Research tells us that on average a text message is read roughly within 20 minutes of it being received. As a result text marketing is probably one of the simplest, tried-and-tested ways of getting a message across to your many audiences. The thing to remember however is, that you can’t always assume people want to receive your messages – so it’s always better to actually ask for permission to contact them with your marketing messages via their mobile phones. Platforms such as Texta offer a simple unsubscribe feature making it easier for your audiences to stop receiving messages from you, should they so decide.

The additional benefit to Texta’s unsubscribe feature is that your recipients don’t necessarily need to have credit to respond to you, provided they have access to 3G or 4G internet on their smartphones – a feature that will possibly enhance your relationship with your audiences, giving them a positive, long-term perspective on who you are, merely because you gave them a convenient, cost-free option.

All you need to do is add a short link to the end of your text marketing message so that your recipients can click on it and be taken to a web page with an unsubscribe button and the option to also leave a message. This will further enable you to understand your audiences and make your text marketing campaigns more focused and relevant.

Texta’s built-in unsubscribe feature is a readymade option – once you are done generating your message, you merely need to click the ‘unsubscribe link’ button on the interface under ‘personalize your SMS message’. A short link will automatically be created that can take the recipient to an unsubscribe page. Remember that you will need approximately 20 characters at the end of your message for this link and create the main content of your message in a manner that allows room for this at the end of the SMS.

Text marketing is undoubtedly one of the most simplistic and powerful tools of personal and interactive digital communication, and as such is also an effective and fast marketing communications tool.

Digital trends watcher emarketer recently released a research report that sited a drastic increase in smartphone uses this year, amounting to over 1.75 billion by the end of 2014. This is further proof that text marketing is still very much the way to go as a tool for having an active, two-way dialogue with your consumers enabling you to reach them when you need to and build better relationships for the long term.