What businesses can learn about SMS marketing engagement from political advocacy groups

2020 is already shaping up to be an unprecedented election year, with candidates’ vying for voters’ support through a variety of digital channels.

Ever since the 2016 presidential election, campaign offices have increased their adoption of 1-to-1 messaging to engage voters. Unlike robotexts or robocalls, peer-to-peer (P2P) texts are personal messages that come from volunteers who initiate a conversation with potential voters or supporters.

Messages can range from asking people to vote on election day to providing polling location information. Text messaging platform Hustle cited a 400 percent increase in texts sent between the 2016 and 2018 elections, and the 2018 midterm elections saw more than one billion texts sent between July and election day by political organizations using Twilio’s platform alone.

While the potential for political groups to galvanize and engage people with digital communication channels has never been greater, meeting constituents on their channel of choice isn’t enough. Like businesses, political organizations must be mindful of using different channels depending on the urgency and type of communication. A Twilio study on the efficacy of U.S. presidential campaigns using email found that only 3.8 percent of campaign emails landed in the primary tab of constituents’ accounts.

Globally, email is the preferred channel for consumers to hear from brands, while text is the preferred channel for immediate or time-sensitive information.

As a built-in feature of any mobile phone, SMS is a reliable way to send messages with the greatest reach possible. Ninety-six percent of text messages are read within three minutes of receipt, and 90 percent within three seconds.

The personal nature of political affiliation means campaigns and advocacy groups must be particularly sensitive to differentiation within its constituents—not unlike a business, loyalty and monetary support are at stake. If there’s one thing companies can learn from political communications, it’s the value of targeted communications, and knowing about the recipients at a granular level to facilitate tailored messages.

The 2020 election year will be the first subject to the official Messaging Guidelines from the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association), a trade association made up of the wireless carriers and others that operate in the mobile space.

The CTIA created the “Common Short Code System,” the primary means of sending SMS marketing messages to consumers. CTIA audits enforce the rules for short code-based SMS marketing programs, and violation of the CTIA rules can result in suspension or termination of an SMS marketing program until the issue has been resolved. Practically speaking, the biggest change is that messaging services previously categorized as P2P communications are now considered A2P.

As a reminder, P2P, or person-to-person messaging, is generally defined as a two-way (back and forth) messaging conversation between two humans. This could be messages between friends on mobile phones, or messages connecting two people such as a support agent and a customer.

A2P, or application-to-person messaging, is any kind of traffic in which a person is receiving messages from an application. A2P messaging includes (but is not limited to) marketing messages, appointment reminders, chatbots or virtual assistants, notifications, and one-time passwords (OTPs) or PIN codes.

Taking a cue from campaigns and advocacy groups, here are some thoughts business leaders should keep top-of-mind when messaging consumers.

1. Get permission.

Initiating an SMS campaign without your customer’s permission sends the wrong message. Recipients must opt-in to receiving texts as part of your campaign. You can request they opt-in via an online form, contest entries, or asking them to text a particular keyword to a mobile number or shortcode.

Also, make the opt-out process simple. If your customers can’t opt-out, they’re likely to start complaining to their wireless carrier, leading to potential filtering of your messages down the road.

2. Consider a unique, brand-friendly shortcode.

Shortcodes are shorter than typical phone numbers so they’re easier to remember and type. Best of all, these numbers are optimized for marketing, individually approved by wireless carriers for marketing, so your messages won’t be blocked. And, you can send messages at a much faster rate than from regular mobile phone numbers.

3. Be concise and considerate.

Once your users have expressed an interest in hearing from you, don’t abuse the privilege. By design, text messages are meant to be brief and used to deliver time-sensitive information. Provide them with a timely offer or urgent information, and be cognizant of how often you land in their messages inbox.

4. Have a conversation, and respond in real-time.

By sending a text message, you’re initiating an exchange that should be actionable. A call-to-action within the message warrants sending it through SMS in the first place. Avoid channel-switching, i.e. directing someone on their phone to another communication channel, by giving them the opportunity to respond and engage through a two-way conversation. One way to do this is via conversational AI, or chatbots, which let brands deliver personalized responses at scale.

5. Measure what works.

Smart marketers know how their campaigns are performing and can prove their ROI. With the right SMS solution, SMS marketing offers a direct, measurable, and trackable marketing channel. It lets you easily determine the messages and promotions that are working and the ones aren’t, which can help you continually refine your text campaigns, and improve your marketing messages on all other media. Best of all, you can capture leads and all text-based responses and inquiries for sales follow-up.

6. Go global, but deliver locally.

Choose an SMS provider able to scale and grow with your mobile marketing efforts, and one that can send the highest volumes of text and picture messages in the least amount of time. You also need a provider with an extensive carrier network to allow for global as well as localized phone numbers. And since nobody wants to receive a marketing text at 1 a.m., your provider should be able to automatically deliver your messages to your audience at the right time in the right time zone.

For more actionable insights on how to best engage customers, dive into Twilio’s State of Customer Engagement report.