SMS messaging is one of the newest tools in a digital marketer’s toolbox. With the explosion in mobile and especially in text messaging over the last decade, you’d have a hard time finding many customers who don’t check their text messages once in a while. And with an SMS API for Android and iPhone, it’s even easier to send mass texts to your customers straight from your business mobile device. Getting messages quickly and directly to your customers has never been more important.

While text messaging is still in its early stages as a direct marketing tool, it is already used in informational communication with customers. An SMS welcome message is commonly employed by companies to establish communication, then follow-up messages are sent that provide additional information or reminders. Further marketing information, including invitations to try new products or services, can then be sent later – although determining whether customers will view this as invasive and unwelcome is essential before employing this tactic.

In any case, if you’re hoping to employ text as a part of your marketing campaign, here are some ground rules:

1.       Efficiency is good – People like quick and direct texts. Use short sentences and even shorter URL’s (bitly.com or tinyurl.com are great services for shortening links). Fitting your information into under 160 characters (the length of one standard SMS message) is essential. Even less is icing on the cake.

2.       Stay professional – Never sacrifice professionalism for efficiency. While the occasional abbreviation is fine (think ASAP for example, a common business abbreviation), don’t think for a second that “lol” or “omg” will fly, and be extremely careful with common ones like “btw (by the way)” or “pls (please).” These may be fine even when communicating with a client, but sending them out as mass SMS marketing messages will usually be poorly-received.

3.       No spelling errors – Yes, this is text messaging. Yes, you need to proof what you’re sending. Don’t just rely on your text marketing platform.