Text and the Mail
March 24, 2015   Dave Lewis

The kids love this stuff… Right?

I’m a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to texting. “The kids love it,” our staff implored. “The kids love vampires, zombies and Justin Bieber, too, and I’m not including them in my marketing,” was my, well, curmudgeonly retort. But as mobile becomes a bigger part of our lives, a marketer ignores mobile at their peril. And it’s not just about the kids. Still, text is a lot different than direct mail and even email. We get this request every now and then: someone wants to send a text message to all their customers telling them about an event – they have their cell phone numbers. Our stock answer is, “We don’t do that kind of stuff.” Oh, we can text alright, but there are a lot of rules that make good sense – as well as being the law. So, if you have a vision of sending a text to your prospect just as they get your mail piece, like you may do with email or telemarketing, it just doesn’t work that way. Yet, there are effective ways to integrate text into your campaigns. Let’s go over some of the basics to start: SMS – Short Message Service. This is true texting – text only messages up to 160 characters. MMS – Multimedia Message Service. Accommodates sending text and other media, typically pictures and also video. This is requires a high-speed 3G connection or better. Short Numbers – also known as Short Codes. These are the 5-digit numbers assigned by SMS and MMS service providers for receiving text messages. Thus, you may see “Text Football to 12345” – in this case, 12345 is the short number. Key word. This is the term you choose as the text copy. It should be relevant to your offer. TCPA – The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. This is the act that covers SMS and MMS communications. Rules and penalties are much more strict that those covering email. You need explicit permission to send a commercial text. So, you cannot legally buy a list of numbers to text to. Typically your prospect needs to text you first, or request a text by granting permission on a web-based signup page. So, coordinating a text with mail delivery is rarely a good option. Still, there are some good applications for texting in a multi-channel campaign. Add another response channel. Add a text option to your response device. With the right offer you may be able to have your prospect text a keyword and you now can opt them in. You can then text them, although you want to be very selective as to what you text. Text links to your landing page. If you offer a text option on your marketing pieces, you can also drive prospects to your landing page by including a link in your text. Make sure your landing pages are mobile optimized! Enable text donations. You may be able to have your donors make donations directly by texting, and having the donation billed to their phone bill. There are limitations, but it is often worth exploring, and can be promoted by a direct mail driven campaign. Promote events while they happen. With SMS you can send notices to opted in participants during an event. One popular use we have seen is notifying trade show attendees of presentations happening at any given moment promoting exhibitors and sponsors. These are all good uses of text marketing, and give you the opportunity to gather valuable marketing data. Someone who is responsive to your text appeal is likely to be highly motivated, and an excellent target for future marketing efforts. So texting is not just about the “kids”. It’s a viable marketing channel that you should consider in crafting your campaigns. Your SnailWorks multi-channel project manager can give you the guidance you need to see what works for you!

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