Hustle knows texting, and we want to share with you our best tips to help you build relationships, maximize deliverability, boost reply rates, and increase conversion with Hustle. The most important thing to remember is that the magic of texting with Hustle is in real people talking to real people ✨
🌟 Set up your Hustle organization for success 🌟
The first step in making your Hustle dreams come true is in the set-up.
- Send the right message! Which type of phone number is right for you? Hustle supports local 10-digit phone numbers with excellent deliverability, toll-free for quicker set-up, and short code for lightning fast sending. Do you want to use group goals where agents press 'Send' on every message and handle replies, or broadcast goals where messages go out automagically once launched? Whatever you choose, our team will guide you through every step of the compliance process. Talk to your CSM or email support@hustle.com for more info!
- Don't sleep on compliance. All texting must be registered with the phone carriers. For 10-digit phone numbers, this process is called 10dlc, and it's never too soon to get prepped to register. Our team has put everything in The 10dlc Compliance Guide for your convenience, and support@hustle.com is here to help with your questions!
- Keep phone numbers consistent. Phone number consistency is critical to building relationships, trust, and reducing filtration. Each group or inbox in Hustle has one phone number, so for best results the less groups and inboxes you can use in your Hustle organization, the better! Reducing groups/inboxes will also help you avoid hitting limits with TCR campaigns required for messaging in the US.
- Treat groups or inboxes as communities (or lists of people with similar needs and interests) that you are reaching out to over time through a series of goals. The best way to structure Hustle is to have more goals and fewer groups.
- Go Local! Set up your groups and inboxes by geography so your contacts receive texts from a real, local phone number that they will recognize. Take it a step further and add contacts' local time zone so your broadcast goals will send messages at an appropriate hour no matter where a contact lives.
- Reach out at the right time! Use our Hours of Operation feature to ensure messages cannot be sent or delivered outside of business hours — your recipients will appreciate it!
🌟 Write scripts like a Pro 🌟
Now that you're set up for success, how do you make sure you send the right message? Our tips will take the guesswork out of script writing.
- Keep things short n sweet! Keep your scripts as short as possible — think the length of a tweet. Shorter scripts that end in a question get the most replies. Keep in mind longer scripts will take longer to deliver, and emojis add extra segments. Brush up on the reqs in How do I write scripts?
- New phone, who dis? It's good practice to include the name of your brand/organization in the message script, especially the first message you send out in a goal. Add a Contact Card to your scripts to make your messages more recognizable. Org admins can fill out the information from Org Settings -> Contact Card. Contacts can easily save your information in their phone and reduce the risk of messages and calls going to the unknown sender folder.
- Make a good first impression. The initial script in a goal is important - it sets the tone for the conversation! Keeping it short, personalized, and including a question / call-to-action results in the strongest engagement 💪 We also recommend including the agent or organization name, the contact name, opt out language, and not sending any links in the first message.
- Follow up! Response scripts are a great place to include follow-up information, links, and images. Leave some details and information for response scripts so you can engage in a 2-way conversation and build a relationship with your supporters over text.
- Pics or it didn't happen 📸 Include images or video to spice up your message! MMS, or messages containing media (images, gifs, jpegs, png files), can take longer to deliver, but also tend to have higher deliverability than SMS. Due to carrier limits, estimate that roughly 10K MMS messages can be delivered per hour with Broadcast goals. How do I text with MMS in Hustle?
- Don't leave them on read 😳 Respond quickly for great results. We crunched the numbers and our analysis showed a 20% higher secondary reply rate where agents reply in the first 20 minutes after the contact replies! Use keyword automations to respond even faster during the busy times. Want to set up an after hours auto reply message for an inbox? Contact your CSM or support@hustle.com.
- Give 'em an out 🚫 Always include opt out language (Reply STOP to opt out) to avoid carrier filtration - Hustle's script editor makes it easy to include 💅
- To Emoji or not to Emoji 🤔 Emoji’s are great for humanizing your message and improving engagement, but consider that they can add length/segments to your message, and longer scripts take longer to deliver. Weigh this out and use your emoji's wisely when you launch group and broadcast goals!
- Set Agents up for Success. Adding additional scripts to your goals will help your agents continue the conversation by providing them with all the information they need to pass on.
- Send a Test! Did you know Hustle's script editor has a Test Message feature built in? Click on Preview > Send me a Test to get a test version sent right to your phone.
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Timing is everything ⏰ Hustle optimizes your texting speeds, but there are limits! It's best to plan out larger texting campaigns. Keep in mind that longer messages take longer to deliver, so consider how many people you want to message. If you launch broadcast goals to large audiences with lengthy messages or MMS, plan to send them earlier in the day as they may need more time to reach your audience. And remember messages that are not sent before your hours of operation close will be held and resume sending once business hours resume the following day!
- Be mindful of T-Mobile's daily segment limit. As a reminder, a Hustle message can contain multiple segments depending on the length of the message and whether it includes an emoji, accented letters or certain nonstandard characters. Messages containing media (images, gifs, jpegs, png files et al.), on the other hand, are delivered as a single segment. For more info on how segments are counted, please see What is a message segment?
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Think before you link! 🚨 Sending links is common practice, but they are high risk for spam filtration. Here are our do's and don'ts for link use!
- Do: Use Hustle's Share a Link goal type in groups. We will make you a short link that has better deliverability and will track your engagement right in Hustle. Want a custom trackable link to use for your broadcast goals? Reach out to your CSM or support@hustle.com ⛓️💥
- Do: Use direct links rather than redirects or public domain links when using Hustle Share a Link goals. Too many redirect links raises suspicion with carriers and risks messages not being delivered. Hustle’s script editor will warn you when your message contains a redirect link.
- Don't: Put links in the initial message of a goal. Filtration risk is much higher, particularly if it's the first time a particular contact has been texted from that group or inbox. We recommend instead including any links in Response Scripts.
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Don't: Use public URL shorteners. The biggest cause of carrier filtration we see is due to the use of url shorteners. We advise against using any of the following short link generators:
- bc.vc
- bit.ly
- budurl.com
- clicky.me
- goo.gl (Google Drive links are also disallowed)
- Is.gd
- lc.chat
- s2r.co
- soo.gd
- tiny.cc
- tinyurl.com
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Choose your words wisely. We've seen that the words or phrases below can raise phone carrier flags and lead to higher filtration:
- mention of bank accounts or financial terms
- '$$$'
- Any terms related to illegal substances: Marijuana, Cannabis, CBD, THC, Prescription drugs, Vaping
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"S.H.A.F.T." content: Sex, Hate, Alcohol *, Firearms *, Tobacco **
* Firearms and Alcohol traffic is allowed on Short Code, and Long Code, as long as proper age gating procedures are in place.
* While Tobacco traffic is prohibited on Toll Free, it is allowed on Short Code, or 10-digit phone numbers, as long as proper age gating procedures are in place. Additionally, vaping is prohibited on all channels.
- Mix it up and have fun! Think about how to keep a thread and relationship fresh and exciting. Sound human! Send a text that you would like to receive! No one wants an email in their text threads. Text is informal, abbreviated, familiar, authentic, and most of all fun! You can use more than just text by adding media like custom images, trendy GIFs, or Video Clips. 🥳