One of the biggest hurdles you will face when launching an SMS campaign is getting people to give you their phone number. Because people value their privacy when it comes to providing personal information, you need to educate and reassure them that you won’t abuse the privilege of marketing via text message.

Be Upfront About Privacy

Whether you’re a business owner or you run a community organisation such as a charity, religious group or school committee, gathering phone numbers can be tricky if you don’t reassure people first that their privacy will be protected. Create a privacy policy that states you will not sell or distribute phone numbers to other businesses, marketing firms or third-party companies.

If creating a phone list for a community organisation, make sure people know that you and your staff will be the only ones with access to the phone list (unless otherwise stated for emergency purposes, etc.)

Upload your privacy policy to websites, social media pages, blogs and include it in all email correspondence.

Explain SMS Benefits

Even though you may understand the benefits of mobile campaigns, your customers or community group members may not be well educated as this is still a relatively new form of marketing. Educate customers/group members by explaining how you plan to market goods and services or how sending text messages about upcoming meetings and events is convenient and safe.

Educate people about the benefits of instant communication – it’s your job as a business owner to not only market your business in a professional manner, but also make people comfortable with the idea of receiving and responding to your messages (either by responding with a reciprocal text or by making a purchase via their mobile phone).

When building your list, explain how you will use your text message service. Mentions how many times per week you plan to send a message, how people can sign-up (at your business location, website, etc.), how people can opt-out if they no longer want to receive messages via text from you and what will be included in your messages.

Get Feedback

Once you launch an SMS campaign, get feedback from those on your list to determine if you’re sending too many/too few messages. As if the messages are beneficial and if there is anything that needs to be changed. Create a simple survey or poll to find out how customers are responding to your campaign. Do the same if using SMS notifications to stay in contact with groups of people in your community.