Why autocorrect is a spanner in the works for SMS marketing

The smartphone operating system is capable of personalizing the autocorrect process, knowing what it should and shouldn’t correct based on the behavior of the user. But every mobile phone, depending on its operating system, uses autocorrect differently.

To avoid these technological whims, using a unique shortcode allows the company launching the SMS marketing campaign to warn the subscriber that they have sent the wrong keyword, and provide them with instructions on how to resend the correct word.

Avoid using two words as the keyword

The majority of SMS platforms don’t recognize two words as a keyword if they are together or separate. For example, ELPOZO and EL POZO are not the same, and not recognized as such.

People who are more concerned about writing correctly down to the last letter might fall into the temptation of writing a space between these two words without autocorrect doing it for them.  

Use words with different letters as your keyword

Even though it’s popular to do so in English, choosing a keyword with intentionally incorrect spelling might not be a good idea, as autocorrect won’t hesitate to change the keyword to the correct spelling.    

Invented words don’t make the best keywords

This tip might not be possible when the keyword is actually the name of the product or brand. Autocorrect doesn’t understand marketing but spelling and syntax, and so it will offer the most similar ‘corrected’ version it can find.One of the first service components incorporated into mobile phones was SMS. After two decades it has become sophisticated enough to be one of the most important aspects of SMS marketing, a highly efficient method of communication between companies and brands and their customers and users.

However, with the increase of smartphone usage, there is a feature which hinders many SMS marketing strategies: autocorrect. This seemingly helpful feature has become a nightmare when it comes to message writing services.  

If users haven’t deactivated autocorrect, many SMS marketing campaigns have encountered the problem that the keyword used for subscription is automatically ‘corrected’ to a different, similar word. Consequently, participation in the campaign is reduced as many users end up sending the wrong keyword accidentally.

Every bug has its fix, including autocorrect. When designing your SMS campaign you just have to follow a few rules to prevent a potential client from being disappointed that they haven’t heard a reply from their favorite company or brand.

Use a unique shortcode

It is difficult to avoid software from correcting a word automatically if it thinks it’s incorrectly spelt. In an SMS marketing campaign it’s even more difficult, because campaigns frequently use brands or words in their keywords that are not often used in day-to-day language.

The autocorrect will turn the first example into the second.

 It’s always easier to play it safe, even though you might think that using standard keywords in an SMS marketing campaign would be less effective than something unique and attractive to the customer. For example DOWNLOAD would be better than D0WNL0AD – this combination of letters and numbers is confusing even though it might feel modern and fun.

Words with accents are problematic

Due to the configuration of mobile phone keyboards, typing an accented letter or special character is not easy. Even apostrophes – which are often used in English – are obstacles to creating effective keywords in an SMS marketing campaign.

Younger users of messaging apps, accustomed to a specific language register when using their mobile phones, are often more attentive to the way things are written or expressed in text so are more likely to disactivate the autocorrect feature.