Best Practices for the Use of Targeted Cell Phone Campaigns for College Recruiting - Part VI of IX
This is the sixth entry in a nine part series on how corporate recruiters should use cell phone text messaging (SMS) as part of their college recruiting strategy. To read the entire series, either start with Part I or download our free recruiting white paper on the same topic.
Buying a Student Cell Phone List
Buying cell phone lists is much the same process as buying email lists. Certain questions must be asked and answered to ensure that you have a list that is going to best serve your interests. It’s good to know whether a list is opt-in. Laws have already been put in place to protect consumers from being inundated with spam, so make sure your list is a good one. “The mobile industry, in an effort to maintain loyalty, has taken great pains to protect the privacy and preferences of its customers,” says Michael Becker for mmaglobal.com. Giving students the opportunity to opt-out, should they decide they aren’t interested in your product, is crucial to ensuring that your company or school doesn’t develop a bad reputation.
As someone who is paying for a list, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) applies the same as it did in regards to the purchase of email lists. Check to make sure that the people you will be text massaging willingly agreed to receive your messages. Text messaging is rarely, if ever free in the United States. “Each message that goes out in SMS space has a cost to it,” said Griffith David of Qube, a mobile messaging company, in an interview with Randy Dotinga for his article, “The Cell: It’s a Selling Machine” for wired.com. Said Dotinga, “The cost isn’t cheap. Marketing companies are charging between 10 and 35 cents each to send text messages to cell-phone users.…” More importantly, the recipient may have to pay a few cents as well, Dotinga said. Again, the message you’re sending has to have value to the candidates otherwise it’s a waste of not only time, but money.
Some list owners such as CollegeRecruiter.com guarantee to deliver 100 percent of the SMS messages, in part by frequently testing their lists to ensure that all text messages will reach their destination. Of course, numbers do change so this must be taken into account for any messages that aren’t delivered. The best way to ensure this is by checking out the history of the list and reputation of the list provider. You want to get a list that has a history of good result. If the list doesn’t produce the results the list broker promised, then take steps to replace the list with another, preferably at no additional cost.
Cell phone lists fall into three categories: opt-in, opt-out, and double opt-in. When marketers give consumers opt-in capabilities, they’re required to provide opt-out capabilities as well. The most common form of opt-out option, according to Beck, is to “have the consumer text message a designated/reserved keyword into the service, such as Stop, End, Quit, Cancel, etc., and/or have him submit his stop command via a Web form or related alternative opt-out method.”
Double opt-in lists such as the CollegeRecruiter.com targeted cell phone list are the rarest and the highest quality. Not only must the recipient ask to be added to the list, but he must also confirm that request. Since you don’t want to spend precious time worrying about whether your cell phone list is good, stick to working solely with double opt-in lists. The deliverability and response rates will be less of a concern, thereby allowing you to concentrate more on critical issues of content and creativity.
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