How Texting Leads Can Boost Lead Generation

One major advantage that texting leads has over email is that your messages won’t skip the email inbox only to end in the spam folder. This means that it’s much easier to reach your target audience. Also, as data rates are generally low, the pricing makes it a more attractive option to a new business on a shoestring budget. 

As a matter of fact, according to the Direct Marketing Association, more than 40% of people prefer to receive promotional information via texts than other marketing channels. What’s more, online data suggests that more than 90% of incoming SMS messages are opened within five minutes. 

All in all, SMS marketing is a great way to grab your target audience’s attention with a keyword or share more information about special promos. If you don’t necessarily want to use it to speak to the masses, you can also use it to nurture your leads by means of one-on-one conversation. 

How Text Marketing Works for Lead Generation

With text message marketing, you can both attract new customers and convert them effectively. For example, a tool like Smarter Contact, lets you create pre-built messaging campaigns so that you can follow up with your leads automatically. This increases the chances that they’ll convert into paying customers. 

Texting Leads in Different Industries

From insurance providers to spas, virtually any industry can use SMS messaging to generate more leads. 

Here are just a few industries that have had great success with texting leads:

• Car dealerships
• Insurance providers
• Recruitment agencies
• Salons and spas
• Event managers
• Real estate agents and investors
• Advertising agencies
• Law firms
• Mobile app developers

For example, recruitment agencies use SMS marketing to reach out to job seekers by sending them invites to apply. Once an applicant has applied, text messages can then be used to keep them updated regarding the hiring process.

Real estate agents often integrate text messaging into their websites. This way, property buyers can get more information about a specific property that has caught their attention easily. Once they’ve captured the contact info of the prospective buyers, they can use text messages to remind their leads about open house dates. 

Proven Tactics to Generate Leads with SMS Marketing

Offer special content to email subscribers

If you already have a substantial email subscriber list, it can be a great place to start if you need to get phone numbers. While the subscribers on your email list have already shown interest in your brand and its product or service, they might not necessarily be that eager to share their phone number with you as well. This means that they’ll need a type of encouragement. Lead magnets like competition entries, free trials, downloadable content, an ultimate guide, quizzes, or surveys have proven to be great incentives to collect leads. 

Convert website viewers using text

Considering that mobile devices generate the most website traffic, it’s key that you engage with website visitors and convert them by employing texting. To do this, you need to make it as simple as possible for your visitors to connect with you via texting by adding call-to-action buttons that they can use, for example, to book an appointment or speak to a sales rep. Make sure that you place these calls to action on a number of places like your homepage, landing pages, contact page, etc. 

Share your keyword in advertising and on social media

You can also share a keyword in, for example, print ads, podcasts, or on social media channels, like Facebook. People can then text this keyword to a short code if they want to find out more information. 

This tactic is a great way to collect phone numbers and personal details of interested prospects in your brand and its offerings as they will receive an automatic reply (in other words, an immediate response). When selecting a keyword, pick something simple and that your target audience will link with your business. 

4-step Process to Converting Your Leads Using SMS Marketing

Create several SMS templates

One template is not enough. You’ll need several templates that you can adjust to meet the needs of your leads. While it sounds like a lot of work, remember that the most effective text messages are short, yet manage to summarize the entire goal of the message. When creating templates, you want to make sure that nothing is misleading. Whatever you include should be easy to interpret and make complete sense. Also, make sure that the content of the template is linked to the call to action. 

Send the right message to the right audience

To make your marketing campaign more effective, an important step is to segment your contact list. In other words, you want to categorize your contacts based on factors like age, interests, gender, income, etc. so that you can tailor your messages to address their unique needs better. Also, your contacts can be at different stages in the sales funnel. So, you’ll also want to adapt your message to their level of interest in your product (one of the reasons why you need several templates). 

One of the main advantages of text messaging is that you have complete control over who gets your message and when they get it. So, be sure to send the right message to the right target audience. 

Make sure to follow up

Even though you sent an automatic reply, it’s still important that you send other follow-up text messages to your leads. By taking this extra step, you can increase engagement which will ultimately help to make your marketing campaign more effective. 

However, the secret is to find the right balance. Every text message that you send should offer valuable content, otherwise, you’ll only end up bothering your leads. Also, remember to include an opt-out option. 

Be responsive, personal and polite

It’s important that you respond to incoming text messages as quickly as possible. While being responsive is key, no lead wants to get the same message twice. To avoid this, Smarter Contact offers a useful duplicate filter. If you upload the same lead twice, you’ll get a notification and an option to remove the second entry. 

Lastly, it comes as no surprise that being personal and polite is a good idea to make a good impression on your prospects. 

Campaigns to Get You Started

To help you get started, here are some examples of how other businesses used text marketing to generate leads.

Discount or sale alerts

Very few can resist a good sale. A great way to generate leads is to tell customers that you’ll notify them via text message if you have a flash sale. Not only can it help you to collect more phone numbers, but it will also help to build relationships with your target audience. 

Wishlist reminders

If you’re selling products online, you can send your potential customers SMS notifications about the products that they’ve wishlisted. For example, if an item that was out of stock is available again, customers will appreciate a short text message that notifies them about the change in inventory. 

Abandoned cart reminders

Sometimes customers forget to complete their purchase. To prevent this, you can ask customers to add their phone numbers when creating an account. This way, you can remind them when there are items waiting for them in the cart. Alternatively, instead of sending a simple reminder, you can also send a text message to find out if they perhaps encountered any issues when trying to finalize the payment. 

The Role Automation Software Can Play

If you’ve been texting leads manually till now, investing in a software solution like Smarter Contact is definitely the smarter choice. In a nutshell, it can literally put your SMS lead generation on autopilot. 

With Smarter Contact, you simply upload your contact list to its intuitive dashboard and within a couple of clicks, you’ll be able to launch your custom campaign to start generating leads. From templates to a calendar follow-up system to reporting, it has all the features you need to make texting leads as straightforward as possible. Take advantage of our 7-day free trial and experience for yourself how easy it can be to use text marketing for lead generation.