5 Ways to Increase Sales With Business Text Messages

How to increase sales with business text messages

Here are five ways to use texts to increase sales by reaching your target audience, engaging prospects and more.

1. Engage with new leads via text messages.

Getting people to buy your products and services is a primary goal of most businesses. However, people must know you exist before you can sell them your offerings. Text messages give you an excellent chance to reach prospects. Gartner reports that conversational marketing messages can get up to a 45 percent reply rate and a Text Request report showed that 68 percent of people read all their texts ― even spam.

To start engaging new leads via text, do the following: 

• Ask potential customers to opt-in to your texts: When potential customers show interest in your company, ask them to sign up to receive text messages. Then, you can use short message service (SMS) marketing to tell them about promotions, events and other vital happenings within your company. 
• Craft quality messages. Keep your messages concise and polite. Get your point across as succinctly as possible.
• Include contact information in your texts. Put all your contact information in your text messages, making it easy for customers to respond and ask questions. Then, if they are interested, they can call you. 

2. Reengage with cold leads by sending a straightforward text.

Sometimes, you must remind people they once were interested in your company. Texting is an excellent way to reengage with past clients or leads who fell off the radar. Text recipients won’t feel pressured to respond to your text immediately. They can mull over the information you sent. 

If you reignite their interest, they can contact you at their convenience via a phone call or head to your website to investigate further. With two-way business texting, you can even provide customers with the information they need to forward with your company.

Try sending a simple text to a cold lead or former customer that says, “Are you still interested in [your product or service]?” Then watch the replies roll in.

3. Reduce no-shows for appointments, meetings or webinars with SMS reminders.

We all have busy lives and it can be easy to forget things. However, when someone misses an appointment with your company, you miss out on revenue. Help your clients remember their appointments by sending them a reminder text the day before or the day of the event.

Sending a text is more efficient than calling people with reminders. You and your employees don’t have to spend valuable time making phone calls. Instead, your team can focus on essential operational tasks. 

4. Send last-minute reminders before promotions end.

People don’t like to miss out on a good deal. Help your customers avoid missing out on savings by sending them text messages about when specific promotions are ending or coupons are expiring. 

It’s a good idea to send a message a day or two before the promotion ends and then another on the last day. This information encourages customers to take advantage of the opportunity before it’s too late.

5. Qualify leads over text before calling.

Salespeople often spend time on the phone with someone who doesn’t need or qualify for the product or service. Instead, text the potential customer first with information to help them decide if they’re a good candidate for your services. 

While sending out reminders and messages to your customers is extremely effective, ensure your texts include information your customer will value or find helpful. If you send messages your customers don’t want, they’ll likely opt out of texts from your business. 

You don’t want to send too many messages for the same reason. No one wants to be bombarded with advertising.

Benefits of business text messages

Businesses are known for underutilizing texts, despite the benefits of this communication method. Business text messages are an exceptional tool to improve customer reach, providing one of the highest returns on investment due to increased engagement levels.

Consider the following benefits of business texting.

1. Text messages have higher open rates.

According to Smart Insights, text messages have open rates of 97 percent within 15 minutes of being sent. This is a much higher rate than email marketing messages, which have an average open rate of around 20 percent, according to Campaign Monitor.

Additionally, your text messages go directly into customers’ hands. Nearly half of all SMS campaigns generate revenue with higher digital marketing return on investment when combined with other promotional campaigns.

2. Texting can improve customer satisfaction.

Many businesses incorporate text messaging into customer service to boost customer satisfaction. When you choose SMS communication, your customers realize you respect their needs and time. They will likely appreciate the reminders, announcements and news you send. 

Customers can communicate 24/7 at their convenience via text. Whether at home or on the go, they can send a reply quickly and easily.

3. Texting leaves a virtual paper trail.

Contacting a customer via phone can be costly. You must get them to answer the call and spend time on a quality conversation. Plus, there’s no written record of what you talked about or the next action steps. 

Like email automation, businesses can automate text messages and record responses. This virtual paper trail keeps you and the customer accountable while streamlining your business services.

4. Texting is a low-cost marketing option.

You can work text messaging into your promotional events quickly and at virtually no cost. Many businesses integrate text messaging with social media marketing. Like social media posts, text messages are direct and to the point.

Contact databases are easy to build when using text messaging as a marketing tool. You can use a simple opt-in and opt-out feature to determine who receives communications from your business. 

Within your database, you can save customer details and send targeted offers to those who have opted into SMS. With the analytics these platforms offer, you can track the effectiveness of your communication efforts. For example, some text messaging software solutions show your campaign’s click-through rate and how many purchases you’ve gotten through text communications.

What are the best text message marketing services? 

The best text message marketing service for your business will provide the features and integrations you need at a price that fits within your budget ― and with an interface your team can use easily.  

Consider the following excellent text message marketing services to incorporate business texting into your operations: 

• Textedly: If you’re just starting a business or have a small business with simple texting needs, consider Textedly. With plans as inexpensive as one cent per text, it’s easy to see the appeal. While the software has minimal built-in features, it can use Zapier to integrate with other software apps. Read our in-depth Textedly review to learn more.
• SlickText: Users like SlickText’s easy-to-comprehend interface that can get you up and running in less than 15 minutes. The solution works for diverse industries and provides a more intimate communication method than standard email. Segment your audience, get reports and schedule timely text messages. Check out our SlickText review for more information. 
• EZ Texting: If you prefer the hand-holding method when learning new software, you will appreciate EZ Texting’s step-by-step prompts. An extensive template library and integration options will help you stay on track with your customer base. Our complete EZ Texting review provides more details.
• SimpleTexting: SimpleTexting provides users with practical tools, unlimited keywords and a user-friendly platform. SimpleTexting creates free custom integrations so you can seamlessly connect to your existing software. Visit our full review of Simple Texting to learn about more features and pricing.

Julie Thompson contributed to this article.