Weekly Furniture World Media Note #14 from Lance Hanish - Irrefutable Laws of Writing Copy For Mobile Messaging

Michelle Zehr wrote a cornerstone blog for anyone who wants to use mobile correctly. She begins by asking a very important question: do you have a way with words? Perhaps you can write beautifully written sentences with plenty of details and a flow that makes anyone want to log-on to your website or pick-up the newspaper and read.

But that’s not necessarily a good thing. Where do you begin? What do you do? How are you going to write in so few words?

Here are some tips and laws for creating brilliant copy in 160 characters or less (it
can be done):

Understand your goals.

For a text messaging marketing campaign to be successful, you need to understand two things:

1. Your content should generate more supporters.
     
2. Your content should generate more action and activities, such as making a donation or responding to a contest. Content should generate action from existing text message subscribers.

Have a Strategy.

Never tackle a mobile messaging project blindly. Ask yourself the following questions before you begin:

1. Who are these messages targeted to? New customers, existing customers,
   younger crowds, older individuals, etc.
     
2. What type of action is required from the receiver of the text?
     
3. What is the point you are trying to make?
   

You will need great content. As a content writer of text messages, your
content needs to be simple as well as concise. Social media marketing text
messages must:

1. Be easy to understand.
     
2. Memorable.
     
3. Get people to act upon your request.

Some things to consider while writing text content:

1. Think like the receivers of your text messages. Get inside their heads.
     
2. Use as few words as possible without making the message confusing or leaving out important information.
     
3. Discuss benefits opposed to features.
     
4. Make it clear why you are sending this text message, but make it short.
     
5. Use text messaging to launch a new event or request urgent action.
     
6. Make the requested action very clear.
     
7. Do not use insider terms and abbreviations that someone outside of your
   organization is likely not to understand.
     
8. Try out different messages. Test to see what type of messages get the best
   response.
     
9. Only use abbreviations if they are universally known.
      
10. Review the above points and go through it again, point by point.
    

Mobile in short, is a tool for you to win with today.