SMS Marketing Campaigns for Festive Seasons and Sale Days
Run SMS marketing campaigns that reach the right customers for Diwali, Pongal, Onam, Aadi sales and year-end offers. Register promotional templates early, send within DLT hours, write in your customers' language and measure response with your own links.
SMS marketing campaigns in India use promotional SMS sent from a registered -P header with an approved template. They can go only to non-DND numbers or people who gave digital consent, and only between 10am and 9pm. Plan festive campaigns two to three weeks ahead so templates are approved in time.
Festive calendar planning
Templates ready before Pongal, Onam, Diwali and Aadi sales.
Consent and DND filtering
Send only to consented or non-DND numbers, with STOP handling.
Regional language offers
Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi Unicode campaigns.
Campaign links you own
Track clicks with whitelisted links on your own domain.
Planning SMS marketing campaigns around the Indian festive calendar
Indian shoppers buy around festivals, and SMS marketing campaigns work best when they land a few days before the buying starts. In Tamil Nadu that means Pongal in January, Aadi sales in July and August, and Deepavali in October or November. Kerala buyers plan around Onam and Vishu. Jewellers focus on Akshaya Tritiya and the wedding season. Year-end sales and Christmas matter for apparel and electronics.
Work backwards from each date. DLT template approval can take up to a week, so register festive templates two to three weeks ahead. Build segments in the meantime: past buyers, recent enquiries, loyalty members and lapsed customers.
Rules every promotional campaign must follow
Promotional SMS has stricter rules than order alerts or OTPs.
- Use a registered promotional header with the -P suffix.
- Send only between 10am and 9pm.
- Send only to non-DND numbers or to people who gave digital consent.
- Use only whitelisted URLs and call-back numbers.
- Include a clear opt-out and remove people who reply STOP quickly, as the DPDP Act expects.
Writing festive offers that get a response
Lead with the offer, then the deadline, then the action. A specific offer, such as flat 25% off silk sarees till Sunday, beats a generic greeting. Mention the branch or area when you have stores in several towns. Keep it within one SMS part if you can: 160 characters in English or 70 in Tamil and Malayalam.
Test two versions of an offer on small segments before sending to the full list. Use different link paths on your own domain, such as /diwali-a and /diwali-b, and compare visits and sales from your own analytics. Send at times your customers are free, such as late morning or early evening.
Keeping your list healthy between festivals
A list that hears from you only at Diwali forgets who you are. Send a small number of useful messages through the year, such as new stock arrivals, a member-only preview day or a birthday offer, to the people who opted in. Do not send more than a few promotional SMS a month to the same person.
Remove numbers that fail repeatedly in delivery reports and anyone who replies STOP. Re-confirm consent for customers who have not bought in a long time. A smaller list of people who want your offers costs less per sale than a large list of people who ignore them.
When to use WhatsApp or RCS for campaigns
Festive offers often sell better with pictures. RCS can show a carousel of products with your verified logo and buttons on Android phones, and falls back to SMS where RCS is not available. WhatsApp marketing messages cost ₹0.88 to ₹0.98 each on our plans and suit customers who opted in on WhatsApp. SMS remains the lowest cost way to reach a large consented list, at ₹0.15 to ₹0.20 per delivered message.
Do not send the same offer on all three channels to the same person on the same day. Pick one main channel per segment and use the others for reminders.
Sending outside India too?
We also send SMS and WhatsApp messages to customers abroad, with help on each country's sender ID and consent rules.
How it works
Register a promotional header
Book a numeric promotional header with the -P suffix on your DLT portal.
Build consented segments
Collect consent at billing, website and events, and filter DND numbers.
Approve festive templates early
Submit offer templates two to three weeks before each festival.
Schedule and measure
Schedule within 10am to 9pm and track results through campaign links.
Frequently asked questions
What time can promotional SMS be sent in India?
Promotional SMS can only be sent between 10am and 9pm. Messages scheduled outside this window are held or rejected by operators. Service messages such as order alerts and OTPs are not limited by this window. Plan festive campaigns for late morning or early evening when people check their phones.
Can I send festive offers to DND numbers?
Only if the person has given you digital consent through a registered consent template. Otherwise, promotional SMS is filtered for numbers on the DND register. Build your own consent list at billing counters, on your website and at events, and you will reach more of your actual customers.
How early should I register Diwali or Pongal templates?
Register festive templates two to three weeks before the festival. DLT approval usually takes 2 to 7 working days, and rejections for wording or variables mean another round. Approve a few versions of the offer in advance, so your team can choose the best one closer to the date.
Can I send promotional SMS in Tamil or Malayalam?
Yes. Register Unicode templates in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi or other Indian languages. Unicode SMS holds 70 characters per part, so a longer offer may bill as two or three parts. Check the length with our character counter before scheduling a large campaign.
What does an SMS marketing campaign cost?
Promotional SMS costs ₹0.20 per delivered SMS on Starter or ₹0.15 on Business, plus 18% GST, with no monthly fee. A campaign to 50,000 customers on the Business plan costs about ₹7,500 plus GST for single-part messages. Enterprise pricing is available for larger volumes.
Related pages
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