44,723 Views
In the video above, Tatango CEO Derek Johnson talks about whether or not you can include a hyperlink in a text message and how it works. Prefer to read instead? No problem, please see the post below. You can also find answers to all of your SMS marketing questions in our Q&A video library; click here to browse.
Can You Put Hyperlinks in Text Messages?
The short answer is yes, you can put hyperlinks in text messages. As phones get smarter and smarter, you’re able to send recipients from a text message to a video, a mobile form, a website, and hopefully, in the future, to a VR. To get a consumer from a text message to a lot of those experiences, you should use a hyperlink.
The answer is pretty simple, but there are always a few follow up questions of clarification when it comes to adding hyperlinks to your text messages. And of course we have the answers for you below.
Can You Hyperlink Text in a Text Message?
Although you can include a hyperlink in a text message, you cannot hyperlink the text. This means that you cannot directly link a word or phrase, but instead must have the physical URL be present. That was a lot of hyperlink talk, so see the illustration below. For example:
You Can Do This:
We’ve got answers to all your SMS marketing questions: https://www.tatango.com/resources/qa-videos/what-can-you-send-in-a-text-message-marketing-message/
(Put the URL that you want to link to the message.)
You Can’t Do This:
We’ve got answers to all of your SMS marketing questions here!
(Link a word or phrase directly to the URL without displaying it.)
Does the Hyperlink Take Up Characters in the Text Message Character Limit?
A text message has a character limit of 160 and an MMS message has a character limit of 500. Every character within the hyperlink counts toward that character limit. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just hide our links behind a single word? Unfortunately, at this time that’s not the case.
What’s the Best Way to Incorporate Long Hyperlinks in Text Messages?
Oftentimes links, especially with tracking stags for various marketing campaigns, are SO long. A great workaround to save some character real estate is to use a link shortener, like Bitly. A link shortener will significantly reduce your long hyperlink and give you more characters to get your message across.
Or, check out an example of how our friends at Lowe’s do it, with a custom short link:
Ready to start crafting text messages to your customers? Check out our platform and all the great things we can help you accomplish; click here to learn more.
