How to Use Business Texting Service to Reconnect with Old Prospects

A lot of people are familiar with the concept of the sales funnel, but not how well Business Texting Services would boost conversions within them. The sales funnel process is when a flow of prospects are nurtured through the stages of a sales pipeline. At each stage in the process, drop-offs are expected.

Within these drop-offs, there are some prospects that have just gone dark, which means they are still qualified, but they have not moved to the next stage due to a lack of responses or action taken. This can occur at various stages of your funnel.

Those are potential customers sitting idle on your radar. How can you get these accounts back and moving through the pipeline again? You can use business texting services to execute a mobile follow-up strategy to check-up, give direction, and pull them out of the weeds.

With the overwhelming number of communication channels available to organizations, deciding the best way to reach old clients and reconnect with old prospects can be tricky. While you want to make sure your clients get the message, you also don’t want to annoy them with too much contact.

Unlike text blasts, which make it possible for businesses to send thousands of messages at once, business texting services are designed for more personalized, 1-on-1 conversations. By text-enabling the existing line of your business, or getting a new dedicated number, you are connecting with customers through a channel with a 99 percent open rate. That level of engagement can’t be found in any other form of communication.

Best ways to reconnect with old prospects via business texting services

1. Keep it short

Nobody has the time or the attention span to sit around and read lengthy messages. If you want to get somebody’s attention, you need to keep things short and precise, preferably four sentences or less, broken into small, readable paragraphs. If you’ve already been cold texting and haven’t been seeing a great response, ensure the messages you’re sending are not overwhelming your readers.

2. Request Permission

If you are concerned your old prospects will negatively respond to an unanticipated message, ask them for permission to send a text message to them. Perhaps, you can say something like “Hi there! Do you think it would alright if I sent a text message with the information to you?” Most customers reveal that it is faster and more convenient for them to respond to such messages. This request for permission might be positive for a few reasons.  You should consider the industry of your prospect, buyer identity, and distinct personality.

3. Make it personal

If you desire to get a response to your message, it absolutely cannot feel like a canned message. You can make it personal by following these ideas:

  • Mention a recent news item that they can relate to
  • You can locate a broken link on their website and recommend changes
  • Link to something personal to them to show that you have done your homework
  • Reference something unique about their company to show your understanding of its competitive advantage

4. Timing

Generally, people don’t give out their cell phone numbers without careful consideration. And, averagely, people go through their phones once every 12 minutes.

This is to show that texting is personal and it is engrained into our daily routines. To ensure your business respects those considerations, it is best not to text a new prospect as your first line of contact.

A study discovered that sending text messages to a prospect before making phone contact with them lowered the chance of ever contacting that lead by 39 percent.

It can feel slightly invasive to receive a text from someone who you didn’t personally give your number to. So, unless a client has given permission to text to your business, or you have previously established rapport, it’s best to tread lightly.

Also, despite the 24/7 availability that texting creates, it’s always best to keep your business text messages within typical business hours. Not only is this a courtesy, but it is also practical. You want to send texts at a time when people can take action and buy your product, schedule a meeting, and so on. They can’t do that while they’re sitting on their couch catching up on a show at 9 p.m. So, it’s best that you stick with the commonly accepted best times to send text messages.

5. Topic

Sales are all about building relationships and creating a strong customer experience. Your texts should anticipate customer needs and always add to their lives. But striking the balance between friendly and direct is important. Even though you wouldn’t want your messages to sound like a chatbot, you should always include a “so what” aspect to your text. In other words, before sending a message, determine the action you want this person to take.

As you send text messages to old prospects, offer them value, make yourself available, include a call to action, and speak to them like humans. If you do that, you are destined to see accomplishment with business texting services.

6. Tone

Business texting is not an avenue for mass advertising. Your messages are being sent to particular prospects, not to an entire group. Avoid generic and language lacking personalization. Treat each exchange as a conversation and your prospects will positively respond. Deepen the conversation with the interpersonal information you’ve gathered about the client and use that insight to drive conversions.

7. Total

The number of text messages you should send you prospects will completely be dependent on your condition. There is no magic number, but there are some data to help support the successful trends in how often you should be connecting with your old prospects.

Research has shown that sending three or more purposeful text messages after contact has been made with a prospect can increase conversion rates by 328 percent. Generally, it is seen as the best practice to remain relevant to your prospects, so regular texting is encouraged so long as clear value is communicated every time.

8. Begin with a relationship-building text

Relationship building texts often sounds like “Hey, just checking in!” The text sales community is split on the efficacy of these texts, mostly due to the question of how much value they add for the customer. It is believed the decision should be yours and based entirely on what is most appropriate for your prospects. That’s why our business texting services web-based user panel allows you to store conversations, so you can build rapport with your audience. You can create filtered groups so that you send each type of prospect a unique message based on your conversation history with them. Give our free trial a run and if you have any questions on getting started, contact us. We are here for you.

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