No matter how large or small, colleges often have a hard time disseminating information, news, and alerts to faculty, staff, students, and parents. Flyers, posts on school websites, social media accounts, and even blast emails aren’t enough anymore. Colleges need to take a strategy out of the business marketing playbook and use SMS text marketing. With six times the engagement of email, text marketing gives institutions the opportunity to interact with their target audience at a moment’s notice.
Not only does 98 percent of the population in the United States have access to a mobile device capable of sending and receiving SMS messages, but people with mobile devices are text-obsessed and check their messages constantly.
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According to a recent report, over half of all smartphone owners check their phones at least five times per hour, or over 120 times per 24 waking hours. This ensures text messages sent by colleges will be seen and opened, making them more top-of-mind than any other alert system currently in place.
Matt Reid is CMO of EZ Texting.