Text Message Marketing Best Practices: How To Engage Customers Without Being Spammy

Text message marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for reaching customers. It’s quick, direct, and affordable. However, the fear of annoying customers or being labeled spam is a risk businesses should be concerned about.

So, how can you use SMS marketing to engage customers effectively without crossing into spam territory?

In this blog, we’ll cover best practices to help you connect with your audience while respecting their preferences so that you can get the most out of your text marketing efforts.

SMS Marketing Best Practices

1. Understand Rules of Engagement

First, we’ll help you understand the technicalities and legal side of business text messaging.

To use SMS marketing without running into spam problems, you must follow rules set up by The Campaign Registry. The Campaign Registry (TCR) is a private company that acts as a central hub. It registers SMS campaigns in the United States. While it is not a government organization, it does work closely with mobile carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

The Campaign Registry mainly affects businesses by enforcing rules for Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging. You can think of A2P in contrast P2P:

• A2P, or Application to Person, is used by businesses and other entities for things like alerts, reminders, marketing campaigns, and notifications.
• P2P, or Person to Person, is used for personal texting.

The rules set up by The Campaign Registry make sure businesses send messages in a fair and ethical way. Because of the system called “Application-to-Person 10-Digit Long Code” (or A2P 10DLC), businesses are able to send lots of texts at once without being marked as spam. The Campaign Registry regulates this system, and thus regulates businesses who want to use mass text messaging.If your business wants to send text messages for marketing, alerts, or something else, then it needs to register the phone numbers it will be using to send the texts. These phone numbers are registered through The Campaign Registry, but the registration process is typically facilitated by your messaging provider or aggregator (like Twilio, Bandwidth, or other similar services).

Here’s how it works:

1. Business Registration: A business first registers itself with TCR, providing details to verify its legitimacy.
2. Campaign Registration: Each SMS campaign (e.g., marketing, notifications) must be registered with TCR, outlining the type of messages and content being sent.
3. Phone Number Registration: The specific phone numbers used for A2P messaging are linked to the registered campaign through TCR. This ensures the numbers are flagged as compliant with carrier rules.

Quick Tip: You’ll also want to honor unsubscribe requests promptly to maintain your reputation.

2. Be Clear and Honest

Clarity is essential in any marketing strategy, and that couldn’t be more then true when it comes to text message marketing. When offering text message sign-ups, make sure that you clearly communicate your intentions from the start. This includes letting customers know what kind of messages they can expect and how often they will receive them. By setting the right expectations, you can reduce the likelihood of your messages being perceived as spam. The messaging content must use straightforward language and provide an option to opt out quickly. Lastly, include your business name or branding in the messages.

3. Personalize Your Messages

Customer engagement improves significantly when messages feel personal and relevant, especially when you send bulk messages for SMS marketing. When used properly, a 10DLC (in other words, your business phone number) can promote products, announce sales, or send targeted offers. Use customer data like preferences, purchase history, or location to tailor your texts. Personalized messages make recipients feel valued and enhance the chances of conversions.

These are some ways to personalize the messaging:

• Address customers by their names.
• Send targeted promotions based on their interests.
• Give value and empathy with your communication.
• Use local events or holidays to connect with your audience.

4. Timing is Everything

The timing of your messages can significantly influence customer perception. So, how can the timing of your texts enhance your brand in customer’s eyes instead of degrading it?

First, avoid sending texts during odd hours or when customers might be busy. Instead, schedule messages during business hours or when your audience is most active.

Second, don’t forget to consider your recipients’ time zones. Respecting their time will enhance your relationship and keep your brand top-of-mind without annoying them.

Lastly, limit the frequency of messages to avoid overwhelming customers.

The Key Metrics to watch out for:

• Response rates to your texts, like text backs, clicks, and interactions
• Unsubscribe rates
• Customer feedback through surveys or follow-up messages

5. Monitor and Adapt

Finally, you need to keep track of your text message marketing efforts. How will you know if your marketing is worth it if you don’t track the data? Analyze customer responses, engagement rates, and opt-out requests to refine your strategy. Often, being attentive to the data and feedback, will give you insights into what you should test and try again as well as what doesn’t work and should be avoided. You can adjust your approach and ensure that your messages are welcomed by monitoring text message marketing results.

Key metrics to track:

• Response rates to your texts, including if links you’ve sent were clicked
• Unsubscribe rates
• Audience types and how they responded to various types of texts
• Customer feedback or follow-up messages

Text messaging is an incredible marketing strategy. Because it personally engages highly connected customers, you have more opportunities to help and market through mass text messaging. It offers businesses quick and flexible marketing, but always approach it carefully and respectfully. 

Key takeaway: Use best practices to tailor your messaging, build a strong relationship with your customers, and respect legal boundaries.

Don’t miss out on other legal tips for your business marketing. Follow us on Facebook.