Most small businesses already know they should ask for reviews, invite regulars to events and say happy birthday. The hard part is the wording. A message that's too long splits into extra segments, one that sounds robotic gets ignored, and one with a link in the wrong place gets filtered before anyone reads it.
This post gives you templates you can copy and edit for four jobs: review requests, event invitations, birthday texts and general customer appreciation. Each comes with timing notes and the reasoning behind the wording, plus the cost math so you know what a send costs before you hit go. If you need reminders and confirmations, those have their own post: appointment reminder and request text templates.
Three rules that apply to every template below
Fix these three things first, or the wording won't matter.
1. Only text people who agreed to it. Every template here assumes the recipient opted in to texts from your business, either at checkout, on a booking form or by texting a keyword. A customer's phone number on an invoice isn't consent to marketing texts. Birthday and event texts are marketing, so they need marketing consent.
2. Identify yourself and give an exit. The first text in any campaign should name your business and include opt-out wording like "Reply STOP to opt out." You don't need it in every reply of an ongoing one-to-one conversation, but you do need it on anything that goes to a list.
3. Stay under 160 characters when you can. One SMS segment holds 160 standard characters. Go over and the message splits into 153-character segments, each billed. One emoji switches the whole message to unicode, which drops the limit to 70 characters (67 per part). That's why most templates below skip emoji. Where one is worth it, we say so.
In the templates, {first_name}, {business} and {link} are placeholders. Swap in your own merge fields.
Review request templates
Review requests are the highest-return text most local businesses can send. They're also the easiest to get wrong.
Timing
Send within a few hours of the job or visit while the experience is fresh. Same day beats next day. For a service call that ends at 4 PM, a 5 or 6 PM text is better than one the next morning.
Templates
Simple post-visit ask:
Hi {first_name}, thanks for coming in to {business} today. If you have a minute, a quick Google review helps us a lot: {link} Reply STOP to opt out.
After a service job:
Hi {first_name}, this is {business}. Thanks for having us out today. Would you share how it went? {link} Reply STOP to opt out.
Two-step version (safer for deliverability):
Hi {first_name}, it's {business}. Thanks for your visit today! Mind if we send a link to leave a quick review? Reply YES and we'll send it. Reply STOP to opt out.
Then, after they reply YES:
Thank you! Here it is: {link}
The two-step version costs an extra exchange, but carriers filter first-contact texts with links more aggressively. We cover the reasoning in why a link in your very first text gets filtered. If your review text is the first message a customer ever gets from your number, use the two-step version.
What not to do
- Don't offer a discount for a review. Google and Yelp both prohibit incentivized reviews, and the FTC has taken action against businesses that buy or reward them.
- Don't only ask happy customers. Sending the review link only to people who rated you highly ("review gating") goes against Google's review policies. Ask everyone, and handle complaints when they come in.
- Check the platform's rules. Yelp discourages businesses from asking for reviews at all. If Yelp matters most to your business, read its guidelines before sending a Yelp link.
Event invitation templates
Events include open houses, tastings, workshops, sales previews and customer nights. Texts work well here because people check them the same day, and a reply is the easiest RSVP there is.
Timing
Send the invite 7 to 10 days out, then one reminder the day before or the morning of. Two texts per event is plenty. A third starts to feel like spam.
Templates
Invitation with reply-to-RSVP:
{business}: You're invited to our customer night, Thu 6/12, 6-8 PM. Drinks, demos, 15% off in store. Reply YES to save a spot. Reply STOP to opt out.
Workshop or class:
Hi {first_name}, {business} is hosting a free pruning workshop Sat 9/14 at 10 AM. Spots are limited to 20. Reply YES to grab one. Reply STOP to opt out.
Day-before reminder (to people who said yes):
Hi {first_name}, see you tomorrow at 6 PM for customer night at {business}. Parking is around back. Can't make it? Just reply and let us know.
Reply-to-RSVP works because replies land in your inbox as a conversation, so you can count YESes without a form. On Ready, replies you receive are billed like a sent text (the per-segment rate plus the carrier fee), so a 200-person invite where half reply costs you 100 extra segments. That's still cheaper than chasing no-shows.
One caveat: if your "event" is a fundraiser, a political event or an advocacy action (call your rep, attend a hearing), email support@tryready.com before the first send and wait for our reply. Our acceptable use policy requires our written OK for those, and signing up and registering isn't enough on its own.
Birthday text templates
Birthday texts are low-pressure, often get a reply and keep you top of mind without a hard sell. They only work if you collected the birthday in the first place.
Collect it the right way
Ask for month and day only, not the year. Customers share it more readily, and you hold less sensitive data. Put it on the sign-up form next to the SMS opt-in, and say plainly that you'll send a birthday offer.
Timing
Send in the morning of the birthday, around 10 AM local time. Most CRMs, including GoHighLevel, can trigger a workflow on a date field, so you set it once and forget it. On Ready, sends outside permitted local hours are held and go out once quiet hours end, so a misconfigured 6 AM trigger won't wake anyone up. Campaigns, drip campaigns and automations wait up to 24 hours for the window; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused and must be resent; a one-to-one reply to someone who texted you in the last 24 hours goes out at any hour.
Templates
Simple birthday with offer:
Happy birthday, {first_name}! From all of us at {business}, here's 20% off anything this week. Show this text at checkout. Reply STOP to opt out.
No-offer version:
Happy birthday, {first_name}! Hope it's a great one. Thanks for being part of the {business} family this year.
Birthday month (for businesses that book ahead, like salons or spas):
Hi {first_name}, it's your birthday month! Book any service at {business} before the 30th and the add-on is on us: {link} Reply STOP to opt out.
This is the one category where an emoji can earn its cost. A cake emoji turns a 1-segment birthday text into a 3-segment one unless the text is under 135 characters. Across a few birthdays a day that's pennies. Across a 10,000-contact campaign, it's not, which is why you should keep emoji out of list sends.
Customer appreciation templates
These are the "no reason" texts: a thank-you after a big purchase, a customer anniversary, a milestone visit. Send them sparingly, or they lose their effect.
After a first purchase:
Hi {first_name}, thanks for your first order with {business}. If anything's not right, just reply to this text and a real person will help.
Customer anniversary:
{first_name}, it's been a year since your first visit to {business}. Thank you for sticking with us. Your next visit is 10% off. Reply STOP to opt out.
Milestone visit:
That was visit #10 at {business}, {first_name}! Your next coffee is on us, just show this text. Thanks for being a regular.
Personal check-in (send one-to-one, not as a campaign):
Hi {first_name}, it's Dana from {business}. Wanted to check that the new water heater is running well. Anything we should look at?
The last one only works if a real person sends it and reads the reply. That's the point: it's a conversation, not a promo.
Templates at a glance
| Template type | Best timing | Typical length | Link in first text? | Opt-out line? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Review request | Same day, within hours | 1 segment | Only if they've texted you before | Yes |
| Event invitation | 7 to 10 days out | 1 segment | No, use reply-to-RSVP | Yes |
| Event reminder | Day before or morning of | 1 segment | Optional | Not needed in an ongoing thread |
| Birthday | Morning of, ~10 AM | 1 to 2 segments | Optional | Yes on offers |
| Appreciation | After the moment | 1 segment | Rarely needed | Yes on campaigns |
For more categories, including flash sales, restocks and win-backs, see our 30 SMS marketing templates.
What these templates cost to send
Here's the math on Ready Standard: $0.0075 per segment plus a $0.0045 carrier fee per segment. That all-in rate excludes the optional compliance surcharge. If you switch on DNC scrubbing or landline validation for your account, each adds $0.003 per segment. Both are off by default.
Example: a review request to 500 customers a month. Assume a 140-character message, no emoji, so 1 segment each.
- 500 × 1 segment × $0.0075 = $3.75
- Plus 500 × $0.0045 in carrier fees
Same message with one emoji. At unicode limits, 140 characters splits into 3 segments (67 characters per part).
- 500 × 3 segments × $0.0075 = $11.25
- Plus 1,500 × $0.0045 in carrier fees
One emoji tripled the bill. That's the whole case for plain-text templates on list sends.
To be fair on price: if you're comparing per-segment rates alone, raw carrier APIs like Twilio and GoHighLevel's LeadConnector run lower per message. What Ready adds is the setup: registration handled in the app, STOP handling, quiet-hours holds, the Inbox and two-way GoHighLevel sync. Our Twilio alternatives comparison lays out where each fits.
Getting these sent without being filtered
Carriers filter unregistered business texting, so list sends need 10DLC registration (here's what 10DLC is). On Ready, it's handled in the app. You pay $25 at submit for the first month, then $25/mo for registration and $2 per number. Most approvals take 2 to 7 days.
Your sample messages in registration should look like what you'll actually send. If you're sending review requests and birthday offers, put versions of those in your samples. If you've been rejected before, this sample-message rewrite guide covers what reviewers look for.
Your first 20 texts are free, and they're one-to-one sends, so use them before registering to test how your templates read on a real phone. To send, you add a card and get a number, which is $2 a month with the first month charged when you get it. Before you register, you can send up to 500 texts a month at the normal rate. Campaigns are billed from the first text.
The practical takeaway
Pick one category, probably review requests, and send it consistently for a month before adding the others. Keep every template under 160 characters, leave emoji out of list sends, name your business and include STOP on anything going to a list. Use reply-to-RSVP instead of links for invitations, and collect birthdays at opt-in, not after.
If you want to try the wording on your own phone first, sign up and send a few of these one-to-one with your free texts. Ready's AI message writer can also check a draft against spam filters before it goes out.