Now that many people own cellphones, text messages can be a great way for you to reach your customers and encourage them to buy from you. However, in order to avoid requests to cease contact, remember the following things.

Get Permission First

It is vital that you ask customers to opt-in to your text messages. You may have collected their phone number as part of a raffle or to call them with a particular message, but avoid sending text messages unless they have explicitly agreed to receive regular sales messages from you.

Be Considerate

Be sure to limit your text messages to once a week or so. Try to refrain from being a company that is sending messages so often that customers no longer want to receive messages from you.

Try to be respectful of the time of day and date when you send your messages. Think about your own experiences with text messages: If you're having a family holiday dinner, do you want to be interrupted with a text from a company trying to sell you something? It is unlikely. If your customers are from around the world, you might want to do a survey or questionnaire to find out the best times and days for your text messages to go out.

Be Brief

Remember, the information you are sending in a text message is being read on a mobile device. Even if some of your customers have large screens on their phones, the screen isn't as large as it is on a laptop or desktop computer. Therefore, make every effort to be as simple and brief as possible. Instead of sending paragraphs and paragraphs of information, convey one idea. If you need to say more, direct them to your site or blog.

Provide Value

Perhaps the most important thing you can do if you want to reach your business customers through text is to provide value. Give you customers a reason to open the text message from you instead of automatically deleting it. Send them coupon codes or notices of sales, or give them a useful tip they can use.

When you remember the above ideas when you send text messages to your customers, your customers will be more agreeable to the information you are sending. Work closely with text marketing companies that can help come up with a text campaign that makes sense for you and your business.

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