Messaging: Best Practices

Today we're going to walk through some of the best practices for messaging; from texting v. email to auto responses.

First, let's hop into texting v. email - what's the difference?

Texting:

• Reaches students directly with a mobile-first approach
• Less formal - doesn’t require a signature or formal salutation
• Keep it short & sweet
• Feel free to include emojis
• Shouldn’t include numbered lists or bullet points (very much unlike this article)

Email:

• More formal - a signature is typically included 
• Can include bullet points and lists because emails are typically longer
• Can include several links

If you find yourself copy and pasting an email into Full Measure, that is probably not a message you want to send through text! Make sure to make your message text friendly. 

Character count and segments

• Messages should be limited to 160 characters to avoid being split into multiple segments
  • Students may receive segments out of order, causing confusion and reducing engagement

• The platform will still allow you to send messages over 160 characters
• In-app only messages do not have a suggested character limit

• Message text may be checked for likelihood of segmentation here.
• Segmenting will not occur when sending from short codes and may be longer than 160 characters in length. See collecting opt ins, using short codes.

Tags

• Used to personalize message content
• Template tag options are listed below the message field
• The message preview will show a sample name if the tag is used correctly
• Have questions about your tag options? Leave us a ticket by going to the blue help button

Links

• To save characters in your initial message, links can be included in the “URL Link” section of the campaign builder
• Note: Only admins will see this section
• Links will be sent in a second message, right after the first one
• To reduce carrier filtering, it’s recommend to use links in an auto-response or after students have engaged in a conversation

Auto Responses

• Can be set at a top level or for individual campaigns
• Top level: Students receive an auto-reply anytime they send a keyword, regardless of how many other messages they have received since the initial message with the keyword
• Campaign level: Students receive an auto-reply when they reply with a keyword to a specific campaign

Opt Outs

• Students can opt out by replying with any of Full Measure’s 10 opt out phrases
• Administrators can also manually opt out students by checking the “Stop All Text Messages” box on the student details page

Note: for compliance reasons, once you have checked “Stop All Text Messages,” you cannot un-check it without the assistance of someone on the Full Measure team.

These are all the specific phrases that will opt out a student from texting:

Here is where you opt students out of texting.

Engagement

• Check your send hours - student engagement is highest in the late afternoon and early evening
• Start a conversation! Ask questions, personalize content as much as possible.
• Introduce yourself in the first message
• No need for a signature or to sign off with your name in every message

If you have any issues or questions, please submit a ticket.