We recently discussed the top three priorities organizations should consider when implementing human-powered texting, #1 being to treat your contacts carefully and with consideration. Each message is a unique opportunity to engage and resonate with your communities of supporters, members, or customers on a 1:1 level. On the most basic level, outbound text messages should incorporate a few elements and quality assurance measures to ensure you’re driving engagement and minimizing unforced errors. Treating your supporters like valued guests with conversational messaging requires consideration on all fronts. Things like messaging, message cadences, and even time of day play considerable roles in successfully facilitating fundraising tasks, membership renewals, special events, and much more. 

Today we’ll delve deeper into a checklist of reminders your organization can refer to before pressing “Send” to safeguard the information in each message sent and set groups up to mobilize action and accomplish their goals.  Follow along below. 

P2P Text  Message Quality Assurance

• Send Time.  When are you sending your messages?  So much of P2P communication’s effectiveness relies on its ability to reach target audiences when they’re ready to listen through a less disturbed communication channel than email or traditional phone.  The main idea regarding send time is to reach people  when they’re already alert and near their mobile devices, like during regular business hours.  On the other hand, if your organization has an event scheduled for the weekend, you may want to consider launching texts or videos later on Thursday or even into Friday afternoon and evening. Also, every audience is different, so leverage your own data using our Timing Report to find the best time for your people.

• Triple Check Recipient. Who (person) do you intend to receive your text, and have they opted into your feed? It’s vital that you work with up-to-date contacts to avoid sending important information to dead or uninterested phone lines. While this may seem obvious, it’s important to remember that people often update contact information like phone numbers when they get  married, move to a new city or get a new job. If you have different group of interests, remember to organize and segment them.

• Spell-Chekc, Check*!  Are you checking your spelling?  While mistakes do happen, misspellings in external-facing messages are arguably the fastest way to rob any platform of professionalism and marketing effectiveness.  Build quality assurance processes that work best for your team.  For some, that may be a team member with the sharpest editorial eye, and for other groups, that may  be a tool that reviews spelling, grammar, punctuation, clarity, engagement, and delivery mistakes. Spelling is a key component of communication.  Find what works best for your environment and spell-check everything! 

• Message Length.  How much are you trying to say in a single message? Hustle offers a 500 character limitation compared to the 160 of regular SMS texts. How long is your greeting? Do you plan on using any emojis or other special characters? Do you need to include a custom URL as a trackable call-to-action (yes, always!)? Depending on your answers, you may have fewer characters to work with than initially planned, requiring teams to get creative. As a solution for some groups, creating a series of brand-centric abbreviations is a great way to sustain the integrity of a thought, statement, or question while meeting character limitations. One of the best aspects of peer-to-peer messaging is subscribers gaining well-calculated short bursts of highly valuable information regarding your work. Take advantage of this aspect by practicing the art of saying a lot in a little smaller space than composed emails, social media posts, etc. 

• CTA Strength.  Are you directing supporters towards taking action? Within the constraint of text message character, it’s best to keep your ask clear and concise. Whether it’s downloading an ebook, subscribing to a product or registering to a fundraising event, only keep a single ask at a time.   During P2P conversations, CTA’s commonly look like text hyperlinks, interactable buttons, or plain text instructions. Here are just a few powerful and text-friendly CTA examples:
  • “Watch”
  • “Download Now”
  • “Find Out”
  • “Donate Today”
  • “Sign Me Up”
  • “Register Now”
  • “Swipe Up”
  • “Get Started” 
  • “Save Date”

• Include Opt-Out Language. At any point, can your supporters easily unsubscribe from your outreach?  While the goal is to drive connectivity and strengthen relationships, we need to make sure people know how to opt-out of text communication. As a carrier required best practice, each initial message to your contacts needs to include language like:
  • “Text STOP to quit.”
  • “P.S. reply STOP to opt-out”
  • “Reply Stop to unsubscribe”
    

“Hustle proved to be a very cost-effective means of acquiring new donors from a pool of active prospects and compares extremely favorably with costs per acquired donor in our primary acquisition channel, direct mail.” – Jeff Zick,  Response Fundraising Manager |  PETA

Press Send Using Hustle and Turn Texts Into Action

How can a flexible communication platform like Hustle help your organization drive authentic engagement? Let our experts answer this question and show you more about our conversational peer-based text and video messaging suite to drive connection and action at scale.  

Hustle empowers organizations to outreach through America’s #1 preferred communication channel to take community development to the next level through human-powered conversations that strengthen relationships between organizations and communities to individual supporters. Contact us today, and let’s start a conversation about turning texts into action!

---