★ How to Text for Success While Playing by the Rules
At Sense, we protect your business interests by helping to ensure you’re using texting responsibly. As a recruiting team, your goal is to communicate effectively, so you can hire faster —and that means making sure your texts are going to the people who want to hear from you.
Following texting regulations and best practices is critically important to the success of your texting program and long-term relationship strategy. Sense Messaging can help you play within established guidelines to avoid carrier filtering and fines, but it’s your responsibility to ensure you’re providing a positive experience for your recipients.
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[A] Here are a few SMS best practices for staying efficient and effective:
Be transparent: Get consent from recipients upfront to send recurring messages. Add a custom opt-in message for your first touch, offering clear opt-out instructions.
Honor opt-outs: Sense tools will help you easily comply with user preferences, but always double-check opt-outs from your ATS—especially when using automation with Sense Engage.
Stay relevant: Use variables to personalize your texts, especially when you are sending a text blast to larger quantities through Sense Engage or the broadcast feature in Sense Messaging.
Drive action: Always have a clear yes or no question when texting with a candidate or client, whether that’s setting up a phone call, requesting a timesheet, or asking a specific question. This will improve your response rate and reduce the likelihood of carriers filtering your messages.
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[B] Make your messaging work hard.
Keep it short and simple: Don’t overwhelm candidates and job seekers. Stay engaging with brief, easily readable messages. We recommend a max of 140 characters.
Monitor response rates: Avoid being blocked or reported by delivering quality content that drives responses. A good goal is an inbound-to-outbound ratio above 30%, indicating well-targeted and relevant messaging.
Avoid sending links, currency symbols, and typos: Pay attention to punctuation and grammar. Messages containing typos or links are more likely to be investigated by carriers as spam.
Develop an SMS Strategy: Having a solid SMS strategy involves knowing both what to say, and how and when to say it. We’re here to help you create campaigns that engage candidates, contractors, clients, and prospects while respecting the best practices and guidelines that protect consumers.
Want to know more? Reach out to your Sense Customer Success Manager for other tips on how to develop an impactful SMS strategy.