Business bulk and group texting have plenty of advantages. If you do it right, your customers will sing your praises. But done wrong, this is one communication channel that can inflict enormous damage to your brand.
Fortunately, going about bulk and group testing correctly isn’t that difficult. By applying best practices consistently, you will improve communication, engagement, loyalty, and eventually grow your revenue. The following best practices will allow you to positively leverage the power of bulk and group texting.
1. Obtain Express Consent
Unlike laptops and desktop computers, people will carry their mobile phones wherever they go. They, therefore, won’t take too kindly to receiving a barrage of unsolicited messages. Nothing is more important in bulk and group texting than obtaining the express consent of the recipient.
Giving you their phone number doesn’t imply you have permission to send them texts. The customer must consciously give their approval. Unsolicited text is spam and with that comes reputational and regulatory problems for your business. Consent must include a means through which the customer can opt-out any time they choose.
2. Don’t Text Too Frequently
In the eye of your consumer, there’s a thin line between a timely regular communicator and an obnoxious spammer. Too many texts are too much of a good thing. There’s no universal rule for texting frequency. It all depends on the nature of your business and message.
A home remodeling business may send out monthly or quarterly texts that include design trends and remodel budgeting. A gym, on the other hand, could get by with texting motivational fitness-relevant quotes every day.
When you do determine what frequency will work best for you, it’s best to notify your contacts beforehand on how many messages they can expect from you. More importantly, when you determine a frequency, stick to it. Irregular texting, as well as exceeding or missing your stated frequency, will be perceived negatively by your customers.
3. Choose the Right Time
The beauty of text is that your customers receive your message almost as soon as you hit the send button. Such instant delivery, nevertheless, means you have to pay attention to the time you send the SMS.
Unlike email, text messages are read within minutes of receipt. For this reason, avoid sending texts early morning or late evening. No one whose sleep is cut short at 2 AM by a motivational text or a product recommendation will view the sender in a positive light. If your audience is international and spans multiple time zones, consider having separate text lists per time zone.
4. Keep It Short
SMS stands for Short Message Service. At just 160 characters per message, you don’t have room to say much. You can send a text that spans multiple messages, which are combined into one long SMS on the recipient’s phone. But just because the technology exists, doesn’t mean you should use it. Your customers expect to see brief messages in their inbox.
Remember, you can always include a link to a social media post or website for additional information. If you have something longer to say within a message, your customers would want you to do so via email. The inability to keep your message within the 160-character limit is an indicator you are not doing things right.
5. State Who the Text Is From
Best practice for identifying yourself is to have the Sender ID of the text being the business or brand name your customers already know. That won’t always be possible—you may have to settle for a short number or a phone number. In that case, you must include your brand name somewhere within the text.
A failure to identify yourself would defeat the purpose of bulk and group texting. It would sow confusion. Some customers may block your texts and opt-out of the service simply because they don’t know who you are.
Bulk and group texting is a powerful tool for speedy communication and marketing. Its success comes down to adhering to these best practices.
