Most entrepreneurs would do almost anything to get the word out about their businesses.
Running your own company is more than a job—it’s a passion. It’s a dream come true. But it’s also a lot of work.
The hype behind social media marketing and email marketing is real, despite the unfortunate truth that not everyone knows how to utilize those tools efficiently. Asking for help from an online marketing agency is one solution, but another really gets back to basics: text messaging.
Studies show that 63% of smartphone users keep their devices nearby 93% of the time they are awake.
What this fact means for your business can be summed up in one very promising word: opportunity. The best part about texting is that it’s flexible and effective for almost any organization.
1) How Texting Increases Sales
To most people, time is money. That is among the reasons why so many prefer texting over phone calls these days. Texts are quick, easy to open, and simple to answer.
Texting makes an excellent sales and marketing tool for almost any kind of business.Click To Tweet Restaurants and retail stores that offer SMS coupons will see customers use them 10 times more frequently than they use paper coupons. Texting helps get people in the door and keeps them there.Hard Rock Cafe in France saw a 30% increase in traffic and a 25% increase in annual sales as a result of their SMS marketing efforts.
And Shirasoni Japanese Steakhouse capitalized on the start of football season by promoting a Monday Night Football event through SMS. The restaurant grossed $2,000 in three and a half hours after sending a message to 3,700 SMS loyalty subscribers.
2) How Texting Keeps Business Flowing
No-shows are one of the most common hurdles encountered by business owners such as realtors, doctors and hair stylists. Whether the situation is due to someone’s sick child, injured dog, or mere forgetfulness, we’ve all missed an appointment at least a few times in our lives.
That’s why setting up SMS messages to remind clients of an appointment 24 hours beforehand is so helpful. The reminder won’t get buried in a sea of unopened emails. Instead, a short text confirming the date, time, location, and any other pertinent information can drastically improve no-show rates.
Another way texting can help medical practices, hairdressers, and other service businesses is by filling last minute cancellations.
An 86-physician multispecialty medical practice in Massachusetts adopted an automated system last year to help fill last-minute patient cancellations. The system has since helped fill an average of 60 cancellations per month.
For airlines, creating a last-minute flight segment in their SMS marketing programs is another efficient way to fill cancellations and no-shows. The airlines meet the needs of last-minute travelers and are simultaneously able to fill all the empty seats.
3) How Texting Keeps Employees, Customers Happy
When employees are in the loop on something, chances are they will be more likely to stay with a company. A happy worker is a productive worker, and communication goes a long way to helping people stay abreast of what’s going on.
Whether it be an emergency at the office, an effort to streamline a project, or even a way to share birthday wishes, using texts for staff communication can improve employee retention.
Text alerts and notifications keep customers satisfied as well. Offer added value to client and customer relationships by sending travel alerts with flight details. You can also send notifications of when something is ready to be picked up or has just been delivered.
4) How Texting Keeps Your Business Current
Recommending texting might sound backward, since texting has been around longer than most of the latest and greatest marketing trends. But that doesn’t make it any less effective.
Texting is a hidden gem that can pack a powerful punch with minimal cost and effort. It allows you to stay in contact with your clients and customers, enabling you to find out quickly and efficiently what your they think about your brand.
In addition to enabling customers to send short surveys, texting is an excellent tool for restaurants to use for ordering. Sometimes it’s easier to pick up the phone instead of filling out a lengthy online form. Why not simplify the ordering process even further by using the phone to send a quick text?
Domino’s Pizza, for example, allows customers to order their usual meal by simply sending a pizza emoji. It doesn’t get any easier than that for the customer or the business.
Spend more time putting your passion to work by using a simple, effective marketing strategy: text messaging.
The team from TextMagic has created the infographic below that showcases the most popular ways to use texting for business. Click the image or see the TextMagic infographic in high res.
Anastasia Sviridenko
Latest posts by Anastasia Sviridenko (see all)
- You’ve Got Texts: How Texting Can Help Grow Your Business - July 7, 2017
Hi…
Texting is one of the most important key factor to increase your business.Thanks for highlighting this key factor in your post.
Thanks for sharing this useful information.
Very informative article..!!!
I havnt thought that texting can Also be benefical for the business in such a way..!!!
Awesome, more knowledgeable explanation about the texting in the part of business which is most important for the
businessmen and i felt very interesting part to read this nice.
Fantastic article.
I’m always searching for new ways to improve my business and to be honest I had never thought of texts, as I only use them for personal use.
When I get more free time I might try these tips.
Once again great post with a very detailed infographic.
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Completely agree with you! an out read campaign using text messages definitely has the best chance of receiving a favorable response than any other medium, as it is most widely available device and remains in the closest proximity. I tried out the text message campaign through a tool called ring central and the results were amazing, much better than any social media campaign.
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Awesome knowledge and website, I will visit you again for sure in Poland texting is not so popular so I have new factor on my market. Good job
Text messaging is old thing and hardly yield customers. Everyone knows that such SMS are promotional and customers delete them straight away. Such messages also put brands image down. They best way is to give reviews about products and services truely after using them and making a positive image among readers.
Hello Vashirkaran,
They can be if a brand uses them to spam. But if they’re used rarely and only to offer real value, customers will love them. For example, if a place that takes a long time to get appointments uses them to offer a discount for a cancellation spot.
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While promotional texts can be a headache for public who do not want them but are certainly great way to target potential customers.
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I really have never thought to use texting to help in business. I think will implement these ideas and experiment more with using texting in marketing. Awesome!
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SMS is a great way to reach potential customers, that’s probably why there are retail brands that ask for your number so they can give you updates. I think it’s a good marketing strategy since people rarely leave their phones and it’s not as invasive as calling them up!
Hi Jocelyn,
I wanted to jump in and mention that I encourage service businesses that often experience cancellations to collect both phone numbers and email addresses from their regular clients. Then, whenever they have a cancellation, they can text and/or email their regular and offer them that spot at a discount.
This strategy will make your regulars happy to see your texts (at least some of them), especially if it can take days or even weeks to get an appointment with you. I see this being very valuable to clients of hairdressers, dentists, and many other types of services.
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Cool stuff. It’s pretty personal getting a text message. It’s nice when the text itself is a little informal, personally. We had an internet problem just recently and called up the operator, we told them the problem and they told us they’d get back in contact. A few hours later we received a text message asking a few more question to get the problem solved.
It was different getting a text as it’s normally a call. It was great as the day was pretty busy and stopping in the car to take a call would have just been annoying. Being able to text back the information at a time that suited me was cool.
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