A primary barrier to getting started with any sort of mobile messaging campaign is the requirement (at least in the in the United States) that all intended recipients of commercial mobile messages must have given their explicit opt-in permission to a sender that they are willing to receive messages on their mobile device. This recipient opt-in must be unambiguous.

In almost all cases, an enterprise considering adding a mobile component to their existing messaging mix has no existing list of opted-in mobile recipients. This is not unlike the dilemma faced by firms wishing to embark upon email marketing campaigns in the mid to late 90′s – in many cases the firms simply had no significant list of email addresses to which they could send emails.

A variety of methodologies for gathering email addresses for marketing purposes were formulated over the years which led to a virtual tsunami of unsolicited commercial emails messages throughout the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The CAN-SPAM ACT of 2003 was an attempt to consolidate federal and state regulation of commercial email. Depending on one’s viewpoint that measure was successful to a greater or lesser degree in reducing the most offensive aspects of spam email, although the practice of sending unsolicited commercial emails continues to this day.

Mobile carriers do not wish to lose control of their channel and become “dumb pipes” as some feel the ISP’s became as a result of the flood of email spam. Therefore the major mobile carriers are quick to act when made aware that unsolicited commercial text messages are being sent to their subscribers. Actions taken include the blocking of select mobile short codes, thereby prohibiting any text messages from offending senders. In particularly egregious situations, mobile carriers have worked with law enforcement agencies to seek arrest and prosecution of malicious senders of unsolicited text messages.

One of the most effective methods for firms to gather a list of opted-in mobile phone numbers is to use a platform like SView’s mobile SmartMessaging application to create a text-in campaign whereby willing recipients unambiguously opt-in to receive future marketing messages. The opt-in process occurs when someone texts a select keyword to a specific mobile short code. Promoted through print, radio, TV or other media, text-in campaigns have proven a very effective method to gather a list of willing recipients for future mobile marketing campaigns. SView can show you how to implement such a text-in campaign and our SmartMessaging mobile messaging platform has all the tools necessary to make the process simple and straightforward. Please contact me to learn more at sbrown@sview.com.

How does SmartMessaging work?

On the sender side: Images, text and links are uploaded into the SmartMessage application and automatically optimized for different mobile phone screen sizes. These elements are linked to a standard SMS message, associated with a contact list, then broadcast with the push of a button. The process is easy and remarkably similar to creating and sending a customized email campaign.

On the recipient side: Mobile phone users receive a standard SMS message with a unique embedded link. Clicking the link displays the SmartMessage in the phone's browser. Embedded images, text and links guide the mobile recipient to action, as intended by the sender of the SmartMessage. Because the links are unique, recipient activity reporting is possible on an individual and aggregate level.