Tag Archives: business texting

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5 Templates for Customer Service Business Texting Success

Customers respond well to business texting, and statistics show they prefer this method of communication above all others these days. When you combine that knowledge with the understanding that customer service does more to build brand trust and reputation than anything else, it makes sense to handle questions, complaints, order management, and follow-up through texts.

Before sharing the templates and examples of various essential customer service messages, these questions and answers can help you streamline and tailor your efforts to your specific consumer base.

Should you send written or image texts? Although MMS messages sent through Text My Main Number’s landline texting service can grab attention, send pictures with customer care messages only when needed for complete information. For example, you can send a scan of an order form or product picture. Keep emoji use to a minimum.

Does personalization matter? Yes. Address customer care texts to the individual so they know you are giving them pertinent information. Personalized service improves trust and reviews a lot. While an automatic response works for some questions, improve the outcome with a more hands-on approach from an actual customer service representative.

What about responses and follow-up? A large part of customer service involves answering questions and making sure the person is 100% satisfied with the outcome and entire process. Always ask for a response or feedback. Also, send a follow-up message a day or two later to make sure there is nothing else you can do to help

Business Texting Customer Service Examples

Although your customer care needs may diverge from these specific examples, they are representative of the types of things that most product or service-oriented businesses need.

1 – Order Confirmation and Shipping Info

This type of business texting usually makes use of an automated process that sends a personalized message to the buyer. It represents the absolute minimum that any shop or service professional should do so customer knows their order went through properly.

Hello (name). Thank you for your recent order. (Order number or product list). You can check on the status and shipping information at this link. If you have any questions, please reply and we will get back to as soon as possible.

When the order is shipped, send a similar text message with the tracking number and name of the carrier service. Consumers feel much more confident if they know when they will get what they spend money on. Confidence leads to brand trust.

2 – Automated Response to Queries

A large part of customer care involves answering questions and giving more information as quickly as possible. However, you cannot have someone sitting in the office handling all business texting tasks as soon as they come in. Customers would love this, but the next best thing is an automated message that lets them know you received their text and will get back to them shortly. At least they will know their question did not disappear.

Thanks for your recent message. We wanted to let you know we have received it and our customer care team will get back to you within twenty-four hours. (Provide alternate contact information.)

Although text messaging is the preferred method of communication these days, including a toll-free number or link to a secure website form can give customers another option.

3 – Request for Feedback and Reviews

While customer service focuses primarily on helping an individual with their needs or issues, your company should focus on improving the entire start-to-finish process for everyone. Boost your care capabilities by asking for reviews on products, services, and interactions with the company itself. Feedback provides important data that you can use to make everything better.

Greetings (name). A week has passed since your last order/contact, and we’d love to know how you feel about your purchase/experience. Please take one minute to leave a review, reply to this message, or fill out this quick questionnaire so we can serve you better in the future.

These automated messages should have tailor-made specifics appropriate for the individual’s interaction with your company. In other words, do not actually send “order/contact” in business texting. Choose the appropriate words for each text.

4 – Follow-Up Responses to Complaints and Bad Experiences

All customers or clients will contact you directly if they have a complaint or poor review about your company. They may post it on an online review site, e-commerce platform, or social media. It is important to understand that negative attention will not disappear, so ignoring it is not the best option for your customer service efforts. If the individual has opted into business texting contact, send them a message while also offering a public response directly to their complaint.

Hello (name). We recently noticed that you shared dissatisfaction with the product/service you received from Company Name. How can we solve this problem and make your experience better? I can offer (refund, answers, etc.) if you get in touch. (Contact information)

Positive customer service involves giving people what they want. If they already believe you failed to do that, it takes something extra to turn their impression around. Business texting allows immediate and personal contact that shows you care about their satisfaction.

5 – Rewarding Loyalty

Even if a customer or client has a wonderful experience with your brand, they may not become a lifelong fan if you do not follow up with them and reward their loyalty. These efforts are part of ongoing customer care that clearly shows you value them for more than their money. Business texting offers a variety of easy ways to communicate regularly, and people love to get texts that give them something valuable. The two main ways to reward loyalty and thus improve overall service include organized reward programs and special offers for specific consumer segments.

Congratulations (name)! You have reached your first reward in our Brand customer loyalty program. That entitles you to one free (product) with your next purchase. Just input this code when you check out online.

Personalize the reward to make sure customers and clients get something they actually value. Someone who buys a fifty-pound bag of birdseed every month from your pet shop will have no use for a free dog toy. A free $5 gift card means nothing if you sell diamond jewelry worth thousands of dollars.

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How Educational Content Works for Landline Texting Across Industries

Adopting landline texting services in your business is all about engaging customers and clients and making more sales, right? Ultimately, the communication methods you choose influence marketing success. You cannot simply send out ads, however, if you want to use business texting practices most effectively. Snagging consumer interest depends largely on providing value. Educational content goes far when it comes to convincing people your company is worth their time and money.

It does not matter what industry or niche your business serves. You can create educational content for any type of service or product in order to engage customers more fully. Explore these options for effective non-promotional content so you can incorporate them into an overall business texting strategy that gets you the results you need.

Why Consumer Education Matters

Statistically speaking, educating your target consumer base matters because it greatly increases the chance that they will make a purchase from you. A Conductor survey showed a 131% increase in sales after people read or heard educational content. That’s the type of boost that any company needs. The numbers do not lie, but it is important to understand the reason why this works.

What do people want from companies? Yes, they want a high-quality product or service most of all. They know they get this from a brand that stands for excellence and expertise within an industry. When you send out a business text with quality information, you send a strong message to your audience. You care about what they care about and have what it takes to provide value to them. Your company stands ready to solve their problems.

Try These Educational Content Ideas in Your Landline Texting Plan

The decision to use landline texting for your business indicates your intelligent approach to marketing, customer service, and growth. How do you use educational content to improve interest and engagement in the people that receive these texts? These examples cover a wide range of industries and niches, but you can tweak the details for the unique needs of your targeted consumer group.

Send a Quick Daily Tip Focused on the Product or Service

Instead of saying, “Our widget will solve all your problems!” text people quick bites of information about what they can do to solve a particular problem. The information should help independent of any purchases or contracts. It makes sense to upsell or cross-sell in conjunction with some of these tips, however.

  • DIY tips for skin care from a cosmetics company.
  • Seasonal lawn care tips from a landscaping business.
  • Smart money tip from a debt consolidation firm.

Link to and Educational Blog Post or Video

Share more in-depth education that teaches your audience how to do something new or gives multiple ideas about how they can improve things for themselves. The text you send should include a quick greeting, one sentence revealing the value, and a clickable link.

  • Top ten tips for a clutter-free home from a maid service.
  • How to take the cutest pictures of your pup from a dog costume shop.
  • Why a project management app helps improve results from the IT firm.

Segmented Text Series – Mini Courses and More

When you use Text My Main Number for all your landline texting needs, you get the power of scheduled texting campaigns for separate groups in your audience. Use this type of segmentation and set up power to create mini courses or text series with more in-depth educational content. This could include either individual messages or links to written or video content. While you should remind the recipients of your brand throughout, do not hammer them over the head with ads or calls to action.

  • Dress for your body type course from a clothing boutique.
  • Step-by-step organizational tips for launching a new business from a marketing firm.
  • Study guide for the SATs from a tutoring company.

Educational Content Rounds Out a Text-based Marketing Strategy

The power of valuable information proves its worth again and again. It makes logical sense even if you do not look at the statistics surrounding non-promotional content. Of course, consumers want to know the brand they give their money to knows what they are talking about. They will value your company much more when they know you value them.

Your business texting strategy should involve multiple types of communication for maximum effect. You cannot give away all your secrets or teach people to do everything effectively for themselves. They won’t hire you or buy your products then. You also cannot push your offers at them like a flea market vendor waving bright signs and shouting about their low prices.

Balance a friendly, personal approach with occasional marketing, calls to action that encourage responses, and educational content that helps them become better consumers. People are very sensitive to advertising, and too much will backfire in many cases. Add value to their lives instead of chasing value for yourself. All of these things work together to create a positive reputation in whatever industry or niche you represent. Better still, valuable texts make it much less likely your audience will unsubscribe.

Landline texting presents a wealth of opportunities for businesses like yours to thrive in an increasingly digital landscape. As more people than ever before use their phones as the primary shopping, searching, and communication device, business texting takes precedence over almost any other type of growth-focused action.

It takes a lot more to engage consumers than announcing sales or special discounts, asking for feedback on products and services, and answering customer care questions. Consumers want engagement and high-value content from the brands they spend their money on. These tips for multiple industries help you educate in a productive way that ultimately leads toward improved reputation and profits.

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How to Use Business Texting to Get the Responses You Want

Every successful company listens to what their target audience says and tweaks their product and service offers to align with what they want and value. Landline texting offers the perfect opportunity to get attention, keep it, and get the responses you need to create a plan for growth and profit. Focusing on numbers is an outdated idea. Today, successful firms focus on relationship building. There is no better way to do that than using business texting for quick, convenient, and simple communication.

These tips for every business text message will help you gather important data straight from your customer base while improving brand loyalty at the same time.

Convenient Landline Texting Tips for Maximum Responses

Before you learn about the specifics of bidirectional SMS communication, understand the basic rules of engaging the person on the other end of the text. Make every text you send easy, attractive, social, and timely.

Easy – Make it easy for the person to respond with in-text links, survey buttons, and reply instructions that are simple to follow.

  • Click on this link to fill out a quick survey.
  • Respond with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to tell us if you liked XYZ product.

Attractive – Demonstrate obvious benefits and value to the person if they send a response.

  • Share your opinion for a chance to win a gift card.
  • Reply now to be a part of our new product development process.

Social – Use personal information or targeted approaches that give them direct value.

  • Is XYZ product fulfilling all your needs?
  • We noticed you left a few items in your cart. Do you have any questions before you buy?

Timely – Create a sense of urgency that elevates their reply to something important right now.

  • We would love to get your opinion before our next product launch.
  • The survey deadline is next Monday. Fill it out now for a special offer.

Send Personal Business Texting to Every Individual

No, you are not going to employee a person who sits by the phone all day and messages each customer or client individually. With the power of TMMN landline texting, you do not even need a dedicated company cell phone plan. The convenient dashboard lets you control a collection of personalized messages for different segments of your subscriber base.

Segmentation of your audience matters. People need to get content of value to them pacifically. They need to feel like you know them if you want them to respond in the best way possible. No one will message you back based on a text-based advertisement.

Business Texting at the Right Time Helps

All statistics show that more people use their smartphones for personal reasons at work than ever before, it is not the best time to do business texting activities. For consumer-focused companies, early evening after the traditional dinner hour is when you will find the most people using their phones. When you send an informational, special offer, or brand building text between 5 PM and 9 PM, you have a much higher chance of getting a quick response.

Since texts hang around until the person reads them, why does it matter when you send the message? It comes down to recipient psychology. People like responding to text messages quickly unless they are annoying or low value. This holds true for both personal communication and interaction with businesses. If they get a text from you when they are actively using their phone, there are more likely to fill out your survey, answer your questions, or send their opinion.

Show Them You Want to Engage With Them

Consumers have a reasonable amount of doubt when it comes to dealing with nameless, faceless companies. Many do not believe that anyone truly wants to know what they have to say. With the power of landline texting and the ability to respond quickly to their messages, you can prove otherwise. Show people who do respond that you value the time and effort it took for them to do so by following up immediately and thinking.

You get more responses when you engage in a conversation to some degree. Business-focused landline texting is not about chatting with every customer or client. Instead, it focuses on mutual respect and understanding that provides value to both parties.

  • Express gratitude for the response.
  • Follow up with a question or comment pacifically about their response.
  • Avoid meaningless “I’ll pass this information on” comments.

Tell Them to Call or Message Easily With Landline Texting

This recommendation for getting responses with business texting seems so simple, but companies forget it all the time. If you do not ask for what you want, the chance of receiving it decreases considerably. Do this not only on your website but also on many of the texts you send.

Since you have limited character space in a text message and do not want to overwhelm people with giant blocks of content, do not ask for a response every time. Also, this will create a messaging headache for the employee who handles incoming communication.

Examples of landline texting invitations include:

  • Ask a specific question to gather data.
  • Include a survey with quality questions like TMMN helps you design.
  • Tell them their feedback is always welcome.

Text My Main Number provides a host of landline texting features that allow you to create the most memorable and actionable messages for your target audience. It goes far beyond welcome texts and sale announcements. In order to understand consumer interests, gathering feedback is one of the most powerful things you can do. A quality business texting service integrate seamlessly with your landline equipment so you do not have to stretch your budget or introduce additional complexity to your company’s tech.

Companies need a lot more than sales data to determine best practices and improve everything from customer service to investment plans for the brand. With business texting capabilities, you get the responses you need to succeed. TMMN provides a comprehensive list of options that allow you to manage your communication in the best way possible. Explore the options, affordable pricing packages, and sign up today to better serve your customers and clients.

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Why Landline Texting Makes Sense for Mom-and-Pop Shops

The idea of a mom-and-pop shop in today’s modern world seems quaint, but these family-owned businesses rely on technology like landline texting as much as other small businesses and large corporations. In fact, they may need it more because they lack the resources to compete on a larger platform. Retail shops with a single location, non-chain restaurants, and tiny boutiques can level the playing field on a local level with business texting for marketing, everyday operations, and customer service.

What Is a Mom-and-Pop Shop?

It does not matter if the small business is owned and operated by a couple to get this designation. The colloquialism mom-and-pop shop refers to family-owned businesses. They usually have one location only, employ a limited number of workers, and serve a specific community instead of a wider audience. In many cases, the employees are family members, too.

Although many have suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic, and more have closed their doors, the popularity of small, local businesses has actually grown according to most metrics. People in especially the younger generations are interested in supporting small and medium-sized businesses run by their friends and neighbors.

Younger Markets Love Business Texting

Everyone texts these days from the kid next door to grannies in retirement communities. Consumer surveys clearly indicate an overwhelming desire to get texts from businesses. A full 58% think business texting is the best way to get information. In younger demographics, the numbers skyrocket. Generation X, which includes people in their 20s who have disposable income to spend on their own behalf, states that they want texts from companies at an amazing 76% of people surveyed.

Combine a growing interest in mom-and-pop, local businesses and a focus on text communication, and small, family-owned companies have the perfect recipe for growth.

How to Use Landline Texting to Survive and Thrive

Consumers want business texts. Interest in mom-and-pop shops is increasing. Multiple threats and challenges still exist for family-owned firms without the capital to launch a massive marketing campaign. Text My Main Number offers solutions in the form of affordable, convenient, and effective landline texting services.

Making use of this unique technology is one thing, knowing how to connect to your audience effectively is another.

Landline Texting Helps You Compete in a Digital World

Your mom-and-pop business’s curb appeal still matters, especially if you have a choice location in a walkable town. The signs outside and the display in your window let passersby know what you have to offer. Foot traffic, however, is no way to ensure the success of your family-owned company for very long. This is especially true during the Covid-related restrictions.

People search for local businesses online, and a full 72% of consumers end up stopping in at a store in a five-mile radius. Getting initial attention may rely on local SEO and other marketing efforts, but creating repeat visitors relies on communication. Landline texting that provides value to the people who found your business online goes a long way toward keeping their attention and establishing trust.

The moment you have their contact information and permission to send business texts, you have the power to keep them from searching for alternatives.

Create a Community Feel With Business Texting

Why do people want to buy things from mom-and-pop shops? Consumer trends turn away from big corporations these days, and many want to support neighbors in their community. Even though business texting may seem like the least personal communication style possible, it actually provides an amazing opportunity to build community focused on your success.

What kinds of things can you share with your customers to build a sense of community? The most important thing to remember is to avoid marketing to them was every message. You aren’t a barker at a fair calling out for attention. Instead, you should develop a friendly get professional relationship with people interested in your products or services.

  • Share local news and events of interest.
  • Recommend other non-competing businesses in the area.
  • Tell recipients about how you give back to the community.
  • Tell the story of your mom-and-pop shop.

Have a Conversation With Your Customers

Text messages are quite short, so the above suggestions will happen on a limited basis. Go for impact instead of explanations. Most of all, use landline texting services to create a conversation with your customers or clients. The Text My Main Number features like friendly emojis, group contact management, chat, and survey texting help with these efforts.

What kinds of things should you ask your customers through landline texting to improve your business?

  • What is your favorite product or service that we offer?
  • What do you wish we offered but don’t?
  • How can we make our customer service process better?
  • What is your favorite local event or community project?
  • Would you recommend us to your neighbors? Why or why not?

The power of business texting allows you to send quick questions that get responses more often than not. People want to give their money to high-quality, reputable mom-and-pop shops that help their neighborhood succeed. When you show your intention to provide what they want, they are more likely to give you their business.

Think Long-term Strategies With Short-term Results

One of the most beneficial characteristics of landline texting is its immediacy. You send a text and no right away if it reached its target and if they received it in a positive way. Asking for responses makes its efficacy even easier to track. You can do this as simply as asking a question or inserting a quick yes/no poll in one of the texts.

These immediate answers help you plan how to market the mom-and-pop shop for the long-term, too. Family-owned brick-and-mortar businesses do not have the power to conduct extensive market research or product testing. Instead, you need to rely on direct feedback from the local audience to know what you should do next to keep their interest.

Text My Main Number provides an amazing opportunity for engagement and growth of even the smallest mom-and-pop shop focused on community business. Landline texting offers an affordable way to give consumers what they want and get the type of powerful results you need to succeed in these difficult times.

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How Dog Groomers can use Business Texting?

How_Dog_Groomers_can_use_Business_Texting

People love their pets, and with summer right around the corner, dog groomers are going to be busy getting everyone’s four-legged friends ready for the warmer weather. To help manage the uptick in business, businesses can use business texting for appointments and reminders.

The pet grooming industry has surged in recent years. Overall the industry was expected to grow 5.7% from 2019 to 2025, according to market analysis by Grand View Research. More than 60 million American households own a dog, and pet adoptions are continuing to rise. That means there will clearly be a long term need for reliable dog groomers across the country.

Many dog groomers operate their own small business, which can be challenging to manage. Business texting is a great tool for busy dog groomers who need to focus on their work and keep their business moving forward.

In this post, we’ll talk about how business texting platforms, like Text My Main Number, can help dog groomers successfully manage client demands and bookings.

Allow clients to text their appointment requests

With the majority of Americans now owning cell phones, it makes perfect sense that businesses would offer more mobile friendly ways to get in contact with their clients. Dog groomers who need to manage multiple appointments through the day can use a business texting service to receive appointment requests to their main phone number – in addition to voice calls and online orders.

Texting is a great option for busy pet owners as well. For example, as soon as a dog owner sees that their dog needs a bath or a hair cut, they can text their groomer to request an appointment. In return, the groomer can tell the owner which days or times work best for their schedule. Business texting can save both sides a lot of time on the phone, and maybe a few hours of playing phone tag, to book a grooming appointment.

Confirm appointments with clients ahead of time

It’s not unusual for pet owners to accidentally forget that they made a grooming appointment and not show up. Although it is a simple mistake, these no-shows can cost your business money, and possibly result in charges for the dog owner for missing the appointment as well.

To avoid no-shows from happening in the future, dog groomers can send out an automated text message reminder to clients a day or so before their scheduled grooming appointment. That way, the pet owner will be less likely to forget to bring their dog to the groomer at the scheduled time.

Ask quick questions via text to save time

Every dog owner has different preferences when it comes to how their dog gets groomed, which can be a lot to keep track of for one dog groomer.

Groomers who are in a rush may not have time to stop what they are doing to call the owner for an answer to a quick question, but with business texting, dog groomers can just send the owner a quick text to clear up any last-minute questions they have while they’re working.

Remaining in contact with owners during their pet’s grooming appointment helps keep them in the loop and ensures they get the exact service that they want. In the end, you’ll have a happy client and maybe a larger tip for your care and attention to detail.

Text owners when their dog is ready to get picked up

On average, it takes about two or three hours to complete a full grooming service, so owners often just drop their pet off at the groomer and leave to go about their days.

However, busy dog groomers may not have time to call owners on the phone and tell them that they can come pick up their pet as soon as possible. Business texting platforms, like Text My Main Number, allow dog groomers to create text message templates that groomers can personalize and use when they need to send out reminders for owners to come pick up their dog at the end of their grooming session.

Set up scheduled reminders for owners to book their next groom

Most people get their pets groomed on a regular basis, but sometimes owners can lose track of time between grooming appointments.

A dog groomer using business texting can schedule text messages weeks or months in advance to remind owners when it’s time to schedule their next grooming appointment. This added convenience keeps your grooming clients returning on a regular basis with very little effort on your part. Scheduled reminders are also a good way to make sure pets are feeling their best and don’t go too long without a full groom.

Announce specials and discounts

Dog groomers can use business texting to announce any special offers, sales, or seasonal discounts to generate more business for themselves.

Texting can also be a great way to introduce new products or services you are offering, particularly if you also sell grooming products or pet supplies. Be sure that your clients consent to receiving these types of promotional text messages from you, and that you only send messages when you have something specific to announce.

In conclusion

As the pet grooming industry grows, groomers need to find creative ways to keep up with the more demanding pace. Business texting is an affordable tool for groomers to use to help schedule appointments, set reminders, and stay in contact with clients. Plus, you don’t have to purchase any special equipment or get a new phone number to send and receive text messages to your existing business phone number. Services such as Text My Main Number can help set up texting for your dog grooming business today.

To learn more about business texting, visit the Text My Main Number blog for even more information.

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4 Ways to Use Automation to Step Up Your SMS Marketing for the Holidays

4 Ways to Use Automation to Step Up Your SMS Marketing for the Holidays

As we enter the last few months of 2020, many businesses are getting ready to implement their holiday strategies and campaigns, including those that utilize SMS marketing.

One of the things that is so useful about SMS marketing is the potential to automate many aspects of a campaign and therefore, save significant time and manpower implementing said campaigns. If your business has set up SMS marketing through a business texting service, automation could be the answer you are looking for to step up your efforts this holiday season.

Read on to find out how to use automated SMS marketing features to benefit your business during the holidays and all year round!

4 Ways to Use Automation to Step Up Your SMS Marketing for the Holidays

Automated replies to new subscribers

We are going to start with the assumption that your business is seriously pushing your SMS marketing list in anticipation of holiday campaigns. If you have already made plans to do so, feel free to skip ahead.

However, if your business is not already planning to ramp up its list building efforts, we suggest that you change that today! SMS is a natural solution to build an omnichannel marketing strategy and direct the attention of your target audience straight to your products and/or services.

Once you have a plan in place to gain new SMS marketing subscribers, you will want to set up processes to connect with those customers right away. With the auto reply feature, available through a business texting service, you can customize automated reply templates to respond to messages based on specific keywords texted to your business phone number.

For instance, perhaps your business allows customers to opt-in to SMS marketing by texting the keyword ‘JOIN’ to your phone number. You can set up your platform to reply automatically upon receipt of that keyword to acknowledge the new subscriber as soon as possible.

It is valuable to your business to make this connection with new subscribers right away! Automate a quick ‘thank you’ message, and be sure to immediately deliver on any incentives that were promised to new SMS marketing subscribers. Customers will certainly appreciate the recognition and, of course, they will appreciate the reward, as well.

Schedule seasonal content and/or holiday drip campaigns

If your business is running just one SMS marketing campaign, you could be missing out on all the personalization features that this tool has to offer. Many businesses cater to different demographics or customer personas. Therefore, in order to get the most out of SMS marketing or any marketing tool, you may need to run several versions of the same campaign.

You can see how this can quickly become overwhelming. However, with scheduled texting, you can take some time to set up each campaign targeting different customer personas and schedule them out in advance. Utilize customer segments, either through your business texting service directly or an integration with your current CRM, to target the right customers with the right messages.

With scheduled texting, you can plan your targeted drip campaigns or non-promotional content ahead of time- giving you more time to actually run your business!

Remind customers of their abandoned cart

In a year like 2020 in which so much retail shopping has actually been done online, the term “window shopping” can sound like a thing of the past. However, customers enjoy window shopping as much as ever- it just looks a bit different.

Many consumers will peruse a website, adding products to their shopping cart, without actually intending to buy something right away. In fact, in March 2020, 88.05% of online shopping carts were abandoned.  

The very first step your business should take in improving its abandoned cart rate is to optimize the checkout process. Ensure that the process is quick and seamless in order to make up some of that lost revenue that you may be experiencing. Something as simple as optimizing the checkout process can boost its conversion rate by 35.26%.

Once you have optimized the checkout process, consider reminding your customers of their abandoned cart via SMS. SMS marketing boasts a click-through rate of 19%, compared to just 4.2% for email. And with 79% of smartphone users making a purchase decision based on SMS opt-in or similar mobile device services, it stands to reason that your business’ best chance of recovering abandoned carts exists within text reminders.

After a cart has been left untouched for a few days, set up your business texting platform to automatically shoot a friendly reminder to that shopper. Stop leaving money on the table, and start using SMS marketing automation to improve your sales this holiday season!

Use survey texting to improve the customer experience

After a customer has completed and received their online or in-store purchase, your business should immediately ask them to complete a customer survey while the experience is still fresh in their minds. With survey texting, it has never been simpler or faster to conduct surveys in a way that won’t take up too much of the customer’s time. 

The integrated text response feature through Text My Main Number’s platform will allow you to set up multi-level automated replies to collect important customer feedback data. Not only will automation make this process seamless, but your customers will have a secure way to give honest responses.

Collecting customer feedback is crucial to improving the overall customer experience- something every business should concern itself with. With so much going on around the holidays, automating this process will help you to collect vital data without taking up any more of your attention.

The holidays can be overwhelming, but with automated processes available through a business texting service, this time of year can also be incredibly rewarding. Use these tips to provide a better experience for customers and a more fruitful 2020 holiday season for your business.

If you haven’t set up your business texting service yet, what are you waiting for? Start your 14-day free trial with us today!

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Landline Texting for CPAs: What to know

How_CPAs_can_use_Landline_Texting_in_2021

Few people look forward to the hustle and bustle tax season more than CPAs, and a landline texting service can make it easier to connect with clients and juggle the onslaught of appointments.

Landline texting allows any CPA to text clients from his or her main business phone number without needing to purchase additional equipment or add a new phone line. Simply use a business texting platform such as Text My Main Number to use your landline or main business phone number to send and receive text messages.

Statistics show that most consumers prefer texting over other forms of communication, including phone calls and emails. With a business SMS plan, CPAs can add an extra layer of convenience for their customers as well as an additional tool to improve your office workflow during the hectic tax season.

In this post, we’ll talk about how CPAs and other tax professionals can adopt texting and use it to their advantage. 

Texting frees up time for your business

Have you ever wondered how much time you and your staff spend talking on the phone, confirming appointments, and answering client questions day in and day out?

CPAs can probably understand how that time can add up. Finding realistic ways to reduce the time spent on the phone means there’s more time to grow the business, follow up with valuable clients, or take some time off to relax.

Texting gives you back the time you’d otherwise spend talking on the phone with chatty clients or leaving countless voicemails.

You can simply use your mobile device or computer to send and read text messages through your business’s main phone number. Check messages when you’re between meetings, grabbing coffee, or taking a walk. Since you can connect to texting platforms on any approved mobile device, you can step away from your office for a quick walk or to grab lunch with a client and not miss a message. 

It’s also easy to set up bulk, automated text messages to confirm appointments, send reminders, and say thank you. It’s also a good way to nudge your clients early on in tax season to get their filings in so you’re not left with a mountain of work just before the deadline.

If you tend to receive the same questions, you can set up auto-replies based on specific keywords, create and save message templates, or set multi-automated replies with Text My Main Number’s intuitive Integrated Text Response feature that helps you collect data for your business.

CPAs can get their filings in sooner

One of the most challenging parts of tax season is running down clients for information they lost or didn’t send to you or your office. This not only eats up time, but it can also be easily forgotten about in the flurry of tax filings you need to keep track of.

Landline texting makes it easy to send a quick message to a client’s mobile phone to remind them to send over a picture of a document over the phone or answer a quick question via text message.

How_CPAs_can_use_Landline_Texting_in_2021

Easily separate business and personal texts

Handing out your personal cell phone number to clients may be tempting. You want to be easily reachable in case of an emergency, but you are also giving up a little bit of your privacy. Plus, it makes it more difficult to unplug from work if you constantly see text messages from clients rolling in over the weekend or during a vacation.

A business texting plan helps you keep personal and business messages separate by directing text messages to your company’s main phone number rather than your personal cell phone. If you want to check your messages while you’re away from the office, simply log in to your business text messaging platform from any mobile device or computer. 

Text messages keep your schedule manageable

It’s easy for CPAs to start to feel overwhelmed during tax season. With so many appointments and filing deadlines to remember, it can easily turn into a springtime scheduling nightmare.

Business texting allows CPAs to keep a written record of appointments, client questions, re-bookings, and more all on one convenient digital platform. It’s no longer a problem if you and your staff members are away from their desks when a client confirms or changes an appointment. Text messages are saved for later viewing, so you can easily refer back to the message later and make any necessary changes to your calendar.

Texting cuts down on annoying emails

What’s worse than waking up in the morning to 20 unheard voicemails? How about 2,000 unread emails.

Everyone’s email inbox gets cluttered up after a while with messages that range from urgent to unfiltered junk. During tax season, a CPA’s email inbox is a disaster zone.

You can cut down on those annoying emails by encouraging your clients to text your main number when they want to get ahold of you. There are fewer texts to sort through every day, so you can easily see what you need to know and move on with your busy day.

You’ll attract and retain valuable clients

Young people today have gotten accustomed to doing their business digitally rather than over the phone, whether or not that’s for the best. Offering an option for clients to text your main company number makes your service more appealing to those folks who would rather skip the phone call to set up an appointment.

Clients can simply save your number in their mobile phones and have it on hand whenever they need to speak to their CPA or make an appointment.

To learn more about Text My Main Number and our business texting services, visit our website where you can also reach out to our amazing customer support team or request a free demo.

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Text-to-Win: A Step-by-Step Guide to This SMS Marketing Tactic

SMS marketing is quickly becoming one of the go-to strategies to increase customer engagement for many businesses. Perhaps that is because the open rate of text messages is about 98%. Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that 96% of Americans have a mobile device of some kind. Or maybe it’s because 9 out of 10 people say they actually want to communicate with businesses via text. 

Whatever the reason for utilizing SMS marketing, many businesses are seeing incredible results, including successfully increasing customer engagement. In fact, 44% of marketers say that is exactly the reason why they like using SMS marketing.

One popular strategy for increasing customer engagement with SMS marketing is a text-to-win contest. In this article, we will go through the steps of setting up a successful text-to-win contest for your business!

Text-to-Win: A Step-by-Step Guide to This SMS Marketing Tactic

What is a text-to-win contest?

A text-to-win contest is exactly what it sounds like: a contest in which customers text your phone number or designated shortcode with a keyword to be entered to win a prize. At the end of the set time for entries (be it 24 hours, three days, one week, one month, etc.), one person is randomly selected to win.

As simple as this strategy is, it will take a certain amount of planning and marketing in order to be successful. Much of the way you approach the planning and marketing phases of this strategy will have to do with your goal.

So…

What does your business hope to achieve with a text-to-win contest?

We stated earlier that one common goal for utilizing a text-to-win contest is to increase customer engagement. However, this strategy can be used to accomplish a few different things.

For instance, one goal might be to build up your subscriber list or to gather customer information. In this case, you will want to consult the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) and any other relevant rules or regulations to accomplish this goal legally. The TCPA in particular places certain regulations over the use of SMS for marketing purposes, such as a mandatory opt-in for customers. If you’re enticing customers to text your business to enter a contest, you will want to make sure that they’re aware that this may lead to future marketing messages from your business.

After deciding on the goal, you will need to meet with your team to make sure that everyone involved is crystal clear on the objective, be it increasing customer engagement, generating leads and subscribers or something else. Every action you or your team takes should relate directly back to your ultimate goal, so it’s crucial that everybody understands exactly what that is.

After you’ve decided what your goal is, as well as what the contest winner will receive, you’ll be ready to get started!

1. Choose your keyword.

Through your business texting service, you will receive keywords to implement in your campaign. Choose a keyword that customers can text to enter the contest.

It is best to choose a keyword that is short, easy to spell and that is related to the contest in some way. For instance, if you own a restaurant that is running a text-to-win contest for a free dinner for two, your keyword could be ‘DINNER.’ 

An alternative that might not work as well could be ‘DIN4TWO.’ This option is less desirable because it leaves too much room for error. Someone could easily hear about the promotion and text ‘DINFOR2,’ ‘DIN42’ or any other iteration that will impede their ability to enter. If customers are falling through the cracks in this way, it will result in a less successful campaign for your business.

Your keyword should be as simple as possible to give your business the greatest reach available.

 2. Set up your auto-reply.

When someone enters your contest, make sure that they are receiving a response right away. Through your business texting service’s auto-reply feature, you can automate this process.

For instance, with Text My Main Number, you can customize automated reply templates that will respond to messages based on your designated contest keyword. 

Your automated reply could be something like:

“Thanks for joining! You are officially entered to win [prize]!”

The automated reply not only confirms entry into the contest, but it also gives your business the opportunity to touch base with each and every contest participant right away! 

3. Spread the word.

Once you have the logistics of your contest nailed down, it’s time to start spreading the word! Start making your audience aware of your contest on social media, in your email newsletter, on your website and in your brick-and-mortar location. Make sure that any and all entry instructions are also accompanied by relevant contest rules or guidelines.

Furthermore, you may want to simplify the process for website visitors who want to enter the contest. For instance, using Text My Main Number’s website contact form-to-sms feature, you could allow website visitors to enter the contest online. Although this may sound counterintuitive to your SMS marketing strategy, making the process as seamless as possible is your business’ best bet to gather participants and therefore, reach your goal. Include a field in the form in which the customer can enter their phone number, then send them your automated reply via text. With just a few steps, you will be able to successfully turn website visitors into SMS leads.

 4. Choose the winner.

When the allotted time for your contest has concluded, it will be time to choose the winner! Winners should be randomly selected, so your next question might be, “How can I choose in a way that’s truly random?”

Enter: the internet. Try using a tool like Miniwebtool which allows you to copy and paste the names of contest participants for random selection. If this is the route you’re choosing to go, however, it may be beneficial to include that information in the small print of your contest rules. This type of resource will ensure that the selection process for the contest winner is truly unbiased and random. 

Then, notify the winner via text! Include prize redemption instructions or a web link to such information in the content of your message. Once the winner has been notified, you can go ahead and announce the contest results wherever you like!

5. Touch base with participants who did not win.

Once your winner has been notified and announced, it is best to touch base via text with everyone who did not win. This message can be friendly and simple, yet personal.

Example:

“Hi [name]! Thanks again for participating in our text-to-win contest. You may not have won, but here’s 10% off your next purchase with us anyway!”

Offering a bonus discount or perk is a great way to show your SMS marketing subscribers that you appreciate their business and participation in your contest. And hopefully, it will incentivize them to participate in any additional contests or text promotions that you’re planning!

Now that you know how to run a text-to-win contest as a part of your SMS marketing strategy, what are you waiting for? Contests are an excellent way to increase customer engagement, generate leads and build your SMS subscriber list! Plus, it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser; after all, who doesn’t like to win free stuff?

For more free tips on how to make the most of your SMS marketing, be sure to check out the rest of our blog!

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How to Use Text Message Marketing to Increase Website Traffic?

In the mobile-happy world of 2020, it is more important than ever to meet customers where they are- on their cellphones. For businesses that make all or most of their sales online, text message marketing is a must-have tool for increasing traffic to your website and therefore, entering more customers into your sales funnel.

Sales from mobile shopping, also known as m-commerce, in 2020 are expected to account for 49.2% of ecommerce sales in the United States. By 2021, that number is predicted to rise to 53.9% with no expectation of slowing down any time soon. 

Now you might be thinking, “I already have an established email marketing strategy, and people check their emails from their phones all the time.” In a way, you’d be right. However, studies show that text message marketing campaigns perform seven times better than email marketing campaigns. 

The reason for this is simply that too many email inboxes are stuffed to the brim with spam! Even the most expertly laid out email campaign will struggle to cut through all that noise. On the other hand, only 10% of text messages are spam, making it far easier to get the attention of your target audience.

Ideally, your business can find a way to use email and text message marketing together. Nevertheless, it is time for your business to begin focusing on text message marketing to drive traffic to your website.

Read on to find out how to do just that.

How To Use Text Message Marketing to Increase Website Traffic?

Optimize your website for mobile.

If you haven’t already taken this step, what are you waiting for? Whether or not you choose to adopt text message marketing, your business needs a mobile-friendly site, especially if you rely on that site to make sales. 

Today’s consumers are used to lightning-fast internet speed and responsive web design. Chances are if they have to wait too long for your site to load on their cell phone, they will move on, potentially to your competitor’s site. 

Not only do you need your site to be fast, but you also need it to be well-designed. Before launching or finalizing any web design, you need to test it on a variety of devices: iPhones, Androids, iPads and tablets, laptops, desktops and any other internet-capable device you can think of. 

Optimizing your website will not only make it more accessible to mobile-shoppers, but it may actually get rewarded by Google. You have probably already heard about the importance of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for getting your website to move up the Google ranks and discovered by more people. Well, responsiveness is an important aspect of that process- not just for mobile browsers, but for Google users on all devices.

Internet browsing and shopping is no longer exclusive to a computer. If your business hopes to keep up, it would be wise to ensure that customers can access your website from any device, especially their cell phones.

Include web links in all text message marketing.

This might sound like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised to hear how often the simplest details can get overlooked! 

If you hope to increase website traffic for your business with business texting marketing, you need to let the people know where to go! It is rather unlikely that someone will take the time to open their mobile browser, find your website and browse for the item that was promoted in a text. Make sure that the product or service that you hope to sell is never more than one click away.

This can become a challenge for many businesses utilizing text message marketing. After all, you only have about 160 characters to make your point, and many URLs will eat away at your character limit rather quickly. 

Luckily, there are a number of free link shortening tools online, like bitly, which can transform your long, messy link into one that is more compact, giving your message a cleaner look. Most importantly, it will leave you with more characters to actually make a sale!

Integrate your text message marketing platform with ecommerce tools.

To really build up the strength of your text message marketing efforts, you need to enable it to work seamlessly with ecommerce tools. Not only will this allow you to increase website traffic, but it will also help to increase overall productivity.

Many business owners feel hesitant about adopting new systems or tools merely because of the amount of time and energy it can take to weave the new way into the old. However, with API access, your business can create a happy union between text message marketing systems and ecommerce tools.

After your systems have been integrated, you will have easy access to data, processes, and automation across platforms. You know what they say- “work smarter, not harder.”

Use text message marketing to send product updates.

Whether you are launching a new product, restocking on a fan favorite or offering a limited-time sale, you need to alert text message marketing subscribers. And of course, don’t forget the web link!

We also usually recommend that businesses offer exclusive deals to text message marketing subscribers. This is a great way to not only build your list, but to ensure that you are continuously providing value with this medium. 

To that end, plan some exclusive deals or flash sales for text message marketing subscribers. Send out a bulk text encouraging customers to take advantage of the deals before time runs out, and watch the website traffic surge!

Write compelling CTAs in every text.

If there is some action that you want customers to complete, then you need to tell them! This is what’s called a call to action, or CTA. If you are still reading this article, then you obviously want to tell customers to visit your site in the CTA of your texts. However, there are a few key elements of a well-written CTA that can make all the difference in meeting that goal.

Each and every CTA should be concise, urgent and valuable. In other words, you need to quickly tell the customer what you want him or her to do, when they need to do it and what they will get out of it!

For example, if you are sending a promotional text for a flash sale, it might look something like this:

“Shop the sale today only to receive 15% OFF select items!”

In just a few words, you will have hit all the key elements of your CTA! If you don’t yet feel confident in writing effective CTAs, try running some A/B tests. Write out two different versions of the CTA for messages that are otherwise identical. Then, send them out and see what happens! If one version performs remarkably better than the other, try to replicate those results for the next time.

When it comes to increasing website traffic, text message marketing can make all the difference. Try out some of these tips in your next campaign for the best results.

If you’re ready to increase your business’ website traffic, check out some of our features to find out how we can help!

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How a Mobile Texting Service Can Boost Your Survey Response Rates?

Mobile texting for businesses has proven to be one of the most effective marketing channels. Many industries have turned to text messaging to communicate with their leads and existing customers because of its impressive response rates. Since SMS has such a fast turnaround, it would only make sense that it would be used to obtain feedback via mobile texting when you’re looking to analyze production needs, understand where you can improve customer service, and receive feedback from your target audience.

The point we’re trying to drive is that business texting is the most efficient tool to use to increase your survey response rates. Now, for the remainder of this article we’ll detail the most ideal practices for using the Text My Main Number business texting service to send surveys.

Let’s start with the facts.

So there you have it. Business texting is the most lucrative communication tool to implement into your marketing strategy. Now how do you guarantee you’ll get an actual response to your surveys? We’ll show you how!

Top Business Texting Survey Best Practices

Have them at hello.

Keep in mind that people get tons of messages each day so you’re competing with other marketers and their friends and family. Even if they did opt in to receive messages from your business, they may not recognize the message when they first get it.

That being said, you have to grab their attention as you remind them about your business. Start your message with mentioning your brand name so they trust who you are from the beginning.

Make it short and sweet.

The biggest mistake that content marketers make is including too much copy, quotes, and amusing quips. Depending on the type of phone the user has, the character limit may cause for them to receive your messages separately. Even worse, a long message runs a high risk of the reader losing interest.

Keep your request for them to fill out your survey short and sweet and use shortened links such as bit.ly to keep the character count low. Include wording that lets them know that your SMS survey won’t take more than 5 minutes.

Humanize your message

The key to beating all the SMS white noise your target audience receives is to personalize the messages you send. That’s how you’re going to build trust and help them connect to your brand.

The most crucial signal is showing your customer how much you value them, and you can start the gesture by addressing them by their first name.

You also want to avoid sending mass texts using your mobile texting service because the copy you use is a dead sales pitch giveaway. It’s just as obvious as cold calling. Send customized messages based on their history with your business and send them offers that would interest them based on their buying pattern. The more you humanize your messages, the more loyalty you’ll shape.

Strategize Your Message Delivery

All communication channels entail a lot of variables that can affect the open rate of your messages. Recipients are more likely to view their texts during specific days and times. You also have to keep time zones in mind so that you’re not sending messages during inconvenient times.

The best way to test the most effective survey delivery times is to send two separate groups the same message but at different times. You can also try switching up the copy and links you send to see which messages had the better response rates which will help you better understand your target’s preferences.

Augment Your Content Accordingly

Don’t design your messages as if you’re writing a page for a book. Your message is being delivered to a device that your audience holds in their hands. As stated above, keep it short and sweet and include links that are optimized for mobile devices. In other words, your surveys need to actually work on mobile devices.

Size your messages according to the type of device you’re delivering it to and run tests to make sure the survey buttons are working properly. You want to ensure that it’ll work on all major platforms to avoid people abandoning it midway because it’s not working right.

Make Your Call-to-Action Crystal Clear

A call-to-action is what you need to include at the end of your message to entice readers to perform an action. Use a sentence that is inviting and will encourage them to click on a link that leads them to the survey.

You must make your call-to-action simple and crystal clear. Think about what you want the reader to do and figure out the most simple way to get them to take action.

Incentives Go A Long Way

Let’s just cut to the chase. Not many people want to take surveys because they feel it’ll take up too much time or the questions are too intrusive. However, when you add an incentive like an exclusive discount or gift card, suddenly taking a survey doesn’t seem so bad. If your survey happens to be a long one, make sure your incentive is a generous one.

Final Thoughts

Using a mobile texting service to send surveys is an excellent way for brands to understand their consumers. Major retailers find that SMS surveys are quite successful. Having noticed that it’s true that the response rate is quite fast is the reason why they also use mobile texting to request feedback. It’s also the most efficient way to provide customer service because customers will get a quick reply to further assist them.

Business texting is an opportunity to enhance many areas of your daily operations and stay ahead of your competitors. We strongly suggest that you don’t miss out on using the best marketing tool to connect with your audience and you can start by launching a survey campaign.

To get started with mobile texting for your business, start your free trial with Text My Main Number today!

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Landline Texting etiquette: 7 things your business should know

Landline_texting_etiquette_7_things_your_business_should_know

Landline Texting is a wonderful resource for your business to stay in touch with customers, but there are some guidelines you should follow to show proper texting etiquette and professionalism.

Whether you’re just getting started with business texting, or you’ve been doing it for awhile, it’s easy to forget some of the important guidelines that every business should follow when it comes to text message communications with their clients and customers.

Luckily, services like Text My Main Number, make it easy and affordable to set up a professional business text messaging service that your customers will find fun and useful.

In this post, we’ll go through a few things that you should be sure to do if you use business texting.

1. Get consent to text

Before you sign your clients or customers up for your text message announcements, be sure they know about your text messages and agree to receive messages from you. If you don’t get consent beforehand, you could be sending them unwanted information, or spam. Businesses that send spam could be fined or violating federal communications regulations.

You can ask your customers when they purchase a good or service with your company if they would like to receive future text messages from your business. You can also give customers the opportunity to sign up to receive text messages on your website or branded social media platforms.

If a customer sends you a text, you do not need to get verbal or written permission to text with that person since you can reasonably imply that they want you to text them.

2. Give your customers a clear opt-out method

Sometimes people change their minds, move away, or no longer need to receive text messages from your business. In case that happens, be sure you give your customers a clear and effective way to opt out of receiving messages from you in the future. The easiest way to provide an opt out method this by allowing recipients to reply “Stop” to a text, which should prompt you to remove their phone number from your contact list.

With Text My Main Number, mobile users who reply “STOP” to a message are automatically placed on a do-not-contact list. If a business does send a group text to that user’s number, the message is automatically not sent to that user.

3. Don’t share overly personal information via text

Be sure that your text communications do not include overly personal information about your clients, such as their full address, credit card numbers, social security numbers, or health information. Although texting is a secure way to communicate, it is in everyone’s best interest to avoid sharing sensitive information unless it’s absolutely necessary.

4. Make sure your texts fulfill a specific mission

Before you hit send, think about why it’s a good idea for your business to be sending that mass text message out. Are you announcing an important special? Is there a big change happening with your company that you think every customer or client should know about? If you think that the message will be useful for the majority of its recipients, go ahead and send it. However, if the message is best suited for more of a specific audience, think about creating sub-lists of contacts so you can tailor messages to certain groups of customers and clients.

Landline_texting_etiquette_7_things_your_business_should_know

5. Respond to business texts in a timely manner

The phone works both ways when it comes to landline texting. Always be sure that you pay attention to the messages you receive, and respond to messages as soon as possible. Responding to text messages promptly lets people know that their text message went through and that their issue is being addressed.

Many business text messaging platforms, like Text My Main Number, offer a variety of options for you to create auto-reply messages for certain times of day or in response to messages that contain specific keywords. For example, someone can text, “What are your hours?” Instead of typing the response out yourself, you can have an automated message respond to give them your hours and perhaps a link to your website for more information. 

6. Keep your messages consistent

Remember that every text message you send from your business’s main number is a reflection of you and your company. You want to clearly present your business’s brand, provide functional links, timely information, and maintain a professional demeanor and tone. If you tell your customers that they can expect daily or weekly texts from you to give them a specific piece of information, be sure you follow through and send those texts when you say you will. With Text My Main Number, you can create text message templates and schedules to make it easier to follow a consistent schedule and preplan your messages ahead of time.

7. Keep text messages short

Your text messages should be short and easy to read. A general rule of thumb is to keep messages shorter than 160 characters. Keeping your text messages short also helps you keep the message focused on one important topic or announcement, so you’re communicating clearly with your customers. Keep in mind that your clients or customers might be busy or distracted when they receive a text, so it’s best to keep messages short enough to read in a few seconds. You can also include abbreviated URLs to direct your customers to a link with more complete information.

In conclusion

Sending unwanted or unprofessional text messages from your business’s main phone number can damage your reputation and result in steep fines.

Landline texting should be offered as an added convenience for your customers rather than an annoyance that they don’t want. Always use your best judgment when sending out text messages and be sure to proofread your texts before hitting send. Also, find a good way to manage an up-to-date contact list that makes it easy to add and remove phone numbers.

You can learn all about how landline texting can work for your business at the Text My Main Number blog.

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How Landline Texting Improves Curbside Pickup for Spring Home Improvement?

How Landline Texting improves Curbside Pickup for spring home improvement?

Spring is traditionally the time of year when homeowners get to work on all of the maintenance and DIY home improvements they want to get done around the house. However, the coronavirus pandemic is still making it difficult for some people to go to stores to get their shopping done. Landline texting can help home improvement stores keep up with the increased consumer demand brought on by springtime projects by streamlining their curbside pickups. 

Here is how landline texting can benefit your home improvement business:

1. Curbside Pickup speeds up home improvement projects

More and more consumers are turning to curbside pickup as a way to quickly complete their errands and avoid crowded stores during COVID-19. Home improvement projects often require hours of trips to massive hardware stores to purchase supplies, but many consumers are already accustomed to using curbside pickups to do their shopping.

A curbside pickup service allows your customers to text their order into their local hardware store, so the items are ready for them to pick up when they arrive. The service saves them time they would have spent wandering around the store and browsing for what they wanted.

2. Landline Texting helps you get orders ready ahead of time 

No one knows your store better than your employees. Once someone texts in their order to your business’s main phone number, an employee can locate the items and have them ready for the customer to pick up.

That means you will not have to get a new or additional phone line to offer business texting, you can simply use a platform like Text My Main Number to enhance your business’s existing phone number to send and receive text messages. 

Landline texting also helps your employees spend less time answering and returning phone calls and more time fulfilling orders. Click here to learn more about how business texting can benefit your company.

3. Curbside Pickup helps keep your employees safe

Spring is usually the busiest time of year for home improvement stores. Plus, the coronavirus pandemic has made home improvement projects even more popular as people stay at home.

According to an article by The Wall Street Journal, home improvement retailers saw a huge jump in consumer demand during the pandemic, with sales expected to continue climbing through the pandemic.

Landline texting versus calling or emailing is a smart strategy considering 85% of consumers say they prefer text messaging over other forms of communication. Plus, studies show that people read 95% of text messages within just three minutes of receiving them. 

4. Landline Texting gives mom and pop hardware stores a competitive advantage

Small businesses have taken a big economic hit during the coronavirus pandemic, partially because they do not have the same conveniences that big box retailers offer such as online shopping and mobile phone applications. Business texting is a more affordable and manageable investment that allows your customers to get a similar service and avoid crowded stores during the springtime home improvement season.

More ways home improvement stores can use Landline Texting

Here are a few other creative ways to use business texting to connect with your customers. 

Announce spring specials

Spring is a popular time to offer discounts and specials on gardening products and equipment for household maintenance projects. You can use business texting to announce your big specials to frequent customers, so they remember to come to you for their next spring improvement project.

Send order confirmation and reminders

For customers who use curbside pickups, you can text to coordinate pickup times, confirm their orders, and send reminders to come get their items. This saves you and your employees valuable time from calling to follow up with orders.

Spread the word about a special event

If you host or sponsor spring store events, texting is a great way to spread the word. Although events may look a little different during the coronavirus pandemic, they are still a great way to connect with customers and promote your business.

In conclusion

The coronavirus pandemic has created new challenges for homeowners and businesses, but the home improvement industry is expected to continue thriving as the pandemic forces consumers to stay at home, according to the latest industry reports. Curbside pickup is one of the many shopping services we have adapted to during the challenging times, and consumers will likely expect companies to continue offering it once the pandemic ends.

Plus, it’s expected to remain a popular option for shopping in the future.

Now has never been a better time to invest in landline texting so your business can offer the best possible customer service and stay open during the pandemic while keeping employees and customers safe. 

Landline texting helps your home improvement business save time and money, accommodate new shopping routines, and ensure your store is not crowded with people. Landline texting does not require any special equipment or a new phone number – instead, it is through a business texting service like Text My Main Number.

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How to Use Landline Texting for Curbside Pickups during COVID-19?

How to use Landline Texting for Curbside Pickups during COVID-19?

The coronavirus pandemic quickly changed how many companies are doing business, especially stores and restaurants that have begun using landline texting to offer curbside pickup to accommodate their customers during the pandemic. 

Although Curbside Pickup helps prevent the spread of COVID-19, it can pose extra logistical challenges to busy managers who need to stay on top of pickup orders, strict health protocols, and their usual duties.

Smart business owners know that to keep their customers coming back, they’ll need to offer a seamless experience. One answer has been landline texting – an option that allows you to send and receive text messages with your current landline phone number. 

Instead of investing in an expensive mobile app, or asking customers to submit orders through a website, businesses can offer the option to text their main number to place orders and coordinate pickups. 

Amazing, right? 

Here’s more info on the reasons why businesses are turning to text messaging during COVID-19 and offer seamless curbside pickup services in 2021: 

1. Landline Texting is an affordable business investment

It’s 2021 and text messaging has never been more accessible. You don’t need a smartphone or even a new phone number to send and receive text messages on your business phone number. You simply need to subscribe to a reliable business texting service to get started.

2. Business Text Messaging is easy to set up and use

Setting up a texting option for your business is a breeze. You will not have to get a new phone number or any special equipment, simply tell your staff and customers that they can now send and receive text messages using your main business landline phone number.

Landline texting will work across your business’s other digital devices such as computers and tablets using remote access technology. You can also send and receive text messages with an email address.

3. Texting saves your business valuable time while keeping lines of communication open 

Imagine you are the owner of a small but popular downtown restaurant. The lunch rush is heating up, and the phone is ringing off the hook as orders pour in. All this business would be great on an average day, but two employees already called in sick today, and lunch is barely getting started. 

You need to keep your remaining staff available to prepare orders and greet customers, but you also don’t want to miss out on potential business by ignoring the phone calls.  

This is just the situation in which landline texting could make the difference between your restaurant making $500 during the lunch rush, or $2,000. 

Instead of keeping your employees tied up answering the phones and taking down orders by hand, they could view landline text message orders as they come in and communicate with customers without needing to stop what they are doing to make a phone call. 

4. Your landline calls will not be interrupted by text messages 

Like a cell phone, your landline calling service will not be affected by incoming text messages to your business phone. Landline texting allows you to consistently communicate with customers who prefer to call as well as customers who are comfortable with texting. 

That means a local bookshop owner can be on the phone with a customer or vendor as they receive a text from another phone number about a curbside pickup order. The telephone call will not be interrupted, and the business owner or clerk can return the text message during the call or when they get done talking.

5. Businesses can connect with their loyal customers from afar 

It has been difficult, to say the least, for businesses to keep in contact with their customers during social distancing and other virus precautions. 

Landline texting is a simple way to stay in contact with customers and let them know about what is going on with your business. 

Business texting allows you to communicate with customers and send out mass, short messages. Landline texting can be ideal for: 

  • Receiving curbside pickup orders or appointments
  • Confirming appointment details
  • Announcing your weekly specials or special promotions
  • Confirming billing or monthly payments
  • Sending birthday or anniversary messages 
  • Spread the word about a special event  

Landline texting versus calling or emailing is a smart strategy considering 85% of consumers say they prefer text messaging over other forms of communication. Plus, studies show that people read 95% of text messages within just three minutes of receiving them. 

6. Landline Texting gives small businesses a better opportunity to compete with large chains

Big box stores like Walmart, Target, and many large grocers have seen huge jumps in sales since the start of the pandemic thanks to their curbside delivery options, according to an article in USA Today. The added convenience of curbside pickup helps customers feel safe and still get out of the house to head to the store. 

Small businesses can offer the same type of service by adopting a business text messaging program to allow customers to place orders from their phones without physically entering a store or restaurant. 

In conclusion

The coronavirus pandemic has created new challenges that business owners have needed to overcome. Curbside pickup has been an effective solution if businesses can effectively implement it. Curbside pickup at retail stores jumped 208% in the early days of the pandemic, and online orders remain high a year later, according to an article by CNBC. 

Now has never been a better time to invest in landline texting so your business can continue operating during the pandemic while keeping employees and customers safe. 

Landline texting helps your business save time and money, work more efficiently, and keep in contact with customers during a challenging time. Landline texting does not require any special equipment or a new phone number – instead, it is through a business texting service. 

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Using Business Texting to Send COVID-19 Notifications

How each business communicates with their staff and customers during the COVID-19 quarantine is the deciding factor on how solid your business continuity plan will be. Business texting is helping a variety of industries to quickly send COVID-19 updates to their audience to keep them in the loop about what can be expected. From retailers, service professionals, medical facilities, pharmacies, hair & nail salons, to schools, everyone is turning to the fastest and safest method to communicate updates.

Text My Main Number is offering companies and organizations a free 2-week trial of business texting services starting in March 2020. All business owners or institutions that are looking for an efficient communication platform will also be offered free training so you can begin using the SMS platform right away. You will have the ability to use your business phone number to begin sending and receiving text messages to help keep your daily operations as organized as possible.

One of the keys to excellent business management is having the ability to avoid disruption of your day-to-day as much as possible during a chaotic situation. In an unexpected pandemic where the outcome was unforeseen it is imperative that you have a rapid bounce back to maintain normalization. In this article we will list how some of the top industries are using business texting services during the adjustments that came about from COVID-19.

SMS for Supermarkets During COVID-19 Quarantine

Going food shopping has become a risk in many great cities throughout the states where COVID-19 has presented itself. In heavily populated areas such as New York City, supermarket managers have turned to business texting services to service customers. Supermarkets can send a text message to all of its subscribers with a link to a form that can be filled out for you to select your needed groceries.

The supermarket staff will then confirm receipt of your grocery list and reply with a delivery time window.

Communication can continue back and forth up to your delivery time. That means that if any items are out of stock, the supermarket staff will communicate that through the SMS user panel. Suggestions for replacement items can be texted and the customer can then reply with their decision.

Once the shopping list is ready a payment link can be sent, and your groceries will be ready to be delivered during your selected time.

Customers can also ask product questions, request stock on an item, request hours of operations, report customer service issues, and more right through the palm of their hands. The supermarket’s user panel on the SMS platform will archive conversation history to ensure quality and maintain conversations that may need to be referenced again later.

Having the ability to communicate with shoppers through text message is not only a useful way to communicate, but it allows people to stay home safely and away from being exposed to catching coronavirus. The less people they interact with during such a high contamination period, the better.

How Schools are Using Business Texting Services During the COVID-19 Outbreak

Distance learning will come into effect more than ever during the isolation period caused by the coronavirus. While many families practice homeschooling and will not feel the disruption, there are more families who are scrambling for a plan than not. Besides the issue of finding where students will spend most of their day while their parents are working, providing hot meals for homeless students who depend on school meals for food, and not having someone to monitor schoolwork during the day, many educational institutions are needing to come up with a continuity plan faster than the speed of light.

Many schools were already using an SMS platform to:

  • Send notices to parents
  • Send assignments to students and parents
  • Send important announcements
  • Send event notifications
  • Request parent/teacher conference days/times
  • Announce fundraisers with included payment link
  • Notify families of schedule changes due to inclement weather
  • And much more!

With COVID-19 causing students to stay home for weeks and even a month or more, the school phones will be ringing off the hook with parents who are frantic and don’t know what to do. Now’s the time to partner with a company who offers text messaging services for schoolsto keep communication organized and provide solutions to parents. Schools who implement landline texting can:

  • Have teachers send text messages to parents with a weekly/daily lesson plan. They can also provide instructions on where to download and/or submit assignments to be checked and graded.
  • Send information to families who need to know where they can find local food banks for daily meals.
  • Invite parents to send questions via SMS to the faculty
  • Mass text all subscribers with any COVID-19 progress updates
  • Announce community events and activities to keep families engaged

Landline Texting Your Customers During the Coronavirus Epidemic

Many businesses will be affected (and not in a good way) with the pandemic at hand. Retailers, restaurants, bars, salons, and many other business owners will feel the drop in sales in little to no time. People will do their best to stay indoors and not expose themselves to places that have a lot of foot traffic. Service professionals who are now caught in the coronavirus crossfire can use landline texting to:

  • Text customers with any updated hours of operation
  • Schedule/reschedule/cancel appointments
  • Notify customers what is being done to maintain a clean and coronavirus free environment
  • Send promotional offers to customers who do wish to come to your place of business for service

Where there is a will there is a way and rather than trying to reach your audience by phone and email, it makes way more sense to use the most popular communication platform during the chaos that has been brought on by the coronavirus. Not only will your text messages be delivered within seconds and read within minutes, but your audience will have the ability to respond and ask any questions they may have. You will then continue engagement through the user panel where your conversation history will be kept for future references. You can use the Text My Main Number landline texting platform features to create groups and send bulk messages, create and send templates, create and send autoresponders, send surveys, invoice customers, and chat live. That’s only some of the features this amazing SMS platform has to offer. If you’re looking for a quick communication solution to keep your daily operations afloat during COVID-19, please contact us today so we can help.

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4 Ways Landline Texting for Business Will Improve Your Marketing Plan

It wasn’t too long ago that the mobilized communication platform known as Landline Texting for Business was deemed the best and latest form to reach leads. It completely changed the way daily operations would be managed and how we nurture our relationships with customers.

Landline texting for business became “a thing” in recent years but SMS for business was something that become common in the early 90s. It started as a tool that Europeans used for easy banking transactions, and now people often use it make payments, transfer money, pay bills, etc.

As all things do, this new form of communication and online tool evolved into something that many small business owners started to utilize for various purposes, and amongst its uses the most actionable function became adding landline texting for business to marketing plans. Companies were now discovering just how powerful SMS marketing was becoming.

When you’re looking to believe in something that is not going to be expensive yet will be very effective in increasing your revenue, it’s proof you want to see. There are several ways to prove that landline texting for business is going to be a fruitful source in your marketing plan. It may quite possibly be the most cost-effective and result-driven part of your plan.

Let’s review some statistics that will help introduce the power that lies in SMS marketing.

98% of Landline Texting Messages are Read

Practically all mobile devices have the capacity of receiving and replying to text messages. SMS is an out-of-the-box feature that doesn’t require internet connections or app installations. When someone sends a text message to a mobile device, there’s a 98 percent chance that it will be read. These prevalent aspects of landline texting make it a very appealing component of small business marketing.

Landline Texting for Business Has a Response Rate of 45%

In comparison to social media or email communication, text messaging has a much more impressive response rate. We’re talking nearly ½ of smartphone users respond to text messages faster than they do an email message or direct message on social media. Les than 10% of consumers open emails from businesses unless it’s in response to an inquiry they submitted or a notification about an order they placed. Spam fills up everyone’s inboxes and the actual percentage of emails that are considered spam is 80%. So of course, people ignore their emails!

More Than 50% of Consumers Prefer Landline Texting for Business

More than half of consumers enjoy the concept of interacting with customer support via text messages. Some of the most popular customer services inquiries that can be handled by landline texting for business include payment confirmations, availability of products, and shipping status or order processing. In the past, these communications were largely handled by email, but the existing overabundance of spam makes landline texting a better option.

75% of Customers Look Forward to Text Messages with Promotional Offers

According to Digital Marketing Magazine, 75% of all customers would like to receive special offers, discounts and coupons delivered as a text message to their mobile devices. Incidentally, a suggested strategy is to create a call-to-action messages that includes a certain sense of urgency. Limited time offers that have to be used by a particular date are great for increasing store traffic. Another approach is to encourage recipients to forward coupons to their friends and loved ones. In the end, even though landline texting for business is now a remnant media outlet, small business owners should not ignore it. With the right landline texting for business company owners can greatly improve their customer acquisition and retention processes.

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3 Ways Business Texting Services Help You Strengthen Customer Relations

Strengthening relationships through Business Texting Services comes in handy for marketers who are looking to generate and convert leads. It’s also very effective in improving your relationships with existing customers because it allows you to engage on a more personal level, share content, send exclusive offers, send special announcements, and keep them connected to your brand.

Some business owners may not be comfortable yet with using business texting services because it sounds a bit evasive to send text messages to their contacts but the fact of the matter is, people actually prefer to receive text messages from businesses than phone calls or emails.

Think about it.

You’re at work sitting in on a meeting and your mind wanders off as you begin to wonder why your shipment from your favorite retailer never arrived yesterday. You can’t very well pick up your cell phone right then and there to call and find out the status of your shipment. Sending an email isn’t going to work either because you want to know RIGHT NOW and not hours from now, and some customer service teams reply days later.

Now, if you could just pick up your cell phone and quickly send a text message asking for a status update and get a reply within minutes…how satisfied would you be? Very! That’s why more brands are using business texting services to improve their customer relations.

Here are 3 other ways business texting services will help you build trust and loyalty with your consumers:

1. Use Business Texting Services to Nurture Your Customers.

While automating messages can be useful, it’s not necessarily the best way to build a relationship. Ultimately it will affect your bottom line and it has been proven that when you nurture a relationship with a customer, you make nearly 50%more in sales from them compared to those whom you do no cultivate a relationship with.

Not only do customers you develop a relationship with become repeat customers, but they are also more likely to refer your company to friends and family. That means that nurtured relationships will in fact lead to higher revenue. But what will help you build a relationship with your consumers? Easy peezy! Conversations will!

More times than not, sending a text message is how friends and family choose to communicate with one other, and so it would only make sense that you use the same concept to effectively build a relationship between your brand and your consumers.

There are so many ways to use business texting services to start conversations. You can start with conversations starters such as:

  • Hey Sam, we noticed you wanted more info on our promotion. Do you have time at any point today to go over the details?
  • Good morning! I saw this article on how to maintain your hair color and thought you may want to read up on it before you schedule your next appointment for hair coloring with me ?
  • Hey Sarah, we were reviewing reports and saw that you ordered vitamins a month ago and figured you may be running low by now. Here’s a discount code for your next purchase!

These types of text message are short, friendly, and very likely to convert into a sale. We highly recommend you insert this into your sales funnels because you will notice an influx in orders over time simply because you embedded conversational wording into your marketing plan.

2. Send Promotional Offers as You Build Your List of Subscribers.

If a consumer had an excellent experience buying your products or taking advantage of your services, there is a high likelihood that they will be a repeat customer. In fact, they are more likely to spend money on your brand than a new lead. Even if that only accounts for an approximate 5% increase in customer retention it will still increase your bottom line up to 95%.

In order to make this theory work at its best, it’s imperative that you re-engage former buyers, which can easily be done by using business texting services to send messages about new products, announcements, promotions, opportunities, and features. You can track how many of those messages met your end goal of encouraging a customer to buy from you again by using a keyword to build your filtered list of subscribers.

When you use a keyword, your customers will have the ability to (for example), text VIPCUSTOMER to your business phone number for more information on receiving exclusive promotional deals that is not available to all customers. You can also set up an autoresponder to thank those who sent in the keyword and then make sure to monitor the list so that you know who to send the special “VIP” offers you promised they’d receive.

One of the benefits of using business texting services is the fact that people can send and receive text messages to and from your business phone number.

3. Increase Your Review Ratings – Business Texting Services.

Here’s a little fun fact: Companies that have 10 or more reviews online will gain 50% more conversions than brands who have a whopping zero number of reviews. Most people fishing for information on a product or service will use Google to find out more before they spend their money. On average, consumers read approximately 7 reviews before they believe in your brand, and 22% of consumers who have read a bad review (just 1 bad review) will quickly decide you’re not the brand for them.

Moral of the story is that having good reviews will help your business with positive online exposure and sales conversions.

Here’s how business texting services can help you gain good reviews and boost your sales:

Send a links in a text message asking your customers to write a quick review about their positive experience with your brand. You can insert an incentive like 10% off their next purchase for their time.

Want to know how much this tactic works? Links via text message have a 36% click through rate. Being that mostly everyone reads text messages within seconds of receiving them, you have a good chance of getting an increase in reviews on the same day you request your customers to submit them.

Takeaway

If emails and phone calls aren’t getting you the results you want in terms of reaching customers, nurturing customer relationships, or converting leads, then perhaps it’s time for you to give a business texting service a try. If you’re afraid it may be too complicated, it’s not. In fact, the Text My Main Number text messaging platform is very user-friendly, and the customer service team offers training during your free 2-week trial period.

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2 Ways Landline Texting for Business Increases Sales

So how will Landline Texting for Business ensure an increase in sales you ask? Well, think about the full process of landing a sale or a new client. It starts with an exchange that becomes a lead and then HOW you nurture that lead is what determines if you’ve gained a new customer. The more personalized your method of interaction is, the more likely you are to establish trust from the lead while increasing their interest in your brand.

Once you have their interest, it’s the next 5 tips that’s going to lock them in. Then you just copy and paste your methodology to multiply your revenue.

2 Ways Landline Texting for Business Increases Sales

Like we stated above, if you gain more leads, you’ll increase sales. The question is, how exactly will landline texting for business help you convert your audience from people who are just clicking around on your website or social media profiles into actual customers?

1. Use Landline Texting for Business to Generate Leads

The more leads you attract to your brand, the more sales you’ll receive. Being that text messaging is the feature that cell phone users utilize the most, it’s safe to say that you have a greater chance of attracting them by using landline texting.

Think about it. If you wanted to reach someone right now to tell them about something exciting, does your instinct drive you to email them? Or is your first thought to go to their Facebook page to send them a message? Probably not.

Your first instinct is probably to call someone when you want to tell them about something exciting or urgent. However, people rarely answer their phones and depending on the time of day, more times than not you’re going to get their voicemail. Now, what they will do almost IMMEDIATELY is check a new text message when they see the notification on their phone.

So again, landline texting for business is the method that will generate the most leads because texting is the majority of the population’s preferred communication method.

If you’re using Google Adwords to attract leads, you can now add coding that will let leads directly send a text message to your business. You can then use a landline texting for business platform to reply instantly and engage with your leads.

You can also generate leads by using the SMS feature on your social media profiles. Depending on the platform, some have the option to add a click-to-text button right on your profile.

2. Beat Your Competitors with Your Follow-up Method

OK, now you pulled their attention because they clicked to text your business. What’s next?

Research has demonstrated that 35-50% of sales go to the brand that replies first to a lead’s inquiry. Then comes the art of persuasion and the attitude you use in the verbiage of your message to certify that you’re using your landline texting for business technique at its best.

To build rapport with your leads you must start by indicating how your product or service will provide a solution so it’s crucial that you are detailed in your persuasion. Your text message will be read within seconds of being received so there is no doubt that you will connect with your leads more via text messaging than any other method of communication.

Takeaway

Once you have your foot in the door with your lead, send an inviting message that persuades them to click on a link to learn more about how your product or service is the answer to what they need and always suggest a way to connect. Include a call-to-action and use the word “free” wherever you can because everyone appreciates that they can ask more questions or schedule a consult at no cost to them. For more information on how landline texting for business can help your brand increase sales, feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

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The 3 Best Free Texting Apps for Smartphones

Two cartoon characters standing in front of a big tablet, one holding a star and the other a smart phone.

“If it’s free it’s for me!” We’ve all heard this saying and the reason it is so popular is because everyone loves anything that’s free. Especially if it’s a service you can make use of like the best Free Texting app.

When looking for a free texting app there are some things you should consider. For starters, some are bombarded with annoying promo ads because someone has to make their money somewhere. Other SMS/MMS services aren’t as irritating.

Being that text messaging is the most popular method of communicating, free texting apps have risen over the past several years. Now it’s up to you to decide which texting app is the one for you. After researching and testing a variety of text messaging services, we came up with a list of the best texting apps for smartphones.

The 3 Best Free Texting Apps for Smartphones

TextMe Up

Not to be confused with TextNow (which we’ll review below), this particular texting app provides you with your own phone number that you can use to send and receive message with. One of the perks of TextMe Up is that it doesn’t have as many ads per page. However, it does have them in more areas so the nuisance level will be a matter of the user’s preference. You can add credits to use the phone number to make calls. While solely using this as a free texting app doesn’t incur a cost, there are subscription fees that range from $4.99-$7.99/month depending on the access level you choose. When you do sign up to a subscription, you can say buh bye to the ads!

Google Voice

One of the most popular and best free texting apps is Google Voice. It allows you to send SMS and MMS for free and make phone calls so long as it’s within the US or Canada. People have reported some not so great reception when it comes to making calls outside of the coverage area but with perks like the Chrome browser extension, voicemail, and an easy-to-use app…who can complain? The great thing about this texting app is that you don’t have to have a Google account to use it.

TextNow

Similar to TextMe Up, TextNow is another free texting app being used by many smartphone users to make free calls and send and receive free text messages. It has a pretty clean and easy user interface to navigate which is why it’s considered one of the best free texting apps on the market. Users have reported that they barely have issues and they enjoy the fact that they can subscribe to a text plan that doesn’t require Wi-Fi for as little as $9.99/month. If you simply want to continue using the texting app services but want to remove the ads, you can subscribe to an ad-free service for $2.99/month, but that also limits the number of texts that you can send and receive. So there you have it. In the sea of information, you’ll find online on the best free texting apps, Text My Main Number has selected the 3 that happen to have the best service and all offer an option to remove the promotional ads that fund them. Happy texting!

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Use Business Texting Services to Improve Sales Conversions

Use Business Texting Services to Improve Sales Conversions

If starting a conversation has never been your strength, using Business Texting Services may be the key to using the right verbiage to improve your sales conversions. You’d be surprised how meaningful a relationship you can build by sending and receiving text messages with your customers.

Even when it comes to lead retention, business texting services have proven to be the best communication method to engage prospects, schedule consultations, estimate appointments, and getting orders.

Most business owners can probably relate to the fact that traditional sales methods no longer work. People prefer a more customized form of interaction and when pitching a service or product to them, they want to know SPECIFICALLY why it would serve them a purpose.

When you personalize a product or service to tailor to someone’s needs, you increase your chances of sparking their interest, and in turn, of landing a sale.

With business texting services you have the ability to customize messages to intrigue your target audience’s attention in a more direct way than say a print ad or email. The secret to creating a message that will improve sales conversions is to:

  • Be genuine in your wording
  • Define the benefit
  • Humanize your message
  • Include a call to action

Using Business Texting Services to Nurture Customer Interactions

Like anything else you’re looking to build, nurturing customer relationships also takes work. It no longer works to keep interactions between businesses and customers transactional. It’s too black and white and people want the gray.

People connect to brands via a variety of mediums these days and they end up overwhelmed with the different directions they’re approached in. Whether it be a TV commercial, promotional email, social media ad, or any form of print ad, the push to advertise brands is everywhere. That’s why we say that using business texting services is the way to go because you’re reaching them at the palm of their hands.

In other words, you’re cutting through the noise to get their attention.

Now that you’re at the front of the attention line, how do you ensure that they don’t ignore your text message AND that your message converts into a sale?

Conversation Goals That Ensure Sales Conversions

Not all conversations should be started to encourage a sale. Sometimes initiating regular conversation indirectly converts into a sale, and that’s where the science behind building good customer relations begins. Here are a few reasons to spark a conversation with prospects and customers that can help sales conversions via text messaging.

Engagement – Stay connected with your audience and send them text messages with important company announcements, a birthday wish, a “haven’t heard from you in a while,” and always include a promotional code to entice them to use their discount in store or online.

Retention – Most businesses get a good percentage of their sales from returning customers. Believe it or not, those returning customers sometimes make up over 90% of your sales. Send existing customers exclusive deals via text message to help them feel like they’re VIP to you and offer them an added incentive for referring your business to others as well.

Acquisition – Did you know the average cost of a retail lead is $34?That’s not counting what business owners are spending on publishing ads, but when using business texting services your spend is reduced by an impressive amount. The takeaway? Treat your customers like someone you know and nurture a relationship though personalized messages using business texting services that don’t break the bank. You’ll see that in time, you will convert conversations into sales simply because you got to know your audience better.

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Exploring Landline Texting for Evites

Exploring Landline Texting for Evites

Start using the # 1 communication tool to send and manage evites for your next event. Landline Texting for Evites has the highest open rate and providing invitees with the ability to autoreply is sure to increase attendance.

While it’s true that many industries have taken advantage of the benefits of SMS marketing, one industry that is finding landline texting to be useful for more than just advertising is the events industry.

Having the ability tocommunicate with your target audience via text messaging increases the possibilities of receiving a response to an invitation for an event. Even if you’re not in the events industry, chances are that your business will host an event sooner or later. Using business texting to send out the invitations will still work better towards increasing attendance than email or snail mail.

For example, restaurants can use a business texting platform to send out invitations to special events like when they want to alert their customers about a new themed night.

“Hi Michael! We’re hosting our very first karaoke night at Bob’s Steakhouse this Thursday, and we’d love to have you attend. Just reply with SINGMEIN to be added to our guestlist!”

Or, you can go a step further and include a link when your event requires that a ticket be purchased.

“Good evening Mrs. Horowitz. Tickets for this year’s annual Valentine’s dance school fundraiser are now available. Click on this link to purchase your tickets before the early bird special is over on February 1st.”

When you use the Text My Main Number text messaging platform, you’ll have the ability to manage communication on an easy-to-use web-based user panel. Making it easier to manage your guestlist and keep accurate count of attendance.

Sending Evites through SMS

When you’re trying to increase attendance for an event and you know that most of the population owns smartphones, it’s quite simple to decide which form of communication to use to send out invitations. Especially when text messages have an impressive open rate of 98%. I think it’s safe to say that you can pretty much guarantee that your invite will be read.

Exploring Landline Texting for Evites

There are so many text messaging platforms out there and choosing the right company to go with can become overwhelming. Before you end up down the rabbit hole that is Google, here are some of the features and tools you’ll want your landline texting provider to offer:

Cost Effectiveness: It doesn’t make sense to start using text messaging to send and manage evites if it’s just going to be an added expense. If you’re going to add this communication tool to your event planning duties, then you’ll want it to make financial sense. Choose a text messaging provider like Text My Main Number that will not break the bank.

Customization: Ensure that the provider you choose has a web-based user panel that is easy to use, and easy to customize to your needs. You’ll want it to have the ability to create lists and schedule messages. Text blasts are only as good as you can customize them to meet your target audience’s preferences (i.e. specific days, times, and text categories) in order to retain your opt-in rate. 

Features: When sending evites using a text messaging platform you’ll want to add a human touch and use featuressuch as emojis, MMS, auto reply, and perhaps even a chat widget to enable instant conversations for anyone who may have questions about the event.

Customer Support: Ensure that the provider you choose offers customer support to assist you with your campaigns and answer any questions you may have about how to use their landline texting platform efficiently.  Companies like Text My Main Number who offer free training are ideal because the first teach you how to use all the key features and the admin panel from the very start.

Free Text Messaging Trial

Before you decide what platform to use to send out evites for your next event, you should consider a landline texting provider that offers a free trial to test run your campaign. During this time, take advantage of also testing the level of customer support you’ll receive to make sure you’ve chosen a provider that will be reliable when you need assistance.