Mastering efficient and effective ways to communicate with supporters is vital for all political organizations, advocacy groups, and nonprofits in this digital era. And there’s no better place to connect with your supporters than where they spend most of their time: their cell phones.
Unlike other marketing channels (like social media) that mainly appeal to particular audiences, most people use text messaging daily. Data shows that in 2021, around 3.8 billion people worldwide use some sort of smartphone, and more than 80% of American adults use text messages to communicate with friends and family, making texting the most common mobile phone activity.
The click-through rate for text messaging is 9.18% higher than other digital communication channels. Text messages also have a 99% open rate, compared to a 28% open rate for email marketing. These are just a few reasons why SMS message marketing is the most effective strategy nonprofit and political organizations can use to increase reach and engagement.
In this blog post, you’ll learn what to expect when signing an SMS marketing provider like Tatango.
What Is an SMS Marketing Platform?
Before taking a closer look into SMS platforms, let’s recap what SMS message marketing is.
SMS message marketing, also known as text message marketing, is a combination of commercial text messaging-related practices businesses, brands, and organizations use to send text messages to individuals. Over the last decade, political organizations, advocacy groups, and nonprofits have used text message marketing to share information and updates, build supporter loyalty, and raise donations.
This digital communication tool uses short message services (SMS) and multimedia messaging services (MMS) to send mass texts to specific audiences. Around 90% of text messages are read within three minutes of being received, and the average Tatango client sees an ROI of at least $5 for every $1 invested in text marketing. Text messages are the most cost-effective strategy to reach supporters and raise donations quickly.
Brands and organizations typically use an SMS marketing platform like Tatango to build and manage text messaging campaigns. They can use the platform to craft and send text messages to their audiences.
Generally, the SMS platform is web-based. With a login, it’s accessible from anywhere. Most SMS marketing platforms have features that can help organizations make informed and accurate decisions about their text messaging campaign. Some of these features are data reports, management, visualization, text messaging insights, and opt-in lists.
What to Look for When Choosing an SMS Marketing Platform
Every SMS marketing platform has unique features as well as pros and cons. When comparing available options, the following are the top things to consider before choosing an SMS marketing platform:
Reasonable pricing: Tatango works with small and large organizations that have different needs, goals, and budgets. Our team will work with you to determine the best strategy to achieve to your unique needs and budget.
Team-friendly functionality: Marketing campaigns aren’t a one-person job. Look for a provider that allows access by multiple users. With Tatango, your whole team can access the platform securely and reliably, with built-in security protocols that give the right people access — and keep the wrong players securely prohibited.
Quality support: As with any new software, starting to use an SMS marketing platform comes with a learning curve. Look for an SMS provider with a full support staff who can assist your team when you need it. Tatango’s quality team will welcome you on day one and work with you every step of the way. They are experts in using SMS to raise donations, and can help your organization break fundraising records via text message.
Simple integration: Many SMS platforms require coding to integrate with different useful tools. The Tatango platform easily integrates with many tools and fundraising platforms—no coding required.
Text and photos in SMS campaigns: As the saying goes, “a picture’s worth a thousand words.” Media content like photos, GIFs, and videos can increase subscriber engagement by 300%. With Tatango’s MMS functionality you can share a variety of media content, plus up to 5,000 characters to express your message. The Tatango Design Studio assists our clients for free with developing eye-catching multimedia assets like MMS messages, GIFs, and more.
Free demo: Launching an SMS marketing campaign requires plenty of work, time, and resources. Tatango provides a free demo with political SMS experts so you can test everything out before making a decision.
What Is Tatango?
Tatango is an SMS marketing platform serving political and nonprofit organizations. The Tatango platform can send mass text messages and handle millions of text messages at a time. Tatango focuses on app-to-person (A2P) texting, which is SMS marketing in which a marketing platform (app) sends texts to the subscriber list (person) for an SMS campaign.
Tatango has been the industry leader in text message marketing since its founding, over 14 years ago, and has helped numerous political candidates, advocacy groups, and nonprofit organizations reach supporters through SMS marketing campaigns. Tatango’s systems and political and nonprofit expertise make communication with voters, donors, volunteers, and supporters easy, efficient, and secure.
With Tatango, you can send more than six million texts per hour and schedule delivery ahead of time. You can also segment opted-in supporters by location, time zone, and interests. The customization and scaling possibilities of the Tatango platform allow your campaigns to stay ahead of the competition and create custom strategies for different regions.
What to Expect When Signing an SMS Marketing Platform Like Tatango
As you’ve probably realized by now, there are many SMS software providers out there. Some serve specific industries and settings. Tatango understands the needs and challenges political organizations and nonprofits face and has experience developing text message marketing campaigns based on those challenges and needs. The following are some of the top features you can expect when signing with Tatango.
Security and Reliability
Security and reliability are essential when sending large volumes of text messages. Large systems lacking security features can be dangerous and will put your campaign at risk. With Tatango, rest assured your text campaigns will be secure to help deter hacking and unauthorized access to subscriber data. Tatango prioritizes security and has invested in improving procedures and implementing security features such as automated logout, secure sending, and two-factor authentication to protect your subscribers’ personal information.
Segmentation
Segmentation is a great tool for personalizing text messages. Using the Tatango platform, clients can segment subscriber lists by zip codes, location, and other demographic information to send highly targeted text messages. Opted-in supporters can also be segmented based on donation history or the issues they care about most. The more information you can collect through your chosen opt-in method, the more you can personalize messages and achieve success with your campaign.
Political and Advocacy Expertise
Partnering with an SMS marketing platform that understands your industry or sector is key to launching successful campaigns. Every political candidate, advocacy group, and nonprofit organization has different needs, goals, and audiences. Over the past 14 years, Tatango has worked in political and nonprofit SMS messaging and has sent over 10 billion text messages to more than 50 million people. We understand supporter engagement, messaging frequency, and messaging content.
Massive Return on Investment
With Tatango, supporters can donate to your fundraising campaign with just a few taps on their mobile phones. Text messaging is a highly effective way to request and receive donations. Tatango’s political and nonprofit clients have reported an ROI of 500% when using texts in their fundraising campaigns—$5 for every $1 invested. Since 2007, Tatango has helped political and nonprofit campaigns raise over $400 million in donations.
Highly Effective Fundraising Integrations
Pairing your fundraising campaign with text message marketing will help increase the amount of small-dollar donations you receive. Tatango’s SMS marketing platform integrates smoothly with all major fundraising tools—no coding required—so you can continue using your favorite fundraising platform. Your supporters can donate directly through text messages and will thank you for making it easy for them to stand with your cause.
Message Delivery Speed
When choosing an SMS marketing platform, another important feature to consider is message delivery speed. Many nonprofit and political organizations send time-sensitive updates and news, and they need to make sure those messages are delivered quickly. A great way to increase engagement is to reach supporters when their enthusiasm is high — during fundraising campaigns, major events, and important announcements. Tatango can help you send more than six million text messages every hour, whereas other platforms can take hours or even days for text messages to reach opted-in supporters.
Win with Tatango Today
The ways you can use text messaging as part of your communications and marketing strategies are limitless. Over the years, this digital marketing channel has become more accessible and easier for small and large political and nonprofit organizations to use. Talk with a Tatango text marketing expert today to get a free demo and visit our website for free resources on political and nonprofit SMS marketing.
