Texting Tips: 5 Steps to Better Messaging

Texting has become one of the most effective ways to interact with your customers.  It’s also one of the best ways to irritate them and get your communications blocked if you abuse it as a channel.

How often have you received a suspicious looking text from a business and proceeded to delete it immediately? Think about what made the text look suspicious. Is this how you want your audience to feel? That split second is the most crucial time to make your message look enticing enough, and safe enough, to interact with.

You want your customers reading your messages and clicking on any useful links within them, not on the block button. Below are some useful tips for more effective texting:

Stay Transparent

It’s important to be up-front and honest with your audience from the start. Make sure you’re clear on who and where the message is coming from. If your recipients feel like you’re withholding information or hiding your identity, they will immediately think the text is suspicious.

Keep Links Properly Branded

Stay away from using public URL websites to shorten your links, such as TinyURL or Bitly. You want to make it noticeable your link is coming from a secure source to keep your audience from questioning if their information is still secure after clicking.

Avoid Unnecessary Characters or Capitalization

These elements can add uniqueness to your message when used correctly, but when they’re overdone, it can start to take away from your credibility. Typing out a sentence in all caps may help build urgency, but when the entire message is written this way it will start to look like a scam.

Review Grammar and Spelling Before Sending

It’s not just what you type that’s important, it’s how you type it. When a text message contains misspelled words or poor grammar, it will come across as careless to the person on the other end. Always take the time to review your messages beforehand and show your audience you respect their time.

Monitor Opt-Outs Regularly

Keeping track of opt-out volume for the texts you send is a useful indicator for how well your message is received. If you see an increase in opt-outs after a certain message, it is a sign to go in and see what can be refined before sending the next one. Even if the number doesn’t seem that high to you initially, you run the risk of having your future messages marked as “unsafe” if enough people are negatively impacted.

Don’t get left on “unread”, follow these tips to send an impactful text every time. When your customers trust the message, it’s the first step to trusting your business. With these best practices, you’ll protect this great communication channel to help spark a partnership.

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