The Textr app is a new and improved system for sending an SMS announcement to many recipients at once. Text messages are an incredibly efficient medium for sending timely reminders and notifications to your audience.

For example, let’s say you’ve scheduled a Zoom conference with a sizeable audience, and you are getting ready to start. You could send an email reminder, but most people aren’t checking emails every minute of the day. However, just about all your audience will respond immediately to a text announcement that arrives on their smartphone.

Textr is an excellent method for sending out a quick reminder to a large group of people, but texts are much more versatile than that as a tool for business. You can also use them for notifications, confirmations, alerts, and as a marketing medium. Here are some quick tips and best practices to help you get the most out of SMS announcements when using Textr.

1. Introduce Yourself

If a recipient has no idea who sent the text, they will likely ignore or delete it. You can avoid this potentially embarrassing scenario by simply adding an introductory line to your message like “Hi, it’s Kevin from Textr here.” You can always request that your customers add your phone number to their address book, but there’s no guarantee they will, and you have no way of checking.

2. Always Add an Opt-Out Option

Textr stands by the industry standard for opt-out guidelines, including the UNSUBSCRIBE or STOP keywords. If one of your recipients decides they no longer wish to receive messages from your company, then a simple one-word command sent as a reply is all it should take.

Always include an opt-out option at the end of your announcement. You could also optionally add a command like ‘START’ for unblocking your number, should they wish to resume text communications.

3. Don’t Spam

Textr is not a platform for companies to spam their contact list with mass marketing messages. Use Textr responsibly as a tool to better serve your customers while building your brand and reputation in the marketplace. You should only use the platform to send an SMS announcement to recipients who have agreed to receive them.

4. Keep SMS Open as a Two-Way Channel

A lot of organizations use SMS as a purely one-way channel. This strategy is a missed opportunity for providing a higher level of service to your customers. We believe that communication should always be a two-way street, and you should leave your channels open to better engage with your client list, prospects, or existing customers.

5. Use URL Shorteners

A quick text message is an excellent way to build traffic to your website whenever you have new content to promote. Unfortunately, SMS are limited to 160 characters, making it challenging to inform your customers about an online offer or new blog post with a lengthy URL. You can use a URL shortener to say what you have to say and still include a convenient link in your announcement.

6. Segment Your Contact List

You don’t always need to send an announcement to your entire contact list. For example, you may have a contact list of thousands, but, only a few hundred signed up for the webinar. You don’t want to annoy those customers who are not attending by sending an unnecessary SMS announcement. You can easily segment your list, so only the customers who registered will receive the reminder.

7. Keep Your Messages Short

A text message is short and sweet by nature. Even though MMS allows for up to 1600 characters, text messaging is not the best medium for reading lengthy pros on a small screen. When you send your announcement, keep it brief and only include the pertinent information and the action you want the reader to take. If there’s more that needs to be said, you can always direct them to a web property to find out the rest.

8. Use Templates

We mentioned earlier how we believe you should use text messaging as a two-way communication channel. However, when you are met with a tsunami of follow-up questions, most of which will be the same, you don’t want to be tied down answering them one-by-one. Instead, create a template for frequently asked questions so you can quickly reply with a single click.

9. Use Keywords

You can make your announcement a lot clearer and easier to comprehend if you include keywords in your text. For example, the keyword WEBINAR is a clear reminder to the recipient that they signed up for the presentation, and they are more likely to read the rest of the message and link up.

10. Check Engagement Levels

SMS messages are a very personal communication medium, which creates a fantastic opportunity to check your contact list’s engagement level with your business. For instance, an SMS promising 50% off to people who display the text in store will usually attract a fantastic response rate. It’s one of the best methods you can use to keep your list relevant and up to date.

11. Integrate Text with Email

Consumers prefer to use various communication channels to engage with an organization, and email and SMS are firm favorites. When you use multiple avenues to connect with customers, you offer them a way to engage with your company on channels they are comfortable with and prefer.

You can leverage your email performance by using SMS as well. For example, let’s say you have sent out an email but only achieved just over a 4% open rate. A quick SMS offering further incentives – like a free item or steeper discount – to people who respond to the SMS announcement will have more of your customers revisiting their inbox.

When you need to remind people about what’s going on quickly, or you would like to increase engagement with your customers and clients, add SMS messaging to your toolset. When used in conjunction with the right tool like Textr, you can significantly improve your relationships and boost your bottom line with quick and simple announcements that won’t get ignored.