Permission Marketing With SMS Messages

Permission marketing with SMS messages is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways for businesses, restaurants, bars, clubs and so many more are using their advertising dollars to get the word out about upcoming promotions, discounts, events and more to promote their business.

Permission marketing with SMS messages occurs when businesses use a text marketing platform to send out mass text messages about upcoming discounts, promotions and more to their faithful and interested customers or potential customers. The key to using text message marketing correctly and effectively is to make sure you are getting permission first from your respondents before you proceed to send them messages. The reason SMS messaging technology must be used on a permission-based marketing system is to adhere to the guidelines and laws set forth by the federal government and the Mobile Marketing Association. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in legal consequences for the violator as well as any text marketing company that allows its marketing customers to practice illegal text marketing techniques. In an effort to avoid consumers having to deal with unsolicited telemarketing campaigns – and now text marketing campaigns- that can be considered spam, the SMS marketing community must use the permission-based marketing to get permission from their text message respondents.

Permission Marketing with SMS Messages:

There are a few different ways text marketers can get permission to send out their mobile advertisements via text message. It is important for those interested in text marketing to note that they cannot simply purchase lists of names and phone numbers online or off Ebay and expect it to work. Unfortunately since those names and numbers were not acquired legally, they cannot be used for text marketing purposes without violating the laws and regulations surrounding text marketing.

To get started with permission-based marketing, establish a few ways you are going to acquire your names and phone numbers to begin your text marketing campaign. Fortunately there are several ways you can do this with permission and still develop a strong following to your mobile marketing campaign.

First, try using a promotion or discount to get followers to sign up. You can post signs and flyers in and around your establishment that contain your text message campaign keyword and short code. Tell customers that they can text in that keyword to the short code in order to receive a text message back that will grant them a discount on their purchase. You can also try having your employees do this during checkout. You might have them text in to receive the text marketing campaign messages and have them receive the discount on the spot. Oral consent can be permissible as a way to get permission from your text message marketing campaign followers. In addition, customers can also listen to radio ads as well as TV commercials where they can hear the short code and keyword so the customer can get access to discounts, upcoming sales, promotions and other information about your business.

You might want to include this same information in web ads and on your business website. This is a great way to bring in online followers. Many text message marketing companies give their marketer customers an opt-in widget that they can use on their website so their own patrons can sign up for the text message campaign directly on the website. Be sure you try out all these options when you first develop your text marketing campaign. Find which sign up method or methods works best for you and your business. Depending on the type of your business and your clientele, certain sign up initiatives might work better than others. Just work with each of these methods to find the idea that works best for you and your company to take advantage of permission marketing with SMS messages.