Tips for SMS List Rental

Ever consider pushing an SMS text message out to a list rental? Sounds simple. But there are far more considerations for SMS than when pushing an email against an email list rental.

Email list rentals are a great opportunity to get your message out to a targeted audience. But the concept doesn’t carry over well into marketing via SMS. Here’s some learnings from our past experiences:

• Quality of the opt-in list is critical. Only deal with a reputable source who maintains a list of fresh accounts that have been obtained through a double opt-in process.
• SMS provides an extremely limited number of characters to push a marketing message and effective call-to-action. If the action you want the consumer to take is too complex, SMS is not the right tactic for you.
• Be prepared for consumer complaints:
  • To some consumers, receiving a marketing message on the cell phone is an invasion of personal space.
  • Some consumers don’t remember ever opting in, and certainly didn’t opt-in to receive a message from your brand. Other consumers may have never opted-in because the cell number might have previously belonged to someone else.
  • Consumers not on a text messaging plan will get annoyed by getting charged for receiving the message.
  • Set the client’s expectation well in advance that some recipients will send angry/threatening messages to their customer service center. (We had a client freaking out about 60 complaints out of 250,000 consumers… yet never seemed to concerned about accusations of email spamming.)

In summary:

• Assess carefully whether an SMS tactic is appropriate for your call-to-action
• Take time to identify a reputable service provider. Ask your Linkedin connections for recommendations. Check references.
• Make sure you know how you’re going to measure success.
• Set expectations and be prepared to address negative feedback.

Please share your thoughts and tips. If you found this useful, please let me know.
Thank you.
-Roland

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