All posts by Text My Main Number

3 Tips to Measure Success with Landline Texting

It’s not hard to review your SMS marketing stats being that technology is so direct when it comes to Landline Texting. There’s a report for everything.

The main concern is, are you actually reading those reports to measure the success of your campaigns? As more businesses continue to turn to SMS for their customer service and marketing needs, it’s crucial that you know what to look for to determine if you’re properly using the most effective platform to communicate with your audience.

As marketers continue to utilize landline texting for SMS campaigns, the team at Text My Main Numberwould like to share how to measure your ROI.

“According to HubSpot, marketers who are looking for an increase in the marketing budget, must know the ROI.”

That being said, we offer you…

3 Tips to Measure Success with Landline Texting

It’s vital that you examine the main ROI metrics in your landline texting campaigns to see what is and isn’t working and modify where necessary. Here’s what to look for:

Click-through Rate

We’ve heard about it, but what is click through rate? Well, it the metric that tells you the percentage of subscribers who took action and clicked on a link in a text message that directed them to a landing page where they would take you up on an offer or buy a product or service. It’s what measures how your subscribers are engaging with your brand and showed interest in your content.

Google Analytics is a great SMS Marketing tool that will help you track the unique clicks from your landline texting campaigns.  

Growth Rate with Landline texting

It’s important to measure your growth rate because it’s what determines the success of your text to landline marketing campaigns. As you see your list of subscribers grow, you’ll know you’re increasing your ROI.

An increase in subscribers means you’re extending your landscape and the brand is starting to gain a new audience which helps you better position your business in the industry. Track your growth rate by keeping tabs on the number of subscribers before and after each of your text to landline marketing campaigns.

Opt-out Rate

Listen, you’re going to have people who WILL opt-out. Don’t fret over it because that’s typical. Even in your best SMS marketing campaigns, you will see the list of subscribers drop a bit. That doesn’t mean it has anything to do with the quality or value of your landline texting message. Some people just want to trim the fat on their phone.

Nonetheless, you SHOULD be concerned if you see a considerably high opt-out rate. It may mean that you’re sending text to landline message at the wrong time or to the wrong target audience. Or maybe you’re not offering enough value and that is the biggest red flag. By tracking your opt-out rates, you’ll have the ability to test various landline texting messages to see which produce the top results.

Takeaway

SMS marketing is on the list of the most effective tools for marketing products and services. Knowing how to track your marketing efforts helps you understand your ROI in order to optimize and scale your campaigns. For more information on how to text enable your business phone number, contact us today to start your free trial.

3 Tips to Increase the Success of Your Landline Texting Mobile Coupon Campaigns

In previous articles we’ve reviewed how you can send text messages to gain subscribers using your text enabled landline phone number. In this article, we’re going to go over the best practices to send mobile coupons to those subscribers using the Text My Main Number landline texting platform.

90% of mobile users that are subscribed to receive text messages from a business have expressed that the reason they’ve agreed to receive texts, is because they’d like to be notified about discounts and other promotional offers. With that in mind, it’s important that companies who use landline texting services know how to use the platform as a tool that will increase engagement while boosting sales numbers.

How you approach sending mobile coupons entails the creation of a strategic plan that will guarantee success. You must make sure that:

  • You keep messages personalized
  • You’re catering to your customer’s needs and interests
  • You value your offer appropriately
  • You know the best days and times to send your landline message

Don’t get scared! We know it can sound like the science behind sending mobile coupons is complicated, but the truth is it’s not. We just want to review the simple things you need to keep in mind in order to increase the chances of getting the results you seek. So, don’t press that send button until you read the remainder of this article!

3 Tips to Increase the Success of Your Landline Texting Mobile Coupon Campaigns

Like anything you do that is pre-planned, you’ll want to deliver your mobile coupons using your text enabled landline phone number with a strategy that decreases unpredictability. Here’s what you want to think about:

Building a Loyalty Program with Your Audience

Use your landline message wisely and consider exactly who you are sending your texts to. Did they text you with a specific keyword to redeem their coupon code? Did you send a bulk message out for them to redeem a coupon code? Are these your abandoned cart shoppers? Whoever they are, it’s crucial that your audience knows how they can easily redeem their coupon so they can keep coming back to your website for more interaction and shopping.

Building a loyalty program for your brick-and-mortar store or online store is best achieved using a landline texting platform where you can send your audience personalized messages that include an incentive. By offering this incentive, you’re making the decision to opt-in to your list of subscribers more attractive. This is your open door to build a bond with consumers who will now trust your brand and you can bet they will not only redeem the mobile coupon you send, but they may even share it with friends and family.

Distributions Strategy

Alright you’ve got them hooked! Now you need to know the best days and times to send text messages to your audience using the Text My Main Number landline texting platform.

Use your new bond with your subscribers strategically and make sure that you distribute your offers to them with a calculated plan. For example, you don’t want to send someone who works the overnight shift a text message at 10:00 am when they’re probably sleeping and the alert on their mobile device annoys them. So, what do you do to avoid that? Create lists!

With the Text My Main Number text to landline admin panel, you can create groups. Then you can send your offers in SMS bulk messages based on their preference, lifestyle, or shopping behaviors. By considering your audience, you’re inadvertently building a relationship that may lead to a customer who makes regular purchases because they like the way your brand treats them. Here are some of the things to calculate when scheduling your landline texting marketing campaigns:

  • How has the engagement been between you and this group of subscribers? Do they barely buy from you? This may be the group you want to offer a little more of a discount to in order to rebuild with them.
  • Is it holiday season? Who were last year’s big holiday shoppers? This may be a group you want to create to push sales for the holidays. Send them early bird specials to bring them back before the rest of the crowd.
  • Who are your usual abandoned cart shoppers? This may be the group that needs more than one text message to help them with their lack of follow-through. You may want to schedule a few texts over a week’s time at different hours of the day.

Measure Your Metrics with Landline texting

In this much-needed final step that you NEVER want to overlook, you’ll have the ability to read, analyze, and understand how effective your SMS marketing campaign went. Here’s what you’re looking for:

List Growth – Did you list of subscribers grow during your landline texting campaign? You can calculate these results by the week, month, and finally by year. If you see steady growth, chances are your acquiring more customer and more importantly, retaining them.

Coupon Redemption – Most website hosts have analytical reporting tools that will allow you to track how many customers redeemed a specific coupon code. Just by reading the number of people that took advantage of your offer will give you a good idea about how successful your campaign was.

ROI – Checking your return on investment is a needed metric because people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on marketing techniques that don’t have any profit return. Text to landline services are one of the most inexpensive tools a business can utilize for many daily tasks, including marketing. For the same amount of money, you’re spending to deploy this communication channel, you can also advertise promotions. Not many communication tools out there can offer you the same. To stay up to date with the latest and greatest landline texting marketing campaign tactics, be sure to read articles on our blog.

3 Top Text to Landline Messages for the Holiday Season

As the holiday season approaches us quickly, the team at Text My Main Number has put together a list that can be used for your landline texting campaigns. For business who have a text enable landline phone number, now’s the time to start planning your SMS marketing campaigns so that you can execute them with enough time to ensure boosted revenue for the holidays.

The holiday season is the most popular time for consumers to spend money on gifts and everyone loves shopping for good deals more than items. To help your audience cut down on coupon research online, make sure you get on board with the most popular communication trend and convert your business phone number into a text enabled landline phone line where you’ll be able to send messages announcing your upcoming promotions. Your recipients will be able to reply with any questions they may have which will open the floor for your staff to provide convenient and quick customer service.

With the Text My Main Number text messaging platform, you can also take advantage of text to landline marketing campaign features like:

  • Allow users to chat in Realtime via landline texting to expedite their purchase
  • Send bulk messages with promotional discount information
  • Sending MMS to show images of products you recommend
  • Send links to request feedback on their shopping experience
  • Send links to forms requesting them to review a product

 To help jump start your marketing plan for the upcoming holiday season, here are the:

 3 Top Text to Landline Messages for the Holiday Season

Call-to-Action Holiday Offers

Not only is the holiday season a great time to share promotional offers, but it’s also the perfect time to grow your list of subscribers. Create a post for your social media channels and make sure to offer an extra discount for new sign ups.

Irresistible MMS

Sending images and videos of items you know your consumers simply won’t be able to resist is a great way to attract sales. For example, restaurants who have text to landline services enabled to their business phone number can really take advantage of this marketing tactic because drool-worthy food pics are all the rage. Especially if you send your message out in bulk close to lunch or dinner time.

Mobile Coupons

Consumers between the ages of 24-35 have expressed that they prefer messages from retailers that include coupons. Surveys have shown that people redeem mobile coupons 10 times more than coupons sent via email. The truth is people read their text messages more than they do their emails, so sending coupons directly to the palm of your customer’s hands during your landline texting marketing campaign for the holiday season is the way to go. To learn how to generate more sales during the holiday season, try the Text My Main Number free trial for a couple of weeks this month and we’ll provide you with free training so that you’re all squared away before you launch your holiday marketing campaign with your new text enabled landline phone number!

Top Reasons Why Schools Are Using Text Messaging Services

Screen time has become a part of everyone’s daily life. In turn, this has had a major influence in the way we educate our youth. It only made sense for educators and administrative staff to implement a channel that would help streamline the tasks of teachers, parents, and students. That’s where landline text messaging comes into place.

Text My Main Number developed a landline texting platform that allows parents to send and receive messages directly to the school’s main phone number. Even daycares and universities have jumped on board with using this system that keeps all parties up to date with announcements and important notifications.

Sending and receiving a landline message is the quickest and most efficient way to communicate, especially when you need to send an alert or announce unexpected changes like:

  • Early dismissal due to weather conditions
  • Emergencies
  • Attendance
  • School event cancellations
  • Request for meeting
  • Visits to the nurse’s office
  • PTA meeting details
  • Information about parent/teacher meetings
  • Links to forms
  • Event announcements
  • And much more!

Text to landline features makes it simple for thousands of parents, especially working parents who may not be able to answer phone calls during the business day. However, with 90% of text messages being read within minutes of being received, the chances of faster communication between educational institutes and parents has increased with the use of text enabled landline phone numbers.  

In the remainder of this article we will review some of the more common features of landline texting for grade schools, colleges, and even day cares who have text enabled landline phone numbers to send landline messages via SMS.

How Schools Are Using Text Messaging Services

Cancellation Announcements

Schools can send parents an SMS alert when there has been a class or after school activity cancellation to ensure that everyone is aware of the change and proper transportation can be arranged.

Alerts During an Emergency

During an unexpected emergency, it will only take a few seconds to alert parents and students of any immediate security or safety concern.

Reminders

To avoid missing important deadlines, school staff can easily learn how to text from landline phone numbers to send messages to students to remind them about due dates for assignments.

Fundraising

Text to landline campaigns aren’t just for businesses, schools have begun to take advantage of the Text My Main Line platform to successfully raise funds for school events.

Report Card Notifications

Now parents can receive a heads up via SMS so they know when they can expect to receive report cards.

Cyberbullying/bullying Hotline

With cyberbullying on the rise, parents appreciate receiving notifications about resources and data about cyberbullying that helps them enforce coping tools.

Assignment Notifications

Teachers are heavily using landline texting to send notifications about assignments which also comes in handy for students who were absent from class. Sending a landline message with a link to handouts and other learning material has also become cost efficient because schools are saving on printing costs.

While these 7 ways school are using text to landline services are the most common uses, there are so many more features to take advantage of. If you feel your day care, grade school, or university can definitely take advantage of using the most common form of communication between parents, students, and their educational institute, please do not hesitate to contact us for a quick consultation before you start your free trial with Text My Main Number.

Find Out Why Every Industry Has Turned to SMS Business Texting

It’s become extremely difficult for brands to stand out amongst their competitors because every channel has either burned its bridges or is so oversaturated in promotional ads that people have become accustomed to just scroll right past them or click to close out advertisement from their screens. If this sounds familiar to you, and you’re struggling to grab your consumer’s attention, read on (Business Texting).

It doesn’t matter the size of your business, gaining and retaining customers is and always will be the focal point for all companies. While consumers are over email marketing and promo ads, the one channel they’re not ever going to stop using all day, every day, is texting.

Business texting is being implemented across all industries because it has improved productivity and enhanced communication with consumers. Think about what you access more each day. Do you read and reply to text messages more than you check your email or social media profiles each day? Yes, you do and so does nearly everyone in the country.

If you haven’t text-enabled your business phone number to receive and send SMS it’s time you do, and the remainder of this post is aimed towards helping you understand why every industry is deploying business texting.

SMS Business Texting for Promotions

No other communication channel can guarantee a read rate of 99% like business texting can and with the service being so cost-effective, it’s quite an appealing platform to promote sales.

If you’re running a limited time promotion, the best marketing method would be SMS because messages will be read within minutes of being received. Half of those messages will be opened within 6 hours and traffic to your website will start increasing.

SMS Marketing Campaigns

All experienced marketers know the “rule of seven” which states that you must reach your target audience by marketing to them through multiple channels using a variety of methods. That’s the only way you’ll convert a lead to a customer.

What’s up for debate is how many connections it takes for a sales conversion. What is crystal clear is that you must integrate your marketing campaign tactics and business texting is an effective marketing tool to add to your funnel. Not only can you combine your text messaging with emails, but by doing so you’re allowing your audience to engage with your brand on multiple communication channels. In time, you’ll be able to pull reports that demonstrate which channel your consumers prefer.

Order Placing

You’ve probably noticed by now how a lot of companies allow you to download their mobile app to process orders like Dunkin Donuts for example, but other companies like Domino’s Pizza, make it even easier by allowing you to use business texting to place orders. So instead of having to open a profile on the app, fill out a bunch of forms, and more time-consuming processes, you can quickly send a text message to simplify your order placing.

SMS Product/Service Launches

SMS business texting is an excellent platform to sue when you’re looking to launch a new product or service. You can count on:

  • Open rates that beat any other channel
  • Sending links to your website or app
  • Connecting with consumers on a personal level

Of course, you would only be able to promote your product launch to an existing list of subscribers who have opted in to receive text messages. It’s still an excellent way to launch a product/service and if you need to pay to gain access to a third-party list of consumers who have opted in to receive offers, even better.

SMS Appointment Reminders

One of the biggest problems that many offices face is no call/no shows. If you have a medical practice, insurance agency, legal practice, or offer any type of professional service, it would be convenient to have a business texting platform that can send appointment reminders. An SMS platform allows people to reply to confirm, change, or cancel their appointments.

Business Texting Updates/Notifications

You can use a business texting service to send customers order updates in addition to service updates. For example, a service professional who has an HVAC service company would be able to notify their customers when their technician is on the way. Or say you own a pest control company and you have the ability to complete a treatment when the customer is not home, you can send a text to notify the customer that the service has been completed. Not to mention, you can even send MMS to show them how the job looks via picture or video!

SMS Customer Service with Business Texting

Think about yourself as a customer. Do you want to communicate with a brand instantly or do you want to send an email and await a response? Better yet, do you want to call by phone and spend a long time waiting on hold? No, you don’t. Customer want speedy service when they’re interested in a product or service but have some questions they need answered. You can have your sales team logging into the business texting admin panel all day to answer potential and existing customer inquiries. They can instantly:

  • Get answers to their product or service inquiries
  • Get pricing information
  • Order status
  • Request information on returns and refunds
  • Tracking information
  • Schedule a consult
  • Receive links to forms
  • Provide feedback

…and that’s just to name a few

While we only scratched the surface of the benefits of SMS business texting in this article, we hope we shed light to how effective this communication channel is. If you’re looking to improve your daily operations, increase your lead conversions, improve customer service, and help your brand stand out above your competitors, we strongly suggest that you at least sign up for a free trial to give it a test run. Go back up to the top of this article and then skim through the main points because we are certain you will find that business texting has components that will only enhance your business plan.

Landline Texting Ideas to Help with New Hires

Even the smallest businesses know that training new employees is imperative to the success of the company. The onboarding period is especially important and it’s those initial training weeks that help you filter out the long vs. short term employees.

As crucial as molding new employees to the company’s standards and culture, it’s astounding how often new employees are neglected. It’s usually due to how busy everyone is with the company’s daily operations or the lack of proper training tools to complete onboarding appropriately. The end result is low morale and mediocre work ethics.

We’ve just described the problem that many companies face with onboarding, and now we’re going to review how landing texting is helping recruiters and human resource departments with the solution.

Landline Texting Ideas to Help with New Hires

Sending Automated Onboarding Documents

With the Text My Main Number landline texting platform you have the ability to send automated templates to new staff members. During the first month of the training process, new hires have a ton of documents to review and fill out such as employment applications, contracts, handbooks, and company policies. You can use a landline texting platform to schedule sending templates for each category of documents. You can also schedule reminders for those new employees who have skipped completing any of the needed documents rather than allowing a manager to overlook it because they’re so busy with everything else.

Confirming Data and Credentials

After you’ve selected the right candidate to join your team, there are many tasks to follow. You have to set them up in your system, collect tax documents, set up their logins, and check their credentials. Employees start to copy and paste information over document by document which is quite time consuming all while they could be using some of that time to start training. If it’s a large company, there are also various department heads they need to meet with.

Trim down the amount of time it takes to step out of your office, find the employee, and confirm data that seems to be mismatched with other forms they’ve filled out by sending them a text message asking them to verify information. You can also utilize the landline texting platform to schedule and confirm appointments with the different departments they have to meet with.

Contact Lists

Once you’ve decided on who to hire, that new staff member will want to know who they report to and when to reach out to, which supervisor or manager. You can send a list of staff members with their listed roles via SMS using a landline texting platform. You can copy and paste the information from a saved document onto your online admin panel and click send. It’s just that easy!

Sending contact lists through a text also allows the recipient to import their new contacts to their smartphones. Each time the contact lists changes, you can simply update it on your saved document and then copy and paste it into a mass message to the entire staff.

Assigning Tasks and Reminders with landline texting

Starting a new job can be overwhelming to people because of all the new things they need to learn, remembering everyone’s name, understanding how to operate new systems, and meetings they have to attend. During this initial period is when most mistakes happen.

Use landline texting to send reminders about what needs to be done and by when. Assigning tasks to them via text so they can review as often as they need to and keep the messages friendly so that it’s just as personalized as an in-person interaction. Management will be grateful that things are getting done on time, and employees will be grateful of the direction your guidance is helping them with.

Surveys with landline texting

Ongoing improvement is what enhances any process in any company. To learn how management can improve the training process there’s only one group of people to ask. The trainees. Sure, you can invite them into your office to have a long meeting and ask them OR your can send them a survey that is scheduled to go out upon completion of their training period.

You can use the Text My Main Number automated templates feature to send surveys which is convenient and inspires individuals to provide true in-depth response about which areas of training can use improvement.

A Few Rules of Thumb:

The first letter in SMS stands for short.

Keep it short! Employees will be reading your landline texting messages through their cellphones, so anything longer than a couple of sentences goes in an email.

Don’t bombard new hires with text messages.

Sending a plethora of messages each day is not best practice. You’re looking to employ landline texting for convenience and not to overwhelm anyone.

A reply is not always required.

You’re trying to automate the onboarding process so it’s not necessary for new hires to reply to each text message they receive. If they miss out on anything or forget to submit any documents, you send a reminder later on.

Conclusion:

Now that we’ve reviewed how landline texting can help onboard new staff members, don’t forget about your remote workers too. They’re not in the office to receive documents, in-person training, and attend meetings. However, just like technology has facilitated communication with SMS, there are other online tools for remote workers like web meetings and other virtual training tools.

Landline texting is changing business operations all over the world because of its efficiency and increased response rates. In terms of utilizing a text messaging platform for your hiring process, we hope this article shed some light on just how much easier you can make it. Move away from the ancient hiring processes and get on board with landline text by starting a free trial with Text My Main Number today!

Business Texting: Facts Vs. Fiction

Once upon a time people were under the assumption that email would be replaced by social media and that avoiding spam words in subject lines would be the way to go to encourage readers to open marketing emails. These misconceptions typically come from marketers who tend to spread falsehoods each time a new marketing channel is launched (business texting ).

Well the same rumors about those who use business texting or SMS marketing ring true. Even though the benefits of business texting have proven to be fruitful, there are many brands out there that still haven’t jumped on board. Why you ask? Well, it appears they’re confused about what’s a fact and what is fictional about the platform.

In this post, we’re going to uncover some of the top misconceptions about business texting and SMS marketing.

SMS Marketing Isn’t as Effective as Email

Says who? For those who believe that email is more effective than business texting or that social media is the end all, be all, we have news for you. Not everyone has email set up on their mobile phones, but everyone has text messaging services. Plus, most people have tons of unread emails sitting on their phones “to check later” while everyone checks texts right away. In fact, it’s proven that most text messages are read within minutes of being received.

So, if you were to send out an email to announce a new product or service and at the same time you send out a text with the same announcement, which do you think will be read first? That’s right! Not the email.

With text messages having a higher open rate than emails, there is no way that people will open their email before they would open a text message.

SMS Marketing Isn’t Worth It

We want to assure you that if you’re looking to consider business texting, it’s one of the most valuable forms of marketing you can implement. If you compare it to your other marketing methods, SMS marketing doesn’t entail endless hours of training, costly setups, or even software that requires you to hire a third-party to install it for you.

There are business texting platforms that help you get started right away and offer free training assistance to help you navigate their easy-to-use admin panel to manage your SMS marketing. In other words, it takes very little time to get you setup and is less expensive than any nearly all other marketing tools.

Only the Younger Generations Use Text Messaging

Big mistake! Big, big mistake! This is one of the biggest SMS marketing fictions around and usually it’s a story told by an older marketer. Which is not only deceitful but ends up hurting companies who’s target audience consists of Baby Boomers and Generation Xers. Next thing you know, companies who would benefit from business texting services end up throwing away the possibility of opening up a new and fruitful marketing channel.

Truth be told, people over the age of 50 have smartphones just like the other generations and according to the Pew Research Center, over 67% of them use text messaging as a form of communicating.

We get why this piece of fiction is believable since older people are considered less tech savvy but that has nothing to do with their use of text messaging.

People See Business Texting as Spam

What channel do you know of that doesn’t have any spam? Spam is in your email, your browser, your TV, and in some homes, your kitchen cabinet. OK fine, that last one is not the same type of spam but you get our point. SMS marketing isn’t to be blamed for the existence of spam; bad marketers are. A text message from a brand should be humanized and naturally grab your audience’s attention in a way that will make them want to interact with your brand.

Statistics show that 9 out of 10 people welcome text messages from companies, and especially because they want to receive promotional offers. So in essence they’re saying “sure send me spam so long as you include a discount on my next order.” While they’re willing to opt in to receive marketing texts from you, the key in not having them opt out is to keep your messages short, inviting, and personalized. They would much rather read two lines from your business in 15 seconds or less than to watch a long drawn out commercial on television in the middle of their favorite show.

Business Texting is a One-Way Street

Wrong again! This piece of fiction is probably the silliest one mentioned in this article. With the Text My Main Number business texting platform you can text-enable your business phone number to send and receive text messages. So not only can you send marketing texts, but your leads and customers can reply to you as well. SMS marketing isn’t just a read-only tool, it is in fact a two-way street.

You can also use business texting service features to send pictures and videos, notifications, surveys, confirm appointments, send forms, chat, create templates, and invoicing.

Conclusion

Having the ability to decipher fact vs. fiction when it comes to business texting or SMS marketing is the first and most vital step in employing the most effective marketing tool for your business. Don’t let all of the false information out there sway you from taking a step that may change the marketing game in a positive way for your brand.

Remember that business texting is used for way more than marketing, it’s also an excellent way to enhance your customer service practices too. If you deploy the right strategy, you’ll see a vast improvement in your ROI and a higher response rate from your consumers.

We hope we were able to clear some fictional cobwebs in this article so that you can do away with any hesitation you may have about adding the most effective marketing channel to your business marketing strategies. Business texting and SMS marketing can and will boost all areas of your daily operations without a doubt.Start your free business texting trial and launch your first SMS marketing campaign with Text My Main Number.

SMS Mobile Texting Solutions for Your E-Commerce Business

SMS Mobile Texting Solutions for Your E-Commerce Business

SMS mobile texting can really drive sales to help your e-commerce business grow. So long as you implement the right methods to connect to your target consumers and loyal customers, you will establish a relationship that will not only develop a level of trust between your brand and your audience, but also boost revenue.

Here are some examples of how SMS mobile texting can help you grow your e-commerce business.

Special Events & Sales

Announce exclusive sales and special events using SMS mobile texting. Create a special keyword for your marketing campaign and send a direct message to your subscribers to let them know about the special discount. When your selected audience uses the keyword at checkout, they will instantly receive the allotted markdown.

Order Status & Shipping Information

It is a known fact that SMS is one of the fastest ways to communicate with a customer aside from an actual phone call. With messages being read within 3 minutes of receiving them, you can say this is the most instant way to let customers know about any updates to their order or notify them of any shipping information.

Save Potential Sales from the Abandoned Carts

When a customer adds items to their shopping cart on your website, they have a level of intent to purchase. For whatever reason, many customers leave the items in their cart without completing their purchase. It may be that they’d like to come back later and forget, it could be that they wanted to see what the total would be so that when they’re ready to buy, they’re prepared to spend that amount. Whatever the reason may be, it’s up to you not to let the completed sale escape! You can use mobile texting to remind them or even offer a discount if they click the link you provide via text to complete their order.

Lure Consumers in With Images

Mobile texting isn’t just limited to sending words and links. Since MMS is supported, you can also send images and videos to promote your upcoming sales.

Immediate Feedback

When you’re looking to get immediate feedback from your customers, send them a survey immediately after they’ve purchased items from your online store and include questions about how satisfied they are with their shopping experience.

Instant Customer Service

Customer service plays a major role in how successful your e-commerce business will be. With consumers preferring mobile texting to communicate over making phone calls, it’s a no brainer that more online stores are implementing SMS to enhance their customer’s experience. Text messages are instant and more personalized than an email so allow your customer to text your business phone number for instant customer service.

Tailored Merchandise Ideas

Help your customers decide what to purchase by suggesting merchandise that may interest them. If you’re running low on stock for an item that matches their previous buying history, send them a text to let them know and encourage them to act fast before it’s sold out.

Special Event Texts

An excellent way to change up your mobile marketing approach is to send special events texts to keep your subscribers interested. You don’t want it to seem like you only reach out to promote and get them to buy products. For example, you can offer a special discount for their birthday which comes across as a personalized and exclusive gesture.

Reactivating Customers

Many e-commerce businesses are turning to mobile texting to retain consumers by sending reminders to purchase an item when they haven’t heard from them in a while. This works great for items that would possibly need a refill or reorder like supplements, skin care, pharmaceuticals, or food and beverage items.

Encourage Indecisive Customers

Encourage customers who are on the fence about buying a product. Usually these are the customers that inquire about a product but then drop off the website without completing their purchase. To inspire them to buy, you can send a follow up text message to see if there is anything else you can assist with and personalize the conversation to convert their inquiry into a sale.

Mobile Texting Vs Traditional Marketing

It’s been about 20 years since the internet boom changed the way people browse and shop as we entered the digital era. That in turn changed marketing strategies across all industries since their consumers attention had now shifted into a virtual platform. Competing for people’s attention was now more challenging than ever.

That being said, it was now time to implement a variety of marketing methods in order to keep business booming. Today that means promoting products on social media, sending emails to market your products, using mobile texting, or even cold calling.

The point is, mobile texting can stand alone in your marketing strategy, or you can use it to fortify your existing marketing approaches. You can use mobile texting to:

  • Send a text message announcing that you’ve sent an email with an exclusive offer to ensure they don’t delete the email marketing message they received.
  • Offer a bonus to your social media followers by posting an image with a promotional code in the caption. You can also make it more exciting by launching a flash sale and include the promotional code on your story which only lasts 24 hours. That will entice your followers to buy now before the sale ends.
  • Send surveys using your mobile texting service to boost response rates.

Getting Started with Mobile Texting

The last stage before you start your mobile texting campaign is possibly the most imperative. You have to receive permission to send messages to your customers. It is not legal to send text messages to your customers if they have not permitted you to do so. Sending text messages without permission is forbidden by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and you can be fined a generous amount if you don’t abide by the rules.

Text My Main Number Free Trial

Still not convinced that SMS mobile texting is the best marketing strategy for your e-commerce business? We get it. Especially since once upon a time people thought the idea of combining peanut butter and chocolate was a terrible idea. Ask The Hershey Company how bad of an idea it was to promote Reese’s. The Text My Main Number team is so convinced that mobile texting is the way to go to improve sales for your e-commerce business that we want to help you get started by offering you a free trial!

Why Mobile Texting Services are Rising

Before mobile texting services took over as the most used form of connecting with people, do you know what the very first text message ever sent was? “Merry Christmas.” In December of 1992 an Engineer named Neil Papworth typed it on his computer and sent what would be the first SMS to a cellphone.

Here we are 27 years later where mobile texting services have become prominent in facilitating communication between brands and their customers for a multitude of reasons. Out of the billions of text messages sent each day throughout the United States, “merry Christmas” is amongst the slightest reasons to send a message. Now, there is a plentitude of information that is shared across this multipurpose digital platform.

What was once a form of sending a quick message to your closest friends and family members is now the way we connect with mostly everyone we know, including business around the globe. Messaging is also used on applications like Whatsapp, Skype, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Instagram direct messages, just to name a few of the growing list of apps we use each day.

Mobile texting services have advanced beyond sending a simple and quick message. SMS is now one of the most resourceful tools to share information.

At Text My Main Number, we’ve taken strides in building a multifunctional SMS platform that provides mobile texting services that help companies and organizations enhance their communication methods. If there is one thing that research has taught us, it’s that texting is still on the rise and here to stay.

Why Mobile Texting Services Are Rising

What did SMS bring to the table that has kept it rising? We know why mobile texting services work, but the true reason why it has stuck around is what we’re going to get into below. Industry experts feel strongly about the power of SMS for good reason.

Embedded Functionality

One of the downfalls of modern technology is the additional hardware it requires to function properly. However, with SMS you’re using an embedded functionality within cell phones, mobile devices, and PCs. Even with many devices going “smart,” people who still use older devices can send and receive text messages. The best part is that you don’t really need to download anything to use text messaging unless you’re looking to use messaging services provided by app giants like Skype or messaging functions on social media platforms.

SMS for Business Phone Numbers

You can easily enable your business phone number to receive and send text messages using a variety of approaches. Any route you select will give you an edge in your industry. You can create a catchy short code that’s easy to remember. It’s a fast and easy way for your audience to stay in touch with you, especially by using a keyword. If you’re looking to build a community of subscribers, you can ask your existing and potential customers to simply text your business phone number to opt-in to receive and send messages with your business.

Timeless Demand

Not all products or services are multi-generational, but the use of SMS just so happens to be. Not all technologies are easily adaptable to each age range, but texting has become “the norm” for everyone and is still on the rise. Mobile texting services flourished alongside the Millennials and was then adopted by the baby boomer. By the time Gen X and Gen Z came around, flip phones and pay phones were a thing of the past, and texting is all they knew. That means that SMS is probably one of the only methods of communication used by just about anyone, no matter what their age is. SMS is also not constituted by a specific lifestyle or stage in life so when Pew Research demonstrated mobile activity statistics and how it’s been adopted by all generations, it was of no surprise to us. Here’s what the stats show:

  • People aged 18-24 send and receive approximately 128 text messages a day
  • People aged 25-34 send and receive approximately 75 text messages a day
  • People aged 35-44 send and receive approximately 52 text messages a day
  • People aged 45-54 send and receive approximately 33 text messages a day
  • People aged 55+ send and receive approximately 16 text messages a day

Impressive Sales Conversion Rates

A team of Psychologists revealed in a study that consumers are spending double the time on their mobile devices as they think they do.

How many times per day do you think people touch their phones? If you had to guess, would you say it’s 10, 20, 50, or event 100 times per day? What if we told you that the average person touches their phone 2,617 a day? Now, of course, that includes scrolling, tapping, and typing but what we want you to focus on is the vast opportunity that exists in terms of interaction.

Not only do mobile texting services assert a 45% response rate (in comparison to emails which have an unimpressive 8%), but text messages are read within a minute and 1/2 of being received.

Talk about a perfect window of opportunity to insert calls-to-action! With the right promotion and a tap, a potential sale easily converts into an actual sale. Now, we’re not taking about a possible 20% of text messages sent by a brand can convert into a sale, we’re talking more than 50% will. A case study conducted by Kiehl’s Skin Care demonstrated that approximately 73% of their customers purchased items directly after every SMS campaign.

Technology Minus the Internet

Text message marketing is the best thing since sliced bread even though it falls into a tech category. It doesn’t require any internet because so long as you have cellphone service, people can receive a text message. That means that you don’t have to solely depend on your message reaching your audience via WiFi. That’s right, you can send it at any time, from anywhere, and you will be able to connect with them with no wires attached

Customers Prefer Mobile Texting Services

As we stated early on in this article, text messaging capabilities started over two decades ago and has continuously expanded it’s userbase (approximately 5 billion and growing). Despite the fact that many people use Whatsapp or social media messengers, text messaging is still in the lead when it comes to SMS. According to a data report from last year, texting is still the most commonly used form of communication. To learn more about Text My Main Number’s mobile texting services, sign up for our free trial. Or if you’re looking to get started as soon as possible, you can simply check our pricing page before you sign up. Have any questions? Just visit our contact page and we’ll be more than happy to answer them!

Here’s Why Hotels are Using a Business Texting Service for their Marketing Solutions

Hotel Marketing. Hotel marketing consists of the strategic planning and deployment of techniques and actions that will help promote and flourish the hotel’s brand to aid with positioning the hotel as one of the best on the market. A variety of campaigns and promotional programs are planned and executed using a business texting service in order to make the hotel lucrative and appealing to the public which will attract more people to book reservations.

Currently, many establishments in the hospitality industry are stating that it has become a challenge to keep reservation numbers up and innovative marketing methods for hotels are a necessity in order to stay in line with or on top of their competitors. With the launch of new app-based lodging services like Airbnb and Oyo Rooms, the competition has become even tougher. In the last few years, digital marketing has defeated almost all other marketing methodologies.

Today, mostly all prospects are equipped with a smartphone and are in the habit of researching the best deals and services available before they travel. It should come of no surprise that they’re using their most used device to find the lowest deals; their smartphones.

The tour and travel app-based platforms that are available today provide the easiest way of booking hotel rooms right from the palm of your hands. Customers can now book, cancel, pay, and modify reservations, or when need be, talk to hotel staff through a business texting service about their booking right from their mobile device. The flexibilities that travel apps now offer have transformed the hotel industry to a highly dynamic business, but also a business that is very tough among competitors. Where a hotel’s reputation once earned them the most bookings, now the best pictures, text, and pricing is listed side by side on an app and one click or another will win.

To give you a clearer picture of how many rooms go unreserved, we’d like to use data from the most recent data research report for the hospitality industry. Although this case study is from two years ago, it is the most recent available. According to the report the percentage on unoccupied hotel rooms in Feb 2017 was about 69%. This shows that a large portion of the hotel inventory was untouched, and caused loss to the hotel business.

Another report demonstrated that the hotel industry is a nearly $500 billion a year business. The total number of hotels around the world is about 187,000 with 17.5 million guest rooms in inventory. If that’s true, imagine what the revenue projections would be if the proper marketing would help get the unoccupied 69% of hotel rooms booked.

That’s where a business texting service comes in…

It is clear that the hotel industry requires proper marketing planning and strategic execution to grow at higher rates. Below we will review how a business texting service can be used as a marketing solution for hotels:

Top-notch Website. The hotel must have an excellent website where the potential customer is not only attracted to the visuals but can search, view, compare and analyze all aspects of their stay. These may include pricing for booking a room, amenities available at the hotel (which are part of the booking), food availability, availability of transportation, sightseeing options, local shopping information and the commuting option to and from the nearest airport. Information regarding these aspects should be clearly available on the website.

Returning Customers. Customers who have already stayed in the hotel should be enticed to return for future visits. This can be achieved by various loyalty reward programs or cash credits which can be utilized for payment towards future bookings. This will attract existing customers to re-visit the hotel.

Website Virtual Tour. The hotel’s website should have videos, images and a virtual tour of the hotel readily available. This should contain real images and a real tour of the perimeters of the hotel. When the customer is satisfied with the outlook and infrastructure, they will be more apt to complete their booking right then and there.

Ad Campaigns. The hotel should run several ad campaigns on various social media platforms. The digital ad campaigns are generally less expensive than any other form of traditional advertising.

Accurate Marketing. According to research, a customer abandons about 75% of bookings halfway through the process due to some reason or another. The report shows that it’s usually due to missing information or unclear data. If the information is accurate and detailed, then the abandonment rate would go down and prospects would be less opposed to complete their booking.

SEO Services. There is tough competition in the Hotel Industry in both the online and offline segments. Therefore, it is highly recommended to consider search engine optimization services. Your website content should also be regularly updated so that it can rank high on search engines. The targeted prospects should include a variety of visitors. For example, men, women, students, housewives, travel bloggers, and various other categories of people.

Local Community Awareness. The hotel manager is expected to be aware of the local culture, traditions, festivals and other important happenings in the city. These events directly affect the number of people visiting the city for the first time and want to take in all the local offerings. Strategic planning should be implemented into marketing material to ensure the busy season is properly utilized.

Reviews. The social media giant Tripadvisor.com contains 435 million reviews and 390 million visitors land on the website monthly. Coincidence? We think not. Reviews are vital on how a website ranks on search engines. To give you an idea of what type of volume of reviews are needed, about 280 travelers leave reviews on their website every minute.

Using a business texting service to send a direct link to guests and request that they write a review after they have checked out would be ideal. If you throw in a discount for the next time they stay at the hotel, you’re killing two marketing birds with one text. You’re convincing them to write a review which will help the hotel’s ranking, and you’re ensuring they’ll return for a visit with the offered loyalty discount for returning to the hotel.

Business Texting Service. The hotel administration should use the most common form of communication to stay in touch with prospects, existing, and returning guests. People are more prone to read and reply to a text message regarding their existing or upcoming stay at the hotel than to sit on a phone call with you about it. Trying to reach out to them by email has a very little chance that they’ll read it, and an even lesser chance that they’ll reply. Here’s how you can use a business texting service to engage and connect more with hotel guests:

  • Use your website and social media pages to let potential guests and loyal customers know they can text your business phone number to contact you.
  • Send and receive messages to confirm hotel reservations.
  • Use two-way text messaging for any changes, cancellations, or updates regarding hotel reservations.
  • Send promotional offers via text messages.
  • Send links to directions.
  • Send forms and surveys to hotel guests.
  • Send links offering a discount if a recent guest clicks to write a review about their experience at the hotel.
  • Live chat from the admin panel chat widget directly to the hotel guest’s mobile device.
  • Send invoices and links to accept payments from customers.
  • Partner with a local car ride or transportation service and offer a considerable discount for anyone who books with your hotel and uses the partner’s car/transportation service. They must subscribe to your list of contacts by using a special code and you can auto-reply with their promotional discount code.
  • Partner with local entertainment establishments like movie theaters, musical theatres, sightseeing tours, etc. and offer a combined booking discount for anyone who uses a special code to subscribe to receive text messages.

It’s time to realize just how dynamic the hotel business is in the hospitality industry. You must emerge, reinvent, and execute innovative marketing methods in order to improve sales. Using such a popular and cost-effective communication channel is the way to go! To stay updated with the latest ways of using a business texting service to improve your marketing strategies, check in frequently on the Text My Main Number blog.

Landline Texting is on the Rise Among Private Schools in the U.S.

The number of students who are studying in private schools in the US has steadily increased in the last few decades. Similarly, the number of private schools that are opening each year is always on the rise. According to a statistics report, there are 34,576 American private schools which forms a share of 10% of the total number of schools that are educating almost 5.7 million students.

The huge popularity of private schools and the increasing number of students enrolling in private educational institutions has made security a priority to ensure safe school procedures. The safety of the students is of paramount importance to these private institutions, to the parents, and to state officials. In order to ensure safe school operations, the directors of these private schools must ensure efficient and quick communication with the parents, students, and with the administration.

Consequently, it is highly encouraged that all private school operators deploy landline texting which is the latest form of establishing effective communication. Up to now, many schools (both private and public) have been using phone calls, email, snail mail letters, and scheduling meetings to deliver messages and school updates. However, landline texting has proven to be the latest and greatest form of delivering important updates and messages because it offers immediate message delivery. That’s why sending a short message (SMS) to the mobile device of all participants is becoming the preferred method of communication at schools.

Landline Texting is on the Rise

Landline texting services were first introduced in 1985 with the use of the Global System for Mobile Communication standard.

That being said, the top reasons that private schools are switching to landline texting is because:

  • You can use your school’s phone number to send and receive text messages.
  • Using two-way text messaging accomplishes a fully secured and enhanced method of exchanging data and sending important reminders and updates.
  • By using SMS, the schools can save on paper, printing services, labor, electricity and telephone bills.
  • You can centralize communication using an easy-to-manage web-based user admin panel.
  • The private school administrators can establish a security measure that would require a password that ensures safe pick-up and drop-off of the students.
  • For sending or receiving texts, no special software, data connection or any particular expertise is required. Basically, anyone who owns a mobile device can text.
  • Schools can send bulk text messages to parents to instantly deliver a message about any unforeseen incident.
  • Text messaging has a lower risk of hacking than email which makes it a safer way of communicating.

The above-mentioned SMS platform features have rendered landline texting as the most favorable form of communication among private schools. The popularity of texting has been increasing since its inception, and the appeal grew quickly among businesses and educational institutions because:

  • In 90% of cases, the receiver reads the text message within 3 minutes.
  • There are almost 6 billion mobile phones whereas the number of email accounts is just about 3.6 billion.
  • 91% of people keep their phone handy all the time whereas 84% of emails land in the spam folder and are never read.
  • Only 2.95% of URL links sent through emails are clicked on whereas 36% of URL links sent via text are clicked on.
  • Recipients only open 22.5% of the emails they receive, whereas 99% of text messages are opened.
  • SMS texting has six to eight times more engagement than emails.
  • Consumers redeem discount offers sent by text 10 times more than the ones sent through email.

Why Private Schools are Switching to Landline Texting

The most valuable components of landline texting for private schools are the fact that it is so cost effective and results oriented. School authorities are able to perform various tasks and deliver information to the parents and students using the school’s phone number in a fast and secured method. Let’s review some of the other reasons private schools are using SMS.

  • Quick delivery of schedule changes, early dismissal due to inclement weather, and other events that may cause an unexpected change in the school day.
  • Instant notification of any unforeseen circumstances or emergencies.
  • Convenient way to remind parents and students about the submission of permission slips, projects, homework, returning signed report cards, and many more reminders.
  • Excellent way to notify subscribers about PTA meetings, fundraisers, events, trips, and other activities.
  • The school administration can instantly notify parents about the sudden absence of a student or any suspicious behavior.
  • Teachers can send notifications on new lesson plans or upcoming projects to keep parents and students informed of upcoming schoolwork ahead of time.
  • The school can promote any ongoing awareness campaigns to both the students and parents through text. For example, awareness against bullying or sexual harassment.
  • The school staff is able to inform parents about their child’s performance and progress through text message.
  • Teachers can notify parents via text about upcoming tests to help them manage the appropriate time for studying, especially for year-end state exams.
  • School authorities can inform parents about incidents that will cause disciplinary action and secure a day and time to meet with the parents if required.

These are only a few of the purposes that private schools are using landline texting to communicate with students and parents. Additionally, there are several other resolves that a texting service can provide for schools including advertising campaigns that would attract new admissions and increase revenue for the school. In some cases, with the consent of the parents, schools are also running various in-house campaigns through SMS to increase brand awareness and build a stronger reputation.

The beauty of the Text My Main Number landline texting platform is that it allows schools to filter messages into groups so that only specific recipients receive the text messages. With the use of the web-based platform, schools can send scheduled text messages at any time irrespective of the school’s working hours. Considering the minimal initial set-up and operating costs, the usage of a landline texting platform is economical, reasonable, and suitable. The best part is, you won’t have to hire an IT expert to comfortably operate the texting platform. Text My Main Number offers a free trial and free training after set-up and their customer support team is always readily available to assist with any questions you may have.

How the Events Industry is using SMS Platforms

The Events Industry is growing as fast as our social culture is, and with that growth comes the need for more innovative forms of communication which is why so many event professionals are turning to business texting. Event planners organize events for both personal and professional lives so there is a huge market for this particular industry. The events produced by event organizers consist of weddings, birthday celebrations, promotional events, conferences, product launches, anniversary celebrations, engagement parties, cultural and religious ceremonies, festival celebrations and so much more. Due to the wide spectrum of events that organizers put together, the list of guests or attendees (in the case of corporate functions) can range anywhere from a few people to several thousand.

The core challenge that event managers are facing is ensuring and managing RSVPs for each event. When you’re dealing with managing the attendance of hundreds of people for an event, it’s time to whip out a bag of tricks to not only keep reservations organized but also to keep a history of communication all in one place. That’s why so many event management companies are beginning to use SMS platforms that facilitate business texting and have an easy-to-manage admin panel.

SMS Platforms         

SMS Platforms consist of short messaging services (SMS) that enable two-way text messaging that help event planning professionals manage invitations, event reminders, event updates, schedule changes, and RSVPs. Once your invitees subscribe to receiving messages, you can easily send and receive messages pertaining to the event and keep a record of communication on the web-based admin panel. When you’re communicating with such a large group of guests, an all-in-one business texting platform will surely make operations easier.

Role of Business Texting in the Events Industry   

For those of you who are wondering how exactly business texting is enhancing communication in the events industry, we’re here to detail it for you! Event planning organizations have been around for decades but in more recent times, they have become more prominent in the business world. Companies are hiring event professionals to manage business functions such as meetings, conferences, panel discussions, workshops, launches, holiday parties, team building events, and more. With text messaging being the most used form of communication in our technologically advanced world, it only made sense to implement business texting into daily operations for event planning teams to better manage communication.

Chances are that all invitees own a mobile device and messages are 98% likely to be read by the user. This makes business texting the most user-friendly communication platform for event managers. According to a survey, a person is 6-8 times more likelyto read and reply to a text message than an email message.

Are you asking yourself how to use business texting to increase attendance at events? We’re glad you asked. Let’s review.

1. Before Event: You can use text messaging to send out invitations, confirm reservations, send updates, inform invitees of schedule changes, send directions, send registration forms, and answer any questions pertaining to the upcoming event.

Keep in mind, that the first and most important step in enabling two-way messaging using your business phone number is obtaining consent from each guest. You can’t even send an invitation for an event without the end user’s consent.

So, what’s the best way to gain consent to send an event invite by text?

You can get creative and offer your target audience an incentive for subscribing to receive messages from your event management team. For example, you can ask invitees to fill out a raffle ticket that includes their mobile phone number to subscribe to your list and offer an attractive prize for the person who wins the lucky draw ticket. You can also post ads on social media announcing a contest and the audience can enter the contest by texting a particular keyword to your business phone number.

Today’s modern parents enjoys attending family events, so for event planners who specialize in that niche of the events industry, it would be wise to offer some free passes or a special discount to prospects who subscribe to receive text messages. These methods will attract your target audience to not only subscribe to your list of contacts, but also to attend the proposed event. Once you receive consent to send text messages, you can announce attractive incentives to entice the audience to attend the event. According to a digital marketing survey, 75 percent of consumers prefer to have special offers and discounts sent to them via text.

2. During Event: Event planners are using text messaging to ensure the best user-friendly experience during events. You can use SMS to keep attendees informed about all event information, any changes, alerts, location of services, points of interests and emergency services to ensure that everyone is given the opportunity to enjoy all attractions and points of interest.

Event organizers are also using business texting to send surveys to get feedback from attendees regarding the provided services during the event. Up to now, getting survey responses via email has not been so promising but when you send a link to your audience’s most used device, you have a better chance of getting them to click on the link in the text message and quickly answer your survey questions.

3. Post Event: At the completion of each event, you can request feedback not only to learn about each guests’ experience, but also to request to use their positive responses as testimonials on your website. If their response expresses areas of concern, you now have first-hand information on how to improve specific areas that were not appealing to the audience and can be improved for future events.

You’ll want to request feedback no later than a day or two after the event because you want to make sure that everyone who attended gives you fresh information and hope that they don’t leave any detail out. After a couple of days, there’s a chance they’ll forget vital information that you can use to improve your event production practices.

The Bottom Line

It’s safe to say that the events industry is using SMS platforms for managing multiple event components in an efficient and productive manner. It’s become more convenient to connect with target audiences using the most used device for communication; smartphones. Starting from the planning stages of an event, to sending messages and updates during the event, to following up and requesting feedback post-event, business texting is the way to go. Are you an event industry professional who is ready to get started with the most efficient way to communicate with attendees? Start our free trial today to begin managing events more efficiently.

SMS or LiveChat: What Work’s Best for Businesses?

Nearly all businesses need an option to speak live with a customer service representative. If they have a question, and they always do, you’ll need to respond quickly to not only personalize the experience, but to beat your competitors in terms of efficient service.

But what type of chat feature would work best for your type of business?

In this article, we’re going to review the two most popular types of chat features. SMS chat vs. live chat. Both services have distinctive features, but you must decide which will work best for your business.

How does live chat work?

You can install a live chat widget on your website that will allow visitors to start a conversation with your team. Any customer service representative assigned to communicate with customers online will see the new conversation on the dashboard and can reply as needed.

The conversation takes place online while the lead or customer stays on the website and your staff member stays on the dashboard.

How does SMS chat work?

Similar to live chat, SMS chat is a widget that you’d place on your website that will allow visitors to converse with your business. The conversations would appear on your dashboard where a customer service representative could not only reply quickly, but also manage multiple conversations at the same time.

But with SMS chat, you can text back and forth using your business phone number.

Incoming messages will appear on your dashboard, and then your replies will go directly to the person’s cell phone. Then you can reply and continue.

Business texting will allow you to keep the conversation going even after the person has left your website, whereas live chat restricts the conversation to communicating only while they’re connected to your site.

Which of the two chats is faster for answering questions?

It is a known fact that a sale will go to the vendor who responds first, so fast communication is crucial in terms of landing a sale. This is also true with existing customers who prefer speedy service which increases customer satisfaction ratings.

So, is SMS chat or live chat faster to communicate?

Well, it comes down to luck of the draw. Response time will be entirely reliant on on your customer service representatives (unless you’re using an autoresponse message). An autoresponse is a message sent to visitors instantly after they’ve messaged you.

Both SMS and live chat work in real-time, so both chats could be programmed to have an autoresponse. However, it is up to your team how quickly the visitor gets a response.

Which chat do customers prefer?

The customer experience is dependent on the person. Here’s what we mean:

To communicate with your business via live chat, the customer will have to remain on your website throughout the entire conversation. Sometimes they’re fine with that.

But, sometimes not so much.

The typical time for a person to stay on a website is approximately 30 seconds. 30 seconds! So, if you can magically engage a customer and reply to their inquiries in less than a minute then live chat may work for you. But if you can’t then SMS is the way to go.

If you’re unable to instantly reply to a live chat conversation, the customer will leave your website. You won’t be able to reach out to them again, and even if you tried, it would probably be too late since their next move was probably to go to a competitor’s website.

On the other hand, with business texting through SMS chat, visitors will send your business a message and can then leave your site. So long as you reply within 15 minutes, you’re in good standing and they will continue the chat with you on their timing.

In other words, SMS allows for some wiggle room.

Which chat is easier for your business to manage?

Live chat and SMS chat are both fairly easy to manage. They each allow:

  • Multi-user dashboards
  • Name and time stamps
  • The capability to handle multiple conversations at once
  • Notifications of new messages
  • And a customizable website widget

Pricing may be different depending on which chat you choose (most live chat services charge you per user, whereas SMS chats don’t), but in terms of managing each, they’re both simple.

Which chat is better to carry sales conversations?

When it comes to sales, you must know that it’s all about connecting with people at the right time. You already have leads visiting your website and sparking conversation with your business. That’s great.

The problem lies in that not many sales transactions will happen immediately after that conversation. Usually, people are just window shopping and bouncing from one website to the other before they decide where to buy.

To avoid them coming back later to buy (or not), you want to have a solid follow-up plan in place.

You can ask your leads for their contact information at the beginning of a live chat so that you have a way to reach back out to them. But, more times than not, it’s very hard to reach them again.

In these cases, SMS chat is better than live chat. Why? Well, you’re starting the sales conversation through your lead’s mobile phone and business texting will be the fastest way to follow-up with them afterwards (95% of texts are read within 3 minutes).

Text messaging is also known to boost sales conversions by well over 100% in comparison with following up by email or phone.

How to get started with live or SMS chat

If you’re thinking about going with live chat, there are hundreds of live chat options to choose from. Top picks include ZenDesk and LiveChat.

If you’re thinking about going with SMS chat, Text My Main Number has a leading SMS chat for your business. You’ll also get:

  • Unlimited users and contacts
  • All our individual and group messaging features
  • Integrations, and more

To learn more about Text My Main Number’s SMS chat, sign up for our free trial. Or if you’re looking to get started as soon as possible, you can simply check our pricing page before you sign up. Have any questions? Just visit our contact page and we’ll be more than happy to answer them!

Top Text Messages to Send to Help Close Sales Leads

If part of your day-to-day involves closing sales leads, then you know about the prospects who have done their due diligence and know the value in what you’re offering but need a bit of a push to cross over to a sale. Closing warm leads is critical to your success in sales (and career), but knowing how to keep them interested without scaring your leads away can be challenging. So, what’s the best way to keep them engaged?

Text them.

Using the Text My Main Number business texting service will allow you to stay relevant, keep your prospects’ interested, and offer exclusive value that beats your competitors. We’re going to break down various opportunities where you can use a business texting service to send text messages to your warm leads complete with example texts that you should send to close more sales.

The Best Times to Text Warm Leads

The first rule is to take notes throughout your entire conversation with prospects.

You’re going to need those notes to suitably follow up with your warm leads, and fully understand what position they’re in the sales conversion process, and the information you collect will become the perfect tool to reference from later on to share resources that will help direct them to the next phase of your funnel.

Once you have the information, here’s how you’re going to use it.

Solve the problems they mentioned to you.

There’s a great chance that your leads are speaking to you because there’s a problem that exists, and they believe you may be able to help them solve it. You probably can. However, it’s going to take more than a phone call or demo video to do so.

This is your chance to text your prospects articles, informational videos, and other resources that’s going to teach them how to resolve their problem, and how you’re the person who’s going to solve it for them.

It would be even more productive if you send them content that your business created. That would help build trust while fortifying your relationship with them while producing more clout for the brand.

Here are some business texting examples to use with your warm leads:

“Hey Susan, when we spoke you mentioned that you’re trying to develop a marketing strategy using SMS, here is a blog post we wrote that I feel will really help you. The Secret to SMS Marketing through Business Texting

“You mentioned you were looking to increase customer loyalty. This article should help ? https://textmymainnumber.com/5-ways-text-messaging-increases-customer-loyalty/

You want to share content that is effective so you’ll want to send them resources that will directly help your lead solve their problem. You can also share content that is not necessarily related to your brand yet shows you care about their revenue because you want to build a trustworthy relationship. For example:

 “Susan, I know you’re super busy trying to work on ways to double sales, so I thought about this blog we posted on ways to Boost E-Commerce Sales with Landline Texting https://textmymainnumber.com/boost-e-commerce-sales-with-landline-texting/ that can really help you.”

Try to send messages like the example above a day after you first interact with your prospect, a week later, or whenever you feel it best fits your sales cycle. We suggest you try different timelines to learn which time was most effective.

Build a relationship with your prospects.

No one wants to work with strangers, but they do want to work with someone they’ve built a relationship with. If your intent is to convert leads, you should follow them or their business on social media platforms like LinkedIn. Stay up to date with what they’re working on and if you see an opportunity to recognize a recent accomplishment, reach out to them.

You’ll be surprised at how effective a simple “Congratulations!” text is and could be the golden ticket you’ve been waiting for. At the very least you’ll stand out more than your competitors.

Here are some examples:

“Hey John, just saw that you were promoted on LinkedIn! Congrats! ?”

“Hey Michelle, I saw an article in Forbes that placed your company in the top 10 fastest growing companies. Kudos!”

“Hey there! I see you guys hired a new VP of Operations. Glad to see the team is growing!”

You can also humanize the message by adding a GIF or emoji to your message.

This isn’t an open door for a sales pitch. This is just a great way to maintain and build a relationship.

Follow up with your sales leads.

CRMs are the most commonly used platforms to maintain relationships with prospects and customers. They allow you to set up alerts and when any of the contacts perform an action, it creates a trigger to perform an action on the brand’s website. Some of these actions are an excellent opportunity for you to use your business texting service to send messages like when they:

  • Click on an ad
  • View your pricing page
  • Download a guide or eBook
  • Join a webinar
  • View 3 pages of your site in one session

You can program key events in your CRM that your staff can monitor, then send text messages when the right opportunity presents itself. You may want to say something like:

  • “Hey Maurice! I see you downloaded the new guide on our site! What did you think? Let me know if you have any questions. I’m here to help!”
  • “Hey Blake, we just read your comment on Facebook! It was great to see that you agree with us. I’d love to chat with you and hear more about what you think!”

Text messages like these are great because you’re acknowledging and engaging your warm leads. It’ll show them that you haven’t abandoned them and that you’re just trying to increase value. Plus, it keeps your brand on their minds.

How to start business texting?

Sure, you can send text messages from your cell phone. But the most efficient way is to get started with a business texting service that allows you to send text messages to all of your leads and customers in a professional format. Text My Main Number will do that for you. Want to test how it works? Just sign up for our free trial. We’ll then help guide you on how to create auto responses and templates, how to integrate with your existing platforms, and of course how to send text messages to your leads that will increase sales conversions.

How to Increase Sales Leads with an SMS Business Texting Service

If you work in sales, you’re probably constantly looking for a better strategy to convert more leads into customers. An inbound strategy is usually more successful (and enjoyable) than outbound methods. But, how do you draw more people in?

The Text My Main Number team would like to teach you how to successfully generate more sales leads with inbound communication by using an SMS business texting service. SMS texting is a highly effective communication channel that is easy to implement when you’re looking to increase sales conversions.

Why do businesses need more leads?

Most sales reps think “more leads = more sales,” but do they actually know why?

Well, we do. More prospects and leads means that you can maintain the same ratios while closing more accounts. That will lead to increasing revenue for your organization or business.

If you use the Text My Main Number SMS business texting service to generate inbound leads, then you’ll be applying a method that not only increases revenue but also helps you save on your marketing budget. In other words, you’ll be boosting profits and scaling up in a more effective manner.

Most Effective Ways to Use SMS Business Texting to Generate More Leads

1. Adwords extensions

The most known platform for ads is Google’s Adwords, which are the ads you see when you’re Googling terms online.

The Adwords extensions allow you to insert a call-to-action that will only be seen by mobile users so that they can directly text your business phone number by clicking on the ad.

Most readers would much rather send your business a text than navigate through your website to find answers. In which case you can include a prompt on your ad inviting viewers to “Send us a text for a coupon code!” Once they’ve sent you a text, you can use your Text My Main Number SMS business texting service to reply and ask them if they have any questions you can assist with.

2. Keyword signups

Keyword signups is when people text a word to you in order to opt in to receive messages from your business. In other words, it’s a subscriber list.

You’ve probably seen opt in invitations such as:

  • Schools (“Text UPDATES for school updates”)
  • Boutiques (“Text DESIGN for exclusive discounts”)
  • Entertainment (“Text TIX to get a free ticket to our show”)
  • And more

There is a plethora of ways to use keywords to increase your sales leads and list of subscribers from your marketing channels like print ads, social media pages, and your website.

3. Google business listing messages

You can create a Google My Business listing for your company at no cost so that you can show up on search results. Once your business is listed, viewers will be able to send you a message directly from the listing.

4. SMS chat

One of the best ways to answer your audience’s questions is through a live chat feature on your website. Answering your prospective customer’s questions instantly increases your chances of landing a sale.

SMS chat is easy. People just have to enter their phone number and their message to you in the chat widget, and then the message will populate on your dashboard. You can then reply to them and it will deliver your response as a text message on their cell phone. This form of communication is not only instant, but it prevents them from having to be glued to your website trying to find answers.

5. Website text link

You can hyperlink your copy (words) to create a text link that will open up a targeted page when clicked on. You can also use text links with SMS. You simply link the text to a call-to-action like “Send us a text to get more information about this product” and it will allow the reader to send a text through their mobile device. You can use this feature to hyperlink words all throughout your website and blog articles.

6. Embed buttons on your website

Embedding buttons is similar to hyperlinking words, except that you’re able to create a button named “Click-to-Text” instead of just linking text. You can then place the button anywhere you’d like on your website. Some excellent choices would be to place this button on each product page, the homepage, and the contact us page.

You should customize your embedded buttons with different font, colors, and then program it to track clicks so you can analyze how effective it is when reading click stats on your website.

7. Floating text button on your website

Have you ever visited a website and there is a floating box asking you to enter your email to subscribe and get a coupon code? Great way to build your subscriber list! Even better? A floating text button that allows mobile users to send you a message when they hover over the “Click-to-text” button.

8. Instagram contact

Instagram is an awesome platform for business owners. It’s one of the most cost-effective marketing channels which is why many brands promote their products or services via Instagram ads.

You can use SMS business texting on Instagram and easily turn your followers into sales leads. Instagram now allows you to include a “Text” button on your ads instead of including a “Buy Now” or “Learn More” button.

How to Get Started with Text My Main Number SMS Business Texting

For Text My Main Number customers, any one of our suggested tactics listed above to increase sales leads should boost revenue. Feel free to contact us if you want us to suggest which method would best suit your business, or if you have any questions. If you’re not a Text My Main Number customer just yet but would like to get started, you can sign up for our free trial and give SMS business texting a go!

How the Service Industry is Using SMS Business Texting

Businesses are formed by people and are structured to provide services or products for a specific target audience. In addition to tailoring services for each niche, it is up to each company to select the most effective and convenient form of communication with their consumers because it will lead to a higher customer satisfaction rate. SMS business texting has proven itself to be one of the most resourceful styles of communication because you’re able to instantly deliver a message to the palm of your customer’s hands. Some companies are content with making phone calls or emailing their audience, while others find that spreading their message over social media platforms is what works best for them because their goal is to gain followers.

While the above-mentioned forms of communication may work well for many industries, in the service industry, it’s imperative that you’re able to contact your customers as fast as possible. If anything changes prior to or during a scheduled service job, you’ll want to have immediate communication with your customer to ensure quality service. More times than not, a scheduled service means you’re repairing, installing, treating, or improving something in someone’s home and that affects their quality of life so keeping them in the loop is crucial and will determine how they rate the service you provided.

Making phone calls to customers has always been the most common method of contact but SMS business texting delivers a more immediate and responsive communication tool that’s easy for all target audiences to use. 98% of all text messages sent by a business are opened, and 95% of those messages are read within a matter of a few minutes.

The Text My Main Number SMS platform is being used by service professionals to:

Send Appointment Reminders

“Good Morning, Mrs. Taylor. Super Repair Technicians will be arriving at 3 pm today to fix your air conditioning. Your technician today will be John Smith. If you need to reach him, you can call him at 555-555-5555.”

The most universally accommodating and common form of using SMS business texting is to send appointment reminders. When customers schedule work to be done, especially if they need to be home for the service, a quick text an hour prior to you arriving will significantly reduce the number of customers who forget about their appointment. With a heads-up message an hour before, you’re giving your customers time to get ready for your arrival.

Schedule Appointments

“Hi there, is it possible to get a full cleaning this afternoon at 2 pm? I have some new prospects that are looking to view the property today. Thank you!”

If your customers know they can reach to you by text, you’re opening the door to faster and better customer service by providing a communication channel that instantly connects to you. Now, your customers don’t have to wait until they find time to make a phone call or write an email to request service. Facilitating how a customer can schedule an appointment may even boost your sales because you’ve made it easier for them to request service.

Make Schedule Changes

“Hello Mr. Douglas. Your technician, John, is stuck in a little bit of traffic. He’s going to arrive about half hour late. Sorry for the inconvenience!”

It’s not always easy to time a home service. Unexpected circumstances happen in real life and there will be times that either you or the client needs to reschedule. It may be because your work gets backed up, a worker calls in sick, your truck or equipment breaks down, or any other unforeseen situation that causes a change in the schedule. At times like this, using SMS business texting to send a message to update your customer can avoid upsetting them any further. By the same token, texting also allows your customer to tell you about any personal emergency that has presented itself that will cause them to have to make a schedule change as well.

Send Status Updates

“We’re installing the insulation tubes now, so your pipes are almost done!”

If you’re providing a service that will take many hours or days and your customer doesn’t need to be home to overlook the entire development, the best way to keep them updated is through text messaging. You can even send an image to show them how the work is coming along. Sending status updates helps the customer feel like they’re right there with you as you complete the work and leaves no room for them to guess where in the process you are. Keeping them engaged delivers a more connected form of customer service and the feedback you’ll receive upon completion of the project is sure to be a positive one.

Provide Quick Consultations

“Hi, ABC Electric! Would this light fixture be a bad idea, or might it be a safety hazard?”

Customers having the ability to send you a picture of an item they’re looking to buy or install can prevent disastrous situations from occurring. Many service professionals offer repair or maintenance services and people would love the idea of getting a quick consult before they cause the need for a repair. If your client is not sure about how dangerous an item may be and they’re able to reach you for a quick consult, it can easily result in scheduling a work order right after. For example, your response to their question may be:

“That light fixture would actually be a great addition to your hallway, but I don’t recommend you install it on your own. The wiring work may be tricky or hazardous so let me know when you’d like me to come by to install it for you.”

Answer Logistical Questions

“Good afternoon, Lacey. My GPS says we’re at the right address, but I don’t see your house number. Is the entrance around back?”

At times, preparing and scheduling for a work order requires more coordination than other cases. Logistics can get tricky but having the ability to quickly send a text to ask the right questions will reduce the chance of being late and causing the rest of your work orders for the day to get backed up. You can also notify them of any other problem that presents itself prior to arriving like their payment method being declined. Sending a message to notify them can help them resolve the issue before you arrive so that the payment is complete, and you can get started with the work upon arrival.

Send Follow-Up Messages

“Hi Mr. Patterson. Thank you for scheduling service with Super HVAC Techs today! Feel free to reach out to us via text if you have any questions or concerns. We look forward to working with you and receiving feedback.”

Sending follow-up messages is very important in the customer service process. Sending a text message to your customers after they schedule or upon completion of your work, lets them know that you care about the service you’re providing them with. Maintaining a relationship with your audience usually results in more work later on down the line. You can also collect feedback and invite customers to write positive reviews which will secure repeat business. If you’re a service professional who still uses traditional forms of communication like making phone calls or writing emails, it’s time you modernize the way you communicate by using SMS business texting to reach out to your customers. Find out how the service industry is using the Text My Main Number business texting platform by signing up for our free trial today and start providing a faster and more convenient way to communicate with customers.

Landline Texting Recovery Center Intervention Decreases At-Risk Youth from Relapsing

An interactive landline texting for recovery centers program has proven its potential to assist teenagers and at-risk youths to engage more with post-treatment activities to prevent relapse. Researchers found that a program called Educating & Supporting Inquisitive Youths in Recovery (ESQYIR) decreased relapsing by 50% in youths in comparison to typical aftercare programs.

A research team at UCLA led by Dr. Rachel Gonzales and her colleagues is who constructed ESQYIR in an effort to educate and support self-managed wellness in a way that would appeal to the lifestyle of younger patients and communicate more with them in a manner they are used to. The research team found an abundance of advantages with the landline texting approach. Besides being a cost-efficient platform, they found that the flexibility in being able to communicate at any time or place by using personalized texting features was of great benefit.

The Need of Landline Texting

A great percentage of young people lack follow-through with recovery centers, and they tend to resist involvement with the 12-step program along with other recovery activities during the post-treatment stages. As stated by Dr. Rachel Gonzales, “Teenagers don’t really want to be categorized with being a part of recovery or having a disease. In their thought process, after the first treatment, they are finished.” Teenagers don’t look at addiction as a type of disease, she added. They look at substance abuse as a personal choice or lifestyle. The result of that is that a shocking 85% of teenagers end up relapsing within a years’ time.

The research team found that teenagers would engage on a more regular basis with their aftercare program when landline texting was implemented. This innovative form of communicating is popular among youth and surpassed most other methods of social engagement. Text messages can be more personalized, private, and more accessible which is why young people find it to be convenient when reaching out for help. Landline texting is already being used by medical facilitiesto provide communicative support to patients who are overcoming tobacco dependence, obesity, STDs, and other medical problems.

Staying in Touch

There were 80 volunteers between the ages of 14-26 participating in the ESQYIR study who were all being treated in community recovery centers in Los Angeles, CA. The outpatient program included youths who were using drugs such as:

  • Marijuana (55 percent)
  • Methamphetamine (30 percent)
  • Cocaine (15 percent)
  • Heroin (11 percent)
  • Prescription drug (6 percent)
  • and other substances which included alcohol (4 percent)

50% of those who participated received the landline texting program as part of their treatment, while the other 50% were treated with the standard recovery center programs through the facilities they were registered with, which included referrals to a 12-step program.

In the image above, you’ll see an example of the daily text messages participants received to motivate and encourage them, along with self-monitoring message tips on their road to recovery. These substance-use related alerts also provided information on aftercare programs in their local area.

Every day at noon, the group who was partaking in the landline texting program would receive an encouraging message that included a healthy tip for the day. The encouraging portion of the text message would say something like, “Today is a new day in your recovery process! Just think about the wonderful things that await you at the finish line!” While the healthy tip of the day endorsed physical, social, personal, and emotional health. For instance, the text message would say something like, “Tell us the top 3 stressors that would prevent you from using.”

During the late afternoons each weekday, the landline texting participants would receive a text message that would prompt them to self-monitor and reply with a rating of their level of wellbeing, abstinence confidence, recovery behaviors, and substance use (see the self-monitoring portion of the image above). 

The group would then receive a reply that would encourage them or provide coping advice to help them stay on track with their recovery and motivate them to attend group therapy or meetings.

Over the weekends, the landline texting participants would receive personalized text messages with resourceful information on where they can seek support through local services.

More Engagement, Less Relapsing

In the image above you will notice that the participants of the landline texting program who were receiving text messages each day had a decrease in teenagers who relapsed over those who were receiving standard treatment


The research team at UCLA monitored the urine of participants for drugs and alcohol use each month during the study. The results proved that over time, the group who participated in the landline texting program had less chance of relapsing to their primary substance increased by only 50% as fast as the group undergoing standard treatment. In comparison to the group in the standard program, the landline texting group participants were less likely to relapse within:

  • 1 month (8.6 percent vs. 30.3 percent)
  • 2 months (3.6 percent vs. 39.3 percent)
  • and 3 months (14.7 percent vs. 62.9 percent) post substance abuse treatment

The research team followed up with 55 out of the 81 participants in the study 6 months later and found that those who were a part of the landline texting program relapsed less than those in the standard treatment program. Only 21.4% relapsed vs. the 59.3% who were in the standard treatment program.

Getting Started with Landline Texting for Recovery Centers

Text My Main Number provides a landline texting platform for recovery centers who are looking to improve their approach in how they motivate substance abuse users that are undergoing treatment. By providing daily messages of encouragement and support, text messages are proving to be an effective tool for people who are struggling on the road to sobriety. If you own or manage a recovery center and are looking to implement an effective communication channel for your facility, we encourage you to start a free trial of the Text My Main Number landline texting platform.

4 Reasons the Use of a Business Texting App is on the Rise with Recovery Centers

Caption for social media: When a recovery center takes on new clients, their priority is to develop a strong support system for recovering addicts. That’s why implementing the use of a business texting app has become increasingly popular for recovery centers since text messaging is the most used form of communication.

Addiction has been a big problem in the U.S. since what seems like the beginning of time. It’s a disease that touches everyone’s home irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, age, gender, or level of education. Recovery centers have been the backbone for helping addicts undergo treatment that will help them on their road to sobriety, and using a business texting app for recovery centers has become a resourceful tool according to a widespread study led by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration.

Landline texting platforms such as Text My Main Number have proven to be tremendously effective in bringing about real behavioral changes for people who are undergoing recovery from addiction. SMS programs provide cost efficient networked support for rehabilitation centers in comparison to in-person support.

In the United States, addiction has become one of the most expensive health care problems, costing over $400 billion each year. Although implementing mobile health procedures have been improving results for patient across all healthcare related fields, what’s really remarkable is the value it is offering recovering addicts.

90% of adults in the United States own mobile phones and most of them prefer text messaging to communicate over making phone calls or writing emails. Text messaging is used by family and friends on a daily basis to communicate with one another, and at times they communicate on an hourly basis. So, it should come as no surprise that the use of text messaging has an open rate of 90% and has an impressive click-through rate in comparison to other forms of communication.

The most non-intrusive communication channel for anyone who is recovering from addiction is using a business texting app. It allows people to maintain constant contact with a supportive network of professionals in the healthcare field, volunteers, and other meaningful resources that are helping them through their recovery journey. The Text My Main Number team has outlined how using a business texting app is helping people who are recovering from addiction below.

4 Reasons the Use of a Business Texting App is Saving Recovering Addicts

Who knew that a business texting app would be so instrumental in the behavioral changes of recovering addicts? Being that landline texting is so versatile and flexible, recovery centers are using the Text My Main Number text messaging platform to help people that are recovering from addiction. Here’s 4 reasons why it’s working so well.

1) Motivational Messaging: Daily motivation is a requirement on the long road to recovery. An effective recovery center has to be made up of a strong structure that provides reinforcement regularly and is consistent with communication. Old school programs were made up of support groups, meetings with counselors, and a dedicated sponsor. Now that the use of a business texting app for recovery centers is on the rise, sending SMS and multimedia messages can assist with sending inspirational messages that will motivate patients in between their appointments and meetings. A personalized message sent at just the right time can make a big difference in the day of someone who is recovering from addiction.

2) Engaging Health Management: In a study that was conducted and publicized in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, landline texting has demonstrated to assist with setting short term goals and has helped with the increase in self-monitoring. SMS has proven to accomplish these goals because of its innate conversational nature. For instance, you can send a message saying, “It’s day 20/30! You’re almost there! How does it feel to be so close? Reply with AVERAGE, GOOD, OR BAD.” Then the person can reply directly to the text message with how they are feeling. Based on their response, customized messages can help inspire the person to keep up the good work as they reach their goal. Helping people by tracking their progress will help demonstrate that their next milestone is reachable.

3) Supportive & Resourceful: Staying in constant contact with recovering addicts via text messaging will benefit patients because of the personalized support it facilitates. Recovery centers can also use a business texting app as a locator service that will send information regarding support groups, rehab centers, and medical facilities nearby. This is an excellent landline texting feature that will come in handy if the patient is outside of their normal surroundings, especially when traveling. By simply entering the zip code they are currently in, people who feel they might give in to a craving because they’re not following their normal schedule can reach out for help. This will show subscribers that no matter where they are – on the road, on vacation, or at work – help is only a simple text away.

4) Staying Connected: A study published in National Institutes of Health specified that receiving support from a network contributed to the long-term recovery of recovering addicts because it helps buffer stress, provides a structured strategy, offers hope, and delivers access to role models. Recovery centers who use a business texting app that enables their crisis hotline to receive and send text messages will be providing access to a network that cares 24/7. An active SMS program will provide people with the ability to chat with a sponsor, counselor, or volunteer when they’re in need of immediate support. Especially if it’s a recovering addict who is not comfortable with visiting a rehab center in the moment or making a phone call to discuss what they’re going through. Sending a text message may be the most ideal way for a person to ask for help and prevent a life-threatening relapse.

While a business texting app alone may not be enough to help someone recover from addiction, the Text My Main Number landline texting platform can offer patients access to the resources and professionals who can. You can use each text messaging scenario we listed above individually but they work best when used together because of the versatile assistance it offers recovering addicts who need assistance managing their well-being. If your recovery center is looking to implement landline texting to offer patients the most convenient and personalized form of communication, contact us today to start your free trial.

When is it OK to use Landline Texting to Contact Customers?

Satisfying a customer is usually every business’s main focus, because no one likes an angry customer. One of the best ways a business can communicate with their customers is via landline text message. In 2016, a study conducted by Twilio discovered that 9 out of 10 people preferred to communicate with businesses using landline text message, yet less than half of companies around the world had the proper Landline Texting platform in place to deliver that option. In more recent times, many companies and industries have finally started to communicate with their customers via landline texting. If your brand hasn’t started to use landline texting to communicate with your audience, below the Text My Main Number team has listed reasons why you should get started today. Remind Customer About Their Appointments In order to ensure that your mode of transportation is roadworthy, people around the globe abide by regional and national laws that enforce an annual inspection of their vehicle. For example, in the UK, people take their cars for a test called Ministry of Transport or MOT. The statistics demonstrate that a whopping 28% of drivers are late for these inspections. In an effort to decrease the percentage of drivers who are late for their inspections, the organization that is responsible for overseeing inspections began using landline texting to send reminders to people 30 days prior to the date of their MOT inspections. Car dealerships have found that using landline text messages to spark awareness for service appointments is quite useful for local providers. Statistics indicate that less than one in three appointments for service will take place at a dealership, even though these entities are the ones who sell all of the new cars and nearly most of the old ones. At a Toyota dealership where landline texting was implemented to send appointment reminders, 80 percent of the people who received the landline text message came to their appointments. That increased the percentage from 15 to 20 percent as opposed to the number of people who showed up prior to the business trying this method. Reduce People’s Frustration of Missing Appointments When patients make appointments to visit their doctor, the staff usually gives them an appointment reminder card that shows the date and time of their next appointment. However, more times than not, people lose the appointment card before they enter the information into their phones or physical calendars. A research study exposed that 4 out of 5 mobile device users wake up and within 15 minutes are checking their phones. If a medical facility sends out an appointment reminder via landline text message in bulk each morning, this method could increase the likelihood of people reading them when they first wake up. People tend to miss more than nine million appointments that are scheduled at the Veterans Affairs medical centers around the country each year, but one location is attempting to decrease that number by providing an opt-in landline texting service that would remind their patients a week prior to their appointments, and then send another landline text message two days before. Recipients can then reply with a text message to either confirm or cancel their appointments. Another research study proves that 23 percent of patients never show up to their appointments unless they receive a reminder. These no-show appointments end up causing a problem for doctors because they end up wasting time getting ready to see the patient who never arrives, and that also prevents them from seeing patients who needed treatment and would have kept their appointment, but didn’t have the opportunity to do so because the schedule was fully booked when they tried to schedule an appointment. Receive Customer Feedback Via Landline Text Message If brands don’t stay well-informed about their customer’s needs, it’ll be tremendously hard to uphold customer relations. One Worldwide company started sending feedback surveys via landline text message and discovered that 96 percent of their recipients replied within 24 hours. Announce Limited-Time Events A study revealed that people read 90 percent of their text messages within 3 minutes. So, it’s evident that the landline text message form of communication is ideal to let people know about promotions or an event that is only going to be offered for a limited time. You can use landline texting to send notifications regarding a one-day sale, an upcoming seminar, a local business opportunity, or offer a 50% off for shopping before the end of business on a specific date. During the Thanksgiving holiday season, Target offered their consumers a Black Friday pre-sale deal and offered the public a discount on items they could use to cook their Thanksgiving dinners, like kitchen appliances. Customer could send a message to your text-enabled business phone number to receive a coupon via text for an in-store discount. Your store could then reply via text message by sending a text message with details of an impressive deal a few days prior to distributing the paper flyers and other forms of guerilla marketing methods. In other words, you’re offering an exclusive deal to those who opt-in to receiving text messages from your business because they get the deal days before it’s available to the general public. A retailer performed a test through a landline text message campaign to offer a limited-time opportunity for open employment positions at its stores. They implemented the spread of the campaign to 170 of their locations, and about one-third of the people who received the landline text message notification about the available jobs completed the job application. A T-shirt retailer called TeePublic found that landline text message marketing delivered a 25 percent conversion rate, as opposed to the 9 percent they brought in from sending messages via email. Additionally, Adam Lasky, who is the company’s marketing director, reported that 50,000 customers had opted in to receive text message since their launch in May 2017, and today 40,000 are still opted in to receive them, which means their consumers do appreciate the content in the messages they receive. Even though we used examples how specific industries use landline texting for customer service or marketing purposes, you can easily apply its convenient use across all industries. For instance, hair salons and even many school districts use landline texting to notify their audience of upcoming events, meetings, and to schedule appointments. The bottom line is, people like receiving text messages and the response rate is favorable in comparison to other forms of communication. That means there is no reason for your business to further delay implementing the most effective form of engaging and communicating with your consumers. Contact the Text My Main Number team today to get started with your free landline text messaging trial and see how quickly your ROI increases.

How to Tell Your Boss You’ve Found a Business Texting Solution

We’re just going to say it, without a shadow of a doubt, that if given the opportunity employees would much rather use tools that make daily operations easier. Your boss is sure to agree with that statement too, however, getting them to approve the purchase of said tools…well, that’s a whole other story. See here’s the thing: You and the entire staff have had nonstop issues with the daily workflow, and you’re finding that providing customers with the attentive service they deserve has become challenging. So now you’ve made it your business to find the perfect tool to resolve all of these issues. You’ve done the due diligence, read online reviews, compared customer feedback and you’ve come to the conclusion that a business texting solution is exactly what the doctor ordered to help reach your goals. Now the challenge is, convincing your boss to get on board. Your input matters While they should, not all companies are using a business texting solution to communicate with customers, mainly because no one has proven its value to them yet. More times than not, the employees who notice the value of the most innovative tools, are not the ones who have buying power. That basically means that although employees are usually the first to have the ability to identify a problem in the way the company communicates with customers, they’re not the ones with the power to give the green light. Upper management will have to be convinced of this business texting solution in order for it to be implemented. In other words, when it’s time to push for upgrades or new innovative tools at the office, employees are typically the first to voice the necessity, not management. It actually makes a lot of sense because the staff is who works directly with customers and the company’s product or services each day. Management already has a million things on their plate, so it becomes challenging to have a good pulse in terms of what’s needed in order for staff to do their jobs efficiently and what new tools can improve customer satisfaction. If you’re a staff member who works for a company that would benefit of using a business texting solution to communicate with customers, here’s how to convince your boss. Do the due diligence for your boss You’ll want to present as compelling a case as possible, so you must demonstrate that you’ve really thought out this business texting solution through. Find statistics on how a business texting solution benefits the industry you’re categorized under, how much customers use text messaging, and finally, how it will improve the team’s workflow. If you can:
  • Find detailed information on how much time and money a business texting solution will save the company.
  • Help management visualize the number of hours that will be saved per week not having to play phone tag with your customers.
  • Demonstrate how much more revenue the company will make by reaching customers faster.
  • Design a list of pros and cons to show your boss that is comprised of reasons a business texting solution makes sense for the company. For example, text messaging is broadly used and since that’s true, perhaps your boss will immediately agree since they probably use text messaging more than any other form of communication too.
  • Remind management how many times customer inquiries are missed when anyone is out of the office or after hours. Use this as an opportunity to mention that the Text My Main Number team also designed a mobile app so that communication with customers can continue on the go at any hour of the day.
If landline texting is something that management is not very familiar with, you could also provide some literature they can look through. Get feedback from the staff Do your coworkers agree that a business texting solution will be a useful tool for daily operations? In the end, business texting tools will be an advantage for everyone, so if the staff is not on board with the idea, demonstrate to them how it will make their day-to-day easier. When speaking to management, your case will now be better supported even more because the staff will be on board with the idea of implementing a business texting solution. To open up management’s eyes even more, it’s important that you have some examples handy of why the current communication method needs an upgrade. You may want to remind them how many times the team gets interrupted during the day due to customers calling with questions about basic items like business hours or directions. Then you would follow the statement with a solution to that like sharing that Text My Main Number has features that would send the customer a text message with a link that contains directions. If the business offers appointments, you can tell management that a business texting solution would allow you to schedule, confirm, reschedule, or cancel appointments via text messaging and that will cut out a lot of down time. How to present it to your boss Now that you’ve gathered all of the statistics and laid out the pros and cons, it’s time to bring all of your data and the team’s feedback to your boss. Think about how your boss prefers information be presented to them. Are they the PowerPoint type? Do they prefer a quick conversation first, and then detailed information to follow? Whatever the case may be, put everything into perspective before you present them with the idea of approving a business texting solution. This should go without mention, but just in case – make sure you’re talking to your boss at the appropriate time. If the staff is working on some big project that’s consuming everyone’s time and energy, this isn’t the ideal time to bring anything new up. You want management to be free of distractions when you’re pitching an idea to them. When gathering your case details, start with the problems you and the staff feel need an immediate resolution. What challenges is the staff facing each day? What have customers been complaining about? What do all these challenges mean for the company? Be ready for possible pushback. You’re not going to be able to guess each hesitation point on their behalf, but the Text My Main Number team has a few common interjections to help prepare you:
  • Our customers don’t text. Ahhhh, we beg to differ. Recent studies prove that customers of all generations actually prefer if businesses text them.
  • We’re doing just fine with emails and phone calls. Emails and phone calls have become so overused that most people ignore them, making it more difficult to engage with customers.
  • We don’t have time to train the staff. If you choose the Text My Main Number landline texting platform with an easy-to-use GUI admin panel, training will be minimal. Plus, the Text My Main Number offers a personalized training to help get you started immediately.
  • We have too many other things to focus on right now. Here’s where you present the business texting solution from the customer’s angle: If your business isn’t currently meeting customer needs, they will go elsewhere. Text messaging builds a closer connection with customers, and it’s their preferred medium for communication.
  • We’re over our spending budget. That’s why you came prepared with how much time and money a business texting solution will save for the business. Paying for a landline texting service will show its worth in long-term savings, just show management how! Pull up the Text My Main Number website and scroll down the homepage to our customer’s testimonials to demonstrate how a landline texting platform has lowered costs and improved customer satisfaction ratings for other businesses. The more examples you bring to the table that proves ROI, the better.
Finally, highlight the urgency. Yes, you could revisit deploying a business texting solution at a later time, but the competition is beating you so it’s time to catch up to them. Show management how other companies in your industry are using landline texting and how it’s benefiting them. Looking to prove to your boss how beneficial a business texting solution will be for the company? Get started with the Text My Main Number trial today and then demonstrate to management just how easy it is to use.