As text messages grow in popularity as a major form of communications, businesses are turning to SMS messages as a means to remain connected with their audience. However, before a business launches a SMS marketing campaign, certain best practices need to be in place to protect both the consumer and the brand.

1. CallFire- SMS Marketing
Essential Best Practices to Optimize a Mobile SMS Marketing Campaign
The mobile marketing platform is an exciting development in the field of advertising that can be
utilized by businesses of all sizes and backgrounds. SMS text messages provide businesses
direct contact with their audiences while at the same time establishes brand loyalty and visibility.
These messages can be developed to be coupons, appointment reminders, customer
satisfaction surveys and much more. While the flexibility and convenience of SMS marketing
may be appealing, there are certain fundamental best practices that need to be in place in order
to have a successful campaign.
Personalize the Communication:
While the majority of all text messages are opened, not all of them are read. Like letters in the
mail, if a text message is addressed without any salutation or specific recipient in mind it is more
likely to be treated like spam mail and disregarded.
There is only a brief time a business has to foster a relationship with a mobile subscriber before
they move on to the next best thing. In order to optimize the time, text message communications
need to be simple, short and most of all personalized. Many mobile marketing services offer text
message senders the ability to personalize mass text messages with automated salutations and
individual names in the text message.
Include Opt-Outs:
Opt-Outs are an easy to understand free way for mobile subscribers to cancel their future
message subscriptions. These notations should be included in every message sent to assure
subscribers that the texts aren’t spam and to maintain compliance with FCC regulations.
Opt-outs also help businesses calculate the success rate of their messages. By reviewing the
data from opt-outs, businesses can reshape their mobile marketing strategy to decrease opt-out
rates in the future.

2. Do Not Be Intrusive:
When mobile subscribers entrust their contact information to a brand, they are in essence
allowing the entity into their personal space. A person’s mobile phone can be a very intimate
environment and should be respected by the persons contacting them.
That being said, businesses should be mindful of the amount of text messages sent to their
subscribers and the time of day it’s sent. Generally speaking messages should be delivered
between 11am to 8pm to avoid disturbing late sleepers and early risers. When determining the
amount of messages to be sent, businesses should look towards their subscribers for the
answer.
During sign up, businesses should ask subscribers if they prefer daytime or evening messages
and what kind of messages they prefer (i.e., weekly exclusive offers, monthly product updates,
appointment reminders). Not only will the information help maintain a rewarding relationship
between provider and subscriber, but the data gathered can also be used to determine the
profitability of certain text messages over others.
Work With the Medium:
By nature a SMS text message is a “short message” and therefore should be kept simple, easy
to read and to the point. A message with too many characters or frequent usage of shorthand
phrases like “2” (to), “gr8” (great), or “ne”(any), can make the message difficult to decipher and
more likely to be ignored.
A customer becomes a subscriber because they believe a business has something of value to
offer them. In that sense the content of a message should always have an explicit purpose. A
general call to action that reads, “Find great deals on our website today!” has far less purpose
than “Today only, 20% OFF all purchases!” Keeping that in mind, if a business is unable to
provide useful information to their subscribers, than there is less incentive for them to continue
their subscription.

3. Best practices should always be maintained when creating a mobile marketing strategy. With
these things in mind and the help of diverse tools offered by mobile messaging providers, any
business can run a successful text message campaign.
For more information visit http://www.callfire.com