Guide To Bulk SMS: Send Messages People Actually Want To Receive

This guide will:

• Help you understand some of the rules that apply to SMS marketing (US and Canada).

• Maximize the impact of SMS for:

  • Client responses

  • Marketing ppt Ins

  • Appointment conversions

  • Closing sales

Composing Your Message

Compliance in your SMS body

• Seek consent from your text recipient before including them in your SMS campaign

• Always identify yourself and your business by name.

• If it’s the first time you’re messaging a contact, OR if it’s been 90 days or more since you last messaged them, be sure to add an unsubscribe clause at the very end of your message.

  • “Reply STOP to opt out.”

  • “If you’d like us to stop texting you, just reply STOP.”

  • If someone opts out of receiving future texts, be sure to remove them from your future SMS campaigns!

Strategic Best Practices

• Greet each contact by using the first name custom value → {{contact.first_name}}

• Use sparingly, no more than once per month

  • Respect people’s time and attention by only sending in specific time windows that are least likely to disturb personal time

• For measurable results, use a strong offer

  • Make your message clear and concise to avoid turning people off and increasing unsubscribes.

  • Consider offering something for free to maximize interest or responses

    • Minimal commitment now = maximum number of conversations that will build trust and belief throughout the sales process

• Keep messages short and exciting

  • Think about how your message will make the average contact feel

  • Avoid needless punctuation, specifically overuse of exclamation points, to increase reading speed

  • Avoid formal writing styles and match the casual tone of a typical text message conversation

• Spark conversations

  • Creating live conversations = a direct connection with a potential customer

    • It builds trust

    • Which leads to increased sales momentum

    • Which builds your reputation

  • Ask a direct question to prompt responses

  • Do not ask more than one question, as this can cause confusion

  • Do not overuse emojis

  • Avoid sending links

    • This can cause deliverability issues

    • It also neglects all the great benefits of chat conversations

• Only send out messages when you know you can respond in a timely manner

  • Contacts who respond right away and then never hear back will think your message was sent in bulk or spam

  • As such, contacts who get responses right away will be more likely to convert

• Be prepared for unsubscribes

  • You will always get some people responding STOP

  • You will always get some people to ask not to be texted anymore

  • Respect their wishes, mark them DND, and move on

Bad Example

“Hello, this is Ashley from Bob’s Fitness ?? We’re the best gym in town! All our members are models! It’s ? $175/month ? to join and there’s an extra $150 new member fee ?… We have a lot of spots to fill so we hope you can afford it! We also have personal training, group classes, a 6 week challenge, nutrition plans, sauna, ice baths, an inner circle club, work-trade spots available, and many other add-ons!”

Good Example

“Hi {{contact.first_name}}, this is Ashley from Bob’s Fitness, we’re giving out a few 10-day passes and I wondered if you’d like one? If you’d like for us to stop texting you, reply STOP”

Technical Setup and Execution

• Select the contacts you’d like to message. Need help filtering a list? Check out "Getting Started with Smart Lists"

• Click the “Send SMS” button (picture of icon)

• Click “Ok, Proceed”

• Type your message

• Title the action for internal reference

• If you want to send the message to everyone at the same time immediately, leave the toggle on “Send all at once.”

  • This is good for 1-way announcements you do not expect to turn into conversations and want to send right away.

• If you want to send the message to everyone at the same time later, select “Send all at schedule time” and then set the send time in the “Start On” field.

  • This is good for 1-way announcements you do not expect to turn into conversations and want to send automatically at a later time

• If you want to slowly deliver the message to the list of contacts over time, select “Send in drip mode”

  • This is good for messages you expect to generate responses and conversations

  • Start On

    • The day and time when messages should start sending

  • Batch Quantity

    • The number of messages that sends each time the Repeat After condition is met

  • Repeat After

    • The amount of time to wait until sending out the next Batch Quantity

  • Send On

    • The days of the week the system will allow messages to send

  • Process Between Hours (optional)

    • The window, or timeframe within each day in which the system will send messages..

• Example of a Drip sending 100 messages per day spread out between 10:30am-11:00am each day.

  • Action: “Database Reactivation: Black Friday Weekend Promo”

  • Start On: November 29th

  • Batch Quantity: 10

  • Repeat After: 3 minutes

  • Send On: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thr, Fri, Sat, Sun

  • Process Between

    • Start From:

      • 10:30AM

    • End At

      • 11:00AM