Want to create more engaging SMS marketing campaigns, faster (and drive better results)? Try these AI marketing tools. 

Marketers and consumers alike have been buzzing about AI, experimenting with different platforms, and sharing the results they get.

It’s easy to dismiss AI as the latest marketing buzzword. But this time around, the conversation feels different. We think it ultimately comes down to just how user-friendly and accurate the technology is now. You don’t need to do a lot of heavy editing to fix copy that doesn’t meet your expectations, and easy-to-navigate UXs mean you don’t need to be an engineer to use AI. There are multiple tools and ways to use AI.

Coming up with fresh, original copy for every SMS campaign can be a challenge—especially if you’ve got a lot of other tasks on your plate. That’s where AI comes in. Bear in mind, it’s by no means a stand-in for a real marketer. But, AI can help your team get started, move fast, and save time. In short, it can help you work smarter, not harder.

Check out The Marketer's Guide to Using AI—learn about the different types of AI, pros and cons, and how to incorporate it into your marketing strategy at different stages.

Why should you use AI to write SMS marketing messages?

AI isn’t a theoretical or inaccessible technology anymore—it’s super powerful and user-friendly. GPT-4 just came onto the scene as an expansion of GPT-3, the language processing model that many AI platforms are built on. This latest update not only blows GPT-3’s 175 billion parameters out of the water, but it can deliver more accurate results across formats (including video). Between these existing parameters, and the data it’s ingesting every day, GPT-3 and 4 can create almost-human responses. 

Now that it’s up to snuff, marketers can use it to save time on a variety of tasks. Gone are the days of wasting hours staring at a blank screen or tinkering with a line of copy. AI is a helpful partner when you need to create a ton of A/B test variations, come up with different angles, and brainstorm message ideas that’ll catch your audience’s eyes. And it’s great in a pinch when you need to quickly repackage existing email, social, or web copy. 

Another benefit? You’ll build your editing muscle. You know your brand, your audience, and copywriting best practices better than anyone. The messages you create using AI can’t capture that internal knowledge—but you can layer it in, tighten up copy, and zero in on value. Doing so will help you keep your shoppers’ experiences and needs top of mind.

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What’s the difference between generalized and specialized AI writing tools? 

There are two types of AI platforms you can use for SMS marketing copywriting: general AI writing platforms, and specialized tools integrated into your existing marketing platforms. Your approach will depend on your goals and resources. 

If you're just starting to experiment with different outputs and want to play around with prompts and formats, the generalized tools below are a great starting point. But if you're focused on increasing ROI, you'll want to use a specialized tool that's integrated into your existing marketing platforms and is trained on a more curated dataset.

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How to use AI to write and repackage SMS marketing messages

The AI tool you use—and how you use it—will depend on your goals. Think about where you’re spending most of your time: Do you want help writing copy from scratch, iterating on existing messages, or repackaging copy you’ve written for other channels? 

Whether you’re working with pre-built templates, engaging with chatbots, or instructing platforms to edit content, you’ll need to share really detailed instructions. Get crisp and clear on your brand voice, who your audience is, and what matters most to them. The more context you can provide, the more relevant your results will be (and the more time you’ll save editing the final version). 

And the old saying, “Your first draft should never be your last draft,” is especially true when you’re using AI tools to write SMS marketing messages. You’ll have to provide a few rounds of feedback, asking it to tweak the positioning or focus on a specific benefit, expand or tighten copy, and change the tone of a message.

Now, let’s dig into the platforms that can help you get creative and save time writing SMS marketing messages. 

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Top AI Marketing Tools for 2023

1. Attentive AI™

What it is: Trained on over over 1.4 trillion datapoints from 40+ billion messages across 70+ verticals, Attentive AI can write SMS campaigns and generate multi-channel campaigns that fit your brand's goals and SMS best practices.

Use this for: Writing top-performing SMS campaigns, generating multi-channel campaigns, and making data-driven decisions (like the best time to send or which audiences to engage).

Why it’s great: When it comes to SMS, writing copy that fits your audience’s preferences around tone, message structure, offers, and timing isn’t something a generalized AI tool will be great at. 

Attentive AI is a specialist in a generalist’s world—tapping into anonymized historical data from our entire customer base. It knows the ins and outs of your audience, your brand’s goals, and what factors make a message convert. Plus, it’s integrated with your program, saving you hours of time creating prompts, training your tool, tailoring the outputs to your audience and voice, and porting the final copy into your SMS platform. 

Bonus: Attentive AI isn’t just for writing copy for SMS—it generates images, creates and automates A/B tests, and has features to help you write and design high-performing emails, too. 

Want to take it for a spin? Join our waitlist.

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2. ChatGPT 

What it is: An AI chatbot that everyone’s talking about, and recently topped the list of Fast Company’s most innovative companies. Built by Open AI, the platform lets you pose questions and prompts to conduct research and write drafts. 

Use this for: Generating message ideas, writing campaign copy, and creating multi-step SMS flows. 

‍Why it’s great: Think of ChatGPT as the coworker or friend you message when you want to bounce ideas off someone. You’re not limited to any certain task—you can go as broad or as narrow as you’d like, whether you’re looking to brainstorm potential SMS campaign topics or generate copy. 

The best part of ChatGPT might be that you can ask it to roleplay. For example: We asked the robot to pretend to be a marketer at an e-commerce company, whose customers were interested in no-makeup, natural looks. We then prompted it to create a certain type of SMS message. It immediately had the context and angle we were looking for, producing better copy from the jump. 

Plus, the platform’s conversation-based approach lets you finesse and iterate on ideas in a single flow. If the first answer it gives you is too vague, you can give it directions to zero in on what you’re trying to say, or feed it examples of similar top-performing messages to help it understand what you’re looking for. 

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3. Jasper

What it is: A premium AI content creation platform, with tons of prompts to help kickstart your writing. 

Use this for: Creating thoughtful copy for multi-step journeys and integrated campaigns. 

‍Why it’s great: Built for marketers, Jasper’s tools and prompts are tailored to help you achieve your goals (saving you time creating workflows and multi-step prompts). It’s focused on driving conversions and cross-channel consistency, making it a great tool for when you want to repackage your SMS or email campaigns. 

And because it’s an all-in-one platform offering everything from brainstorming and copywriting to image generation, there’s something for everyone at your brand. And if you need to communicate with different audiences, it works in different languages. 

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4. Writer

What it is: An enterprise AI content generator, so you can create on-brand copy whether you're starting your SMS message from scratch or repurposing existing copy. 

Use this for: Writing net-new copy and repackaging existing materials (like an email, social copy, blog post, or even a TikTok transcript). 

Why it’s great: Writer lets you set brand style guidelines (including off-limit words or preferred tone), which is great when you’re working with multiple teammates to write SMS copy. 

And since it’s built for brands, Writer lets you get super specific about what you’re writing, both for subject matter and format. For example: You can add in product names, audience, CTAs, and more to produce an e-commerce marketing email or SMS campaign. 

It’s also a fantastic tool for repackaging content so you can deliver consistent messaging across channels. You’ll save time editing down copy (or starting from scratch), and maintain a consistent brand. 

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5. Wordtune

What it is: A free AI copywriting assistant that’ll help you create multiple copy variations in seconds. 

Use this for: Riffing on copy, creating A/B test options, or finding the exact right words. 

Why it’s great: It’s super simple to use—just copy and paste the copy you’d like to riff on, and Wordtune will rewrite a ton of alternatives for you. You can use these direct results, or drop in one that’s close (but not quite it) to keep honing in on the copy. 

Plus, it’s easy to plug into your web browser, work suite, and even social channels so you can work on the fly and where you prefer.

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6. Copy.AI

What it is: A free AI writing platform built for marketers to help write email, social, and web copy. 

Use this for: Writing SMS, email, and social media copy with customizable, pre-built templates. 

Why it’s great: Copy.AI has a super user-friendly UI that lets you zero in on copy that works for your brand. You can customize pre-built templates or build your own. Best of all, you can set specific parameters for your copy, sharing the most important takeaways, product benefits, audience, and tone. You can also save templates and projects to make future workstreams even faster. 

Once it generates your copy, you can click “More Like This” to drill into specific lines of copy. Then, you can save those lines to train the platform and revisit copy that works for your brand.

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AI prompts for SMS copywriting

Your AI-written messages are only as good as your prompts. Got writer’s block? Skip spending hours staring at a blank page and kick off your writing process with these prompts: 

• Write a [X CHARACTER] [MESSAGE TYPE] SMS marketing message for a [PRODUCT NAME] that’s [ADJECTIVE] and [ADJECTIVE]. 
• Write as a [JOB TITLE]. Your customer is [ATTRIBUTE] and [ATTRIBUTE]. They want to [GOAL]. Recommend a [PRODUCT NAME] for a [SEASON/OCCASION/GOAL] to help shoppers feel [ADJECTIVE] and [ADJECTIVE]. 
• Write a [MESSAGE TYPE] to do [GOAL]. Keep these main points in mind: Product = [NAME]; target audience = [DESCRIPTION]; benefits = [BENEFIT], [BENEFIT], and [BENEFIT]. The message should [OUTCOME], [OUTCOME], and [OUTCOME]. Please write this in a [TONE] tone. 
• Rewrite [MESSAGE COPY] in [TONE] tone. 
• Shorten [MESSAGE COPY] to 160 characters. 
• Create [X NUMBER] of variations for [MESSAGE COPY].

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Is using AI for copywriting plagiarism?

Plagiarism is typically defined as using another person’s ideas or words as your own, which puts AI-generated content in a gray area for many people. Using AI to jumpstart (and scale) your copywriting isn’t stealing anyone else’s work—but that doesn’t mean you should still copy and paste what it produces. 

Gartner predicts 70% of enterprise CMOs will focus on the accountable and ethical use of AI by 2025. There are several ethical concerns you should keep top-of-mind while using AI to write copy. First, AI doesn’t fact check, so it’s easy to spread inaccurate (or downright false) information. It’s not free of bias, so you’ll also need to make sure your copy is inclusive and a strong representation of your brand. Finally, your competitors are probably testing out these AI tools, too. You’ll need to fine-tune the content AI produces to differentiate your positioning and voice. 

AI can help you write more SMS marketing copy, but you’re in the driver’s seat. The best copy is nuanced, emotional, and tells a story and only you have the skills and context to make your copy sing. 

Ultimately, AI is a major unlock for your team. When you can work faster on time-intensive tasks like writing variations and repackaging content, you’ll be able to focus on what’s most impactful: setting (and adapting) your strategy.

Want to learn more about Attentive AI? Sign up to join the waitlist.

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Check out our top tips for writing effective SMS marketing copy that AI can help fine tune.