Every vendor page in this category says the same thing: texting has a 98% open rate, therefore text everything. The open rate is real. The conclusion is not, and following it is the fastest way to burn a channel you cannot rebuild.
Do not use it for cold outreach
Texting someone who has not consented is not a growth tactic, it is a legal exposure with a per-message penalty. A purchased list is the single worst thing you can connect to a messaging system. Consent rules covers what counts and what does not.
Do not use it as a second newsletter
If the message would work as an email, send it as an email. Weekly roundups, company news, blog announcements, seasonal musings — none of these are worth an interrupt, and each one trains your customer that your texts are skippable.
Do not use it when you cannot answer back
A text implies a conversation. If replies land in a queue nobody reads, you have taught your customers that contacting you does not work — which is worse than never having texted them. Staff the inbox or send from a channel that does not imply a reply.
The 'no-reply' text is a broken promise
Sending from a number that cannot receive replies is a common shortcut and a real trust cost. People reply to texts. That is what texts are. If your system drops those replies on the floor, you will lose customers who think they told you something.
Do not use it for anything sensitive
- Health details beyond a bare appointment time, unless you have done the compliance work properly.
- Anything financial past a payment link — no account numbers, no balances, no identifiers.
- Anything you would not want visible on a lock screen in front of someone else. That is where it will appear.
Do not use it as your only channel
Phone numbers change, people port badly, and some customers simply will not want texts. A business reachable only by text has made itself fragile. Keep email and a phone line alive for the people who prefer them.
Do not use a self-hosted bridge for customer messages
Worth repeating because it keeps happening: a Mac in the back office running an automation bridge — BlueBubbles or a homegrown AppleScript job — will fail on a day you are busy, sends from a personal number, and puts an Apple Account you care about at risk. The full argument is here.
Restraint is the strategy. The businesses that get the most out of this channel are the ones that send the least, and mean it every time.
Next step
Generate a tagged link for whatever you send next with the UTM builder, see what this looks like in your industry, or compare the services that can send it on the providers page.