Building momentum is vital for small political or nonprofit teams. Whether you’re running for office or trying to meet a fundraising deadline, fast and effective mass communication can make all the difference. Close contact with supporters helps you adapt and rapidly respond to news stories and events so you can keep up the momentum and hit your goals.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when setting up your SMS campaign, and it can feel daunting when working with a small team. Who should be sending the messages? How can you optimize text messages to get the best return on your investment? How should you reach out to your base and keep them updated?
Printed signs take time to design and fund, generic TV and online ads don’t always reach your target audience, and with only a 20% open rate, marketing emails often end up in the spam or junk folder. In the last ten years, however, SMS marketing has increasingly become a key part of political and nonprofit campaigns. In November 2020, almost two billion texts were sent about the presidential campaign.
SMS marketing is a fantastic way to keep supporters engaged and boost donations.
Keep reading to learn how your small team can put SMS marketing to work for your campaign.
Getting Started with SMS Marketing
SMS platforms are the foundation for a successful text messaging campaign. If you’re part of a small team or working independently, you’ll be relieved to know you don’t have to set up and manage your SMS strategy from scratch. Tatango has been an industry-leading text message platform for almost 15 years, helping candidates, fundraisers, and brands connect with their audiences and see impressive results. Tatango’s software and support teams are here to help you navigate SMS marketing laws and get your campaign off the ground.
Building a subscriber list is a crucial step for your SMS campaign, and once you’ve partnered with an SMS platform, you’re ready to start building your list. By law, you must obtain a person’s consent before messaging them. Supporters must opt in, explicitly permitting you to send them text messages.
Since texting offers a fast and direct way to rally support, it works best as the center of your communication strategy. Start by promoting your SMS campaign everywhere: at events, in ads and emails, on your website, and anywhere else you can share information about it. Potential subscribers can text your number and start the opt-in process. Tatango’s software can also help link your website’s contact form to your subscriber list, sending people initial messages and opt-in requests. As your subscriber list grows, text messages will help you build momentum, hit deadlines, and meet your fundraising goals.
Empowering Your Small Team to Send Texts
With Tatango’s support, anyone on your team can use advanced software tools and lean on industry experts to create and send compelling text messages. You don’t need extensive prior experience or training to get started. Let’s look at how Tatango helps empower you and your team to reach your communication and fundraising goals.
Help with Design and Tone
Hitting the right tone with SMS messages can be a tricky balancing act. You’ll want to keep message frequency and length in mind, making each message eye-catching and unique. Tatango’s platform has purpose-built tools to help you design media-rich messages and achieve the perfect tone.
The Tatango Design Studio
The Tatango Design Studio has an extensive library of assets and in-house designers to help teams of any size create their dream SMS and MMS campaign. (MMS messages support longer messages with GIFs, images, videos, and other media.) These resources are available for all clients. They help you avoid easy mistakes and skip tedious design tasks—the less generic and boilerplate your text messages are, the more effective they will be.
Editing Tools
Tatango also has a smooth, drag-and-drop editing tool. Our WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editor makes it easy for users of all experience levels to create highly customizable messages.
Calls to Action
Pair great design with active language and direct calls to action (CTAs). Avoid passive statements and ensure your requests are easy to understand. Supporters should always come away with a clear Alprazolam website idea of their next steps. Tatango’s support teams can help you and your team create strong CTAs to boost engagement and fundraising results.
Keep Your List Secure
Security needs to be a top priority to ensure you’re keeping your subscribers’ contact details safe and protected. Tatango’s built-in security measures help keep your subscriber information and SMS campaign data secure.
Two-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security beyond standard login details. Tatango clients can activate 2FA for all users and sub-users on your account, sending a login code to a user’s mobile phone to increase security. This step helps prevent hacking or unauthorized access to your subscribers and messages.
Automated Logout
With many team members working remotely and traveling, automated logout is an essential security measure. If you step away from your computer while logged into your Tatango account, you’ll be automatically logged out to help keep third parties from sending messages or looking up subscriber data.
Secure Sending
As a final security precaution, Tatango offers secure sending for everyone on an account. Before messages land on subscribers’ phones, our platform requires you to enter your password one more time. This step can help prevent unauthorized access and further protect your text messages—and your relationship with your subscribers.
Benefit from Automation and Integration Tools
Manually adding subscribers and tracking performance can quickly drain your time and resources if you’re a small team. Tatango can add a short section of code to your website to automatically message any supporters when they add their contact details through your website submission form. Tatango can also confirm that your subscribers have fully opted in, protecting your campaign from sending unsolicited messages.
Our platform can also track response rates, open rates, and other details about your messages and campaign. These metrics provide a better overview of your campaign’s performance, helping you fine-tune your strategies and effectiveness.
Optimize Your Small Team’s SMS Campaign
Text message marketing opens up many opportunities for political and nonprofit teams, helping you connect with supporters and keep them engaged throughout your campaign. As a small team, deciding who should manage and send text messages might seem daunting. You don’t want to expose your subscribers’ data or send poorly written texts.
With Tatango as your partner, you won’t need to worry. We can provide the tools, design, support, and security to help your team reach its goals. Instead of trying to learn and create everything on your own, you can use our specialized resources to make the perfect SMS and MMS messages for your campaign.
To find out more and get started with your SMS marketing and fundraising campaign today, contact the team of experts at Tatango!
