SMS Marketing Best Practices

I can’t import contacts?

Here at Tatango, we get one question more than any other from groups using the website. That question is why can’t I upload phone numbers to my Tatango group. Sounds like a legitimate question. We are a group text messaging website, and if you can’t add phone numbers to your group, how are you supposed to text message everyone, right? Since this question is asked so much, I decided to elaborate on the three reasons why we at Tatango don’t allow any group the ability to upload their contacts phone numbers.

1) LEGALITY—By allowing you to import phone numbers into your group and facilitating the sending of text messages through our website to those numbers, we are essentially helping you violate both mobile carrier guidelines and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) guidelines, which protect mobile phone users from text message SPAM. These agencies very clearly state that the importing of contacts into a text messaging application, such as Tatango is strictly banned.

2) TEXT MESSAGE SPAM/COSTS—The next question we get after we tell a group they aren’t able to import contacts, is why can’t I import my phone numbers and then have networkText send them a text message asking them to be part of my group? Not only is this violating both carrier and MMA guidelines, but this is also classified as an unsolicited text message, which means it is now SPAM, with the worst part being that the recipient has to pay for the cost of that message they just received.

I realize that there are companies out there that don’t play by the rules and essentially allow their members to SPAM any mobile phone number that they import into their group. As Tatango has grown to be the leader in group text messaging on the web, we have made a very conscious decision to be a role model for other companies to both adopt and follow carrier and MMA guidelines. This not only protects our groups and users but also prevents text message SPAM from infiltrating your mobile phone.

So how do networkText groups send text messages to members if they can’t import phone numbers? The solution is to let group members add themselves to the groups they wish to receive alerts from (common sense huh? hahaha). To do this, networkText gives a whole range of tools that allow members to join groups. These tools include “Keywords” which allow members to join groups directly from their own mobile phones, widgets, which can be placed on group websites and social networking platforms such as MySpace/Facebook, and even invitation hyperlinks, which can be emailed to your contacts.

 


Jump to Content