Do you want to know tips on how to connect better with target audiences? I'm excited to share to you all that I've been a guest on The Business Storytelling Show Podcast, hosted by top 14 content marketer Christoph Trappe. He shares very insightful tips and tricks that can help you tell your company's stories better to drive business results.
Texting for business is a strategy worth considering. Especially as consumer email inboxes are overflowing with email threads, offers, and spam. This episode will tell you more about How To Use Texting To Build A Community.
The advantages of texting in business
What we noticed is that email open rates were okay but click-throughs kept going down. So we asked our audience: “How do you feel about getting texts instead of emails?” The response was overwhelmingly positive so now we mostly send text communications.
“You got to create value and listen to the audience,”
Ways to use texting in business
There are different ways to use texting in business. Let’s take a look at some. No matter what type, though it’s good to make the messages timely, relevant, and often they should be relatively short.
Like an email list
For some businesses, it works well to use an email newsletter strategy with their texts. That means you might send weekly information about topics interesting to your target audience. For example, you might include a call to action or ask a question that people can respond to.
If you do allow responses, make sure somebody is available to monitor and respond.
That’s another strategy and implementation to consider: What’s the protocol if people reply to your messages with a question? Is somebody paying attention, or do you have a chatbot-type system turned on to continue to offer a good customer communications experience?
Offers
Here, brands will send you an offer for an almost immediate purchase.
- This deal is going live on our website now
- Lunch is 20 percent off today if you order the lobster – or whatever
- Be the first to check out our new product.
These can work when the timing and offer are right.
Media companies: Alerts
Publishers can use texting for breaking news alerts and other important updates. For example, local media can send out a text when there’s a bad accident on a nearby highway.
Political campaigns
I wouldn’t be surprised if they have better success with the text messages versus phone calls but again it can get overwhelming and the more overwhelming text messages get the more they’re just like emails.
How to build your texting list
Some of the same strategies to build an email list apply, including:
- Make the signup easy
- Have the signup form in high-traffic areas on your website
List the number to opt-in on your social media profiles.
How often should you text customers?
We send mass texts to our group. Sometimes they are statements, and sometimes they are questions, allowing people to reply. It helps to batch the production and schedule a ways ahead, but don’t go too far. As the COVID pandemic has taught us, when things happen in the world our schedule outreach needs to be paused anyway.
Sending individual messages
There’s a place for individual in-the-moment communication via text.
When Christoph wanted to change his New York Times subscription, they just texted back and forth, it was a pleasant experience, and he didn’t have to wait on hold on the phone, and appreciated that timely and in-the-moment correspondence.
Texting platforms for business
Some platforms are available to use for your texting in business strategy. Before you pick one, consider:
- How easy or hard is it to implement?
- What’s the cost?
- Does it work with the rest of my tech stack?
- How easy is it to send messages?
- Can users reply?
- Does it integrate with my current CRM?
Conclusion
Texting can be a differentiator – especially if your competitors aren’t using the strategy (yet). But the implementation, time, and cost to grow and build a list and related tasks need to be considered.
Check out The Business Storytelling Show Podcast! Click HERE!
