What are unwanted SMS messages?

Unwanted SMS messages are text messages recipients didn’t consent to receive, whether explicitly or implicitly. For SMS marketing, these include:

  • Spam messages: These are unsolicited SMS messages sent to a large number of recipients. They often contain commercial offers or promotions that are irrelevant to recipients.
  • Phishing messages: These are messages meant to deceive recipients into providing personal or financial information. They often impersonate legitimate organisations or people to obtain sensitive information.
  • Other inappropriate messages: These are messages that include abusive, harmful, malicious, and unlawful content.

How unwanted SMS messages can hurt your brand reputation

SMS is a personal and immediate way to communicate. If you’re sending SMS messages that aren’t relevant or feel intrusive, subscribers may delete your messages, block your number, or unsubscribe from your SMS list.

When people opt out or report your messages as spam, it can hurt your reputation with mobile carriers. This could lead to your texts getting filtered out or blocked altogether, meaning fewer people will see your messages. This drop in deliverability can affect how well your campaigns perform and reduce your return on investment (ROI).

How to make sure your SMS messages are welcome

To make sure your text messages are well-received and effective, follow these 5 tips:

  1. Get express consent: Only send text messages to people who have opted in to receive them through a sign-up form or other means of written and documented consent. Bonus: Use a double opt-in keyword to help subscribers confirm their consent and that their number is correct.
  2. Segment your subscribers: Send the right messages to the right people by segmenting your audience based on demographics, shopping history, or website behaviour. This will make your texts more relevant and valuable.
  3. Personalise your messages: Use your subscriber’s name, mention a recent purchase, or tailor your message to their interests.
  4. Send high-quality content: Keep your texts short and to the point. Make sure every message you send provides something valuable, be it an offer, relevant update, or helpful content.
  5. Maintain list hygiene: Regularly review your SMS subscriber list and remove inactive numbers. Try to re-engage those who haven’t recently engaged with your text messages to make sure you’re only to an active audience.

A marketing automation platform like Klaviyo can help you send relevant text messages with targeted sign-up forms on your website, dynamic audience segmentation that filters out unengaged subscribers, and opt-in keywords that confirm sign-up phone numbers.

Sign up for Klaviyo today to send SMS messages that help you build strong audience relationships.

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