I received a fantastic text message the other day. It was from my doctor. Telling me I had a skin cancer.(Don’t send flowers yet. Just a little early-stage spot that is common for pale skinned e-commerce nerds).The SMS was really handy. It had a link for more information about the condition and another link to immediately book in a follow-up appointment to have it removed. No hold music. No phone tag. Information at my fingertips. Actioned and ready to move on.This was followed later that week with a generic text message from a TV subscription network offering me a discounted package* for a package I was already subscribed to. *New customers only.And then, an anniversary message from a large retail pet store with $5 off. My wife has a cat but let me put it this way – I’m not buying a cake for his birthday, let alone celebrating my anniversary with the pet store. Weird.This is text messaging in 2020.Immensely powerful. Often lazy. Easily abused.Just think about it. In a digital world where we have the options of precise targeting with social media, low-cost blasts with email and the ability to get inside people’s heads with search, there is still no medium that guarantees your message will be seen.According to marketing platform Yotpo, text messages have a 98% open rate. 90% of them are opened within 3 minutes. Good luck getting cut through like that anywhere else.Wine retailers, Vinomofo, recently shared that their SMS efforts generated a 120x return on spend and are responsible for recovering half of their lapsing customers. Powerful stuff.But, as per the Peter Parker Principle, “with great power comes great responsibility”. (Only you can decide whether you want to take your business advice from comic books.)With SMS, you are demanding immediate attention from our most personal and present device. It’s always with us. We spend more time with it than any human being. It’s the same way our mothers, lovers and lawyers contact us. Treat it with respect.The trick is not to overthink it.Unlike TikTok, SEO or flash dancing – we have all used text messaging. We innately know what a good message is and what a bad one looks like.For retailers, a good SMS delivers customers additional value with messages which are personal, time-critical and valuable.It’s the perfect channel to send personalised offers based on your customer’s previous behaviour. Offers such as flash sales, VIP offers or deals to reactivate lapsing or abandoning customers can work a treat. The power goes to the next level if the offer expires shortly (i.e. in the next 24 hours), the product is precisely matched to the customer, and any links go to a page where a simple fingerprint can activate a seamless checkout.But price isn’t the only driver. In a world of constant alerts and a fear of missing out, text can serve as the circuit breaker for highly coveted items.If you have an engaged customer base, exclusive drops, limited quantity ranges or “need it now” items will be potent fodder. Text messaging here can almost feel like cheating – like getting a little inside word before the rest of the world knows about it. The trick is to put a little effort into the creative to make it fun – think eye-catching images or GIFs. And super important, if the item isn’t immediately available, always allow pre-sale or back in stock alerts so you haven’t interrupted your customer to lead them to a dead end.Lastly, another excellent use case for text messaging is customer service.You know those important emails that keep getting missed because they land in a customers Gmail Promotion tab? Or the laborious task for your customer service team to leave voice mails for callbacks? SMS can automate all of it and more. Beyond the obvious, a simple thank you message, timely reminder or VIP event invite can take your customer service to the next level.What not to do? Well, the rules are pretty simple. Don’t treat it like a crazy ex-lover might.Don’t send texts in the middle of the night. Don’t pretend to be someone else. Don’t repeat the same message over and over again. Don’t keep texting if you get no response. And certainly, don’t keep sending texts if you’ve been asked to stop. If you love someone, let them leave.SMS is nothing to be scared of. The rewards are there if you can treat it with respect and use a little common sense. And don’t forget to wear sunscreen. Nathan Bush is the founder of e-commerce consultancy 12HIGH. He was previously group digital manager at Super Retail Group and was placed in the Top 50 People in E-commerce four years in a row. Contact: nathan@12high.com.au