Have you had trouble maintaining strong business relationships? Here’s a handy guide on how business texting can help you retain clients.
Business texting has emerged as the heir apparent to traditional email marketing.
Quite frankly, it’s about time.
While email marketing still has social media beat in terms of control and building deeper engagement, it lacks the personal touch of a digital one-on-one with your customers and prospects.
Our own data shows 94 percent of text messages are read within minutes of receipt. Overall, text messages have an open rate of around 98 percent! Compare that to the pathetic 10-15% open rate for emails.
Furthermore, text messages are read instantly… but an email can sit for days before the customer even sees it.
And the typical social media user doesn’t even see a message until they log on to share cat videos or get into a heated political debate. Hardly the mindset you want customers to have when marketing to them about your business and products.
If you’re interested in business texting, here are some ways you can use it to see results quickly.
Here are six quick ways you can use business texting:
- Generating Sales
- Acquiring New Leads
- Keeping Clients Updated
- Getting to Know Your Clients Better
- Providing Quick Tips and Advice
- Boosting Employee Morale
Let’s dig into each idea independently…
Generating Sales With Business Texting
Dr. Eshe Faizah, the owner of Herbsistah.com, a health and wellness platform in Atlanta, joined us after a decade of email marketing that resulted in what she called lower open rates. Realizing that “People don’t read emails anymore,” she moved to Betwext and saw quick returns on her investment.
Faizah decided to send one message per week to her sign-ups, targeting Thursdays and Fridays as her primary “send days.” One of these text messages in the days before Mother’s Day led to $1,400 in new sales.
Business texting is particularly effective at generating sales when you use it in conjunction with special occasions, as Faizah did, or for other promotions and sweepstakes. Random coupons and discounts to your opt-ins via text message may tickle the buying bug as well.
Acquiring New Leads With Business Texting
Melanie Shepard of the Tempe-based religious organization UChurch was able to build a future marketing campaign through the use of business texting. Shepard attends Arizona State University’s Club Day recruiting event each year.
The first year she began using texting as a business tool, she created a single banner asking students to text “ASU” to the UChurch number. The result was over 250 new leads in “a few hours.”
Organizations like UChurch can confidently use these opt-in numbers to market future events and mission efforts. They also can reach out to their community to create awareness for special causes or crowd-sourced emergency fundraising efforts for families and individuals in need.
Keeping Clients Updated With Business Texting
Kristin M. of the world famous Chicago-based Schmaltz Deli incorporates her use of business texting to keep clients updated on specials or promotions, many of them short-notice. “Every time we send a text message, we get customers in the door,” she said.
One instance involves free delivery notifications. Chicago, as many of you know, can experience some pretty harsh winters. Many times, Schmaltz Deli will brave the elements so companies’ employees don’t have to get out of the office to enjoy a hearty lunch.
Beyond this specific use, companies could also use text messages to inform customers their orders have been received or are out for delivery. Doctors’ offices or other service-minded professionals can use it for appointment reminders or for alerts and notifications.
Getting to Know Your Clients Better
When it comes to surveying and polling your customers, length and ease of use are definite hindrances. Think about the last time you bought a meal at a fast food restaurant or a magazine from a bookstore.
Did you ever “go online and fill out our survey to tell us how we did and get $5 back on your next purchase”? Some of you may have, but even so, your response rate is likely abysmal when compared to how many times you were actually asked.
Texting has the power to overcome this because it can be extremely narrow in nature. You can drill deeper with what you ask your customers about their experience or expectations, thus resulting in fewer questions.
And because of the high open rates, you’re likely to get a response, especially when presenting options like, “Text ‘YES’ or ‘NO’ to [NUMBER].”
Using business texting to collect client insights allows you to work with a client/customer who already has opted in to receive texts. She or he wants to hear from you.
Providing Quick Tips and Advice With Business Texting
Service-minded professionals can deliver tons of value to their clients in small, bite-sized doses using SMS delivery platforms.
Examples:
- You’re an exterminator reminding a homeowner his annual termite inspection is coming due.
- As an auto shop sharing make-model-specific maintenance tips to one of your customers right around the time of their next service.
- You’re a gym owner sharing a video to a specific workout technique you know your clients will find useful.
The ability to provide quick tips and advice your clients will actually find useful has a two-pronged effect: 1) it gets them back through your doors or using your services; and 2) it saves money, prevents frustration, provides encouragement, etc.
Boosting Employee Morale With Business Texting
Like any good business, most of these points have been customer-focused. But don’t overlook your employees in all of this because their morale will have an impact on your business as a whole.
Go back to the survey example. Using texts instead of browbeating workers to ask for information from unwilling point-of-sale customers takes an unnecessary burden off the employee.
Also, business texting can keep employees up to date on procedural changes, provide unique insight valuable in helping them carry out duties, and give them a more rapid channel for having questions answered and concerns addressed.
We even know of businesses who use texting to communicate schedule changes to employees… and one group who uses it to ensure compliance with cleaning standards!
Incorporating Business Texting
I hope today’s article gave you some great ideas on how to use business texting to improve your operations. To learn more about getting started with business texting, or to learn how to promote your small business check out our special report… “The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Marketing”