Text Messaging for Business: The Ultimate Guide

Why use text message marketing? Today’s consumers are inundated with marketing everywhere they look. Traditional marketing like billboards and newspaper ads has been quickly overtaken by modern tactics like social media ads, email marketing, and influencer marketing. So how is your business to stand out in the crowd?

Text message marketing is one of the best ways to capture the attention of your customers without having to shout out at them to get attention in a busy newsfeed or email inbox. Your customers are already on their phones an average of four hours a day—so meet them where they’re at and try text message marketing today.

Keep reading to learn how it works and how it can benefit your company.

How Does Text Message Marketing Work?

Text message marketing is a fairly simple way to market your business. First, you sign up for a text message marketing service and choose a keyword. Customers can text that keyword to your company and get a customized, automatic reply. They’ll also be added to your text message marketing list.

Just like email marketing, you can send out mass text messages to your entire list anytime you’d like. Offer exclusive coupon codes, announce a sale, or inform customers about new inventory. You can grow your text message marketing list by giving out incentives for signing up, like a one-time discount right at the register.

Is Text Marketing Illegal?

Text marketing is not illegal, but it does have many restrictions. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) declares that a company must have a relationship with the customer and ask for permission before sending text messages for commercial purposes.

So text message marketing is legal—as long as you get the permission of your customer first. There are other restrictions regarding the times you can send these texts and the content of the texts. For example, you can’t send a text before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipients’ time zone, and you must identify your company and provide a reply option in every text.

Remember, unsolicited text message marketing is illegal, so you want to make sure you have permission before you start blasting customers with promotional texts. You can get permission from your customer by creating an opt-in process as we mentioned in the previous section. Opt-ins can be advertised via signage, billboards, email, and social media.

What Is the Difference Between a Text Message and an SMS Message?

Many business owners become confused when talking about text messages vs. SMS messages. Oftentimes, these terms are used interchangeably, but in reality, an SMS message is just one of two different types of text messages.

SMS stands for Short Message Service. These types of messages can be up to 160 characters long and include letters and numbers. SMS messages contrast from Multimedia Messages (MMS), which can contain more than 160 characters, as well as images, video, and audio files.

Though MMS messages can be longer and include different types of media, they also take up data for the sender and the recipient, so most businesses are hesitant to use them, and consumers are more hesitant to opt-in to this type of marketing. SMS texts do not use up data, making them a more advantageous option.

What Are the Advantages of Text Messaging?

Investing in text message marketing is a smart move for any business, no matter the vertical or target audience. Text message marketing has a much higher open rate than emails, and it costs less to run this type of marketing campaign too. Text message marketing can be paired with any other type of marketing campaign, enhancing and increasing your reach. It’s flexible and customizable, allowing you to reach customers on their own terms.

What Are the Uses of Text Messaging?

There are endless ways to incorporate text message marketing into your existing marketing plans. Here are a few ideas:

●     Send an exclusive discount

●     Inform customers about new products

●     Give early access to sales

●     Update customers on their delivery

●     Send appointment reminders

●     Confirm orders

●     Give sneak peeks of new services

No matter how you decide to use text message marketing, remember to make your messages short and include a call to action at the end. You’re sure to see fast and tangible results as you grow your text message marketing list.