How Business Owners can use Small Business Text Marketing
Updated 11/4/2022
It is often and rightly said that small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Both small and large businesses alike make our lives better. They provide goods and services that people need while providing needed and crucial jobs. At the core of small and large businesses are business owners.
Now it doesn’t matter if the business is large, medium, or small, owners have a responsibility to ensure that the business thrives. Part of what helps a business thrive is marketing. Afterall if people don’t know what a business offers, they won’t buy it.
Therefore, it’s incumbent upon the business owner to make sure that their marketing is on par. Now marketing comes in all shapes and sizes. But one of the best ways a business owner can get the word out about their product or service is using text marketing.
Text marketing is a relatively new marketing method. However, its effectiveness is what really sets it apart. In fact, 75% of customers prefer a business to communicate with them via text marketing. Business owners need to capitalize on this opportunity.
So, without further ado, here are five ways business owners can use text marketing.
1. Business owners need to use text marketing to advertise
As a business owner, it’s important to reach people where they are. The phone is perfect for this purpose. The average adult sends and receives over 40 text messages every day. Tap into this potential by taking your advertising into the digital era.
Text messaging is a simple way to do this. With or without a text marketing service, you can bring your advertising online and save tons of money. The average company spends anywhere from 10-20% of their income on advertising.
That’s a lot of money. Reach the same amount and possibly even more people by using text marketing online. Text marketing is simply the act of sending text messages with the purpose of selling a product or service.
Therefore, you can use text marketing to cut down on the cost of advertising for your business. Take your business into the new age by setting up text marketing. By creating an opt-in keyword campaign, you invite people online and elsewhere to sign up for your text marketing.
Text Marketing Keyword Campaigns
A text marketing keyword campaign is simply a way to communicate with your customers. These opt-in keywords are simple. “Text MAKEUP to 702-718-6606 to give feedback, contact customer service, or see a tutorial” is a great example.
These opt-in keywords are easy to create. With advertising, you want to ensure that when a customer engages with the campaign, they get the advertisement you’ve created especially for them. Simply decide what you want your message to say and/or link to and voila! You’re on your way to advertising using text marketing.
Once you’ve created your keyword campaign, it’s easy to advertise. In fact, you can advertise it really anywhere. Online on your business homepage, and even in forums are great places to put a keyword campaign. Plus, opt-in keywords are perfect for billboards, business cards, flyers, posters, and so much more!
2. Business owners should create chatbots using text marketing
Chatbots have become all the rage for businesses. And smart, discerning business owners have opted to implement them on their business presence online, especially on their own site. With text marketing, businesses can create chatbots as an easy, cost effective way to continue on-site communication with current or potential customers.
Creating a chatbot using text marketing is simple. For example, with TextSanity, a text marketing platform, chatbots are easy to create using a multiple messages keyword campaign. Basically all a business owner needs to do is create the messages in advance.
Once that is done, customers who engage the campaign are sent the automated message flow that the business owner created. No more paying someone to create or supply a chatbot. As the business owner, you have full control.
3. Business owners need to advertise on social media using text marketing
Social media has taken over the online scene in the last few years. And as social media grows, so do the opportunities it presents to business owners. Social media is a relatively cheap option for advertising.
However, there is another, untapped way business owners can use social media advertising. By using text marketing on your businesses current social media accounts, you can capture customers for free.
It is simple. Create an opt-in keyword campaign and then advertise it on your businesses social media pages. Most people already spend a majority of their time online on a smartphone, tap in to that potential by providing them with a way to engage with your business on the device they’re already using.
4. Business owners should add customers to text marketing from your POS
As a business owner, your existing POS system is a goldmine of advertising opportunities. Did you know that you can add customers to text marketing campaigns from your POS? All you need to do is import your POS system customer data such as name and phone number to your text marketing platform as long as they have opted-in to receive text messages from you.
Integration platforms such as Zapier help you do just that. It connects the POS and that text marketing platform, so customer information is imported after customers have agreed to specific opt-in language.
This way you have existing customers opt-in to your text marketing. Once customers opt-in, send them relevant text marketing campaigns. There’s no more need for expensive, ineffective marketing leads lists.
5. Business owners need to use opt-in keywords to facilitate customer service
Just because customer service is critical to a business doesn’t mean that it has to be expensive. Yet businesses continue to spend more than they need to on costly customer service systems. One way to streamline your customer service while ensuring that it meets customer needs is by using text marketing opt-in keywords.
With text marketing keywords, customers simply text a keyword to get in contact with customer service. When this keyword is engaged, a customer service representative is notified and starts communicating directly with the customer over text message.
All this is done from the comfort of a personal computer. The customer service representative replies using a text marketing inbox where they can make notes, add customer tags, and continue the text conversation.
This type of customer service communication is useful for much more than troubleshooting customer issues. For example, you can use it for customer service jobs like checking customers in and out of hotels.
Using text marketing as a business owner
As a business owner, it’s in your own self-interest to make the most of your resources while getting the biggest bang for your buck. Text marketing is just that. It gives you the tools you need while being a cost-effective solution. Go ahead and give TextSanity a try today!