What is Business Texting?
If you are not yet familiar with this term, maybe you have heard terms like ‘SMS and MMS marketing’ or ‘text message marketing.’ For the purpose of this article, all three of those terms will be used interchangeably.
Put simply, Business Texting is the act of sending bulk messages, through the use of a business texting service, to subscribers who have opted-in to receiving this form of communication from your company. (FYI- business texting can also be used to streamline communication within your company, as well; while this is a great use of this tool, that’s not what we’ll be talking about in this particular article.)
Business texting has been putting up some of the best numbers among marketing channels, such as email and social media. The big benefit of business texting versus social media is your ownership over the subscriber list, as opposed to constantly adapting to changing algorithms on social media channels. When compared to email, text message marketing has higher open rates and engagement rates.
If you have seen these results in your research and have decided to invest in a business texting service, the next logical question is, “How do I write effective text messages!?”
The general rule for any content marketing is to provide customers with educational, entertaining, and/or valuable content. However, just like any social media channel or email marketing campaign, there are ‘best practices’ that you will want to follow to ensure your text messages are resonating with subscribers.
Do: Give your customers the content they want.
When you are encouraging people to opt-in to receive your text message marketing, you should be informing them what they are going to get out of it, as well. Are you using your business texting primarily to send them offers and promotions? Is it going to serve as a customer service channel? Will you be sending mostly educational content? Or maybe you plan to do all of the above.
Let people know what they are signing up for! Better yet, allow them to choose where to opt-in to all forms of content or only specific types. Most business texting services give you the option to segment your subscriber list based on specific classifications. It might be useful to use segments to divide your list to ensure that you are only sending the information each customer wants.
Whether you plan to distribute multiple forms of content or just one type, you should let customers know up-front what to expect and then live up to your promise.
Do utilize common language.
Keep your texts conversational! Of course, you will want to be professional, especially if that is integral to the tone of your brand, but don’t be afraid of being a bit colloquial, as well. A lot of customers like to feel like there is a flesh-and-blood person on the other side of that business text.
However, you may want to avoid over-utilizing text abbreviations depending on your demographic. If the tone of your brand is a bit more playful or caters to a younger audience, it’s probably okay to throw in the occasional ‘TBH’ or ‘LOL.’ Just be wary of using abbreviations too often or with the wrong demographic because this may result in the point of your message getting lost.
Do limit texts to 160 characters.
SMS marketing is a great way to communicate short-form messages, so make sure that’s how your business is using it! Any messages longer than 160 characters run the risk of being chopped up into separate messages by the mobile carrier. When this happens, the texts may arrive out of order in the recipient’s inbox. You certainly do not want the overall message of your well-thought out campaign to get lost in this confusion.
Also, it’s just annoying. We all have that one friend who sends eight texts at a time, making our phones buzz or ring incessantly when we are in the middle of something. You also run the risk of looking spammy by sending multiple messages at once which will probably result in a lot of people hitting that ‘Unsubscribe’ button.
Avoid this multitude of issues by ensuring that each of your business texts are limited to 160 characters or less!
Don’t text customers at inappropriate times.
The nature of this particular medium is that people open up texts almost as soon as possible. For example, 83% of millennials open text messages within 90 seconds of receiving them, and the average response time for text messages in general is about 90 seconds.
If you set up automation for your business texts, the first thing you want to do is make sure that you are not scheduling the release of your messages at weird times. For instance, do not send marketing texts late at night. People are not expecting to hear from your business at 10 pm (unless maybe your business is a nightclub), and they may find it to be intrusive.
One way to step up your business texting strategy is to time your texts to arrive at the moment the customer is making a buying decision. No, business texting services will not help you read the minds of your customers. However, depending on what your business sells, you can make an educated guess on when they are most likely to convert.
For instance, if you are a restaurant, you could send messages around lunch and/or dinnertime. Maybe you could include coupons or limited time offers in these messages to encourage those hungry customers to order out from you or visit your restaurant, instead of your competitors’.
Don’t forget your CTA (Call to Action).
At some point in each message, there should be a CTA. What was the point of the message? What exactly do you want the customers to do upon receipt of your text?
Let’s stick with the restaurant example from earlier. If you are texting customers at mealtimes, then you probably want them to order to-go or come to your restaurant to dine-in. That would be part of your CTA, as well as a link to your website to order take-out or to check out your menu. You can also use a link-shortening tool, such as Bitly, to keep your message to the recommended length of 160 characters.
Don’t get discouraged.
As with other marketing channels, it may take a bit of trial and error before you find what really works, especially when initially building your list. Keep a close eye on the click-through and conversion rates of your text message marketing campaigns. If those numbers are not aligning with your ultimate goals, then you know it is time to do something different! Business texting may not be right for every business, and it probably won’t ever fully replace your other marketing channels. However, when done right, it can yield some pretty impressive results so we suggest you at least try a business texting platform. Stick with it and grow your business to its maximum potential!
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