
The internet has given us the tools we need to reach out to anyone in the world, and that’s changed the fundamentals of everything from our understanding of commerce to how celebrities interact with the rest of us. It’s also changed the very fabric of how marketing works.
While unwanted calls are nothing new, spam texts are like nothing we’ve ever seen before. And if you have the bad luck to end up on a list, stopping that tide of unwanted texts can be a real hassle. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to keep your text log clean of unsolicited advertisements.
Don’t Engage
Text marketing is a lot like fishing. In irresponsible instances, it’s like fishing with dynamite. Brands reach out to their customers with promises via text, and they wait to see who responds. Even an angry reaction to a corporate text will reveal that you’re active on the other side of the phone, and it will encourage companies to sell your number to other brands. Keeping quiet will allow you to stay under the radar, even if it might be frustrating at the moment.
Report the Incident
The Federal Trade Commission has procedures in place for how you’re supposed to deal with spam text messages – but they can’t enforce those procedures if no one is reporting harmful behavior. Companies will rarely back off on their own, but reaching out can help prevent a company from bothering you as well as others. Your best course of action is to save your text message, report it to your phone provider, and then delete it from your phone.
Know Your Vulnerability
Modern marketing can be eerily intrusive. Internet technology gives marketers more knowledge of customers than ever before. A simple glance over your social media profiles will reveal a lot of information about your past and present.
And while that information is a potential liability as far as cyber-criminals are concerned, it’s a veritable treasure trove of information for marketers. A booming industry has risen on the trade of personal information. So you may want to take extra measures to protect your most private information and consider auditing what sort of personal data is readily available with a simple Google search.
Join the No Call Registry
There is no implicit law against texting most people with spam, and that’s what the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry exists for. Any number listed on the registry is restricted from receiving unsolicited phone messages, giving you legal pretext against spam messages.
While it can limit your access to messages from brands that you’re interested in, it’s the most effective way to make sure that you’re not receiving texts from brands and companies that you don’t have any interest in.
Creating Healthier Engagement Through Text Messages
The biggest shame of spam is that it undermines and makes us indifferent to an array of tools that can make our lives better. Clever text marketing allows companies to get actionable feedback regarding how they do business, lets customers reach out directly to brands through shortcodes, and lets customers curate the information they want.
A poorly designed text marketing campaign will just sour customers to your brand as they are jaded to this sort of messaging in general. If your customers keep complaining about how they keep getting spam texts, it could be time to switch up your strategy. And it could be time to find a marketing partner like TextSanity that’s conscientious about making sure that their practices are sound, ethical, and effective.
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