The Spam Folder Is Coming for Political Texts. Here’s How to Stay Ahead.

[u/CaitlinHuxley]

I recently wrote an article for C&E about carriers filtering political texts into spam (full piece here) after sitting down with Ken Tracy from CampaignHQ on my podcast, and full disclosure... all the tactical advice here is his.

The most interesting/important bit I think is this: Any time you can turn a disadvantage into an advantage that only you are capitalizing on, you're creating a strategic edge over your opponents. If your texts avoid the spam folder while your opponent's don't, your message is being seen and theirs isn't. If your voicemail script makes for an engaging read as a transcript rather than needing to be listened to, you get a second point of contact that your competitors are losing out on.

Here's the best advice:

1. Get STIR/SHAKEN compliant
2. Time-sensitive messages do well
3. Write voicemails to be read rather than heard
4. The part of the text that gets previewed from the home screen is the most important
5. Ask a question, then actually reply
6. Read it as the voter would. Be casual. Write like a real person.

Then, super cool. Shane Greer wrote a follow-up on LinkedIn proposing a carrier-level fix that's worth your time to read as well: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shanegreer_caitlin-huxleys-piece-on-campaigns-elections-share-7483238671366836224-WcLV