The world nowadays is loud. Everywhere we look, there are advertisements: blog posts, videos, social media shares, news articles, and traditional methods of advertising are all competing for our focus and attention. While this can be overwhelming for all of us, it can be especially daunting for businesses as managers and owners need to figure out how to be heard over the chaotic noise that is our daily lives.
How can we reach our customers and clients in a non-invasive way without screaming at the top of our digital lungs? How can we make sure the people who need to know what’s going on with our work are getting the information they need? Today we’re going to look at just one of the proven ways of communicating with our customer base in the era of aggressive digital marketing—SMS messaging. It turns out this “old-fashioned” way of reaching clients is having a renaissance. The following will take a look at some of the many uses SMS messaging can have for businesses.
What Is SMS Messaging?
Almost certainly, you use SMS messages. Today, they’re more often called text messages, and they’re used by 97% of Americans daily. More than this, 98% of text messages are opened. When it comes to SMS messaging for businesses, much of the standard knowledge applies, but there are also additional concerns like consent, respecting and protecting customer privacy, and mass texting applications that can allow businesses to send the same message to everyone on their list at the same time.
Building A Bond With Our Customers
This concept isn’t talked about enough when it comes to managing a business. Customer relations is everything (especially once you learn about generation z’s shopping habits—spoiler alert: trust and humanity are vital for them to decide to spend money). Given the intimate nature of text messaging, SMS marketing and outreach can do wonders to build rapport between your work and your potential customers.
Reminding People About Their Appointments
This is more a convenience point than anything else, but it turns out people like being reminded that they have an appointment coming up. It’s easy to forget things as we get bulldozed by our to-do lists and caught up in the day-to-day management of our lives. A simple: Just a friendly reminder that your appointment is scheduled for 2:00 PM on Tuesday the 6th can help ensure that customers don’t miss their appointments and no one’s time is wasted.
Updating Customers On Sales, Stock, And Coupons
SMS messaging can also do wonders for your conversion rates. These messages will invite customers back to the store when you have sales or new items in stock and can even offer coupons to encourage those particularly frugal clients to pop back in. People love being offered deals, and if the deals are on their phones, there’s a good chance they’re going to remember to bring the coupon with them to your location.
Be Respectful
Of course, text messages are one of the most intimate ways humans communicate with each other. It’s like leaving a little, personalized note for someone that they can read in secret. Because of this, none of the above benefits can be reaped without proper respect for the information you’re given. Take the time to ensure that you are keeping customer’s valuable data private and safe and that you’re following appropriate messaging authentication protocols. You’ll also want to ensure that you’re not messaging people outside of reasonable hours (which means you might need to copy down time zone information if you have a wide audience).
More than this, every text you send should offer readers the option to easily unsubscribe from your text messages. This is a crucial aspect of being permitted to message someone—you want to respect their ability to change their mind.
The above information should give you a few ideas of what you and your business can do with SMS messaging as part of your marketing or management strategies. As with any new inclusion to your business practices, ensure that you’re taking the time to review your progress, successes, and areas in need of improvement regularly. Every customer base is different, and this means that what works for one business’ tribe won’t necessarily work for another’s. Pay special attention to the messages sent that people unsubscribed from text alerts after reading—this will give you an idea of what your clients don’t want to see on their phones or when they don’t want to be receiving texts.