Messaging is immensely important for a number of reasons in modern business: businesses use messages in order to offer good customer support; they use messages to spread the work about new campaigns and offers; they use messaging to gather information about the successes and failures of their marketing and products; and they use messaging internally to exchange information. There are also many kinds of messaging regularly used by businesses – SMS, email, post, instant messages and social media messaging are all commonly used.
With messaging being such an important part of modern business, leaders would do well to consider some of the pitfalls that can be avoided if they put the work in. Here are some very pertinent dos and don’ts to consider when planning a messaging strategy.
Do
- Stay On Brand: A good messaging campaign will be linked to all other marketing strategies pursued by a company. Never stray from the brand.
- Train Call Staff Correctly: If a messaging campaign involves telephone work, make sure to train call staff appropriately so that they can follow up leads and deal with customer service issues without having to escalate them.
- Prevent Data Silos: Prevent the duplication of consumer data in ‘silos’. Data silos can lead to multiple messages being sent to the same individual, resulting in customer dissatisfaction.
- Follow The Law: The law is very strict when it comes to business marketing. In the UK, companies are not allowed to use SMS messaging to market unless a consumer has opted in by providing their number. There are also similar laws in place in the United States.
- Protect Your Business From Viruses: If you are accepting inbound messages of any form it is essential that your business is protected from viruses. Inbound messages can be used to infect a computer with malware or steal sensitive information. Phishing campaigns run by hackers rely upon seemingly innocent messages sent to organizations – usually over email.
- Automate When Appropriate: Messaging can be far more efficiently conducted when at least some elements are automated. Companies such as Boomerang Messaging offer SMS and email automation services to companies looking to cut down on time and labour costs .
Don’t
- Assume Privacy: Assume that all outbound messages are in the public domain.
- Fail To Allow Feedback: Good messaging campaigns often include some two-way messaging opportunities. This means that consumers are able to message a company back in order to give feedback or make an enquiry. While this is not always appropriate, accepting feedback is sometimes important.
- Drop Off: Frequency is key during a messaging campaign – especially when it is being conducted over social media. If a business starts sending messages regularly and then drops off, the public image of that company will be that of a wilting and fading power.
- Overlook Social Media: Social media messaging is immensely important when conducting a messaging campaign. Approximately 3.96 billion people use social media worldwide: a staggering figure. Despite this, some companies still fail to put social media front and centre when it comes to the development of a messaging campaign. Almost all social media platforms contain messaging services at their core.
