Imagine your school’s PTA spent months planning an exciting carnival fundraiser for families. They recruited volunteers, secured sponsorships, and created carnival games to appeal to kids of all ages.
But on the day of the event, only a few families show up. You hear afterward that some parents got confused about the timing, while others just forgot to register and never read any follow-up emails. What went wrong?
The answer could be simpler than you think. You may be using the wrong channels to market school events. Parents are busy, and reading emails typically isn’t on their list of priorities.
That’s where text messages come in.
Whether you’re hosting a fundraiser, open house, back-to-school party, or any other type of event, strategic text messages can help you reach supporters quickly and boost attendance. Let’s explore how to break through the noise with texts.
Why use text messages for event promotion?
Securing registrations, selling event tickets, and getting people through the door are all common fundraising challenges for schools. You may struggle with these challenges for various reasons, but improving your marketing strategy by adding text messages is a great place to start resolving these issues.
Texts get delivered instantly, and recipients are much more likely to read text messages right away than emails. But that’s not all—according to Mogli’s SMS marketing strategy guide, texts are the perfect promotional tool because of these benefits:
- 98% open rate: Almost everyone you send a marketing text to will open it, meaning community members are much more likely to read every message about your event.
- 19% click-through rate: They won’t just read your texts—almost 20% will also click on the links you include, whether to your registration page or an eCard invitation.
- Easy to send: With texts, you won’t have to spend time drafting long emails or creating physical advertisements. Just send a few lines of text to get your message across quickly.
- Easy to read: Your recipients save time, too. Instead of scanning long emails for the most important details, they only need to spend a few seconds reading short texts.
Now that you know why text marketing is worthwhile, let’s explore the steps you should take to get started.
1. Choose a texting solution.
The right app or SMS software will save you headaches and make sending text messages as easy as possible. These solutions enable you to collect opt-ins, track contacts, create messages, and send them via two-way or bulk texting. You can also automate messages and track their results to see which ones inspire recipients to take action.
To choose a solution, explore reviews online and search for a cost-effective app that integrates with your constituent relationship management system (CRM) or fundraising database. This way, you can use the contact information you already have and keep track of all your communications in one place.
For example, say your school uses Salesforce Education Cloud to track relationships with parents, alumni, and other supporters. You should look for a school SMS app that works with Salesforce to ensure you can access any existing segments and house your data in a central location.
2. Ask parents and community members to opt in.
Even if you have someone’s phone number in your database, you still need to ask for permission to text them. This is called SMS opt-in, and it’s required by law.
Individuals must explicitly opt in to receiving texts from your school or organization before you send them any messages. Otherwise, these messages may be considered spam. Fortunately, most supporters are happy to give their consent when you explain the convenience of texting.
To boost attendance, event guests must sign up for text messages before they arrive and check in. However, you can still use texts to increase engagement during and after the event, so always leave the door open for people to opt in whenever they want.
There are several ways to collect opt-ins leading up to your school’s event. You might:
- Add a virtual opt-in form to your school’s website.
- Send home flyers with students asking their parents to opt in (include QR codes so they can access the online form quickly!).
- Promote a keyword and shortcode that anyone can text to opt in (such as “WILDCATS”).
- Add QR codes to your text opt-in form to all event invitations and flyers.
We also recommend using a double opt-in strategy to make a good first impression on text recipients. Double opt-in is when someone gives their initial consent and then gets asked to verify that they really want texts from your school. Typically, this just looks like a text reading, “Thanks for signing up! Text Y to receive messages or STOP to opt out at any time.”
3. Plan and schedule engaging texts.
Once you have a substantial opt-in list, start outlining the kind of messages you want to send for this event. Plan to send several text messages leading up to your school event to spread the word, remind supporters to register, and share updates.
Then, draft texts that grab recipients’ attention and encourage them to attend your event. As you create your messages, follow these best practices:
- Keep texts under 160 characters. This limit keeps texts short and sweet and helps you avoid too-long messages that carriers may split into multiple texts.
- Include accessible links. Funds2Orgs recommends creating an event landing page on your website where guests can easily register or buy tickets online. Include a link to this page in your marketing texts (and use a URL shortener to save on characters!)
- Personalize as much as possible. Always use the recipient’s first name in messages, and make sure texts are relevant to that person. For example, don’t send a “sign up now!” message to someone already registered.
Finally, don’t forget to include thank-you messages in your marketing plans. You might use your SMS marketing tool to create automated texts and send them immediately after opted-in supporters sign up for your event.
After promoting an event with text messages, evaluate your results. Compare attendance numbers before and after implementing text messages, and analyze metrics like open, click-through, and conversion rates to see which texts were the most effective. Use this information to draft more engaging text messages and boost attendance even more next time.
