Texting service for Business

You experience many benefits today from Hillebrand’s discovery of texting service or SMS business. What do you think the word ‘text message’ means? According to the dictionary, it is a piece of electronic data that can do wonders in the marketing world with a character limit of just 160 as an SMS, and unlimited characters as an MMS. This article will enlighten you on how these texting services can aid you in the promotion of your business through announcements of sales, alerts, promotions of new items, customer loyalty rewards, sharing news and a lot more. It does not matter if the business is big or small; it is an appropriate tool to reach your clientele. Along with other marketing strategies, such as using social media, it gives your business an extra edge to leave behind your competitors. Texting for business purposes is trendy not only due to this reason but also because it has a staggering open rate of 98%. It is cost-friendly, opens a wide market, has a speedy delivery and builds a connection with customers, thus, making it versatile and customizable. A responsible business makes sure to give its customers an option to leave or opt-out of their SMS Campaign at any time. The market for SMS is vast as 80% of the people are currently using texting services for their businesses, and almost 78% of the US population is interested in knowing about offers via SMS. Texting services act as a genie as they have the ability to serve multiple customers at a time, reduce inbound phone calls and increases customer satisfaction. If you are not familiar with any texting service, we have the perfect option for you: ExpressText. Express Text is the perfect choice that provides all the above services and even gives a service after sale option (SAAS) leaving their customers with absolutely no complaints at all.

Guidelines for starting a successful texting service for business

All businesses have a risk factor involved, and that risk mainly revolves around their number of sales. Marketing has the power to uplift a business from rags to riches in no time, and texting services provide businesses with an opportunity to get to the top of the industry. The guidelines to run a productive texting service for your businesses are:

Who is involved?

Basically, there will be people who need to administer the texting program and make sure that the people under them are efficient at customer care.

• Taking permission from the customer to send them promotional text messages is absolutely crucial. The approval and consent of a customer will not only lead to appreciation on the customer’s part but also save your business from unwanted lawsuits.

• Breaking laws can lead to legal penalties which will link your brand name as an unreliable source with a bad image. So how do you get this permission? This depends on whether you have an office, shop, online website or a long code number as a source of two way communication with your customers. If someone subscribes online, then you can ask them to fill in their details along with their mobile numbers and to agree with the terms and conditions that apply.

• While mobile marketing may seem easy, it’s best to hire a professional marketing team that helps you remain within your budget and at the same time, conduct your campaign effectively.

Express clarity about your program

“The customer is always right” is a phrase that has been exploited in many ways; therefore clearing any doubts the customer has creates a better reputation of your brand, as well as saving you from any blame games later. A customer can make you and break you! If you are trying to misguide your clients to grab their attention, it might get you an increase in the number of customers for the time being, but the power of word of mouth would break your network in no time.

When what and how?

• SMS is becoming increasingly automated which saves you quite some time. You can turn on auto-reply which will send scheduled welcoming texts when a customer subscribes to your campaign. Auto-reply can also inform customers that you are away at the moment in case they have a query It is also always impactful when you wish your customers on special occasions or inform them of any upcoming discount offers and promotions on products. Some very good examples of retail SMS are Mothers Day Sales, Valentines Day Promotions, or Independence Day discounts. There are many other similar alerts and notifications that you can send them for grabbing some extra attention and trust me, customers love these alerts. Know that these events act as a bonus in the process of marketing, so select the perfect time and occasion for an effective plan. Auto-responses are usually integrated with artificial intelligence provided by SMS platforms. This way, if a customer representative is not available, the client will still be informed by the software that their message has been delivered and that their request is in process.

• People can be finicky, and it’s true that no one can withstand receiving an excessive amount of business-related text messages. What can be really impressive is letting them know how many messages they can expect from you. The suitable amounts of messages per month are 2 to 6. Being crystal clear and straightforward about your procedure and approach will make you look extremely professional and responsible.

• Have you ever read blogs that have such difficult words that you are not able to get any meaning out of the first few sentences? What happens is that the reader loses interest. The same is the case for text messages. Usingcomplex terms would neither convey the message nor will it make it sound happening, therefore use as common and simple language as you can – but make sure it is also persuasive.

• Texting customers during office hours will always ensure a high open-rate, with a bonus i.e. not sending out texts at inappropriate hours. Your customers (probably the light sleepers) will not enjoy waking up to your SMS in the middle of the night. This can also turn out to be counterproductive as customers may not reply at that hour so communication remains stay one-sided, thus bringing in little to no feedback.

If there is an opt-in option, there should be an opt-out option as well

As I mentioned above, customers can enter the subscriber list by opting into the campaign. However, what if they do not want to receive further text messages because they have lost interest or their preference has changed? Whatever the reason may be, you cannot legally enforce your content on the client because not only are you wasting your time, effort and energy, but you are also opening yourself up to a lawsuit. It is best to provide your customers with a clear exit option. Along with the “Message and data rates may apply”, you must add “reply with STOP to cancel the subscription” or anything similar. This message can also be automatically added by the SMS messaging service through the default services in your auto-responses. Sending these messages in your text blasts occasionally remind people that they have an option to leave if they wish to do so. However, the best option is to send out such offers that make customers never want to opt-out!

Choosing the right texting service for businesses

When you select an SMS provider for your business, make sure to look into the following areas:

• Features
• Pricing
• Ease of use
• Convenience
• Contracts
• Software

ExpressText is a fine choice because it covers all these areas i.e. giving you the best features at the lowest possible cost, no contracts and providing a user-friendly experience with help videos at each step.

Planning the launch of your texting service for business

A trial or control period is an excellent way of bringing out any remaining errors in your texting service. You might think that you are well prepared, but doing something practically on a test run basis can clear out a lot of doubts. Test your service with your entire setup, staff and family and friends as your clients. Collect their feedback after the trial run and then launch your SMS Campaign on a large scale. This will make you confident that the service is now ready to provide the best experience to the customers and will differentiate you from your competitors. Your pre-launch list should have the following points:

• Are the messages being delivered and read?
• The functioning of your resources and the handling of bulk texts
• Access for a response when you are away from a computer i.e. message forwarding to your phone without having to open your account
• Is your customer opt-in strategy working i.e. are people willing to opt-in?
• Is the clientele content with the customer care service?
• Are the marketing strategies and platforms integrated with text working, and how effective they are together e.g. SMS and Facebook
• What keywords are you using and is the automation process working fine?

Launching your program with a bang!

• Here comes the part where you get ready and enthusiastic. The launch needs to be something so incredible that it becomes the trendiest thing in the market. Make it such that people WANT to be following your brand. This will improve customer engagement massively. Your employees who are working with the responsibility of the texting program are the ones on whom the success of the strategy relies.

• Add value to the program by sending out catchy offers via texts. If the customer is giving you permission to text them, make sure to keep it worth their while. Keep your messages unique, to the point and directed at your target audience. Treat your customers like VIP’s as this will keep them glued to your texting service.

• While SMS is better than most other platforms out there, you cannot solely on it. Make sure to integrate your campaign with websites, mobile applications, emails, press releases, and social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube.
• To capture more attention, you need to spread the word, get customers to engage with your texting service and to start texting you. Once your brand name is out there with good reviews, you have nothing to worry about.

As a business, you should aim high and set your goals. Your to-do list should include an increase in customers and contact list, increase in marketing campaigns and customer service, an amazing operating efficiency, a highly trained staff, more customer and internal communication and a fabulous brand reputation. Keep track of the response rate of your clientele from your texting service program, and then decide whether you which direction you want to go in – use more features to enhance your campaign and cancel out any weak points of your SMS service.