Finding effective ways to communicate with donors and members is a problem as old as your school’s rivalry with the neighboring high school football team. And just like that generation-spanning rivalry, you never seem to be able to maintain the upper hand for long.
During your time as an athletic booster club member, you’ve probably tried a variety of communication techniques, from phone calls to flyers and even email. If that’s the case, you know that none of these strategies are especially effective for relaying information to your membership.
While you’ve probably considered using SMS messaging to talk to donors and booster club members, you may be hesitant to make yet another change to your communication strategy. But trust us — SMS messaging is the way to go.
With the right SMS messaging tools in place, you can effortlessly share information, keep parents in the loop about upcoming events, and make 2023 your most productive fundraising year ever.
The Problem with Email
Before we dive deeper into why SMS is one of the best ways to share athletic booster club information, it's important to examine why email just doesn’t work as well as it in previous years.
The biggest shortcoming of email can be boiled down to one word: “fatigue.” Put simply, most people get bombarded with far too many emails and are tired of sorting through seemingly endless messages.
Email fatigue leads to a high unopened rate and an even lower read-through rate. Even if recipients find and open your club email, there’s a good chance they won’t read your message in its entirety. Talk about a huge waste of everyone’s time.
Why SMS Is the Better Option
SMS messages are far superior to email in terms of read rate. In fact, it’s not even close.
According to recent data, 97% of text messages are read within 15 minutes of receipt. This means that for every 100 people you message via SMS, 97 of them will read your communication in 15 minutes or less. Sounds like texting is a much better strategy for relaying important information to your members and donors.
Increasing the read rates of your messages by switching to SMS will lead to better participation among group members. You’ll have an easier time getting enough volunteers to staff events and can ensure that everyone is kept in the loop about ABC activities.
When you can effectively mobilize donors, members, and volunteers, you’ll be able to maximize the fundraising capabilities of your athletic booster club.
How You Can Make the Most of Your SMS Messaging Strategy
Thanks to tools like BoosterHub, adding SMS messaging to your communication strategy is far easier than you might expect.
Our intuitive platform allows you to create and manage custom mailing lists and easily SMS to any group. You can compose communications and quickly send them out to your target group, whether it be donors, members, or a combination thereof.
Ditch that ineffective email list this fundraising season and make the jump to SMS messaging. Everyone will be glad you did — especially your donors.
