How to use URLs and SMS Headers for Branding without being Spam

There are enormous ways that organizations opt to make their marketing more effective and strengthen their brand presence. This might include images, voicemails, videos, and much more. URLs and SMS headers are a few less popular components among marketers to reinforce their brand identity. But if used prudently as per SMS compliance, both can create a world of difference in marketing and branding strategies. Also, both of these can help to personalize communications for your brand using branded links for promotions. 

Before heading to how you can stay compliant while sending on-brand links and SMS headers, let’s check how you can use URLs and SMS Headers for better interactions.

Payment URLs for Reduced Navigation

Customer experience and satisfaction play a vital role in any business’s success. On the one hand, too much navigation while making a simple payment can hamper user experiences by adding more steps and timeframe.

On the other hand, reduced navigation can improve user experiences with your brand. Thus, to support quick payments, you can send short payment URLs embedded in the text messages and help customers.

URLs to Self-Help Articles and Landing Pages

Text messages can be good for sending short or summarized messages but not for comprehensive information.

Thus, to provide detailed information on a particular topic without splitting a text into multiple SMS segments, you can embed a URL redirecting to the desired page. Also, you can navigate links to self-help articles in the event of incoming inquiries. 

SMS Headers to Build Trust and Attract Responses

Usually, people save the contact numbers of their family and friends to identify who is calling. Similarly, businesses can add SMS headers to make their text messages identifiable. Thus, people can instantly recall such numbers, and they are more likely to respond, which helps improve responses from customers. SMS header is also called sender ID, and these can be of 3 types; alpha, numeric, and shortcode.

Alpha SMS header is limited to 11 characters and consists of letters (a-z) and digits (0-9). You can include other characters also. But they may not be supported by all operators and handsets. Numeric sender IDs are of 16 digits and consist of international format, e.g., +332278978978. Shortcodes are limited to just 5 or 6 digit numbers and can vary by country.

How to Send URLs without Being Spam

Avoid Sending Short URLs to a Large Audience Segment

Sending short URLs to audiences can put your text messages into the spam folder. This could hamper the effectiveness of your text messages and SMS campaign returns.

So, it is advisable not to send URL embedded texts to a larger segment of audiences. Try not to send URLs in texts to more than 50 people at a time.

Avoid URLs Redirecting to a Different URL

Embedding a URL in SMS redirecting to a different URL makes your text messages less impactful. This practice can trigger spam filters, and your text messages may end up in spam folders. So embed URLs that are directly redirecting to a landing page rather than a new URL.

This practice can trigger spam filters, and your text messages may end up in spam folders. So embed URLs that are directly redirecting to a landing page rather than a new URL. 

Use valid URLs

Ensure that you’re adding a valid URL that is redirecting to a real document or a web page. Else, URLs linking irrelevant or 404 pages can again put your text messages in the spam folders and waste your investment.

Build Trust and Improve Responses with Sender ID and URLs

On-brand URLs and SMS headers provide an innovative way to strengthen brand presence and make it instantly recognizable by the audiences. By staying compliant with SMS rules, it becomes easier to convey information using URLs without triggering spam filters.

Organizations can use branded links that are built around the brand name or related term and share them on online platforms or send them through texts. Besides, SMS headers can help to build trust and support easy recall because of consistent sender ID.

To know more about how to make the most of text messaging with 360 SMS and stay compliant, reach us at sales@360smsapp.com or contact us here.