With a staggeringly high open-and-read rate, SMS is the single best tool in any text message marketing campaign manager. It affords them the opportunity to build a one-on-one relationship with customers, gathering crucial personal data that can help them create more targeted mobile marketing strategies. But the power supplied by SMS comes with a responsibility attached. This post explains how to balance successful returns with mobile marketing privacy obligations:

Do have a strong call to action. There's no point investing in a mobile marketing campaign if your audience doesn't understand what they're supposed to do with your message. Define a clear call to action as your first order of business, and make sure you offer relevant content to boost customer engagement and, ultimately, opt-in retention rates.

Don’t try to say too much in one message. Mobile marketers are looking to emulate Twitter's success in promoting concise, pithy content bound by character limitations. If you have multiple offers in the pipeline, spread them out over a few texts – but don't bombard your list of contacts with daily messages or they will quickly opt-out. Limit yourself to no more than one every ten days, and only then if you have a really attractive offer attached to each message.

Do use an attention grabber. Come up with a neat hook to lead your SMS. The shorter the better, and if you can make it witty or profound you will notice a far greater response rate.

Don’t use text speak. It might save you some characters, but it makes you sound like a teenager or, even worse, an out-of-touch senior, desperately trying to appear hip. Text as you talk – like a normal grown-up. Same goes for exclamation points – use them very frugally if you don't want your campaign to appear air-headed.

Don’t forget to mention who you are. This is a dumb, but surprisingly common mistake to make. If you have a strong, branded domain, use this to alert customers to your website, and provide a hyperlink that will take them straight from their SMS screen to their browser.

Do think long term. Mobile marketing strategies are not a short-term tactic. The idea is to build brand awareness and trust over time. This means sending texts sparingly and not irritating your contacts by sending messages in the middle of the night or making them hard to understand.