Creating a Strong Texting Campaign

To help you create strong texting programs, we have compiled a list of common practices that many digital strategists use to maintain healthy and effective programs.

🎯 Have a clear audience, message, and goal for your message.

• Best practice recommends having one clear message for your message – if you try to fit too many angles and topics into one message, you run the risk of overwhelming your audience.

• Experts also recommend that your key message is tailored to your specific audience, if possible. Depending on your phone list, different messages might resonate with different people. A/B testing can help you determine which messages work best for which segments.

  • Sadly, you can’t rely on the same structure or language every single time. You are competing for valuable real estate in someone’s inbox - your structure, content, and CTA need to constantly engage your reader. Even when you find something that works, keep iterating on it.

• When you’re sending a message, try and have a clear goal that you want the recipients to accomplish, like donating or signing a petition! Ideally, you also want to be able to track your progress to goal; that will help you understand how effective your message was.

🗣 Have one clear call-to-action (CTA)

• Multiple CTAs/asks in your message can overwhelm your audience, just like multiple topics can. Most organizations try to limit each message to having one CTA.

• If you find yourself torn between CTAs, test them! You can use the Audience Builder to split your list into smaller segments and then send your winning message out to the rest of your audience! 

📄 Add some context and impact to your CTAs

• Try explaining why taking that action will solve the issue you’re texting about, or why someone needs to take that action immediately. People are busy, and they’re getting lots of texts asking for money – why should they donate to your cause? Explain where their dollars will go and how that money will be used, if you can.

🔗 Use shortlinks! 

• Using a shortlink will save you characters in your message and give you data on how recipients are engaging with your content! 

• Using a branded shortlink can also help create trust with your list. Folks can sometimes feel weary about clicking a link in a text from an unknown number. By using a branded shortlink, your supporters will easily be able to see that the link in your text is associated with your organization! 

  💡Learn more about using shortlinks on Switchboard here!

🖊 Use bolding and italics effectively

• Since people generally don’t spend long reading texts, having skimmable content can be effective. To accomplish this, many programs will use bolding and italics – you can also add emojis to your messages.

• Note that alternate formatting and emojis are treated as special characters and take up more “space” in a text, sometimes pushing you over from an SMS to MMS. Switchboard will tell you if your message is an SMS or MMS in the message preview. 

✂ Segment your audience to maintain program health

• If your list is small or new, you likely don’t need to segment your list to start. But as you understand who is engaging with your content through clicking or donating, try to segment out the people who aren’t engaging.

• You can certainly send to less-engaged people from time-to-time, or when you have a really strong performing message, but best practice is to target the bulk of your texts to recently engaged numbers. Switchboard’s audience builder makes it easy to target donors, clickers, or even recipients that have replied to your latest broadcast. 

🖼 Try including images in your messages

• Including images or gifs in your messages is a great way to grab your audience’s attention and draw focus to your CTA. 

• Switchboard’s Dynamic Media Builder allows you to create custom images that include a recipient's first name or other information you have on your phone list! 💡You can read more about the Dynamic Media Builder here! 

✅ Have a robust quality assurance program

• When your text is all loaded and ready to send, try to find a second set of eyes to look over it. It can be hard to see any issues with your text after doing all the work to create it (think of it like editing your own paper). It’s always a good idea to send test messages to make sure the copy is error free and your link is redirecting properly to its intended destination! 

📊 Don’t forget to review the metrics

• Keep an eye on your clicks, donations, and opt outs to understand how your program is doing. These metrics will tell you which content is resonating and what tactics work best. 

💙We’re here to help! If you have specific questions about your program, you can always reach out to support@oneswitchboard.com!