How Small Business Owners can use SMS Text Messaging to Improve Business
Not to burst your bubble, but these days just about everyone seems like a small business owner. Not that your small business isn’t special, of course. But there are millions of small businesses around the world and, if statistics and heart-breaking stories are anything to go by, many millions fail to succeed each year.
You’ve no doubt heard the statistics that one in five new businesses fail within the first year. And that half of all new businesses fail within the first five years.
That’s just depressing for all small business owners. After all, you have a solid plan and you know that you can make your small business succeed. And one way you can improve your small business’ chances of success is by adding the power of SMS text messaging to your marketing strategy.
You might think that customers are sick and tired of receiving text messages because of the increase in messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and WeChat. They’re everywhere. Yes, there are many different ways in which we can message one another these days. But, SMS text messaging remains the best for effective business communication.
Research has found that SMS messages are opened 98 percent of the time.
That’s an unrivaled open-rate which other forms of business communication just can’t compete with. And the best part about using this type of communication, both internally and externally, is that it can be used in many different ways. Here, we’ll unpack just some of those use cases.
Marketing
You know that to increase sales, you need to let your customers know about your newest products and special offers. And SMS text messaging is an ideal way to do just that. Most SMS messages are opened within minutes of being sent. Because of this reason, SMS is an excellent way to communicate time-sensitive information. Have a special offer that’s only available for a day? Send an SMS. Have a new loyalty program that you need subscribers for? Let them know by sending an SMS.
You can also use text messaging to remind your customers about their appointments, reducing the risk of them not showing up. Whether your business is a beauty salon, doctor’s rooms, or a restaurant, SMS can help you ensure that your customers are at their appointment on time, saving you the cost of an unfilled appointment slot.
There are so many ways in which SMS can be useful for increasing sales and driving new business. Give it a try as soon as you can and you’ll see just how effective the humble ol’ SMS can be.
Improve customer service with SMS text messaging
Your customers want to communicate with your business using text messaging. Give them what they want. It’s a simple ask. Your small business most likely can’t afford to employ a full contact center right now anyway.
SMS might seem like a simple solution to improving customer service — maybe even too simple. But the reality is that it’s incredibly effective.
You read those statistics, right? Those just can’t be rivaled by any other form of communication. So, make use of SMS text messaging to let your customers know about special offers and new products, send them information about their orders and delivery updates, and give them the opportunity to use two-way SMS to reply to you and query their orders.
In addition, customers can use these texts from your business to find all their communication, giving them all the information they need to query a delivery or follow up on an order. SMS enables customers to communicate with your business on their terms. And that’s just effective business communication.
Crisis communication
Every business has occasional moments of crisis. In times like these, it’s essential that your business communicates quickly and clearly with stakeholders. This ensures that one message is sent by you, the person who best understands the crisis, to everyone who needs that information.
In the event of a crisis, it’s important that you control the narrative.
And the best, simplest, and most effective method of doing so is without any doubt SMS text messaging. By using bulk SMS, you can get messages out to your customers and broader network of stakeholders when you most urgently need to.
Communicating with customers
The beauty of SMS is that you can use it to have a conversation with customers. By making use of two-way SMS, your customers will be able to respond to your messages. You can use this functionality to ask questions of your customers and get to know them better.
You could, for example, ask them what they think of your customer service, product offerings, and new corporate identity. It’s a cost-effective way of gathering information from your customers quickly.
Communicating with staff members
As effective as SMS text messaging can be to communicate with customers, it’s also an incredibly effective method of keeping in touch with employees, whatever your industry. This is especially true if you’re running a lean, remote working small business with a handful of staff members based all around the city, or the world for that matter.
You can use SMS to send out shift reminders, ask for staff to fill a shift at the last minute, send updates about staff policies, and inform them about the next company gathering. Because text messages are read within minutes of being sent, you can be sure that your staff members will be kept in the loop almost immediately, wherever they are.
If your interest in using SMS in the workplace has been piqued, have a look at this recent article which details just how bulk SMS messaging can be used for all businesses. It looks into the benefits of using SMS to communicate with staff members. The benefits to businesses are just about endless. The article mentions the benefits to recruitment, morale-boosting, compliance and training, and scheduling and project management. Simply put, bulk SMS can, and does, lead to effective business communication. This is how you can become a successful business owner and not join the ranks of those who continue to fail.
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