Tag Archives: sms marketing

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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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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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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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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.

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Avoid Spamming Your Audience When Using Landline Texting

You never want to get so excited about having an SMS marketing platform to send offers to your customers that you forget there are rules to the game. Spamming someone with a plethora of messages is the last thing you want to do with using landline texting.

Yes, we get it. It’s fun to have a new resource to reach out to your audience. Not so fun? Annoying them to the point where they’re opting out of receiving further messages from you. It can also cause you legal problems.

Before you start partaking in spammy behavior, take a loot at the tips we outlined below to help you retain your list of subscribers.

How to Avoid Spamming Subscribers with SMS

Using the Text My Main Number landline texting platform for your SMS Marketing is not a large investment, but any investment you make in trying to pull in new revenue for your business should be taken seriously.

It’s extremely important that you know the proper protocol and permissions that go with text messaging.

Non-compliant marketing can become costly and the last thing you want to do is spend thousands of dollars in fees for improperly messaging your subscribers.

There are 3 organizations that regulate SMS messaging. They are:

When it comes to best SMS marketing practices, it’s CTIA and MMA that regulate it, and the FCC is a government agency. The laws created by the FCC are what regulate SMS marketing and protect the public from being spammed by businesses. The two laws that most protect consumers are the CAN-SPAM and the TELEPHONE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT.

While Text My Main Number is not a legal firm and we do not claim to know all the ins and outs of the compliance regulations, we do have some recommendations on protecting your brand from being non-compliant.

How to Protect Your Brand from Complaints in SMS Marketing

For starters, you want to use a reputable landline texting platform like Text My Main Number who stays up to date with regulations to ensure their clients are always in compliance. As a text messaging provider, they do all the work to understand the laws so that your business can avoid complaints from consumers about being spammed.

Landline texting is a service you would only offer to people who opt-in to receiving text messages from your business. For those who want to opt out, it’s important that your text messaging provider knows how to create an easy method for people to unsubscribe.

How to Entice Your Audience to Opt-In Using Landline Texting

When you offer an incentive to your audience for subscribing, you will notice how quickly your opt-in rate will rise. The most common way to track the offers that are working to increase your list of subscribers is by using a keyword for your SMS marketing campaigns. You can then create promo ads using the keyword and publish the ads on your social media platforms.

Best & Easiest Opt-Out Methods When Using Landline Texting

It’s important that you provide a clear and easy way for subscribers to opt-out, otherwise you will be violating regulations and it can lead to legal complications.

Subscribers should be able to easily opt-out from receiving text messages by replying with the word “STOP.”  

SMS marketing has become one of the most popular forms of promoting products and services for many industries. The last thing you want to do is lose the ability to advertise your brand’s offerings because you didn’t follow the laws that are accompanied by landline texting. The good news is, you don’t have to spend time learning what those regulations are, because Text My Main Number does it for you.Sign up today for our free trial and start using one of the most trusted landline texting providers in the U.S.!

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20 Useful SMS Templates to Improve Messaging

Part of properly strategizing a successful SMS marketing by SMS Templates campaign consists on setting goals.  You must decide if what your business needs is to:

  • Drive more traffic to the company website
  • Generate leads
  • Increase brand awareness
  • Boost sales

Otherwise all the efforts you put towards your business texting campaigns can easily be rendered futile.

Having such a powerful communication platform like the Text My Main Number landline texting platform can help you attract new consumers and ultimately become a resourceful tool for daily operations. Many companies are using business texting to:

  • Send alerts
  • Send appointment confirmations and reminders
  • Answer product and service questions
  • Provide instant customer service
  • …and all can be done using MMS!

These daily tasks are only some of the many features that landline texting offers business owners.

Now, we’re going to review some of the most successful SMS Templates to help you communicate better with your audience and help you increase sales.

20 Successful SMS Templates to Improve Messaging

Once you’ve undergone the free Text My Main Number trial and you’re ready to implement your new SMS marketing tool, it’s time to decide how to create messages that are concise and alluring. You don’t want to get stuck copying/pasting/editing messages while you try to figure out the type of context that sounds just right.

Here are some inspirational SMS templates to use when your creative juices just aren’t flowing.

SMS Reminders

Sending SMS reminders are an excellent way to manage schedules by reminding people about their appointments, boosting revenue by sending alerts about sales, increasing RSVPs for events, and more.

The SMS reminders can be simple and using some of the templates below should help get you started.

5 SMS Templates for SMS Reminders

  1. “Hi Michael. This is Child and Family Psychology. We just wanted to remind you about your appointment tomorrow at 11 AM.” 
  2. “Hi Sarah. This is Stacey with Paloma Bakery here. We’re sending a friendly reminder that your order will be ready to be picked up tomorrow at 5 PM.” 
  3. “This appointment reminder is for Barry who is scheduled to meet with Jasmine to process his taxes.”
  4. “Don’t forget! Your Business Marketing class has been rescheduled for Friday the 13th at 3 PM.”
  5. “Hi Evelyn! We see that you added items to your cart but didn’t check out. Just wanted to let you know that promo code SALENOW will give you 15% off your order if you checkout now!”

SMS Loyalty Programs

Setting up a loyalty program with SMS messaging is way better than the punch cards that everyone seems to lose. Once your audience has opted-in, they can track their points, visits, etc. via SMS text messages.

To reward your subscribers for being loyal customers, you can send them special offers.

5 Loyalty Program SMS Templates

  1. “Thank you for being such a loyal customer! Since we haven’t seen you in 3 months, we miss you and want to offer you a free gift to come back. Reply now with CLAIM MY GIFT to schedule an appointment.”
  2. “Text the keyword ILOVENAILS for 10% off your next manicure at Posh Nails.”
  3. “Send us a picture of your most recent receipt to info@salesareus.com and get a coupon for a $25 gift card.”
  4. “Can you believe it’s been a whole month since you subscribed to our list?! Reply with IAMVIP for a free $10 coupon.”
  5. “Reply with FLASHSALE to receive 75% off all women shoes today only!”

Encourage Sales and Improve Customer Service with SMS Surveys

Feedback is the best way to learn about your customer’s buying habits. Asking the right questions on a survey will let you know which products and/or services are in high demand and which ones you can do away with. Additionally, you can send out SMS surveys to find out where your customer service can use improvement.

5 SMS Survey Templates to Improve Customer Service

  1. “Hi Jimmy. We would love to hear about your experience with Smithson Locks! Leave us a quick review at [URL] and you’ll receive a $10 gift card.”
  2. “Thank you for your recent purchase! On a scale of 1-10 how likely are you to recommend our product to your family and friends?”
  3. “We see you spoke to our support team today! Was Angie able to help resolve your problem in a timely fashion? Reply YES or NO.”
  4. “Please rate the value of your most recent phone call with Dedicated Office on a scale of 1-10.”
  5. “Which service do you feel is the most useful at Vector Car Wash? Reply with power wash, car detailing, or vacuuming.”

5 SMS Survey Templates to Help Encourage Sales

  1. “Thank your recent purchase of our Elle Fashion Boots. Visit [URL] for a complete guide on this year’s best fall fashion picks.”
  2. “Read our latest blog post on 5 Ways to Find the Best Deals on Our Website at [URL]”
  3. “Thank you for signing up to receive recipes from Kitchen Classics. You might be interested in learning more about buying the right organic foods on our website by visiting [URL].”
  4. “We’re offering free hair care evaluations. Reply with DETAILS to learn more and schedule your evaluation.”
  5. “Hi Brianne. We noticed you purchased a new quilt today. Consider adding some pillow shams to your order that match perfectly with your new quilt. Visit [URL] to see pillow shams that go well with your order!”

Start Using the Easiest SMS Platform for Your Business Today

Ready to start sending SMS templates, but not sure how to get started? Start your FREE two-week trial with Text My Main Number today, and we’ll throw in free training to help you navigate our easy-to-use landline texting platform.

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10 Ways to Use Business Texting to Improve Your Opt-in Rate

What good is a list of subscribers if you can’t keep them interested? To ensure your contact list is continuously increasing, use these tips to improve your opt-in rate with Business Texting.

As more industries begin using landline texting, it’s important that you stay smart and use the best practices. You want your target audience to stay interested in receiving text messages from your business, which is why we created this post. We want to teach you how to use business texting in a way that will retain your list of subscribers.

With the plethora of communication channels out there for businesses, trying to decide which will work best for reaching your audience can be difficult. You want to ensure that your prospects and customers receive your message without being annoyed.

10 Ways to Use Business Texting to Improve Your Opt-in Rate

1.  Keep Your SMS Marketing Messages Short

The only way business texting is going to be effective is if you avoid annoying your subscribers so keep your messages short. No one wants to read a long text message and we strongly suggest that you keep them down to a sentence or two. You want them to quickly glance at their text message preview window and immediately attract their attention with that first sentence. That’s what’s going to encourage your subscriber to tap their screen and open the rest of that text message.

2. Use Business Texting to Build Relationships with Your Audience

In any relationship you build, loyalty is one of the most vital ingredients in that recipe. Building loyalty with your prospects and customers is a great way to strengthen a relationship with the. Don’t send messages they haven’t shown interest in receiving. Unless they’ve subscribed to receiving messages in the particular category your blasting out about, recognize their interests so that in turn, they appreciate that you respect their boundaries.

You can learn about your text message recipients’ preferences by simply asking at sign-up what type of text messages they’d like to receive from your business.

3. Don’t Annoy Subscribers

Research has already proven that consumers prefer communicating with brands via text messages over phone calls or emails.  One of the reasons it’s preferred is because they already feel overwhelmed with the overabundance of emails that are clogging up their inbox. Limit your business texting frequency and provide valuable content. People want to engage with your brand so long as you don’t pass a specific threshold where they perceive your messages as being excessive.

4. Provide Useful Updates

or online retailers who ship products, you can ask your customers if they’d like to receive alerts and updates about their order at checkout. Many times, emails from business fall into the spam folder and gets missed by the customer. This causes consumers to call your business phone number to get an update. Make it more convenient for them by text-enabling your business phone number so that they can send their questions or concerns about their order, and an employee can reply using the Text My Main Number web-based user panel.

5. Personalize Your SMS Marketing Messages

SMS Marketing works best when you customize your text messages to be personal and inviting. If you have a large list of subscribers, it would be best if you split them up into groups by category. That way you’re able to send personalized text messages to each group about their specific product or service interests. When you send out text messages to your entire list of subscribers, they tend to be too generalized and come across as they same advertising messages they’re already receiving from other brands.

6. Avoid One-Worded Replies When Using Business Text Messaging

You want your audience to feel like they’re interacting with someone who cares about their inquiry. The best way to humanize digital communication is by messaging as if you were speaking in person. Send full sentences and add a touch of personality to make it more conversational. You want your subscribers to feel engaged in order to retain their interest in sending and receiving messages to your text-enabled business phone.

7. Set Limits When Using Business Texting

Enjoyable communication is a two-way street so setting boundaries from the beginning will avoid overwhelming your subscribers. You want to be cognizant of the time of day you’re sending your text messages, the amount of text messages you’re sending, and that you’re including a reason from them to engage in your context. You may have to create groups based on the time zone the recipient is in and create sub-groups based on their interests. When scheduling text messages, be sure that you’re still customizing the messages by keeping the message personalized so that it suits they boundary lines.

8. Convey Value in Your Business Text Messages

If you’re a medical professional who just started using a landline texting platform to communicate with your patients/clients, send messages that make sense and are useful. For example, you can send daily tips on how to improve your health which will add value to your business text messages. Don’t spam them with nonsense because by doing so, you’re killing their trust in you. You can send out surveys that will help you understand what else you can do to add value to your text messages. Once people agree to receiving messages from your practice, adding value is what will keep them opted in.

9. Ensure Relevancy in Your Content

Everyone is connected to their mobile devices and with text messages having such a high open rate, there is no doubt that landline texting is the best form of communication. That’s why it’s extremely crucial that the content you deliver is relevant to your target audience. If they’ve opted in to receiving messages from your text-enabled business phone number, that means they’re already interested. So now it’s up to you to tailor content that will help establish more of a beneficial relationship with your subscribers.

10. Safeguard Your Opt-in Rate

A lot of times, businesses increase their text messaging contact list by offering a promotional discount for signing up. Shortly after customers have used that promo code, they opt out of receiving messages from your brand. Often times, the reason that happens is because your company has sent irrelevant content to them, and way too much of them at that. It’s not all about advertising when it comes to sending text messages to consumers. You can also offer customer service to your subscribers and answer their questions about products or services. Even sending a happy birthday will go a long way with subscribers and these items will help safeguard your opt-in rate. So, the formula in retaining and growing your text messaging contact list is:

Low frequency in text messages + valuable content + personalization = a strong and developing opt-in rate. To get started with SMS communication with your consumers, contact us to start your free trial and speak to one of your text messaging platform professionals who will be able to answer all of your questions, and help you get all set up.

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Top Business Texting Marketing Campaign Ideas

Business Texting

Is business texting a resourceful tool for your brand?

Making your SMS marketing simpler should be your goal and as you generate leads and increase revenue for your brand, you will realize that landline texting is the most cost-efficient and productive marketing tool you’ve ever encountered.

There are so many marketing channels that ensure business owners that they will see immediate results. In other words, ROI will be instantly demonstrated. Yet, once they launch their marketing campaigns…not so much.

As you decide which marketing strategies are worth the expense and which ones should be tossed out the window, think about this:

Let’s focus on that last statistic.

If you’re not providing value in your SMS marketing campaigns, your audience will lose interest. So yes, business texting is the best way to communicate with your consumers, but you must create valuable content in order for them to stay interested and opted in.

Business texting has been the most highly used marketing took for many industries like insurance firms, restaurants, service professionals, and medical professionals. That’s just to name a few!

Text My Main Number is one of the top text messaging platforms and knows what works best when launching an SMS marketing campaign that delivers value to the recipient. For those who don’t know what adding value to a text messaging marketing campaign means, we’re going to review some of the best business texting marketing campaign ideas to get you started.

Top Business Texting Marketing Campaign Ideas

We’re going to help your brand meet their marketing goals through business texting. In our experience with various industries, we’ve seen some great results which we will detail below industry by industry.

Business Texting Marketing for Insurance Firms

Many insurance firms depend on leads and referrals to gain new clientele. Up to now, email marketing campaigns have been one of the top ways to reach out to prospects and existing clients.

With the decline of open rates over the years, insurance firms have now turned to landline texting to share content and communicate with their target audience. With SMS messaging they’ve noticed that there is a more personalized connection and recipients are more responsive.

Insurance firms who are looking to increase their revenue are sending text messages with offers such as:

  • “Text ‘Free Quote’ to 555-555-5555 to get a quote within 24 hours”
  • “Hi John, this is Mark at Pathway Insurance, I noticed you are eligible for a discount on your policy. Reply to this text to schedule a phone call with me to review.”
  • “We are offering a 10% discount to all clients who refer our services to their friends and family. The discount will be applicable to both you and your referral.”

SMS Marketing for Restaurants

While social media promo ads, Groupon, and other coupon apps and websites have been a great marketing tool for restaurants, there has been redemption decline over time. People get excited about restaurant offers when it’s shiny and new. That’s why they’ve begun using landline texting for marketing campaigns. Some of the SMS marketing methods include offers like:

  • Creating flyers to place on the tables with a keyword that customers can use to opt-in and receive a discount on their next visit.
  • Send alerts with new menu items and offer a discount when they order that specific item.
  • Send surveys to recent restaurant visitors to see what menu items are a favorite. You can include a promo offer for those who take the time to fill out the survey.
  • Send discount offers for customers who come in on specific days/times (this works best to offer during times where the restaurant is normally slow).

Landline Texting for Service Professionals

Service professionals such as car mechanics, HVAC technicians, handymen, landscaping professionals, etc. are taking advantage of the convenience of using the Text My Main Number’s easy admin panel to create groups and send text messages with specific offers to each group.

The top business texting use for service professionals is sending alerts. Those alerts end up being a great marketing technique because they bring in revenue. People tend to forget when to schedule maintenance and services so you can send alerts that say:

  • “It’s that time of year again! Reply to this text message to schedule your annual maintenance on your HVAC unit.”
  • “We are offering $20 off of mowing services this Wednesday only! Reply with the best time of day to come by this Wednesday and we will reply to confirm the time.”
  • “Your car is due for a tune-up, reply to schedule a convenient time and receive a 10% discount.”

How Medical Professionals are Utilizing Business Texting

Medical professionals also need revenue boosts and sometimes it’s difficult to choose the best outlet for marketing. When using landline texting to reach out to patients, you want to keep your messages personalized and the frequency in which you send them low. No one wants to receive a thousand text messages because it becomes like receiving spam in your email inbox which is the main reason why there has been a decline in open rates for emails.

For medical professionals to boost their revenue, they can send text messages that say:

  • “Hi Susan! It’s time for your 6-month check-up. Reply now to schedule your appointment.”
  • “Hi Joan. We see it’s time for you to pay us a visit. We’re offering a 10% discount on botox this week, so we figured now is a good time for you to come in. Reply to schedule your appointment.”
  • “Hi Michael, since you’ve been a client for over a year, we’d like to offer you a free therapeutic massage when you refer a friend who schedules and completes an appointment. Have your friend text ‘Massage Me Now’ to our business phone to schedule their appointment.”

Text My Main Number offers a variety of articles on our blog that will help all industries increase their opt-in rates and sales. We also offer free training so that you know how to use our business texting platform. Give our free trial a run and you’ll see that adding landline texting to your marketing plan was definitely the way to go!

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3 Holiday SMS Marketing Strategies That Will Guarantee an Increase in Sales

Are you a retail business that is very ready to beat your competitors and boost sales for the holidays? If so, Text My Main Number has the key to boosting your sales using SMS Marketing.

Once Thanksgiving is over and everyone is done with eating their biggest meal of the year, spending time with their family, and eating leftovers for the remainder of the week…it’s time to start the holiday shopping! If you’re sending promotional offers using your business texting platform, get ready for an influx in orders.

In an effort to help online and brick and mortar retailers boost sales for the holiday season, Text My Main Number has designed a list of the best SMS marketing strategies that are guaranteed to increase sales!

3 Holiday SMS Marketing Strategies That Will Guarantee an Increase in Sales

Research has demonstrated that consumers spend the most holiday shopping dollars online and not in stores. While Black Friday is probably the most popular day to start the holiday shopping craze, Cyber Monday beats it by a landslide. In fact, people spent over 6 billion dollars last year on Cyber Monday.

Holiday shopping continues throughout the next several weeks leading up to Christmas Day. So, if you have a retail business and you haven’t put together a holiday marketing plan, use this article as a guide to get you started with business texting which is the preferred method of communication to consumers.

We want you to avoid losing out on the big money that exists in holiday shopping by using the # 1 method of communication; landline texting. If you have a text-enabled business phone number, you can use this time of year to send promotional offers via text messages to your consumers.

Let’s go over some of the best SMS marketing strategies to increase sales.

1. Collaborate with a Competitor

Sounds ridiculous right? Well it’s not. It’s brilliant! Think about it. If you collaborate with one of your competitors to combine holiday promotions, you will increase your consumer audience because both your customers and theirs will be at your reach. The key here is to partner with a competitor who has a larger customer base.

Before reaching out to your competitor to offer a partnership, go on their website and find a product or service that would go well with one of your own. You’ll want the promotional offer that compliments a product or service for both brands so that it makes sense.

For example: If you sell cell phones, collaborate with a competitor who sells cell phone cases so that the combined offer makes sense.

If you sell mugs which is one of the highest trending items to sell this year, reach out to a competitor who sells tea or coffee to create an attractive holiday gift offer.

Once you’ve decided which competitor to link your holiday gift offer with, it’s time to leverage from the power that exists in business text messaging. Since landline texting is such a resourceful tool to send promotional offers and alerts to your consumers, it’s an excellent platform to use to announce your exciting partnership. In a matter of seconds, you will be able to reach your now larger audience to encourage them to click and buy your promotional gift offer.

2. Free Giveaway

A free giveaway is not new for SMS marketing plans. While it may seem counterproductive because you’re trying to increase revenue it’s actually one of the best ways to bring in sales.

Choose an item you may be overstocked on to choose as the free giveaway item which can end up being something that customers re-gift to their family, friends, or even a coworker.

Here are a few strategies that will help make your free giveaway offer even more appealing:

Make the offer exclusive: When you announce a limited offer, it creates a sense of urgency to the consumer. They want to make sure to take advantage of the offer before it runs out. Additionally, you can make this offer even more exclusive by only offering it to those who subscribe to receive text messages from your business.

Replace discount offers with a free gift offer: Free always sounds better than a percentage off of a purchase. People would rather receive a free gift than 10% off their purchase. So instead of using your business text messaging platform to send a discounted offer, announce a free giveaway.

Create a minimum sale amount per order: In your landline texting campaign for the holidays, you can set a minimum order amount before they qualify to receive a free gift. In other words, you’re offering an incentive when they spend a specific amount.

Design a Holiday Gift Guide for your SMS Marketing Campaign

According to research, nearly 20% of consumers start their holiday shopping research in September, and a whopping 40% start in November. Most importantly, online shoppers like browsing through gift guides and start selecting their purchases in December.

The best way to announce your holiday gift guide is using your landline texting admin panel to create a targeted group to send the announcement to. Use wording like:

“Our Holiday Gift Guide is Ready! Click on the link to take advantage of our exclusive offers now!”

Consumers who are accustomed to searching through gift guides, typically have a specific person in mind to buy the gift for. So, take advantage of this mindset and create a niche-specific gift guide. Since children and women are the most popular target audience to buy for, you may want to create a gift guide that is specific to these groups.

Set up your SMS Business Texting Campaign for the Holidays

Text My Main Number is offering a free 14-day trial for businesses who would like to text-enable their business phone number. This holiday season is the best time to test the benefits of using a text messaging platform by launching an SMS marketing campaign that will increase sales and subscribers.

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3 Surefire Ways to Attract New Text Message Subscribers

Are you one of the many companies who signed up to text-enable your business phone number? If you are and you have no clue how to get people to subscribe to your list of contacts, this article is for you.

A text messaging platform is one of the most cost-effective and efficient form of communication with your consumers. With SMS marketing on the rise, it’s also high on the return on investment because it’s proven to be the preferred method of receiving promotional offers.

Text My Main Number has worked with numerous organizations, educational institutes, and businesses like your own, and experience has shown us exactly what it will take to get your leads and existing customers excited about texting with your company. Below we will share the top 3 ways to attract new contacts to subscribe to receive text messages from your business.

3 Surefire Ways to Attract New Text Message Subscribers

If you haven’t seen the latest statistics regarding the influx in business text messaging, here are a few facts you should know:

  • 90% of the people who use smart phones and other mobile devices are within reach the entire day.
  • 72% of those users look for new messages on their devices from the moment they wake up.
  • The redemption rate of coupons sent using business text messaging is between 70-80%.

The bottom line is, it’s time for you to put together a robust SMS marketing campaign to increase your list of subscribers. Your subscribers will not only soon find out that they prefer redeeming promotional offers by simply clicking on a link they received via text but will also appreciate the fast communication with your company that business text messaging offers them.

Now let’s get into how to boost that list of Text Message subscribers.

1.      Keyword Promotions

Text My Main Number has a variety of industries using our text messaging platform so we know that whether you own or manage a non-profit org, a real estate agency, a restaurant, a school, a salon, and just about any industry under the sun; SMS campaigns to increase your list of Text Message subscribers start with attracting your audience to text a keyword.

You can ask them to text a keyword like “Signup” to your business phone number, and if you add a discount offer for doing so…even better. You can invite them to subscribe via:

  • Email
  • Social Media
  • Print advertisement
  • Live feed on Instagram or Facebook
  • Radio
  • Television
  • Podcast

Promotional Signups

As we mentioned above, when you attach a promotional offer to your invitation to sign up to your business text messaging, there’s a higher chance of enticing people to sign up. In exchange for them to opt-in, you can offer a discount on their next purchase online or in-store. Including text that assures them that text recipients receive exclusive offers going forward will encourage them to stay opted-in to receiving messages from your business.

Clear Calls-to-Action

Those who are experienced in the SMS marketing game know that when it comes to business text messaging, including a clear call-to-action that is compelling will force the recipient’s hand so to speak. The easiest way to convert a lead into a customer is by making it very clear what it is they need to do next. For example, you can include wording on your marketing material such as:

“Click here to sign up,” or

Include a button on your social media ads that says:

  • Subscribe now
  • Learn more
  • Get started
  • Join our list

Once you see your list of contacts building above your expectations, feel free to visit our blog to learn more about the best practices in SMS marketing.

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3 Things to Consider When Choosing Between SMS Marketing and Social Media Marketing for Your Business

When you think about launching a SMS marketing campaign, what platform comes to mind?

Do you automatically think social media platforms when you’re creating a plan to increase your brand exposure?

What you should be thinking is which platform will deliver the highest return on investment.

When you’re marketing budget is limited, executing marketing campaigns can become a challenge. Especially when you know that high-end graphics, images, and videos is the way to go when trying to pull in the attention of your target audience online. Creating content can become expensive.

Texting for free fits any budget.

SMS Marketing vs. Social Media Marketing

Not only because we are the provider of a text messaging platform do we say this but…it really is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing.

Not only is SMS marketing inexpensive but sending free texts happens to be a communication channel that works well with all industries, including:

With social media marketing you’re going to incur costs that don’t exist as expense line items with SMS marketing. For example:

With social media marketing you will pay for:

With SMS marketing you will pay for:

Choosing the Right Text Messaging Platform for Your Business

Like anything else that is new to anyone, you’re going to want to test the waters to see which platform you want to use to send text messages to your customers and prospects. Unlike with social media marketing, SMS marketing is not time consuming nor will you need to hire someone to manage the platform for you. When looking for the right text messaging platform for your business, your only concern should not be the money you will invest. You’ll also want to consider the amount of time you’ll need to invest to execute your marketing campaigns. You’ll want to ask if:

Deciding Between Social Media Marketing and SMS Marketing

Cost is not the only reason why more and more businesses are switching to text messaging services to plan and execute their marketing campaigns. Besides delivering added value, you’re also using the most common form of communication to reach your audience. According to the 2019 Mobile Usage Report:

  • More than 90% of the people surveyed stated that they check their phones within half hour of waking up.
  • More than half of mobile device users check their phone 5 times per hour.
  • There are over 5 billion mobile phone users, and only half of them use social media.

If text message marketing seems like the right fit for your business, then it’s time to get started with the Text My Main Number text messaging platform. We are offering a free trial to anyone who would like to give text message marketing a run. It’s not only an easy set up process, but you’ll be able to get started in minutes!

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The Power of SMS Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations

When people think nonprofit, they think mission. They think hard work. They think cause. No one ever thinks about the SMS marketing strategy, business development, or leadership it takes to bring it all together.

The initiatives differ from one nonprofit to the other, but the main goal is always to succeed and in order to do that, you must focus your nonprofit marketing strategy on the experience you’re providing to those who donate. Let’s face it, when you’re a nonprofit, it’s the donations that make it all happen.

In this post, Text My Main Number intends to share how you can utilize landline texting to empower your nonprofit marketing plan by using SMS to build and maintain a solid relationship with your supporters.

SMS Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations

Delivering a message used to mean sending a letter out and waiting for the recipient to receive it in their mailbox. From there it graduated to sending electronic mail that would land in someone’s email inbox within minutes and would be read when the recipient next checked their inbox on their computer. Now, people read their messages from the palm of their hands and while smartphones allow you to check your email from an application, it’s text messages that are read within minutes.

We’ve evolved.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just the younger generations who use texting as their main form of communicating with others. In fact, people between the ages of 45-64 are using their mobile phones at the most rapid rate. Even users aged 70 and above use their mobile devices to text each week.

SMS marketing offers features for nonprofit organizations that are both beneficial and convenient. If donations are what keeps the org going, then outreach is of vital importance and it would only make sense that you use landline texting to deliver your messages. You can send text messages using your business or toll-free phone number and you can pretty much guarantee that your message will be read almost instantly.

Benefits of SMS Marketing

When you invest in anything, your main goal is the profits it will return. When a nonprofit organization marketing plan includes expenditures of any sort it’s with the intent that their supporters will be inspired to donate. Why? Because money floats their boat. A boat filled with initiatives that help those in need of their services.  

Typically, the resources for nonprofit organizations is limited so using an affordable communication platform like Text My Main Number’s text messaging platform to launch SMS marketing campaigns is a wise choice. Chances are, it’s also the marketing method that will produce the most return on investment (ROI).

Here’s why SMS marketing is the way to go:

So, the point we’re trying to drive is that penciling in landline texting to a nonprofit organization’s marketing plan can only help you spread the word about your causes, reach a larger audience, build stronger appeal, and increase your number of supporters.

How Nonprofits are Using SMS Marketing

When a nonprofit wants to make an impact in the way they spread the message about one of their initiatives, they are usually looking for people who can:

  • Contribute their time
  • Offer a service
  • Help spread a message
  • Sponsor an event
  • Donate money

To attain these actions, you can use landline texting to send messages from the business phone number to:

Schedule and Confirm Volunteers

Sometimes it’s difficult to field volunteers because they sign up to help and then you can’t reach them. To cut down the possibility of them forgetting what day, time, and the location to where you will need them you can utilize text messaging to communicate.

FAQs

Before people contribute their time or donate funds to a cause, they usually have a ton of questions to ask. Nonprofits can decrease the percentage of unanswered inquiries by using a text messaging platform to manage all inquiries. People will have the ability to text their questions to your toll-free number and your team can answer them from any device through the Text My Main Number admin panel. 

Communicate with Donors

Personalize your relationship with donors by continuing communication throughout the process. You want them to truly connect with the mission and help them feel like they’re a part of the resolve. Send them MMS messages with images of the volunteers at work, video testimonials from the people who are being aided, and anything else that will encourage them to enduringly connect to the cause.

Some of the other landline texting uses for nonprofits include:

  • Promoting news about the mission
  • Sending supporters links with more information
  • Sending staff important updates
  • Creating and managing events
  • Sending reminders
  • Requesting confirmation
  • And much more!

The Takeaway

Getting started with landline texting for your nonprofit is not only the quickest and most efficient way to streamline communication, but it’s easy! Text My Main Number likes to keep their relationships with clients personalized and will walk you through setting up your business or toll-free phone number to receive and send text messages. Free training is available to all new clients and with a free 14-day trial, you will have more than enough time to implement and test the productivity of the most popular communication channel that exists.   Have questions on how to get started? Contact us today!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Building a Loyalty Program with Your Audience

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

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

Distributions Strategy

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

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

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

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

Measure Your Metrics with Landline texting

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

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

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

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

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3 Top Text to Landline Messages for the Holiday Season

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

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

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

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

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

 3 Top Text to Landline Messages for the Holiday Season

Call-to-Action Holiday Offers

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

Irresistible MMS

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

Mobile Coupons

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

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Top Reasons Why Schools Are Using Text Messaging Services

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Schools Are Using Text Messaging Services

Cancellation Announcements

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

Alerts During an Emergency

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

Reminders

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

Fundraising

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

Report Card Notifications

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

Cyberbullying/bullying Hotline

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

Assignment Notifications

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

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

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Find Out Why Every Industry Has Turned to SMS Business Texting

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

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

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

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

SMS Business Texting for Promotions

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

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

SMS Marketing Campaigns

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

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

Order Placing

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

SMS Product/Service Launches

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

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

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

SMS Appointment Reminders

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

Business Texting Updates/Notifications

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

SMS Customer Service with Business Texting

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

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

…and that’s just to name a few

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

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Landline Texting Ideas to Help with New Hires

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

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

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

Landline Texting Ideas to Help with New Hires

Sending Automated Onboarding Documents

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

Confirming Data and Credentials

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

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

Contact Lists

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

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

Assigning Tasks and Reminders with landline texting

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

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

Surveys with landline texting

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

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

A Few Rules of Thumb:

The first letter in SMS stands for short.

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

Don’t bombard new hires with text messages.

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

A reply is not always required.

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

Conclusion:

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

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