Don’t “Burn” Your Mobile List

Many people make the mistake of assuming SMS strategies are similar to those of e-mail. If you’ve ever subscribes to any candidates’ e-mail list, you know that campaigns load up their e-mail schedules with donation asks. They often come from candidates, their families and celebrities. And it’s no surprise that this day luge e-mail asks drive down open rates for political campaigns in general.

A few days ago, Jeffrey Rice released a 72-day study of presidential e-mail campaigns in MarketingSherpa. President Obama, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum had dramatically different e-mail frequencies from 15 to 35 e-mails over that time frame. The percentage of donation requests ranged from 53 to 72% of all e-mails. That doesn’t leave a lot of room for voter persuasion and profiling.

Fortunately, we have the luxury of deleting these e-mails from our long inbox list without getting distracted by them. Or we can record them as spam or unsubscribe from them altogether.

We don’t have that luxury with text messaging.

SMS has an open rate that exceeds 98%, and that’s largely due to the fact that we can’t scan these messages in advance. Supporters sign up to get text updates from campaigns. They want to know about upcoming volunteer opportunities, scheduled rallies, breaking news and other info that gives them an insider’s view. They don’t want to be asked for money every time their phone beeps.

Unlike e-mail, text messages can’t be sent at a high frequency. Campaigns can’t send out 15 text messages in a month without driving massive unsubscribes and getting into hot water with their mobile vendor. Most recommend no more than 3 to 5 messages per month.

Does this mean that you can’t ask for money via SMS? No, but limit it to one ask at the end of fundraising quarter, and not every other text message.