Text Message Marketing: Fact vs. Fiction

The information age, also known as the digital age or the new media age, began a new culture where the average Joe could digest and disseminate information faster than ever. With wide and easier access to computers and smartphones, the world was suddenly at the common man’s fingertips.

With this cultural shift came a surge of benefits. For example, the internet acted as a vehicle for education for those without access to the traditional avenues like college or even public school. Knowledge is power: from this education of the masses came a wave of social justice, entrepreneurship, and unity to some extent.

However, a few cons obviously arose, as the universe tends to balance itself out. With a large sum of information will always come a slew of misinformation, about anything you can think of.

The newest challenge we face now is separating fact from fiction, and when it comes to text message marketing, there certainly is a lot of fiction floating around. RoboCent wants to help you sift through the misinformation to learn the truth about text message marketing.
Below are six popular myths about texting and text message marketing, and six ways that we’ve debunked them.

Fiction: Text Message Marketing Costs a Lot of Money

Because of its success and value to any company or political campaign, many people assume that this service will put them out. The misconception here is that you’ll need specialized skills and knowledge to operate a text message marketing campaign, or that you’ll need to hire a consultant to do it for you. The general impression is that marketing companies will charge a lot, for very little payoff.

Since text message marketing does have the capability to reach such a wide audience, the assumption is that the extra effort will require extra cash. Many companies or campaigns assume that such a wide reach must equal a tall cost, but they’re wrong.

Fact: Text Message Marketing is Actually Super Affordable

Especially with a reliable sms marketing service like RoboCent, text message marketing can be extremely affordable. Whether you’re locally campaigning on a budget or managing a large scale campaign for federal office, RoboCent can offer not only affordable but cheap prices for an extremely effective text message campaign. You put in only a little but get a lot out of a text message marketing service, which debunks the idea that sms marketing costs loads of cash.

Fiction: Text Message Marketing Doesn’t Actually Work

Many companies sometimes make the mistake of not acknowledging the validity of this revolutionary marketing tool. The myth is that while text message marketing may reach a lot of people, it doesn’t enhance engagement or revenue. Some people also view it as a waste of money, since much of digital marketing has now moved to online platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Fact: Text Message Marketing is Unparalleled

The fact of the matter is, text message marketing has engagement that’s unparalleled to any other marketing tool out there. Other methods of marketing, such as email marketing, just don’t measure up to its success. The average person opens a marketing email roughly 22% of the time. Social media is also a tossup, because while people may see your ad, there’s nothing guaranteeing engagement. Marketing text messages, however, are opened up to 98% of the time, which is an impressive factor. You can almost guarantee that people will see and click on your message, because it’s delivered straight to them in their inbox.

Fiction: Text Message Marketing is Spam

Many people, even news outlets have accused text message marketing of being annoying and bothersome spam disseminators. Media outlets like The New York Times has even released a full how-to guide on blocking and reporting messages deemed to be “spam.” We’re here to inform you that despite all of the fuss, people are actually not as annoyed by marketing messages as they say they are.

Fact: Opt-In Text Laws Ensure That People Intentionally Sign Up To Receive Marketing Text Messages

Calling sms marketing spam is implying that people haven’t given permission to be contacted, or that they don;t care to hear from their valued campaigns or businesses. However, the sms marketing services that RoboCent provides actually bypasses this issue.

While there are some text message marketing messages that some people prefer to others, overall, 75% of people who opt in don’t mind receiving text messages from campaigns or businesses. The biggest difference between being spam and genuine marketing is whether or not sms marketing provides value to a user or subscriber’s life. In this case, sms messages do. People intentionally sign up to receive text messages through your campaign, which means they don’t view your messages as spam. They usually look forward to hearing from you, as your messages provide key information and deals that subscribers know they can’t get anywhere else. If anything, text messages are viewed as an exclusive membership with
unlimited benefits and a personal touch.

Fiction: SMS Marketing is Impersonal

Text message marketing gets a bad wrap regarding its reputation as a spam service. Many people and companies think that sending sms messages can be received as impersonal, especially in the case of companies that actually are sending spam messages. However, at RoboCent, we go above and beyond to make our messages personal and valuable to the customer.

Fact: Drip Campaigns and Other SMS Marketing Options Make Text Message Marketing Personal

At RoboCent, we offer your campaign or political organization the opportunity to learn demographic information about the people you’re texting. You’ll have the ability to learn their name, location, ethnicity, etc., all to make your interaction with them all the more personal. You’ll be able to then contact them about issues or elements of your campaign that are most relevant to them.

Starting a drip campaign can also make things personal, if you allow them to opt in. In your initial interaction, you can give your subscriber the opportunity to engage with you more by opting in to receive updates that are most relevant to them, all through the power of the drip campaign. Not only are drip campaigns personalized, but they also take out much of the work from your team, so you have more time to focus on making real life connections for your campaign.

Text messages from your campaign offer a way for your campaign to initiate a true connection. Using messages to invite subscribers to campaign rallies, fundraisers, out to vote or even to political meetings provides the most personal service a campaign could use. It’s a tool for your campaign to move people from beyond the text message inbox, and guide them to a real connection with your campaign. There’s nothing more personal than that.

Fiction: SMS Messages don’t compare to MMS Messages

Many people don’t fully understand the difference between an MMS message and an SMS message, when in fact they offer very different capabilities and results. Most people believe that MMS messages are more valuable and useful to a marketing campaign, when in fact SMS messages have more to offer in many ways.

Fact: SMS Messages are Simpler and Therefore More Useful

MMS, which stands for Multimedia Message Service, offers the ability to send photos and videos. While this may seem like it could offer more to a user or subscriber, the fact of the matter with marketing is that less is always more when it comes to marketing. Sending too many mms messages can run your campaign straight into technical problems with your text messages. Some people might not have the ability to receive multimedia messages, while others may not want to use up any storage space. There’s also a general fear or viruses, which can come into play if you send a message with a downloadable photo. People might not want to open it in fear.

That’s why only using sms messages gets the job done more efficiently. With a 160 character limit, messages are short, concise and to-the-point. People know exactly what they’re getting, and there’s no extra file to download. You also avoid the risk of people not even seeing your message at all, if they don’t have mms abilities on their phone. All in all, Occam’s Razor comes into play. Simpler sms is always best.

RoboCent Can Help Your Team Navigate Through These Rumors to Create A Successful Campaign

Not only are we a texting service that provides a service unlike any other marketing tactic out there, we’re here to prove all of your preconceived notions about text message marketing wrong. Not only can we show you the correct and most effective ways to run a text message marketing campaign, we’ll show you why you can’t afford not to create a text message marketing campaign.

We provide an excellent service, helpful consultation regarding script tactics and scheduling tactics, and interesting blogs that can help your campaign reach peak levels of success and get your candidate elected.

We’ve sifted through all for the bad junk for you, and now we’re going to erase the misinformation surrounding text message marketing once and for all.