Text message marketing is a powerful tool — after all no other channel provides marketers with the same level of one-to-one communication that you get by sending a simple text. But just because you have the ability to press send, doesn’t mean you always should.

“You need to think to yourself before you send any text message, ‘Is this message providing value? Is the person on the other end of this going to look at this and say, yes, I want to save this.’ If it’s not the case, you probably shouldn’t be sending it because you’ve got this unicorn right now, and this way to communicate to your customer is so direct, you want to hold it in the highest regard and respect it as much as possible.” 

On this episode of Marketing Trends, Matt Baglia, the co-founder and CEO of SlickText, dives into the dos and don’ts of text messaging marketing, and touches on the main reason marketers should approach this channel with extreme caution. Matt also explains some of the best practices that will set up any marketer for success. Enjoy this episode.

Main Takeaways

• Seeking Approval: You always need to know that the information that you are sending to customers is the information that they have opted into. If you don’t have a user’s permission to send them content, don’t. If you send materials to a user that didn’t ask for them, you won’t only be breaking privacy laws, but you also run the risk of your materials being perceived as spam, thus creating a negative image for the brand.
• Set Expectations: When users opt in to your service, you must be explicit about what materials the user is signing up for. This does not mean that you need to provide a long explanation of every message a user will receive, but if a customer is expecting tracking information for a product, that is all they should be receiving.
• Don’t Hit Send Too Often: Make sure you have a consistent strategy for how often you send your users messages. Nobody wants to read an excessive amount of text messages from your business or organization. A good rule of thumb in most cases is 2-6 messages per month.

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