If you're in sales and are evaluating ways to save more time and effort in your day to day, chances are, you're considering SMS. You may already be texting and searching for ways to optimize or use it for even more parts of your funnel, or you haven't started texting yet and are unsure if it's right for you. Let's break it down.
You aren’t competing with a news feed within an app, other website tabs or inbox zero. You're inside of the most used app on someone's phone, and there's no other content that sits alongside your conversation.
Open rates for text messages are 2-4x email, and our customers regularly see response rates that are 3 mins or less. By the numbers, the values of using text messaging as a sales channel are so good, they almost don't seem real (but they are!).
Simple is effective. Everyone texts, there’s little to no learning curve. This can be a challenge for Messenger and Website chatbots and apps, though familiar to some, you have to teach others to use it.
Businesses have definitely caught on to automated SMS blasts, but few, if any, are having actionable conversations with leads and customers. Those one-sided campaigns will get high open rates, but their conversions are often just as expensive as the traditional methods. Automated, conversational text experiences (or automated two-way texting) where a lead can text back and interact helps businesses take advantage of the benefits of texting, in a way that's more cost-effective, converts higher, and is preferred by the customer.
Let's talk more about those high-converting conversations. SMS is an amazing acquisition tool when you keep the conversation inside the channel. Think SMS FIRST experiences that are outcome-driven, conversational and transactional— not copied content or blasts linking to other places. These valuable exchanges where a customer can complete actions, qualify for a service, request a callback, and indicate their interest at their convenience will get results.
This may be true when you're comparing pure clicks and cost per sent message for SMS-blasts compared to email, social media or notifications in an owned property (like an app). But it's untrue when you evaluate the cost per qualified lead in an experience a lead can actually text back to, that's designed to convert in just a few messages.
Would you rather get blown up with phone calls? Fill in a long online form? Download an app? The alternatives to an automated text conversation aren't nearly as convenient and enjoyable, and texting requires a lot less effort than any other channel.
This is where the goal and user experience or your SMS conversations comes into play. It's crucial to have a purpose for texting your customers that they've indicated they're interested in, and make sure they're aware of what they'll get by interacting and how long it will take. Create a valuable experience they want to use!
Curious to learn more? I recently chatted at length about the powers of SMS and best use cases for sales on an episode of the Open Dialogues podcast. Click below to listen.
