Managing Brand Trust with Email to SMS

Ensure that you use Email to SMS effectively and accurately; disappointing your customers could land you in hot water and seriously damage the trust they have in your brand…

75% of the American people do not trust advertising or even advertisers. But advertising is necessary, and we do it using all our customer-facing material, whether it is done intentionally or not. If you’re using email to SMS, then it is important to ensure that all communication you send out is both solicited and in the correct format.

Messing up Your SMS Content

Sending an SMS is, in most cases, pretty straight forward; it’s 160 characters of plain text. The situation can however get a little bit more complicated when your messages are unsolicited, or reliant on special formatting that may not be compatible with your contacts’ mobile handsets. These two aspects can fuel brand distrust and, as such, destroy customer confidence and loyalty…

Email SMS SPAM

More formally known as unsolicited text messaging, and is perhaps even worse than sending SPAM via email for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason points to the fact that the mobile is a very personal device. In fact, it’s not even a device anymore; as soon as it becomes personalized, it becomes part of the individual. Sounds funny, but if you take into account that about half of Americans “can’t live without their mobiles”, then text message SPAM, whether email to SMS or otherwise, can become an annoyance or even be taken as an offense.

So when isn’t a message SPAM?

First and foremost, when your contact has opted to receive messages from you and is aware of the possible content of your messages. To provide your target audience with the best possible service, it’s advisable to send them information relating to products they have purchased in the past or at least shown an interest in. This makes email to SMS not only legit, but also profitable.

SMS Encoding

So why is it important to send messages in the right format? In the United States most operators charge their users when they receive SMS messages. When you send a ringtone, logo, VCard, VCal or any other type of encoded message that exceeds the 1120-bit message length, you are essentially sending them multiple messages. If your encoding is wrong or not compatible with the destination handset model, you are naturally sending them multiple messages, filled with junk, thereby wasting their money and injuring their trust in your brand. Savvy?

When You’re Unsure…

Luckily there exist a number of ways to ensure that your messages come out right on the other end. Start with testing: using your email to SMS application, send yourself and a couple of other people in the office the message you intend to send to your contacts. Try and select people with different phone models to ensure that your text message looks the way it should and does what it must.

And if you’re still unsure, make a point of it to get in touch with your provider’s support team or have a look on their support website, e.g. http://support.clickatell.com

Need more information about correct message formats and more? Read more on the email to SMS page.

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