SMS marketing campaign tips

Many businesses are looking into SMS or text message marketing as an avenue for their mobile marketing campaigns. Did you know that even an individual can set up an SMS campaign? Text messaging can be used for more than just business advertising. Texting can be used for charities, social change, education or support for a cause.

Before starting a texting campaign you should have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish and who your target audience will be. If it’s a big campaign, you should look at your available funds and other resources, like people to help.

There are three basic types of SMS campaigns you can use. The first one is called text blasting or bulk messaging. This is like a group email, or one message sent to a group of people. Systems that offer bulk messaging functions will usually have an address book to store names and numbers that will let you create “group” messages.

Remember that in many places it is illegal to send unsolicited messages. Know the rules and laws of where you are and where you will be sending messages. This is very serious and very important. If you use a service provider to send your messages they will most likely have the tools that have the “opt-in” or “opt-out” software management for you to use.

Keyword response is another option for use. This is like an automated reply to incoming texts that contain certain keywords. An example would be someone texting the word “volunteer” to your phone; this keyword would cause an automated response that says something like, “thanks for joining our volunteer group”, or something to that nature. Just remember that someone will still need to do a follow up on each message.

The last form is called smart texting. This is similar to keyword response, but more complicated. An incoming text will trigger an interaction of responses; it may call on other programs, like for weather reports or stocks, or request more information from the user. There are various value added SMS services to choose from.