Improving sales and marketing often comes down to speed and convenience, which makes text messaging a great asset for growth. Here’s how.
You need customers’ attention, and text messaging is one of the best ways to get it. Most texts are read instantly, and typical response times are within a couple of minutes. No other channel has that kind of consistent engagement.
Once you have customers’ attention, you can do myriad things to improve your sales and marketing and grow your business. Below is a breakdown of five:
1. Capitalize on inbound marketing and lead generation
You spend time and money driving people to your website or into your physical location. Make sure you can turn those people into paying customers.
Website viewers tend to have questions they need answered before they can purchase, and they’d often rather ask someone than do the research themselves. An SMS chat (web chat widget for texting) solves this.
The visitor starts a conversation on your site through the chat, and your response goes to their text messages. This gives you their cell phone number — ideal for future follow-ups — and also keeps the conversation going once they’ve left your website.
Aside from SMS chat, you can prompt customers to “Text us at this number.” Providing a keyword customers can text to get some perk or discount also works well, both in-store and online (e.g., “Text FREE to number to get …”). This will bring you first-time customers and set you up for SMS promotions later.
2. Follow up before competitors to win more sales
Prospects tend to reach out to multiple businesses when trying to buy. The business that responds first wins most of the deals. Texting helps you respond first.
Ask for a prospect’s cell phone number on any web form, and send an automated text confirming you got their request upon submission. This is a great customer experience and opens up texting as a communication channel for when your rep has a moment to personally respond.
Depending on your sales motion, you may be able to schedule an appointment, provide an estimate or close the deal entirely through text. If you need more info first, text to find a couple minutes for a phone call. Texting is also great for getting quick updates on prospects’ decision-making process and for getting them to take action so you can finalize a deal.
3. Tap past customers with new, seasonal and additional offers
SMS promotions tend to give any company a quick boost. Use them to upsell existing customers, bring past customers back and to re-engage cold leads. New products, additional services and seasonal discounts are all great offers to promote.
Pull your list of customers or a particular segment of customers you want to reach. Your customer relationship manager (CRM) or texting service may already make this easy for you. Keywords, mentioned in point one, also help you build a subscriber list ongoing.
