Did you know text message marketing is the strongest way to increase engagement among supporters and volunteers? With more than 6 billion smartphone subscribers worldwide, using smartphone technology to reach supporters or volunteers makes sense. Open rates for short message service (SMS) messaging hover around 99%, and 90% of people open and read a text message within three minutes of receiving it.
This blog post discusses why text message marketing is a growing trend and shows you an easy hack that will produce record engagement with supporters and volunteers. It’s time to take advantage of the large impact text message marketing can have on your organization.
Text Message Marketing Is a Growing Trend
Email and social media have been huge for digital marketing. The amount of time people spend on social media has more than doubled in the last ten years. So, you may be wondering, if people are spending more time in digital spaces, why would organizations choose to invest in text message marketing instead of email or social media marketing? Because text message marketing allows you to reach more people.
There are countless marketing channels, but engagement on many of those channels isn’t what it used to be. Social media rarely surfaces posts to more than 5% of your followers, email marketing open rates barely surpass 20%, and most people skip through ads on video or music apps.
In North America, 58% of people are on social media platforms, but what about the other 42%? Anyone with a smartphone has text messaging capabilities, and 97% of people with a smartphone text at least weekly. Organizations don’t want to limit the number of people they can reach and connect to. They want to reach as many people as possible. A key goal of political campaigns and nonprofit organizations is to spread information far and wide to increase their impact.
Text messaging is quickly becoming the most popular form of communication, and 78% of consumers wish they could text businesses. Text message marketing isn’t only about who you can reach. It’s about making the experience personal for those you’re reaching. With text messaging, you can directly thank someone who just donated to your organization or campaign or send a quick, inspiring update to a supporter or volunteer.
Try This SMS Engagement Tip
If you want to start using text message marketing right away but aren’t sure how to successfully use text message marketing, keep reading to find out.
Enhanced Multimedia
There are two ways to send text messages: SMS and multimedia messaging service (MMS).
With SMS messaging is your basic text message: plain text, limited to 160 characters. It can be a great, simple way to communicate, but it’s pretty limiting.
MMS messaging is a more robust option when you need your messages to do more. MMS messages support more characters and can include links, GIFs, audio files, images, emojis, and videos. With MMS messaging, organizations can create more eye-catching, engaging text messages that raise record donations.
Emotional Connection
When someone opens a text message, you don’t want them to read it, close it, and not think about it again. You want them to feel an emotional connection to your mission when they listen to an audio file, watch a video, or open a GIF. Your messages must resonate with your supporters and volunteers and inspire them to get more involved.
Every day we see the impact MMS has on engagement. Your nonprofit or political campaign doesn’t need to be limited to a basic text message that may not lead to engagement beyond opening a text message. Instead, spread the word about your mission uniquely through MMS messaging and receive a record-breaking engagement response.
More Characters
When you become a Tatango client, you’ll also be able to send a single MMS message with up to 5,000 text characters. This generous character count comes in handy when you want to provide more context about an important update, event, rally, or policy change.
Getting Started with MMS Messaging
Tatango is easy to use; it boils down to a simple, three-step process:
1. Compose your message. The Tatango team is here to support you if you want help crafting your message to reach your goals. The Tatango Design Studio is a free service that helps our clients create eye-catching MMS multimedia.
2. Send your message. Our easy-to-use platform lets you send millions of text messages at once. We have the fastest messaging speeds and best security in the industry.
3. Track your results. Results have shown that those who use our services receive an ROI of five dollars in donations for every dollar they invest in text message marketing.
A Bonus Tip for Maximum Engagement
We hope you feel better informed about how to increase engagement with supporters or volunteers, and we have one more bonus tip. MMS messages are an easy hack for record engagement, but it’s essential to use them wisely.
We aren’t fans of spamming supporters or volunteers with unwanted text messages. This is why Tatango abides by the opt-in method. The opt-in method gives supporters and volunteers the choice to receive messages from an organization. If they opt in, they can expect to receive engaging and informational content in their text message inbox—and they can opt out any time.
It’s a win-win. Organizations can spread the word about their cause, and supporters and volunteers can feel personally involved with organizations they’re passionate about and in control about how the organizations communicate with them.
Contact Your SMS Fundraising Experts
At Tatango, we’ve been in the SMS and MMS fundraising industry for nearly 15 years. We’ve worked with the nation’s top political and nonprofit organizations, helping them advance their missions through text message marketing and fundraising.
To learn about other easy ways to increase engagement with supporters and volunteers, schedule a call with a text messaging expert, or check out and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more text message marketing hacks.
