What to Consider When Choosing a Text Message Service for Your Nonprofit
You have a lot of options for your text messaging service. What are the key elements you should look for before making a commitment?
The success of your nonprofit depends on your ability to make connections. Your audiences, whether we’re talking about the communities you serve, volunteers, or staff, want to be able to communicate with you in formats they’re already comfortable with, like SMS messaging.
SMS open rates are around 98%, and texts are usually read within minutes. Most people always have their cellphone with them, so communicating this way not only gets your message read but also helps you connect on a more personal level.
When you begin evaluating texting services for your nonprofit, it can be hard to know where to start. Here are the must-have elements to look for when choosing your text messaging provider.
6 key features to look for
A major priority when finding the right text messaging provider should be efficiency, both for your teams and your audiences. Sending out messages should be quick and easy, and users should have no trouble responding or answering a survey question. Here are a few of the most important tools your text messaging service provider should offer:
- Mass text messaging: You want to be able to reach as many people as you need to with one click. Go with a provider that offers texting to 100 or 100,000,000 people in a moment.
- MMS messaging: Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) allows you to send video files, GIFs, and photos while increasing your character limit.
- Survey capabilities: Surveys provide valuable information to your nonprofit on a more personal level that you just won’t get with other metrics.
- Targeted communications: A texting service that helps you segment your audience helps you send more relevant targeted messages to certain groups.
- Message tracking and reporting: Your texting strategy should align with your goals, whether that be getting a certain number of replies or confirmation that a message has been read. The right service will allow you to track messages received and pull validated data from users.
- One-to-one communication: Make sure you can connect on a person-to-person level in addition to sending out mass texts.
Mobilize Comms offers all these features and more. We make it simple for you to communicate clearly through mobile and connect with your audiences. Optional onboarding can get your team up and running quickly and efficiently.
Customer service solutions
Did you know that texting can greatly improve your customer service? Gone are the days when helping donors, members, and mission beneficiaries meant lengthy phone calls or confusing emails. Text messaging is a faster way to connect and can lead to more straightforward answers.
Studies show that 64% of consumers who can text would prefer texting over voice for their customer service needs. As the world becomes more personalized, text messaging is becoming the preferred method of customer service. Communications are instant and customers don’t have to worry about long call wait times.
Look for a text messaging provider that helps you improve your nonprofit’s service with features like contact and group database management features and contact look-up, so you can connect text feedback with the phone number instantly. Mobilize Comms makes customer service a breeze with instant text messaging to better assist your most important audiences.
The importance of flexibility
While most Americans now have a smartphone (81%) that can connect to the internet, you need a provider that offers flexibility. Not all of your audiences or staff will have constant access to Wi-Fi, so you need to be able to send and receive messages from any mobile device, with or without an internet connection.
You also need to be able to adapt your plans based on gathered data. With a platform like Mobilize Comms, you gain access to a simple and secure application programming interface (API) and dashboard to view trends and patterns so you can make better decisions.
Help generating revenue
Finally, when you’re evaluating text messaging providers for your nonprofit, make sure you’ll have the ability to generate revenue via texts. You want to be able to send out news, promotions, launches, and requests for donations, all through SMS texts. Mobilize Comms gives you this power and much more, so you’ll be well-equipped to help your nonprofit grow.
Why work with Mobilize Comms?
Mobilize Comms provides a holistic platform to help your nonprofit succeed. With mass SMS and MMS texting, contact management solutions, text surveys and polling, and simple dashboards, you can better align your goals with your text message campaigns.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help, or view our plans and pricing online to get started.
