Do Customer’s Texts Help Business?

Text message marketing makes your company a more convenient and personable choice over your competitors. Business text messaging is a convenient way for you to connect with your customers and for your customer to connect with your business. Effective business communication helps with customer and client engagement and can help you gain valuable insight into what your customers feel your company is doing well and where you could improve.

Is there anything better than text messaging customers? When it comes to reaching your audience, as a business owner, you have any number of potential channels at your disposal. You could try a social media post on Facebook or Twitter. You could shoot for a call but probably leave voicemails, or sending a postcard. You could even try any number of email marketing tools. However, more and more consumers are pointing to the fact that they’d rather text with a business than anything else. Why is that? Here are seven reasons text message marketing is the best way to reach your customers and improve client engagement.

  1. Texting is direct and is more likely to be noticed.
  2. Texting customers is less invasive and customers are more likely to reply.
  3. Texting is convenient for the customer.
  4. Texting can be done anywhere.
  5. Texting is part of everyday life.
  6. Texting is the preferred communication method.
  7. Texting is used by most demographics.

Texting Customers is More Direct

For most consumers, text messaging is far more direct than using any other type of communication. Most of us have developed built-in filters that allow us to block out messages sent in email – junk email is worse than junk snail mail ever was, and if you’re not a trusted sender, your recipient is probably not going to open an email from you. Connecting through social media can also be problematic and get lost in the ocean of updates. Studies show that text messages, even via customer review software, have a 90% open rate. Texting is direct and deemed less personal than calling.

Texting Customers is Less Invasive

While it was once deed very invasive, due to the fact that consumers had to pay for every text they sent or received, that’s not the case today. Most consumers who own a smartphone have unlimited texting, so there is no cost per message to worry about (at least on their end). Moreover, texting has become the de facto communication method of preference for Gen Y, Millennials, and even many Gen X’ers. The only real holdouts are Baby Boomers. So, unless you’re targeting Baby Boomers specifically, texting is far less invasive, and more likely to illicit a response.

Texting Customers Allows for Freedom

For many consumers, text messaging keeps them free. For instance, many people would rather use text messaging to interact with customer service professionals. Why? Well, when’s the last time you called customer support for something? How long was the wait? How limited where you during that time? Text messaging allows consumers to go and do what they want, while carrying on a conversation at the same time. Freedom!!

Business Texting is Simple and Can Be Done Anywhere

This reason ties in with the reason above, and should be easily understandable. By their nature, texts are “short and sweet”. They’re not all that involved, unlike emails, or phone calls. That simplicity translates to flexibility – your recipient can quickly read and/or reply to a text while riding the bus, or even just walking down the sidewalk. Emails, on the other hand, require a greater commitment of time, energy and effort. Phone calls from unknown numbers are usually ignored. Push notifications often go unnoticed.

Text Messaging is Part of Every Day Life

We all love our technology, but Millennials are probably the most obvious about it. They were raised in a world where interconnectivity was the norm, and electronic communication was not just effective, but widespread. They prefer informal text-based communication for its speed and flexibility, but also because it’s part of the technology they use constantly, anyway.

Texting is the Preferred Overall Communication Method

When it comes to communication, most of us would rather type than talk, and we’d rather type short replies to short messages, than long replies to lengthy emails. There’s also the fact that email generally requires longer to load messages due to the need to download and render graphics, there’s the possibility that the email client won’t display the images properly, and you can begin to see why text is the preferred communication method for a significant percentage of the population.

Texting is More Than Just a Generational Thing

We’ve mentioned a few generations within this article, but texting transcends those boundaries in many ways. While Baby Boomers are the least likely to appreciate SMS marketing, that trend is changing. The acceptance of text-based marketing is growing across generational boundaries in a way that many technologies have not. Combine that with the fact that we’re now becoming more and more accustomed to receiving texts from people other than personal contacts due to things like two-factor authentication, and you can see why this trend is accelerating.

Ultimately, SMS text messaging is usually the fastest, most efficient way to reach your audience. It’s direct, flexible, and efficient, and they’ll thank you for it with increased engagement.