SMS Character Limit – How to Make the Most of It

In an age where communication has become instant, SMS is one of the most powerful tools for both personal and business messaging. However, a text isn’t just about typing the right words and sending it to your customers. It also entails several elements that you need to consider, such as the SMS character limit. This key aspect influences the number of words in your texts because it might potentially increase the cost of your strategy if you don’t consider it.

In this article, we will explore what the text message character limit currently is, why it matters, and useful tips and tricks to utilize it correctly for your brand.

Part 1: Do SMS Messages Have a Character Limit?

SMS messages are by design short texts that you are supposed to exchange with your contacts. For this reason, they need to be as short as possible. This is where the SMS character count comes into play.

What Is the Standard Text Message Character Limit?

The standard SMS limit active today is 160 characters. This limit was first introduced in 1985 in the original GSM protocol and was later incorporated into the SMPP signaling protocol. When you are creating a simple text-based message, remember to keep an eye on this character limit to ensure that your SMS will be delivered in a single text.

The Limit for SMS with Unicode Characters

Nevertheless, nowadays text messages include more than just words. Unicode characters, such as emojis and characters from non-Latin alphabets, can add a new flair to your texts and communicate your message efficiently. While a standard SMS message allows for 160 characters, the simple inclusion of just one of these will change the SMS character count. In more detail, if you choose to add an emoji to your text, the character limit will drop to 70. This is because Unicode encoding requires more data than the standard GSM-7 encoding.

Part 2: Why You Need to Be Aware of SMS Character Limit

Knowing these character limits is useful when you are crafting an SMS strategy. But you might be wondering why exactly you need to keep an eye on this SMS limit. The three most important reasons for that are:

#1 Maintain Message Clarity and Conciseness

Understanding and adhering to an SMS character count is crucial for clear and effective communication. When messages exceed that limit, they are typically broken up into multiple segments. This will disrupt the flow of the text and potentially create confusion for your customers.

#2 Avoid Additional Costs

As a business, you need to be aware of all costs hidden in your strategies. Remember that sending a message that splits into multiple parts can increase your costs, as each part will be billed as a separate text from your mobile carrier. Therefore, you might exceed your text marketing budget without even realizing it.

#3 Enhance User Experience

If you examine the user experience perspective, you will understand that receiving fragmented messages can be frustrating. For example, not all texts might arrive at the same time, which will leave the message incomplete. Therefore, a single SMS not only improves readability but also enhances your customers’ overall experience.

Part 3: How Brands Can Leverage SMS Character Limit

As you can understand from the previous sections, it is essential to be wary of this SMS limit. Now, we are going to give you some invaluable tips and tricks to help you craft an effective SMS messaging marketing campaign that adheres to the character count. In more detail, you should:

Prioritize Your Message: always start your text with the most important information. Since you have limited space available, get straight to the point and omit any unnecessary language.

Use Abbreviations Wisely: many brands use abbreviations to save space. However, make sure to not overuse them as they can make the message hard to understand.

Incorporate Call-to-Actions: if you include a call-to-action, ensure that it is clear and prominent.

Avoid Excessive Punctuation: punctuation is great at adding a nice touch to your text. But it takes up valuable space, and for this reason, you should use it sparingly.

Use Short Links: if you want to include a URL in your text, use a URL shortening service to reduce its character count.

Part 4: How to Test Your SMS Message Before You Send It

Now you are ready to start crafting your SMS campaigns. But before sending out any of your texts, it’s essential to test your message. Fortunately, you can find several tools that can help with this. Some tools you can utilize are:

SMS Character Counters: numerous online tools can calculate how many characters your text has. Some of the most popular choices include Character Counter and Messente.

Preview Tools: some services offer you a preview feature. This allows you to view how your customers will see your text on their devices. Some popular tools for this are Twilio and TextMagic.

Test Sending: you can also find some tools that allow you to send test messages to yourself or a small group to ensure that your text is displayed exactly like you want it to. EngageLab is an excellent tool for that.

If you are looking for a one-stop SMS solution, there is no better option than EngageLab. The app’s SMS tool stands out for its robust features designed to streamline and enhance your SMS campaigns. When you sign up for EngageLab, you can benefit from:

• Automation Capabilities – automate your SMS campaigns to maximize the efficiency of your messaging campaigns.
• Global Delivery – don’t limit your business to just one region. EngageLab can be integrated with mobile carriers in more than 200 countries.
• Intelligent Delivery Strategy – the tool ensures that you are going to have high delivery rates with its intelligent strategies.
• Real-time SMS status tracking – you gain access to real-time reporting on the delivery status of your campaigns.
• Reduction of costs – not only you can adhere to the SMS limit, but you can also combine your SMS strategy with push notifications to reduce your costs even more.

Beyond the SMS limit: Best practices for SMS

The SMS character count is just one part of your text. In addition to this, you should also keep in mind several other things.

Here is what you should always strive for:

• Respect Privacy: always ensure you have consent before sending messages. This is the best way to build trust with your customers.
• Timing Is Key: apart from the text message character limit, remember to carefully consider the time you will be sending your text. If you are targeting a global audience, consider time zones and daily routines.
• Consistent Branding: it is important to keep your brand voice consistent regardless of the channel of communication you are using. With this strategy, you are creating a strong brand identity.
• Review and Update your SMS Campaigns: always return to your campaigns and evaluate them based on the analytics and user feedback.

In Conclusion

Understanding and leveraging the SMS character limit is crucial for effective communication. Ready to take your SMS campaigns to the next level? Sign up for a free trial with EngageLab and discover how you can optimize your messaging strategy for better results.

Get Started For Free