(5 min read)
The Mobile Messaging toolset provides several options for building a successful outreach program. Understanding more about how SMS and MMS texting works will help you answer questions like:
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Should I use P2P or Broadcast messaging?
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Which phone numbers or short codes should we use to make our calls?
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What are the best practices for reaching my supporters?
Understanding P2P messaging
P2P messaging (peer-to-peer or person-to-person text messaging) refers to the common one-to-one texting that most of us use everyday. You might choose to use it as part of a volunteer text banking effort or a broader viral campaign. You may make simple requests of your supporters to share your message or Online Actions form with family or friends via text message.
Read more on Peer-to-Peer fundraising
Organizations that use P2P campaigns will often engage a third-party P2P platform to make it easier for volunteers to reach out to people on their contact lists. While P2P is a powerful way to spread your message, increasing regulation around these platforms may make it difficult to scale your efforts to a wider audience base. That's where broadcast messaging can help you.
Read how to send contacts to SMS vendors (VAN users)
Understanding Broadcast messaging
Broadcast messaging allows you to target many supporters at once. Also called Application-to-Person (A2P) messaging, these messages are not typically sent from an individual person's phone number, but can be sent by an app or software program. These messages don't always allow for two-way conversation and are best suited to making announcements.
An important distinction between broadcast messaging and P2P is that broadcast messaging requires your contacts be opted-in to your texting program. If you plan to begin sending broadcast messages, include the SMS opt-in checkbox on all your Online Actions forms and ask your supporters to join your text lists so you know who wants to receive your messages.
Read more about Opt-In Lists
When you're ready, sign up for Mobile Messaging to create and send broadcast messages using the same audience-building tools and reports that you may already know from features like Targeted Email.
Read more about mobile messaging
Best Practices for broadcast messaging
As you begin to think about your messaging and outreach program, there are a few best practices to keep in mind that will help you improve send rates and keep costs low.
Message Length
We encourage you to keep your text messages short and use clear calls to action.
Although long messages may appear on your mobile devices and smartphones as one big message, behind-the-scenes carriers actually break those messages down into message parts, which can affect your deliverability and cost. A single SMS message containing only alpha-numeric characters can be up to 160 characters long before it becomes a multi-part message. When emojis are added, that limit becomes 70 characters. This is due to a different type of message encoding required for the use of emojis.
Message Timing
Text messaging provides a direct line of communication to your supporters. To avoid intrusion, send messages when they are most likely to engage with you. Avoid sending messages too early or too late, or during times of high stress, like a commute. Choose hours between between 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM.
You can also schedule texts to send according to supporter time zone. For example, if you set a message to send at 12:30 PM, we will send that message at 12:30 PM in whatever time zone is associated with the zip code of the primary address on record. If one is not available, we will use the time zone associated with the area code of the primary phone number on record.
Using Short Codes
Short Codes are 5- or 6-digit phone numbers created to send more text messages per second than a standard ten-digit phone number can.
There are two kinds of Short Codes:
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Shared Short Codes are shared by multiple organizations and costs are split among them. Each organization sets up keywords to differentiate their messaging traffic. There is the risk, however, that a mistake made by one organization can affect all the short code users. Many wireless carriers have started phasing out the use of Shared Short Codes.
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Dedicated Short Codes are leased by a single organization. These codes offer flexibility and functionality. The code can be employed for a broader range of campaign types and offer the ability to engage in two-way conversations. Costs to lease short codes vary from about $500/month for a random one to about $1000/month for a vanity one.
More alternative numbers
Here are alternative technologies that may offer some advantages, including more affordable prices.
Text-Enabled Toll-Free numbers
These numbers offer an improved send rate over normal telephone numbers but at a fraction of the cost. If your organization is already using a toll-free number for customer support, you can easily text-enable it and keep your Support and SMS communication channels under a single number. Text-enabled toll-free is the ideal replacement for organizations transitioning from Shared Short Codes.
Ten Digit Long Codes (10DLC)
Increasingly, US wireless carriers provide 10-digit codes. Designed primarily for business cases, 10 DLC numbers will have similar send rates and a similar vetting process as the current short codes.
Local Numbers
This option allows you to send using a local area code that matches your supporter's. While extremely low cost, these numbers can only send 1 message per second, making them generally a poor option for any organization looking to do broadcast messaging.