It’s Scary to Hit Send: Overcoming Fear in Text Message Marketing

Text messaging is an incredibly effective way to reach people and boost your cause. It’s also scary. 

Hitting that ‘send’ button and firing off a message to thousands of your supporters can be terrifying. So many doubts crop up, it’s debilitating. 

We get it. We’ve been there.

“It's scary to hit send,” admits Rally founder James Martin. “Full disclosure, we went four years as a startup before we started texting lists of people for our own company. Isn't that crazy?” 

More: Listen to episode 2 of the Your Rally Point podcast for more from James on the very real fear of hitting send.

It can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ll talk about why sending is scary and then explore seven reasons why you can have confidence and boldly hit ‘send.’

Why Is It So Scary?

So why is it so scary to send a short message service (SMS) text campaign? 

Because it works.

We talk constantly about why text messaging is so effective:

• People carry their mobile phones with them everywhere they go. When you text someone, you’re getting in their personal space. You’re interrupting them.
• People almost always open text messages and do so almost immediately. That means when you send a message, people are going to see it within minutes. It’s messaging of the moment.
• Finally, texting is personal. That immediacy and invasion of space is very personal. 

All of that means the stakes are higher. 

This isn’t the same old email newsletter you send all the time, where you know a smaller fraction of your list will see it. That email isn’t going to interrupt anyone’s day. No one is sitting on the toilet reading your email. 

But they might read your text message on the toilet.

Suddenly it gets a lot harder to hit that ‘send’ button. A very real, very rationale fear comes up. This isn’t anything new. If you’ve been in marketing a while it’s a familiar feeling. Launching a big campaign, sending an important mailer, publishing difficult news—it can all be scary.

Text message marketing is just another one of those moments when the reality of what you’re about to do comes down to the press of a button. 

How Do You Conquer the Fear?

OK, so how do we get over that fear and reach people where they’re at? We’ve got a few tips to help:

1. Start Small

The bigger your list, the higher the stakes, the more that fear is going to rear its ugly head. So start small. 

For your first SMS campaign, don’t send to your whole list. Create a smaller list to test it out. 

Familiarize yourself with the process and get used to sending some messages on a smaller scale. 

Build confidence by sending text messages with lower stakes. 

2. Always Test

One big reason it’s scary is the fear of failure. What if you make a mistake? 

That’s valid.

So test it. You should always send a test message. Sure, you already proofed your text six times, but send a test and do it again

• Read the message in the context it’s meant to be received—on a mobile device. Don’t just check the messages on your computer, pull out your cell phone.
• Look for any typos. Check your spelling and your grammar. (Sure, text speak is OK for text messages, assuming your audience will get it. But you still need to watch for straight up errors.) Read it out loud to make sure your brain isn’t autocorrecting as you read.
• Test any URLs. Make sure the links work and you’re sending people somewhere that’s natural and obvious (if you’re talking about your work with hungry families, send them to an article about your latest project, not just your homepage). 
• Make sure any images, GIFs, emojis, or videos look good and are relevant.

Build confidence by avoiding silly mistakes.

3. Be Compliant

It’s always important to follow the rules, and text message marketing has more than a few. It’s vital to follow the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) guidelines. At Rally, we work hard to help nonprofits follow not just the letter of the law, but the spirit. We don’t want to spam anybody, and neither do you.

That’s why building opt-in lists is so important. You want to make sure you’re properly getting consent to send messages. When you have systems set up right, you can breathe easy.

Build confidence by doing more than following the rules, but doing what’s right.

4. People Want Your Texts

That opt-in is important because it means people want what you’re sending. They asked for it! You’re just giving them what they signed up for.

While text messaging is a medium of the moment that can interrupt people, it’s an interruption they requested. 

Build confidence by remembering that people want to hear from you.

5. Use It or Lose It

Your list is only valuable if you use it. 

A contact list with thousands of names is useless if you never contact them. What are you waiting for?

And if you wait too long, you’re spam. People sign up and quickly forget. That means if you wait months between messages, people are likely to forget who you are and mark your messages as spam. That’s why we recommend organizations send messages on a consistent cadence.

The very reason you ask for contact info, the reason you have sign-up forms, a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and your entire donor list is so you can follow up with people. So do it.

Build confidence by knowing why you have a list.

6. Trust Your Strategy

You’re not just sending text messages helter-skelter. You have a strategy (right?).

There’s a well thought-out plan for what you’re sending, who you’re sending it to, and when you’re sending it. It’s part of a larger communication strategy. You put good thought and energy into that plan.

Remember how this one message fits in with that overall strategy.

Build confidence by trusting in your strategy.

7. Remember Why 

At the end of the day, why are you sending text messages in the first place? Not your strategy or your list or any of the reasons why texting is so effective. Why are you trying to rally people? 

You’re doing it for your mission. Your mission matters.

Whether you’re kicking cancer in the teeth, saving endangered red-footed boobies, or giving kids unicycles, you’re making the world a better place (maybe not so much with that unicycle thing, but who are we to judge?). 

That’s why you hit send.

Build confidence by remembering that you’re mobilizing your mission.

True Story: We Hit Send

We started this article talking about how as a text company it took us four years to send texts. Crazy, right?

So how’s that working out? 

We launched Rally Coach in December and we’re hitting ‘send’ every week. 

Yeah, it took some time to trust our strategy. It took longer to create our process. We had to build our list. We had to write some texts. Just like you, we had some excuses to deal with.

But we faced our fear:

1. Start small: We started with a list of exactly two.
2. Always test: We send so many tests. But it works! Last week we caught a typo.
3. Be compliant: Of course we follow the rules. That one’s easy.
4. People want your texts: It’s a shot in the arm to see people signing up. They want the coaching help we’re sending.
5. Use it or lose it: We’ve got a tool that works and we’re proud of it, so Rally Coach is a no-brainer.
6. Trust your strategy: We preach texting, so we text. It’s put up or shut up.
7. Remember why: Ultimately, we’re here to help nonprofits rally people. Rally Coach is all about showing them how it works. 

It all starts with hitting ‘send.’

Know Fear: Send Your Text Messages

Look—fear is a part of life. It happens. Get to know fear, get comfortable with it, and kick it to the curb.

We’ve been here before. Fear is not new. We talked about marketing fear when we rolled out ringless voicemail a few years ago. James felt that fear before hitting send. But you know what? It worked. 

You got this. Trust yourself.

Are you ready to mobilize people? Give Rally a try and get started today. We’re here to help, even when it gets scary.