For many sellers and marketers, navigating an online-to-offline transition in the customer journey can be a major pain point. In part, this is because leads may drop when they can’t use their preferred channel.
Take this example: An on-the-go shopper wants to ask a question about a specific vehicle’s availability at a car dealership, but the prospect of a lengthy back-and-forth email chain can be a deal breaker. Shopping today is increasingly about convenience. If customers can’t connect with your brand on their preferred channel, they have plenty of alternatives. You, however, need every opportunity available. Businesses can greatly increase their chances at meeting customers where they are by using text messaging capabilities. Here are three reasons your business should adopt texting:
1. Customers want to be texting
SMS is the new best way to reach customers. When used as a permission-based channel, customers can easily opt into company messaging, creating a user-friendly and mutually understood connection between brand and customer. The convenience and constant accessibility of texting make it a happy medium between phone calls and email for fast-paced consumers. When a medium becomes a customer favorite, it should become yours as well. In a Gartner study, SMS boasted a 98% open rate and 45% response rate.
In a marketing landscape accustomed to bare 6% email open rates, this disparity is huge. Customers are waiting on SMS – text them!
2. Increase flexibility on your end and theirs
The SMS channel increases flexibility for both the customer and the brand. Text no longer only takes place on a mobile phone – now customers can text you from a desktop or laptop too, meaning there’s no need for the clunky device transitions that cause loss of interest over the course of the customer journey. In addition, outbound messages are adjustable too – you can send them manually or automatically, scheduling at certain times of the day or triggering them when leads take a key action. A texting solution will often use AI to qualify leads and gather basic info through a smart, 24/7 available service that frees up sales staff to have the meaningful conversations.
Leads are tracked so sellers are alerted to follow up in the crucial moments. Texting customers with AI-enabled chatbots meets them on the channel they prefer and in doing so can increase the sales team’s efficiency.
3. Optimize, optimize, optimize
Texting allows businesses to reach large groups of potential customers with little effort, sending digestible messages straight to their phones. Because these messages are likely to be opened and receive responses, brands that text can expect conversion rates to increase. SMS is shown to drive higher response rates and conversion rates as a low-pressure but high-profile way to get a customer’s attention.
There are strong reasons to deploy a text channel in your business, along with several texting best practices for businesses, but you may wonder how to get started. Discover how some brands implement texting in their businesses by downloading Implementing Two-Way Texting with Marchex Sonar.
Ready to implement texting in your business? Learn about Marchex Sonar.
