Texting your clients can be a great way of concisely communicating a message to them. However, did you know that phone carriers have algorithms in place to intercept spam which could affect the deliverability of your text. Using these helpful tips you will be able to send a text message in bulk to your contacts through your OneLocal account without it being intercepted by phone carriers.
DO NOT SEND TOO MANY MESSAGES AT ONCE
Sending a lot of messages at once is one of the top reasons that bulk text messages get filtered. Sending more than 15-60 messages per minute may flag as spam with carriers. We advise that the maximum number of messages that you should send in one day is about 500. After this you should consider sending these messages on another day.
This is why we advise scheduling out your messages one page (25 contacts) at a time to prevent filtering from occurring.
Select all on page
Click Send Message
Insert your message template
Schedule the messages to go out at a later time that day or on another day
Click send then go back and unselect all of your contacts to ensure that you do not accidentally send them another message.
Repeat this process for the rest of the pages that you wish to send to
Narrow your audience
Ensure that you are only sending a message to customers that you have seen somewhat recently. You are going to get a better response rate from customers that you have interacted with more recently and the message is less likely to be interpreted as spam by the recipient.
Making sure that the message you are sending is relevant to the recipients is key when sending out a bulk text message. If the offer or announcement is totally irrelevant to the recipient they may be annoyed by the message and this isn’t good for customer experience.
Use dynamic tags
Dynamic tags help to make the conversation seem more conversational and personalized and less like a marketing message. Using dynamic tags such as [Contact First Name] is a great way to personalize your message.
Include a STOP text at the end of your message
If the customer does not want to be texted you must respect their wishes no matter how beautifully crafted or convincing your message may seem.
In your OneLocal account there is no dynamic tag for the STOP text in LocalMessages, but our system will still opt customers out that reply STOP. We advise your STOP message to say: To stop receiving messages reply “STOP”. Additionally, any customers that are already on your ‘do not message’ list should not be contacted. By doing so you are running the risk of the recipient reporting your number as spam.
Keep it short and sweet
If your message runs long you not only run the risk of your audience not finishing the entire message, carriers may interpret the long-winded message as spam and end up filtering it out. We advise that you keep your message to just under 3 SMS (480 characters). If your customer expresses interest or engages with you then you will be able to explain your offer or message further.
Links
If you need to include a link in your message ensure that you are including the full URL and that you are NOT using a bitly link. Bitly links are commonly filtered by carriers.