SMS Marketing – 4 Best Practices for Guaranteed Success

Mobile Marketing – The Importance of getting Consent from your Customers

Mobile Marketing (or SMS/Text Marketing) is permission-based marketing that takes advantage of the ubiquity of mobile devices and the prevalence of texting. Success rates are, and have been phenomenal for businesses of all sizes. However, as marketing becomes a more and more pervasive part of our everyday lives, it is critical that marketers do not cross the line and alienate their target audiences. Mobile Marketing consent must be sought.

According to the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association), permission-based mobile marketing is “the practice of gaining consent from consumers in advance of a continuing marketing dialogue taking place on mobile devices and in return for some kind of value exchange.” This form of marketing increases ROI above and beyond all other marketing tools, as your customer database consists of consumers who plan on patronising your business presently and into the future, most likely on a regular basis. Permission-based marketing is undoubtedly a key ingredient to mobile marketing consent effectiveness.

The key golden rules to permission-based marketing are:-

  • Opt in Option
  • Opt out Option

Both opt in and opt out options must be clear and comprehensive. The simplest and most popular way to encourage an opt-in is, text “keyword” to “short code” i.e. Text “pizza” to “51122”. Without permission, your marketing strategy becomes ‘push marketing’ or ‘interruption marketing’. People will react negatively towards your marketing message. Spamming with unwanted content will tarnish your brand name and your business, resulting in potential customers permanently being alienated from your subscriber lists.

Every SMS campaign by law (Data Protection Guidelines) must include an opt out option. Customers must feel confident they can disengage from your marketing campaigns at any time i.e. by texting your keyword followed by the word “STOP” to your 5 digit shortcode. On doing so, the ‘opt out’ customer’s phone number is automatically removed from all your subscriber lists and subsequently added to your opt-out list. Sendmode’s system will block any messages being sent to this number from your account. If you try to import the number in the future, the system will recognise it and importation will be denied.

To maximise the effects and results of your marketing campaigns, ensure you comply with the above opt in and opt out stipulations by gaining mobile marketing consent.

Sendmode.com offers in-depth information on permission-based mobile marketing. Contact John or Trevor on 01-685-4913 or email [email protected] for all your questions and queries.

Thanks for reading our blog!

Tricia

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