SMS retention marketing · Maryland
SMS retention marketing for Maryland Shopify and DTC brands.
Restock alerts, short flash windows, delivery updates and time-critical win-back — with consent capture that holds up and send rules that respect quiet hours. Everything else stays in email.
Maryland specifics
How Maryland changes SMS retention marketing.
What we set up differently for a brand whose customers are in Maryland.
- SMS
Texting rules
Maryland Stop the Spam Calls Act Md. Code, Com. Law §§ 14-4501 to 14-4503
- Covers texts
- Yes, since 1 January 2024.
- Consent
- Prior express written consent for automated or recorded messages.
- Quiet hours
- 8am to 8pm in the recipient's local time, for every telephone solicitation.
- Frequency
- No more than 3 messages on the same subject in 24 hours.
- Registration
- No registration.
- Private right of action
- Up to $500 or actual damages through the Consumer Protection Act, tripled if wilful.
What we configure: The 3-per-24-hour cap and the 8am to 8pm Eastern window apply to every marketing text sent to a Maryland number, automated or not.
Source: Com. Law § 14-4502 (Maryland General Assembly) · Chapter 413 of 2023 (SB 90)
- ET
Send windows
Maryland runs on Eastern Time
We schedule on Eastern Time for Maryland subscribers and on the subscriber's own zone for everyone else on the list, so quiet hours are kept wherever the customer lives.
- CAL
Retail calendar
Peaks: the holiday peak, back-to-school and summer shore traffic
Maryland runs 2 sales-tax holidays a year, and campaigns in those windows lead with the tax saving.
- Shop Maryland Tax-Free Week the second Sunday in August through the Saturday: clothing and shoes up to $100
- Shop Maryland Energy Weekend Presidents' Day weekend: ENERGY STAR appliances
Source: Maryland revenue department
Who this is for
Signs your Maryland store needs this now.
Three of the patterns we see most in the audit.
All six signs- 01
Consent
You are not sure your opt-ins would hold up
A pre-ticked box or a single “enter your number” field is not consent. Get this wrong and every text after it is a liability, not a channel.
- 02
Frequency
Unsubscribes climb after every send
SMS churn is unforgiving. If opt-outs spike with each campaign, the channel is being used for messages that belonged in email.
- 03
Attribution
You cannot say what SMS earned last month
Attentive and Klaviyo both attribute revenue per message. If the number is not in a report, SMS is a cost with a hopeful story attached.
What is included
Everything the retainer covers, in the order we build it.
Six steps and about six weeks to live: audit, strategy, build, launch, test, report.
How we work- 01
Consent audit and capture rebuild
Where numbers are collected, what the customer saw, what was stored. Then a two-step opt-in at checkout and in the pop-up, with the disclosure text and records that satisfy the TCPA and state rules.
- 02
Compliance rules in the sending logic
Federal quiet hours (8 a.m.–9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time) and the tighter state windows applied by area code, frequency caps, STOP and HELP handling, and a documented policy your team can show a lawyer.
- 03
The four SMS moments, built
Restock alerts from the waitlist, short flash windows with VIPs first, delivery and shipping updates, and one time-critical win-back text. Each written to be read in three seconds.
- 04
Email and SMS orchestration
Every SMS step lives inside the lifecycle flows next to its email steps, with rules for who gets which channel, so nobody gets both saying the same thing.
- 05
Segmentation for SMS
Engaged, VIP, waitlist, lapsed — SMS lists are smaller and sharper than email lists. Most of your subscribers should receive a text rarely; a few should receive them first.
- 06
Two-way inbox handling
Replies routed to your support tool or handled by us with agreed scripts, so the questions your best customers ask by text get answered.
- 07
Attribution and monthly reporting
Revenue per message and per flow, opt-out rate per send, and SMS share of total revenue — next to email in one report, so the channels are judged together.
- 08
Platform setup or migration
Attentive when SMS is the primary channel; Klaviyo SMS when one platform for both is the better trade. Numbers, short codes, toll-free verification and carrier registration handled.
Across Maryland
SMS retention marketing for brands in Baltimore, Columbia, Silver Spring, Annapolis.
What clients said once the flows were live. The results sit under NDA; the words are theirs.
We went from batch-and-blast to actually strategic. The difference in engagement was immediate.
We finally had a welcome series that actually felt like us.
Questions
SMS retention marketing in Maryland: questions
What does Maryland law change about SMS marketing?
Maryland Stop the Spam Calls Act (Md. Code, Com. Law §§ 14-4501 to 14-4503) applies to marketing texts sent to Maryland numbers. Consent: Prior express written consent for automated or recorded messages. Quiet hours: 8am to 8pm in the recipient's local time, for every telephone solicitation. Frequency: No more than 3 messages on the same subject in 24 hours. The 3-per-24-hour cap and the 8am to 8pm Eastern window apply to every marketing text sent to a Maryland number, automated or not.
What time should Maryland brands send marketing emails and texts?
Texts only inside the legal window in the subscriber's local time: 8am to 8pm in the recipient's local time, for every telephone solicitation. For email we test send times per segment rather than guess, starting from mid-morning local time.
When are Maryland's biggest retail moments?
The holiday peak, back-to-school and summer shore traffic. The sales-tax holidays (Shop Maryland Tax-Free Week, the second Sunday in August through the Saturday; Shop Maryland Energy Weekend, Presidents' Day weekend) get their own campaigns. BFCM runs 27-30 November 2026 everywhere.
How much does SMS retention marketing cost for a Maryland brand?
Tier 1 is $3,500 a month, for brands doing $500K–$2M a year. Tier 2 is $5,500 a month, for scaling brands at $2M+. Every engagement starts with a free 60-minute audit, and the price is the same in every state.
What is SMS retention marketing?
SMS retention marketing uses text messages to bring existing customers back: restock and back-in-stock alerts, flash and early-access windows, delivery updates and time-critical win-back. It works because texts are read within minutes, which is also why it has to be used sparingly: every message needs a reason to interrupt someone's phone.
Is SMS marketing legal in the US?
Yes, with the right consent. Under the TCPA a brand needs express written consent before sending marketing texts, a clear way to opt out by replying STOP, sending outside quiet hours (8am to 9pm in the recipient's time zone under federal rules, stricter in some states) and a registered sender. We set up consent capture and send rules before the first campaign, because violations carry statutory damages per message.
Is SMS still worth it for retention?
For the right moments, yes. Texts are read far faster than email, so SMS earns its keep on restocks, limited windows and delivery updates. It stops working when it becomes a second newsletter, because opt-outs climb quickly. We keep it to two to four messages a month to engaged subscribers and report its revenue next to email so the comparison is honest.
Attentive or Klaviyo SMS?
Attentive when SMS is your primary retention channel and you want its capture tools and two-way features; Klaviyo SMS when you are already on Klaviyo and want one profile, one segment set and one report. The audit makes the call against your list and catalogue.
Retention experts
Let's talk email, SMS and the repeat revenue you actually want.
We work on Klaviyo, Omnisend, Brevo and Attentive. Ready when you are: talk to the person who will run your account, not a sales rep.
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