I recently sat in on a sales call with a large pizza chain. Their marketing director was sold on the benefits of text message marketing and loved both the product and services we offered at Tatango. Our sales director asked when they’d like to start their text messaging campaign, and the marketing director of this large pizza chain said they’d like to wait.
Naturally, our sales director asked what they were waiting for, and their response surprised me. This large pizza chain was going to wait to launch their text messaging campaign until after the text messaging lawsuit against Papa John’s had been settled, as they didn’t want any legal issues sending text messages to their customers.
No business likes to be involved in a class-action lawsuit, and without in-depth knowledge of the Papa John’s lawsuit, or the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, I can see why any marketing director would be hesitant to start sending text messages to their own customers. Thankfully for you though, I do have in-depth knowledge of the Papa John’s lawsuit and understand the Telephone Consumer Protection Act better than anyone in this industry, and I can tell you there’s no reason to delay a text messaging campaign because of any of the pending text messaging lawsuits.
Why? Every text messaging lawsuit that I’ve ever seen has made one of three stupid mistakes in their text message strategy or execution, which I can guarantee that you being the smart marketing director that you are, would never in your wildest dreams think to try with your beloved brand. I’ll explain each one of these stupid text message marketing mistakes below that resulted in a lawsuit, and then you can decide if it’s worth it to put your text messaging campaign on hold, while we await the fates of these boneheaded brands and their ill-conceived text messaging campaigns.
Stupid Mistake #1 – You didn’t receive your customer’s permission.
For example, take the Academy of Design and Technology sending almost 100,000 text messages to mobile phone numbers that never gave them permission to text message them. Or even worse, what about Jiffy Lube sending over 2.3 million text messages to their own customers, that never gave them permission in the first place to text message them. Avoiding this fatal flaw in your own SMS campaign is pretty easy, as long as you get permission from the mobile phone numbers you’re texting. If you’re interested in reading more about what permission entails, check out this post on the TCPA, or drop us a line and discuss your strategy with one of our SMS marketing experts here at Tatango.
Stupid Mistake #2 – The SMS provider you selected sucks.
For example, take Coca-Cola and its recent lawsuit for holding SMS subscribers hostage in its campaigns, even after subscribers texted STOP to the messages. You don’t have to worry though, as you’re already making good decisions by reading this blog. By selecting an SMS provider like Tatango with more than six years of experience managing SMS campaigns, you can be confident that your SMS campaign will operate the way it was intended, and in a manner that is consistent with the laws and best practices of our industry.
Stupid Mistake #3 – You mislead your customers.
For example, take the lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Penguins or Rick’s Cabaret, where these brands told customers they would receive a certain amount of text messages per month than sent more than they had originally promised. Or more recently, take the Viacom SMS lawsuit, where MTV asked fans to vote for their favorite Video Music Awards nominees by text messaging, then used those mobile phone numbers to advertise upcoming shows. All of these brands mislead their customers in one way or another, and you being the smarter would never let this happen right?
I think you’ll agree that unlike some of the boneheaded brands mentioned above, your brand is smarter, and you as the marketing director would never allow these kinds of stupid mistakes to be introduced into any marketing campaign, especially your text messaging campaign. If this is true, then there’s no reason to delay the launch of your text messaging campaign.
Want extra assurance that your text message marketing campaign won’t result in a text messaging lawsuit? Contact the text message marketing experts at Tatango to discuss your campaign strategy and let us help you avoid these stupid mistakes.
