Text Message Marketing for Small Business: A Plain Guide

What text message marketing means

Text message marketing is sending offers, openings, reminders about seasonal work and news to customers who agreed to get them by text. For a small business it usually looks like a few messages a month from the same local number customers already call: a dental office with open cleaning slots next week, an HVAC company opening fall tune-up dates, a salon announcing a new stylist, an auto shop reminding past customers about winter tire checks.

Everyday texting, covered in our guide to business text messaging, answers questions and confirms bookings. Marketing texts start the conversation, so they carry the most rules and the most upside.

What to send, and the permission each needs

CTIA, the wireless industry association, sorts business texts into three kinds in its messaging principles, each with its own consent expectation.

CTIA also notes that adding a call to action such as a coupon code to an informational text may move it into the promotional category. A reminder with an upsell attached is a marketing text, and it needs marketing consent.

Good promotional texts are short and specific: an opening this week, a seasonal service that is due, new hours, an event. Each should name the business, say one thing and ask for one action. Keep them honest: CTIA points senders to the Federal Trade Commission's truth-in-advertising rules, says links should make the sender clear, and says any link shortener should be dedicated to your business alone.

Building a list people asked to join

The list is the whole program. CTIA says business senders should create and vet their own opt-in lists and should never text lists that were rented, sold or shared. Texting a bought list sends what CTIA defines as unwanted messages, because those people never opted in.

CTIA lists ways a customer can show they opted in. Most fit a small business without new equipment.

• A checkbox on a web form such as the booking or quote form, with its own wording about marketing texts.
• A keyword the customer texts to your number from a sign at the counter, on an invoice or on a truck.
• A signup at the point of sale or another on-site location, recorded at the time.
• A phone menu option where a caller agrees by pressing a key.

Keep the marketing checkbox separate from the box that agrees to appointment texts, and leave it unchecked by default. A customer who agreed to reminders has not agreed to offers. CTIA says an opt-in applies only to the campaign and the sender it was collected for, and should not be transferred or assigned to anyone else.

The signup wording and the welcome text

CTIA calls the invitation to join a call to action, and says it should tell the customer five things: what the program is, the number the texts will come from, who is sending them, clear language about opting in and any fees, and the other terms, including how to opt out, how to reach customer care and the privacy policy.

A short version for a booking form might read: "Yes, send me offers and openings by text from Eastside Dental at this number. Up to four texts a month. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help. See our privacy policy." Your messaging provider and your lawyer can tighten it for your business.

Then send a welcome text before anything else. For recurring programs CTIA says it should give the program name, a way to reach customer care or the HELP command, how to opt out, that messages recur and how often, and any fees.

CTIA also recommends recording every opt-in: the time, the method, the wording the customer saw, the campaign, the phone number and who gave consent. Keep it on the customer record.

What the federal rules add

CTIA's principles are industry guidance and say plainly that they are not legal advice. The Federal Communications Commission's rules under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act are the law, and a few parts of them shape every marketing text program.

• Written consent for automated marketing. The rule requires prior express written consent for marketing calls to cell phones made with an autodialer or a prerecorded voice. It defines that consent as a written agreement, signed by the person, that clearly authorizes the seller to send them marketing that way and names the phone number it covers.
• Quiet hours. Telephone solicitations may not go out before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., local time at the recipient's location, and the rule applies this to marketing texts sent to cell phones.
• Your own do-not-contact list. A business doing telemarketing needs a written policy for its internal do-not-call list, staff trained on it, and every request recorded and honored within ten business days.

Registration with the carriers is a separate step, covered in our 10DLC registration guide. If you plan to send offers, the campaign you register has to say so from the start.

When to send and how often

Inside the legal window, pick times when customers can act and someone is at work to answer: a lunch-hour text about an opening this afternoon for a salon, a Monday morning text about this week's tune-up dates for a home service company.

Frequency is a promise. Whatever number you put in the signup wording and the welcome text, stay under it. Customers who joined for a few texts a month and get one every day are likely to opt out. Plan the texts around your real seasons and slow weeks, written once.

The replies are the point

A campaign can bring back many replies at once, each from a person with a question or a time in mind. If they wait until someone gets off a job, the moment passes.

In a managed setup the text agent answers replies on the same number within moments, using what it knows about your services and your calendar, and hands anything it cannot settle to a person on your team. Every reply lands in the same inbox as that customer's calls and chats.

One promotional text became a booked visit and a note for the technician, without anyone on the team stopping work.

Opt-outs, handled the same day

Every marketing text should say how to stop, and CTIA recommends standard STOP wording for that. Customers will still use their own words, and the FCC rule says a reply of stop, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel or unsubscribe is a valid request to stop. Other wording also counts when a reasonable person would read it as a request to stop.

The rule gives a business no more than ten business days to honor the request and forbids requiring one exclusive way to opt out. It allows one confirmation text that only confirms the opt-out and carries no marketing, and presumes that text is fine when it goes out within five minutes.

A well-run program does it at once: one short confirmation, the number flagged on the customer record, nothing more. CTIA adds that opt-out records should be kept, and deactivated numbers removed from the list regularly.

Measuring it, and where to start

Count what each campaign leads to: replies, bookings and sales that followed, and opt-outs. Many replies with few bookings usually means replies waited or the offer was unclear. Rising opt-outs often point to too many texts. Because texts, calls and chats sit on one customer record, you can see when a reply later turned into a call or an online booking. When a reply goes quiet, lead follow-up automation picks it back up.

• Add a separate, unchecked marketing text box to your booking and quote forms, with the five parts of a clear call to action.
• Put a keyword sign at the counter and on invoices so customers can join by text.
• Write the welcome text with the program name, HELP and STOP, and how often you will text.
• Make sure your number's registration covers marketing before the first offer goes out.
• Write a short plan for the next few months built on your real seasons and slow weeks.
• Decide who answers replies, and when the text agent hands off to a person.

Sales Secret sets up and runs the whole thing for you: the number, registration, signup wording, the text agent that answers replies and the inbox your team works from, described on our platform page. Once a job is done, the review request text message guide covers the other text most customers are glad to get.

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