The number of innovative ways for businesses to connect with their customers grows every day. Technology has allowed companies a direct path towards their intended user base and the benefits are felt in both directions since consumers can get the answers they need and the help they’re looking for in a matter of seconds.

Learn more about SMS marketing in our expert's guide!

SMS texting has been around for a long time now, but its adaptation by mainstream companies is a relatively new concept, the potential of which has only really been appropriately explored over the past 5-10 years. The instant, personal nature of an SMS is of great use and helps consumers feel valued and in touch.

But there are pitfalls to be wary of. So, let’s take a look at five classic errors that companies make when sending SMS messages for business purposes.

1. Miscalculating Message Volume

The more the common channels for marketing and business communication become personalized, such as SMS and social media DMs, the more the boundaries of acceptability are shifting in terms of company-customer relations. More intrusion is acceptable naturally, but there’s still quite a delicate balance to strike up.

Text is a personal medium, it’s how couples and families talk to each other casually. In business, there’s a pressing question of volume: how much is too much? And what does too little look like? You need to ensure that you aren’t bombarding users with texts since they will block you instantly. But you want to stay in touch. Try and base texts around their engagement with your service as much as you can.

2. Failing to Adjust for SMS In Tone

The tone of text messages needs to be different from the other communication routes that you have at your disposal. When you communicate with customers through email or even physical mail, there is a much greater distance between you and them, and formality is of key importance.

If you send texts like mass emails, it will turn customers off, and the medium will highlight to them how little you care about them as individuals. You need to find ways to add a personal touch to the tone of your texts, relying heavily on data that you already have collected about them or their shopping preferences. This will really ingratiate you with them and is much more likely to result in positive engagement.

3. Not Having A Practical Call-To-Action

Texting is great for businesses, but it shouldn’t just be done for fun. Actionable paths that will take your customer or would-be customer to a site or other destination with the intention of making a purchase of your products or services, is absolutely the goal of your texting methods. Every message needs to have hyperlinks or some other tempting force to bring them back to your site. Never bother with communication without making some sort of attempt to draw the receiver towards your site.

4. Texting at The Wrong Times

This is absolutely vital and could kill your chances with a customer if you get it wrong. Whereas with email where you can afford to send a newsletter that gets to their inbox at 1 am in their time-zone without there being any repercussions, text is entirely different. People don’t want companies texting them in the middle of the night or in the middle of some meeting. You have to pick your moments with more care than that.

5. Not Getting Permission

You never want someone to be confused as to how you are texting them. That will very easily feel like an invasion of privacy or misuse of data, an issue that is a very hot topic in the last few years. Always obtain explicit permission.


Conclusion

While it may seem from this list that there is a great deal which can go wrong, it’s important to remind yourself at this juncture how much of an amazing opportunity SMS texting is for companies. Use it carefully, and you will find yourself well-set for making great progress.