Step one was moving existing SMS into Dotdigital. The switch delivered a 22% cost saving per message, and for the first time, the team could see everything a supporter was receiving across email and SMS in one place.

Brave the Shave: proving the value

The team ran a controlled A/B test. Within seven days of signing up, if a supporter hadn’t started fundraising, those with a mobile number were split 50/50 between receiving an SMS nudge or not. Those without a number got the same test via email. The wording was kept as close as possible to keep it fair.

SMS hit a 45% click-through rate versus 7% for email. Based on the control group, supporters who received and engaged with the SMS also showed a higher likelihood of starting fundraising and exceeding their target compared to the non-SMS group. It’s worth noting this is a small sample and the SMS and email audiences aren’t directly comparable, but the directional signal was strong enough to build on.

Mighty Hikes: replacing the weakest links

For Mighty Hikes, they replaced the lowest-performing emails entirely with SMS. Because supporters provide their mobile number as part of their fundraising registration details, the team were able to reach them via SMS at exactly the right moment. The good luck text now goes out two days before the event, pointing supporters to everything they need to know for their hike. The well done text goes out the day after, linking to event photos they can download and share.

“We’d converted the lowest performing emails to some of the best performing content,” Alice says.

Spreading across teams

Other teams across Macmillan noticed. Michelle built a bank of templated SMS copy backed by performance data, so teams could adopt the channel with confidence.

The Legacies team, Macmillan’s biggest income stream, added an optional mobile number field to registration forms and now sends SMS reminders minutes before webinars and the day before in-person events. Both hit around 50% click-to-deliver rates.

“People forget, they see the email afterwards and miss the webinar completely,” Michelle explains. “The SMS reminder is just perfect timing.”

You would text your friend to say good luck on the day, and we’re able to nurture that kind of relationship with our fundraisers. People weren’t giving that feedback about the emails, even though we were sending them. They do give that feedback about the SMS.

Alice French, Email Marketing Manager, Macmillan Cancer Support

The right message, in the right place

Brave the Shave:

SMS click-through rate of 44.88% vs 7.14% for email. Based on the control group, SMS recipients showed a higher likelihood of starting fundraising and exceeding their target, though the sample size is small and the two groups are not directly like-for-like.

Mighty Hikes:

53.19% click-to-deliver rate, highest-engaging SMS across Macmillan. Supporters now reading event packs and sharing post-hike photos on social media.

Legacies:

~50% click-to-deliver rates on webinar and event reminders.

Consolidation:

22% cost savings moving SMS to Dotdigital, plus full cross-channel reporting for the first time.

Everything so far has been operational; reminders, nudges, event logistics.

Marketing SMS is next.

Until now, Macmillan’s CRM integration with Dotdigital only synced email unsubscribes, because it was built before SMS was on the table. That meant there was no way to manage SMS marketing consent at scale.

Dotdigital’s integration with Apteco FastStats has changed that, giving the team a route to sync consent both ways and making marketing SMS a real possibility. It’s firmly on the 2026 roadmap.

“Now that we have the FastStats integration, we should be able to actually make those improvements,” Alice says. “Watch this space.”

And because SMS is all about saying more with less (you’ve only got 160 characters to work with, after all), we’ll keep this short and to the point.

Here are some of the standout SMS marketing stats that show why so many marketers are making room for SMS marketing in their channel strategy.

SMS marketing growth statistics

Our 2026 Global benchmark report found that SMS sends have increased by 57.2% year-on-year for Dotdigital customers.

That’s a huge jump, especially for a channel that has been around for decades. Rather than being replaced by newer marketing channels, SMS is becoming a bigger part of the marketing mix.

Email inboxes can be very crowded, and changes to the inbox placement algorithms can also impact whether your messages get seen. Mobile marketing channels avoid this altogether and are a solid channel when you have a short, but important update or alert you want to get in front of your customers quickly.

SMS is great for time-sensitive marketing messages, such as flash sale alerts or back-in-stock notifications, and transactional updates like order and delivery status.

SMS marketing success statistics

The channel is growing due to the ease of setup and healthy engagement brands are seeing.

Mobile marketing channels are getting great results, as it’s a device people are already spending time on; most adults spend around 5 hours a day on their mobile phone.

Consumers are comfortable hearing from brands via SMS message, and 13% of consumers say SMS is one of their favorite channels to interact with brands.

Once subscribed, customers are highly likely to engage too. SMS click-through rates (CTR) are 7x higher than email.

SMS engagement benchmarks

• Global SMS CTR benchmark: 25.7%
• Unique SMS CTR benchmark: 19.91%
• Global SMS unsubscribe rate: 0.43%

What is a good SMS unsubscribe rate?

SMS can feel more personal than email, which is exactly why marketers need to use it carefully. The best-performing brands treat SMS as a high-value channel, reserving it for genuinely useful updates, timely offers, and important customer communications.

SMS campaigns are great for campaigns that are time sensitive and genuinely relevant for the recipient, things like: sales alerts, event information, fundraising updates, and appointment reminders.

Get the frequency, timing, and relevance right, and subscribers tend to stick around. For SMS marketing, an unsubscribe rate under 1% is considered good, and Dotdigital customers are seeing an average SMS unsubscribe rate of just 0.4%.

Mobile commerce and SMS marketing trends

• 57.5% of Cyber Monday 2025 online sales came via mobile devices
• Mobile sales increased by 8% year-on-year
• Consumer behaviour continues to shift towards mobile-first shopping

As shopping behaviour continues to shift to mobile devices, the marketing channels that naturally fit that journey become increasingly important. SMS meets customers where they’re already browsing, researching, and buying, making it a natural fit for ecommerce brands – especially on busy sales holidays like Black Friday, where inboxes are busier than usual.

Why SMS is a low-effort, high-impact channel

One of the reasons SMS adoption is growing is that it’s a great channel for a busy marketer to activate. You don’t need any design or imagery, and your copy should be succinct.

With Dotdigital, if you’ve already created an email campaign, AI can convert it into an SMS campaign for you, reducing character counts and adapting the message for the channel automatically.

Why SMS marketing works as a two-way channel

Unlike many marketing channels, SMS doesn’t have to be a one-way broadcast. Customers can reply directly, ask questions, provide feedback, or continue the conversation.

This keeps the marketing usage of the channel similar to how your audience will naturally use the channel to talk to family and friends.

With Dotdigital, we’ve made replying to messages as easy to manage as possible.

You can see:

• The SMS campaign that a customer is replying to
• The customer’s details
• Send quick replies based on your own pre-saved responses

Why SMS marketing deserves a spot in your strategy

These numbers prove that SMS is a great channel for marketers. Consumers are spending more time on mobile devices and are open to SMS as a marketing channel. Brands already using the channel are seeing strong results and sending more SMS campaigns as a result.

For marketers looking to connect with customers more directly, save time on campaign creation, and get meaningful engagement, SMS is the perfect solution.

Want more SMS marketing benchmarks and guidance?

Check out our SMS cheatsheet to learn when to use SMS, how to navigate compliance rules, and best practice advice to get the most from the channel.

But impressive send volumes and click rates only tell half the story; it’s trust that drives customers to convert. Dotdigital’s Customer Trend Index reveals that customers need to trust a brand before they convert, and most customers trust people over brands. Friends and family recommendations jumped from sixth to third as a driver of brand loyalty in a single year. You need to give people a reason to trust your brand, and you can’t do that with brand messaging alone. 

Two-way SMS builds that trust by making your brand feel more human. It lets customers have real conversations with your brand. They can get quick answers to their questions, give immediate feedback on their experiences, and, overall, feel like they’re interacting with people. 

Let’s dive into the benefits of two-way SMS and see how it can help you exceed customer expectations and your own marketing targets. Read on to find out:  

• What two-way SMS is 
• How it works
• The benefits and challenges of launching two-way SMS
• Why it’s good at improving customer experiences
• How you can use it to drive results

What is two-way SMS, and how does it work?

Two-way SMS is simply conversational text messaging. Just like messaging your friends, it lets your audience reply directly to your brand without switching channels or searching for customer support emails or phone numbers.

Whether you’re using a short code (a recognizable 5 or 6-digit number) or a standard long code that looks like an everyday mobile number, two-way SMS is simple to set up. 

There are two types of replies you can offer customers. 

Automated responses

Automated responses handle predictable customer touchpoints. They use specific keywords to prompt a direct response from the recipient, like:

• “YES” to confirm a booking
• “HELP” if they need support 
• “DEAL” to claim an offer

The keyword triggers an automatic, personalized reply straight away, helping to move them on to the next stage of the customer journey.

Open-ended replies 

These are where the most valuable customer conversations happen. Complex questions that need a human response are a team effort, and you can respond, track, and keep every conversation moving across SMS, WhatsApp, and Live Chat in one place in the Dotdigital platform. This makes sure customers get the help they need, without conversations getting lost or delayed.

How does two-way SMS differ from broadcast SMS?

Broadcast SMS is perfect for delivering time-sensitive information fast, especially if a reply isn’t needed, like order confirmations, delivery alerts, or limited-time offers.

Two-way SMS is best for opening a direct line of communication. For example, customers can ask questions, give feedback, or confirm an appointment. It turns a message into a conversation and gives your team insight that broadcast SMS can’t give you, like:

• What people are asking
• Where they’re getting stuck
• What’s driving them to act 

Where two-way SMS adds real value

With two-way SMS, you get something most other channels can’t offer: clear and direct insight into what customers think, need, and want. Click-through rates sit around 26% — seven times higher than email, proving that your messages are seen and acted on. But, some of the less obvious wins can often be the most valuable, like: 

• Data you can actually use: Every response is a signal that reveals intent, context, and where customers are in their journey 

• Faster customer support: Instead of hunting for customer support contact details, customers can reply to a message for quick answers and friction-free resolutions 

• Instant and effortless feedback: Short surveys and feedback prompts help you find out what’s working and where improvements are needed

• Personal customer journeys: Automate and segment SMS messages to make sure the right message reaches the right person, and because customers can reply, it feels like a conversation rather than a broadcast

• Clear return on investment(ROI): Pay for messages that almost always get seen by a highly engaged, opted-in audience — the ROI case makes itself

The challenges of using two-way SMS and how to overcome them

No channel is perfect, but the challenges of two-way SMS are manageable once you know what to expect and how to handle them.

High message volumes

Opening yourself up to conversational marketing means a lot more people will engage with your brand, which could result in more conversations to manage.

Dotdigital top tip

You can manage this by automating FAQs, setting up keyword replies, and triaging anything complicated to your support team.

Expectation for speedy replies

Using a channel like SMS that is more conversational, your audience might get frustrated if your replies aren’t instant.

Dotdigital top tip

As with most marketing, automation is the solution again. Make sure you build automated messages that set expectations on reply times so no one is frustrated.

SMS word limits

Like one-way SMS, you’re limited to 160 characters per message. If you have a big message you need to share, it might have to be split into two or three messages, increasing send costs. 

Dotdigital top tip

Keep every message clear and to the point. Dotdigital’s AI editing tools can help you refine copy to fit the character limit. And, if you need more space, WhatsApp is a good alternative for longer, more detailed conversations without character limits.

Compliance and data privacy

Opt-in and opt-out processes are non-negotiable, but they don’t need to be hard.

Dotdigital top tip

Make sure opt-in and opt-out flows are set up correctly from the start. You can also work with your SMS provider or legal team to confirm requirements for each region you operate in.

Examples of using two-way SMS campaigns

Here are some ways marketers are already using two-way SMS to turn messages into conversations.

• Customer support: “Text HELP for your order status”. This is a quick way to handle common questions without customers waiting on hold

• Appointment reminders & confirmations: “Reply 1 to confirm, 2 to reschedule.” This can reduce things like no-shows and cut down on admin for your team

• Promotions: “Reply BUY to claim the deal and get the link instantly.” This can turn interest into immediate action

• Loyalty programs: “Text POINTS to check your status. Reply CLAIM to redeem rewards.” This gives customers a quick way to engage with your rewards program

• Flash surveys or NPS checks: “How did we do today? 1 = great, 2 = fine, 3 = poor.” “We’re sorry you were unhappy with your experience today. Please let us know how we can do better.” Follow-ups can be triggered instantly based on their response to close the loop in real time

• Open conversations that lead to sales: “Do you have a similar t-shirt in green?” “Absolutely, check out this link.” A simple way to move from question to purchase without friction

All of these examples work even better when you hook SMS up to other channels like email or WhatsApp, especially if you can manage them together in your marketing automation platform.

How to implement two-way SMS

When it’s set up properly, two-way SMS becomes just another part of your connected customer experience, quietly running in the background and helping drive results. Follow these seven steps to open a direct communication channel with your customers: 

1. Define your audience and set your goal: Know who you’re talking to and what you want to achieve, like driving engagement, increasing sales, or reducing no-shows

2. Decide what role SMS will play: Different messages work better on different channels — SMS is an open communication channel for customers, but if you want to send longer messages with emojis and media files (like images and PDFs), WhatsApp might be a better option

3. Choose the right SMS platform: Think about what you need today and in 12 months. Features like real-time replies, automation, and cross-channel support are going to be important as the channel grows

4. Set up your number and keywords: Decide whether you’re going to use a dedicated short or long number for your SMS marketing, and make it easy for people to reply by building simple keyword triggers 

5. Build out your flows: Automate what you can and make sure there’s a clear path for your team to step in when your customers need real-time, human support

6. Test everything before you send: Send test SMS messages, check your flows and triggered responses, and make sure it all makes sense for the customer journey

7. Launch, monitor, improve: Once live, use the reporting dashboard in your SMS platform to track SMS campaign ROI and keep optimizing

Tips for using two-way SMS effectively

• Keep messages short, clear, and actionable; every text should serve a clear purpose

• Segment your audience for more relevant conversations

• Let automations handle the basics, but be ready with human replies for anything outside the script for a more tailored experience

• Track things like response rates, survey results, and booking confirmations so you can tweak based on what moves the needle

• Sync with your other marketing channels; SMS is even more effective when it’s part of a bigger cross-channel strategy

Compliance: opt-in and double opt-in

Before you text anyone, you need to get permission. It’s non-negotiable, not just because it’s the law, but because clean, opted-in marketing lists perform better. Make sure every customer has actively opted in, and use double opt-in to keep your list clean and compliant.

Make opting out easy

Every message should include a clear way for people to unsubscribe, like “Reply STOP to unsubscribe”. If it’s easy to join, then it should be just as easy to leave.

Stay aligned with the rules

SMS regulations like TCPA, GDPR, and local requirements vary by region. This is where having the right guidance or support really matters.

Dotdigital helps you manage consent, preferences, and data handling in one place, so you can stay compliant without overthinking the setup. Our team will make sure everything is set up correctly from the start.

Key takeaways

Two-way SMS helps you build real-time conversations that bring you closer to your audience. Marketers who use it see things like:

• Higher engagement
• Spend less on wasted messages
• Deliver faster support
• Get the kind of data that drives better campaigns

And getting started is easy. When SMS sits alongside your email and WhatsApp channels in Dotdigital, you can manage everything in one place and build more connected customer journeys without adding extra complexity.

Email marketing is a channel that many marketers are familiar with, and it drives great results. However, Dotdigital’s 2026 Global benchmark report found mobile marketing channels are delivering between 7-14 times higher click rates. Email is still a core channel for any marketer, but the potential clicks from mobile channels shouldn’t be overlooked.

Check out the flowchart below for a fun and clear framework to follow when plotting out your marketing campaigns. For a more detailed view of each marketing channel and how they can complement each other, check out the cross-channel playbook.

We’ve launched AI that learns your brand voice, two-way SMS, and a wave of new and improved integrations that mean less time wrestling with data and more time using it. Here’s everything that’s new.

Create content in your own brand voice

AI is an amazing tool helping marketers all over the world work smarter and faster, but AI-generated copy is all starting to sound a bit… samey. You don’t want to sound like every other brand, and we don’t either.

Dotdigital’s AI learns exactly how your brand sounds. Upload your guidelines, share some examples of your favorite content, or just answer a few questions about your writing style, and it will start writing (and checking) your campaigns in your voice, not a generic one.

You can share dos and don’ts, flag words you’d never use, and point to real examples of your brand at its best. The more you give it, the better it gets. And from there, the AI tool picks up on your industry, identity, tone, and the kind of language your audience expects. Test and refine the output as you go to make sure every word sounds like you.

For marketers using Dotdigital, this means faster campaign creation, less time tweaking, and content that sounds authentically you.

Plug in Dotdigital to your favorite AI tools

If you’re already using ChatGPT, Claude, or another AI tool, you can now connect it directly to your Dotdigital account to get faster, conversational insights. It works through something called a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

An MCP server is a standardized way to let AI tools talk to platforms like Dotdigital. Setup depends on your AI tool of choice, but can be as easy as copying and pasting a URL, ID, and secret key from your Dotdigital account. Check out our simple setup guide here.

Once connected, you can ask your AI tool real questions about your data, and even ask it to take action, like creating marketing lists and adding contacts to lists. Put it to work with prompts like these:

• “Show me our email open rates for the past 3 months, broken down by week.”
• “Show all contacts tagged as VIP in Dotdigital.”
• “Create a new list called ‘Event Attendees – Q4’ and add all contacts who filled out our October survey.”
• “Show average Net Promoter Score from last month’s responses.”
• “How does our open rate compare to the industry average in retail?”

Plus, you’ll soon be able to use it to build new email templates and much more using insights from your account. It’s a faster, more conversational way to get more out of your data.

Have real conversations with two-way SMS

SMS is one of the best-performing channels for marketers. And it’s now two-way. You can now view and reply to SMS responses directly inside Dotdigital, in the same place you already manage your WhatsApp and chat conversations.

When a customer replies to a campaign, you can see what they’re responding to and act fast and with context. Customizable quick replies and keywords like “STOP” are filtered out, so your team only sees active, engaged conversations.

Use two-way SMS for lead qualification, appointment confirmation, feedback collection, product recommendations — basically any moment where you want a speedy response from an engaged customer. No more flipping between tools and channels to talk directly to your customers.

Easier WhatsApp subscription management

You can now manage WhatsApp opt-ins using our API, as well as within the platform, so you can track consent consistently across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. This is especially useful if you’re working with custom integrations or third-party data flows.

Pull more data out of Dotdigital with fewer API calls

The new Events API is for teams that pull large volumes of data from Dotdigital. Now you can pull more data in a single API call. Think: opens, clicks, page views, bounces and unsubscribes. You get more up-to-date data, fewer headaches, and a cleaner connection to whichever CRM, CDP, or analytics platform you’re using.

Bring your whole data stack together

If your team runs on Databricks, Snowflake, or BigQuery,  you can now sync order, contact and product data into Dotdigital. Integrating your marketing data with your data warehouse lets you build on your single source of truth, so data from other tools and platforms you’ve connected to it can flow straight into Dotdigital, with no custom pipelines needed. 

And getting data out has gotten more powerful, too. We’ve expanded our data firehose to push more insights, including contact updates, consent changes, and preference updates automatically into your tech stack. For teams using both firehose and data warehouses, a full two-way sync is possible.

Get deeper data syncs with updated HubSpot CRM integration

The Dotdigital and HubSpot integration has had a serious upgrade. You can sync lists, email and SMS opt-ins, custom properties (like deal value and industry), plus marketing events, form submissions, and custom events as usable data in Dotdigital.

In practice, these upgrades look a little like this: two contacts sign up for your webinar. One attends, one doesn’t. This data syncs from HubSpot to Dotdigital to trigger the relevant follow-up campaign — no workarounds and no need for third-party tools to connect your CRM and marketing automation platform. 

Target subscribers at exactly the right moment with Recharge

If you’re a subscription-based business, customer subscription data is some of the most powerful insight you can act on, and now it’s in Dotdigital. Our new Recharge integration syncs subscription data into your Dotidigital account, so you always know where a customer is in their subscription journey, whether they’ve hit pause, are due for renewal, or are ready to upgrade. That context turns into campaigns that land at exactly the right moment.

Surface customer reviews and UGC inside your emails 

Two new integrations with BazaarVoice and Judge.me make it easier to bring social proof and user-generated content (UGC) into your campaigns. With new app blocks now available for the popular review platforms, you can pull star ratings and reviews directly into your email campaigns. Convince any undecided shoppers to convert with your top five-star ratings. 

Website personalization that stays fresh

Personalization is only as good as the data behind it. Our latest update makes it easier to keep your data current. Now, you can drag-and-drop any Dotdigital audience and serve hyper-personalized web and email experiences based on real behavior and insight data like recent purchases, eRFM scores, and channel preferences. Personalization should move as fast as your customers, so as soon as their behavior changes, their experience refreshes, too. 

Available as a private preview for Dotdigital customers.

Launch and test popups without a developer

You can now launch, test, and disable popup campaigns on any web page instantly and without involving a developer. You control where the pop-up appears and preview it before go-live, so you can fine-tune the experience and drive more conversions.

That’s a wrap

Every update in this release is built to give you the tools to move faster, make smarter decisions, and create customer experiences that actually resonate. Whether that’s AI that learns your brand voice, data that flows freely across your stack, or channels where you can have real conversations — it all adds up to giving you more control, context, and ways to act on what you know. 

We talk a lot about email (it’s kind of our thing), but SMS is quietly becoming the channel marketers can’t afford to ignore. It’s immediate, personal, and (when used well) seriously effective.

The challenge? Knowing when and how to use it. Too much and you’ll fatigue your audience. Too little and you’re leaving revenue on the table.

To help spark some ideas, we’ve pulled together seven real examples from brands using SMS with Dotdigital to solve genuine marketing challenges. From B2B beauty suppliers to water companies, these use cases span industries, audiences, and objectives, but they all have one thing in common: results.

Want even more detail on these examples? Download our SMS inspiration guide for the full breakdown.

Want the full SMS inspiration guide?

Our SMS inspiration guide features all seven of these examples with visuals, pro tips from the marketers behind the campaigns, and practical takeaways you can apply today.

Download the guide

1. Treat SMS subscribers like VIPs

Minerva Beauty – B2B

When B2B beauty brand Minerva Beauty wanted to maximize the impact of major sales and product launches, they didn’t just add SMS as another channel. They made it an exclusive one.

Their SMS subscribers are treated as a VIP audience, getting priority access to sales, new launches, and special offers before anyone else. 

The results:

That sense of exclusivity pays off. Their final sale reminders via SMS consistently outperform email reminders (including abandoned cart emails), and SMS click-through rates beat email across all campaigns.

Why does this work?

By positioning SMS as a VIP channel rather than a catch-all broadcast tool, Minerva Beauty gives subscribers a reason to stay opted in. Scarcity and early access create a sense of privilege that drives action.

Pro tip from Payton Adams, Brand Creative Specialist: 

2. Make SMS the go-to channel for time-sensitive offers

EMU Australia – Retail

Australian footwear brand EMU Australia uses SMS as part of a cross-channel mix alongside email and social, but with one key distinction: SMS is reserved for the moments that matter most. Limited-time offers, VIP early access, and flash promotions are delivered via text to their most engaged customers.

The results:

The brand reports strong open rates and has gained valuable insight into channel performance, confirming that SMS is their best-performing channel for time-sensitive campaigns.

Why does this work?

EMU Australia’s approach is a masterclass in restraint. By keeping SMS for genuinely urgent, high-value moments, every message carries weight. Their audience knows that when a text arrives, it’s worth paying attention to.

Pro tip from Alex Stepins, Digital Marketing Coordinator:

3. Drive urgency (and 20% of campaign revenue) with flash sales

Kissed Earth – Retail

Health and beauty brand Kissed Earth needed to make sure loyal customers were the first to know, and the first to shop during key sales events. They use SMS for short, high-value messages designed to create urgency and exclusivity: flash sales, early product releases, and VIP access events.

The results:

During their Afterpay Day Sale, SMS drove 20% of total campaign revenue. And cross-channel campaigns that included SMS consistently saw higher click-through rates, conversions, and revenue than those without.

Why does this work?

Kissed Earth treats SMS with intention. Every message delivers clear value and a reason to act now. That respect for the channel (and the audience’s attention) sustains performance over time instead of burning through goodwill.

Pro tip from Amy Goodsell, Head of Marketing:

4. Remove friction from the booking process

1001 Optometry Healthcare Australia – Services

When 1001 Optometry noticed a drop-off in online bookings, they rethought the entire journey. Instead of sending patients a link to an online booking form, they tried something simpler: a text message asking customers to reply “Y” if they were interested in booking an eye test.

The results:

That single-letter reply removed all the friction from the process and triggered a call-back from the team to confirm the appointment. The result was a significant uplift in both confirmed and attended bookings, with SMS delivering the immediacy and cut-through that emails and online forms couldn’t match.

Why does this work?

This is a brilliant example of meeting customers where they are. Booking an appointment online involves multiple steps and decisions. Replying “Y” to a text takes two seconds. By lowering the barrier to engagement, 1001 Optometry turned passive interest into booked appointments.

Pro tip from Kharisma Lazuardi, Head of Marketing and Ecommerce:

5. Collect customer feedback (and reduce complaints)

Anglian Water – Services

Anglian Water needed customer feedback on upcoming rate changes, but engagement on other channels wasn’t delivering the volume of responses they needed. They turned to SMS, using it to notify customers ahead of tariff changes and invite them to share their views via a short survey, with a prize draw as an incentive.

The results:

The campaign drove over 200 survey completions and, crucially, reduced the volume of customer complaints and contact compared to similar communications sent via other channels.

Why does this work?

When you need to communicate something sensitive (like a price increase), the channel matters as much as the message. SMS feels more personal and direct, and by pairing the notification with a feedback mechanism, Anglian Water turned a potentially negative moment into a constructive two-way conversation.

Pro tip from Dean Rice, Service and Communications Performance Lead:

6. Reach the audience that email can’t

Royal College of Nursing – Memberships

When the Royal College of Nursing needed to maximize voter turnout on a proposed pay award, they knew email alone wouldn’t be enough. In the final days of the campaign, they targeted members who hadn’t opened previous emails, or who didn’t have an email address on file, with a concise, action-oriented SMS.

The results:

The result was a 46% voter turnout, with SMS activity in those final days pushing participation up by around 3%. The SMS campaign itself achieved a 32% click-to-delivered rate.

Why does this work?

This is SMS at its tactical best. By using it as a follow-up channel rather than a first touchpoint, the Royal College of Nursing reached a segment of their audience that was otherwise invisible. The timing (final days of a deadline) and the directness of SMS were the perfect combination to drive last-minute action.

Pro tip from Eleanor Dearn, Senior Communications Manager:

7. Capture feedback while the experience is fresh

Goodwood – Events

Event organizer Goodwood faced a common challenge: getting timely, actionable feedback from festival attendees. When they sent a post-event email survey after the five-day festival, they got a 10% completion rate. Decent, but not great.

So they tried a different approach, sending a targeted SMS survey on the actual day each attendee was at the festival, complete with a prize draw incentive. 

The results:

The completion rate jumped to 25%, more than double the email figure.

Why does this work?

Timing is everything with feedback. The closer you capture someone’s response to the experience itself, the richer and more accurate the data. SMS is perfectly suited for this because it reaches people in the moment, wherever they are. No need to open a laptop, find the email, or remember how they felt three days later.

Pro tip from Taylor Bryant, CRM Executive:

Ready to add SMS to your marketing mix?

These nine examples show that SMS isn’t a one-trick channel. Whether you’re driving flash sale revenue, collecting feedback, reducing booking drop-offs, or reaching audiences that email can’t touch, SMS delivers when it matters most.

The common thread across every example? Intentionality. The brands seeing the best results aren’t blasting their entire list with texts every week. They’re using SMS for the right message, to the right audience, at the right moment.

If you’re ready to explore what SMS could do for your business, take a look at Dotdigital’s SMS capabilities or download the full SMS inspiration guide for more detail on every example featured here.

An email address is one of the most valuable assets marketers have. An engaged mailing list can return between $36–50 for every $1 spent on your email marketing, but only if that engagement holds. So, how do you keep them engaged?

Customers are still comfortable sharing email addresses — more so than most other personal data. But that willingness now comes with far less tolerance for irrelevant messages. Dotdigital’s upcoming customer research report revealed only 15% say marketing messages feel “very relevant” to customers, and tolerance for generic, repetitive messaging is shrinking fast.

When email marketing and SMS campaigns miss the mark, the damage doesn’t just show up in open rates. It shows up in:

• Reduced customer lifetime value
• Higher churn
• Deliverability decline
• Eroded trust

To protect the value of your database, every message has to earn its place.

Calculating the value of your database

When we talk about the value of a marketing database, the most meaningful lens is customer lifetime value (CLV). Rather than focusing on list size or one-off campaign revenue, CLV reflects the long-term impact of your email marketing and SMS strategy, including how well you retain customers and drive repeat revenue.

To calculate CLV, you can use this simple formula: 

(Average Revenue Per User × Gross Margin) ÷ Churn Rate

To figure out your gross margin, use this calculation: 

Revenue – direct costs (the cost of your email and SMS platform ) = gross profit

Gross profit ÷ revenue = gross margin

Every email either builds or erodes customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value (CLV) isn’t just driven by acquisition. It’s shaped, and sometimes limited, by the quality of your ongoing communications.

Purchase behavior is becoming more deliberate. Dotdigital’s upcoming consumer research reveals nearly half of customers (44%) describe their purchases as considered rather than impulsive. Shoppers are researching more, comparing more options, and leaning on peer recommendations before they buy. That means your emails have to work harder.

A flashy subject line or a generic discount might trigger an impulsive puechase but repeat engagement with your emails is driven more effectively when you consider:

• Relevance: Does this actually solve a problem they have right now?
• Value: Is this better than the three other tabs they have open?
• Trust: Do they have enough confidence in this brand to hand over their card details?

When email marketing lacks relevance or arrives at the wrong time, three things happen: the consideration window is missed, conversion momentum slows, and CLV doesn’t reach its potential.

To fix that, focus on:

• Social proof: Reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content embedded directly into campaigns
• True personalization: Show products customers have browsed or categories they consistently engage with
• Behavioral timing: Trigger emails based on signals that show they’re actively considering a purchase

Message fatigue is the quiet killer of customer retention

Customer retention rarely collapses overnight; instead, it fades gradually through fatigue. Too many bland and irrelevant messages cause customers to switch off and leave your marketing emails unopened.

Customers are becoming more sensitive to how often brands contact them. They have more choices than ever, and with email being the primary channel for brand communication, inboxes are getting fuller. In Dotdigital’s soon-to-be consumer research survey, 93% of respondents said they dislike daily messages from brands, with weekly or monthly contact preferred. Yet many email and SMS strategies still prioritize sending without considering whether each message is timely, relevant, and valuable to the customer.

When brands oversend:

• Engagement rates decline
• Subscribers mentally tune out
• Opt-outs increase
• Retention weakens

This doesn’t just hurt campaign performance; it shrinks your addressable audience and piles pressure on acquisition to replace lost subscribers. SMS faces a similar risk. It’s immediate and personal, but overuse or poor timing can trigger faster opt-outs and negatively impact brand perception.

To protect retention, respect customer attention as much as conversion:

• Frequency caps: Limit total cross-channel messages, not just email volume
• Engagement-based suppression: Pause regular sends to inactive subscribers before they churn, and enroll them in a personalized reengagement program
• Preference capture: Let customers choose their cadence and channel
• Coordinated SMS and email: Save SMS for genuinely time-sensitive or high-value moments

Poor engagement quietly damages email deliverability

Deliverability is often treated as a purely technical concern when, in reality, it’s directly tied to customer experience. Mailbox providers closely monitor engagement, so when subscribers consistently ignore, delete, or complain about your emails, your sender reputation takes a hit. And once that happens, even strong campaigns struggle to reach the inbox.

The downward spiral usually looks like this:

1. Campaign relevance drops
   
2. Engagement declines
   
3. Filtering increases
   
4. Reach shrinks and inbox placement falls
   
5. Performance falls further

To protect deliverability, treat engagement as a strategic priority, not just a campaign metric:

• List hygiene: Regularly suppress or sunset inactive subscribers
• Segmentation depth: Avoid broad sends that dilute engagement signals
• Send-time optimization: Align delivery with when customers typically engage
• Post-purchase logic: Stop irrelevant promotions immediately after conversion

Cross-channel inconsistency damages trust fast

Customers don’t think in channels; they think in experiences, and they experience your brand as one continuous conversation. 

That’s why gaps in your cross-channel marketing can be so damaging. When email, SMS, retargeting ads, and your website operate in silos, customers start to notice. They see:

• An SMS promotion for something already purchased
• A retargeting ad that ignores recent browsing
• An email discount sent immediately after a full-price purchase

When your channels are out of sync, you don’t just lose efficiency, you lose authority. Customers demand seamless experiences, so inconsistent messaging can make your brand look careless and can turn a minor mistake into the end of the customer journey.

To build trust, make your channels work together rather than just showing up on every platform. This can look like:

• Unified customer view: Make sure all channels are informed by the same behavioral data
• Cross-channel suppression: Stop ads and SMS pushes after key conversions
• Journey continuity: Use “pick up where you left off” style personalized messaging on your website and nurture emails
• Consistent value story: Align offers and messaging across every touchpoint

Ignoring channel preferences accelerates customer churn

Customers favor channels where they feel in control. Email remains customers’ preferred channel because they can choose when and whether to engage. SMS, while powerful, carries higher expectations. It’s immediate and personal, but can feel intrusive when brands overuse it. 

Problems can arise for brands when they: 

• Duplicate messages across every channel
• Overuse SMS for low-value updates
• Ignore stated channel preferences
• Prioritize quick sends over targeted messages

Do one of these, and you’ll feel it; do all of them, and you’ll lose customers faster than any campaign can win them back. That’s why it’s important to match your channel to your message intent:

• Email: Perfect for showcasing products, nurturing, education, and convincing shoppers in the consideration phase
• SMS: Ideal for urgent, time-sensitive messages and high-intent moments like flash sales or back-in-stock alerts
• Paid retargeting: Use for reinforcement during active consideration and re-engagement of lapsed customers
• Website messaging: Personalize on-site to support conversion and pull in dynamic customer reviews for reassurance

First-name personalization isn’t enough anymore

For years, personalization has been the go-to fix for engagement challenges, but the gap between surface-level personalization and true relevance is widening, and customers notice.

Many brands include names in subject lines, recognize birthdays, and segment by basic attributes, but that doesn’t deliver the connection customers expect anymore. Only a small share (15%) say marketing messages feel highly relevant to them. This is a big opportunity for you to fill a gap in the customer experience, particularly for younger audiences who expect brands to understand context, not just identity.

Luckily, the gap isn’t in what we know about the customer, but in how we use that knowledge to respond to what customers are doing in real time.

To deliver real relevance, you need:

• Behavioral context: Understanding what they’re doing right now
• Real-time signals: Responding to customers’ latest clicks, views, or cart additions
• Journey awareness: Recognizing the nuances of the customer journey so you don’t rush them too soon, or lag behind and miss opportunities
• Suppression logic: Knowing when to stop a message (like a discount offer) because the customer has already bought the item
• Single customer view: Making sure all interactions on your channels are being tracked in a unified profile, ready to act on

Knowing who the customer is isn’t enough anymore. You also need to understand what they need right now. To close the relevance gap, you need to make a couple of additions to your existing automation flows. Prioritize:

• Behavioral triggers: Use browse, cart, price-drop, and replenishment signals to kickstart automation flows
• AI-driven recommendations: Showcase products based on real affinity, not broad segments in marketing messages
• Cool-down logic: Suppress messages to customers after major purchases or specific actions to avoid annoying them with discounts after they’ve pair full-price
• Moment-based journeys: Design flows around customer intent, not calendar sends

How smarter email marketing protects CLV

The risks above are real, but they’re also highly preventable. Brands that consistently grow CLV tend to focus on a few foundational disciplines:

• They respect channel and frequency preferences 
• They connect every channel
• They let behavior guide and trigger timing
• They leverage high-volume sends strategically by ensuring every message is relevant and personalized

If you’re looking to strengthen performance, start here:

• Capture and honor customer preferences
• Connect your cross-channel marketing data
• Build journeys around real customer intent
• Use AI and automation to enhance, not increase, message pressure

Small improvements in relevance and timing often unlock big gains in retention and lifetime value.

Time to send smarter and personalize more

Email addresses remain one of the most valuable assets for marketers, but that value isn’t automatic anymore.

Consumers are more selective, more informed, and far less patient with messaging that feels generic, excessive, or poorly timed. When engagement drops, resist the instinct to simply send more; focus on sending smarter instead.

Every email and SMS is a chance to build confidence in your brand. Meet customers in the moment, speak to what they actually need, and you become the brand they trust by default. That’s how you create and protect a CLV that everyone else will be chasing.

Sending smarter starts with knowing where you stand. The Dotdigital Global benchmark report gives you expert data and insight to measure your email and SMS performance and spot opportunities to get ahead of the competition.