There are some important considerations when sending promotional SMS messages to your customers. Most people like to hear about a good deal, however, when this is delivered to a highly personal device, such as a cell phone, the marketer needs to consider:

Legality

Promotional SMS messages can only be sent to people who explicitly and verifiably provided permission. In other words, you must have received an approval from each recipient that it is OK for you to send SMS messages of promotional nature to their cell phones. There is a Federal Law called Telephone Customer Protection Act that mandates this requirement. More on TCPA http://transition.fcc.gov/cgb/policy/TCPA-Rules.pdf .

Time of sending

Never send a promotional SMS message after 8 PM and before 8 AM. Have a very good offer if you are going to send on weekends.

Frequency of sending

Send infrequently.

Opt-out

make it easy for people to opt-out. A phrase like “Snd STOP to optout” at the end of the message is fine

Length of message

Keep your messages short - 160 characters

Sending of promotional messages - rules

Send only as many messages as you disclosed in your opt-in promotion. For example, if you invited your customers to opt-in and promised them no more that 1 message per week, then you are not allowed to send 2 messages in a week.

Sniper vs Shotgun

“Sniper” approach works much, much better than “shotgun” approach. Send highly targeted and valuable messages – use your Millennium to extract lists of people based on specific criteria (for example, customers who have not been to your salon in 6 or more months) and send them a highly valuable promotional offer