Why Should You Use a Texting Service for Small Business?
Text marketing offers numerous benefits for small businesses looking to increase sales, build customer loyalty, and enhance brand awareness.
- High Open Rates: Text messages have incredibly high open rates, often exceeding 98%! This means that your messages are more likely to be seen and read by your target audience compared to other marketing channels.
- Cost-Effective: SMS is a cost-effective marketing strategy, with affordable pricing plans and high ROI compared to other marketing channels. High open and response rates of text messages result in a higher ROI by driving more engagement and sales from targeted campaigns.
- Increased Customer Engagement: Texting helps increase customer engagement and loyalty by providing exclusive offers, promotions, and personalized content directly to their mobile devices.
- Opt-In & Opt-Out Flexibility: Customers can opt-in and opt out of receiving messages, ensuring compliance with legal regulations and respecting customer preferences.
- Easy to Track & Measure: Text marketing platforms like EZ Texting offer robust analytics and reporting tools that allow you to track and measure the performance of your campaigns, helping you optimize your strategies for better results.
- Enhances Customer Experience: The overall customer experience improves when you start providing more valuable and relevant information, promotions, and updates directly to their mobile devices, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.
The Master's Guide to Text Marketing for Small Business
As an industry-leading text marketing provider, we believe Short Message Service (SMS) marketing is the solution small businesses need to build their customer base and grow their sales pipeline.
We believe this because text marketing for small businesses is a proven and cost-effective method for increasing sales and conversions.
When you partner with an SMS service like EZ Texting, you are securing an easy and affordable way of reaching your customers.
Nearly everyone has a mobile device. If their phone is not currently in their hand, it is surely nearby. This means, that when you send customers an SMS text message, that communication is (literally) within reach.
In fact, more than 90% of text messages are opened within the first three minutes of receipt. Gone are the days of marketing emails getting lost in overflowing inboxes and spam folders.
From transportation and education, to dealerships and pet care, small businesses across all industry types are using text marketing more than ever before. Is your business next? Contact EZ Texting to start your trial today!
Ready to Get Started with EZ Texting?
How Text Marketing For Small Business Works
Secure a Trusted Number |
Build Attentive Audiences |
Craft Texts that Deliver |
Ensure your audience trusts and engages with your messages by using trusted, credible textable numbers: | Utilize customizable opt-in tools and segmentation features to ensure your messages reach an interested audience, maximizing engagement and conversion opportunities. | Effectively deliver impactful messages with our user-friendly interface, scheduling options, and analytics tools to guarantee optimized engagement and conversion rates: |
Local Number 10DLC Dedicated Short Code Toll-Free Number High-Volume A2P Text-Enabled Landline Managed Accounts | Sign-Up Forms QR Code Generator List Uploads Double Opt-In Opt-Outs Generative AI Integrations | Mass Texts Two-Way Texts SMS & MMS Text Templates Keywords AI Compose Team Inbox |
Getting Started with Text Marketing
Launching your first text message marketing program is easy. In fact, it only takes a few minutes. Follow these simple steps to kick-start your small business text marketing strategy.
1. Sign Up for an SMS Solution
To begin with, sign up with an SMS platform, such as EZ Texting. Once you’ve joined, you’ll have all the messaging tools you need at your fingertips.
2. Receive Permission
Before you start messaging current and prospective customers, they must first agree to receive text marketing from you (see our five compliance tips below for more information).
Click-to-join widgets, keywords, and short codes offer easy ways for customers to opt in and subscribe.
Click-to-Join Widgets
Many small business owners and marketers add click-to-join widgets to their websites, email signatures, and social media channels. When customers enter their names and cellphone numbers into the field provided, they’re permitting you to send them marketing messages.
Keyword
A Keyword is a unique term (composed of letters and/or numbers) that people use to communicate with your small business. Example: JOIN
Short Code
Your SMS platform can provide you with a Short Code, which is a five- or six-digit number. When your customers want to subscribe, they can simply text that Keyword to your short code.
There are some distinct short code variations including, shared, dedicated, and vanity. Example: 858585
3. Start Sending Messages
Once you’ve gathered a list of subscribers who have opted in, you can begin sending text messages.
From here, you can send out everything from sales promotions and event notifications to appointment reminders and order confirmations.
Benefits of Text Marketing for Small Business
- Speed: SMS messages are limited to 160 characters max. They don’t take an exorbitant amount of time to develop or read. In today’s fast-paced world of short attention spans, text marketing gives your small business a serious advantage.
- Directness: The text message application is one of the most frequently checked applications on users’ phones. By comparison, most email inboxes are only checked once or twice per day, and emails sent from small businesses are often filtered out automatically. Essentially, SMS messages give you direct access to your customers.
- Reporting: Most text message marketing providers make it simple to access data related to texts delivered, contact count, and more. The savviest text marketers analyze this data to make simple adjustments to future text campaigns.
- Business Generation: Sending text messages to current and prospective customers helps boost sales. In fact, 50% of consumers make a purchase after receiving SMS marketing
- Brand Awareness: Small business text marketing gets your company on the map. When your customers receive messages about your business, they become more knowledgeable and interested in your brand, products, mission, events, and more.
- Traffic Amplification: Text marketing can increase traffic. After all, the more your customers know about your brand, the more inclined they’ll be to visit your small business online and in person. In 2019, mobile phones generated 52.6% of worldwide online traffic.
- Customer Engagement: One perk of running a small business is building close relationships with your customers, and text marketing can help you maintain those connections. Text messages let you have two-way conversations with your customers, which can enhance the customer service experience, increase trust in your brand, and encourage customer loyalty. Lead Conversions: SMS messaging provides you with an easy avenue for nurturing and converting leads. You can encourage subscribers to visit your website (or in-store location), join your events, and take advantage of your sales. In turn, this can convert prospective customers into long-term loyalists.
- App Integration: Your SMS platform lets you integrate other apps, from your project management software to your CRM, so everything is easily accessible where and when you need it.
Propel Forward with a Texting Service for Small Business
Discover how SMS for small businesses enhances customer engagement, increases sales, and fosters brand loyalty to take your business to new heights.
Building Your SMS Subscriber List: Building a robust SMS subscriber list is the foundation of a successful text marketing campaign. Here are some effective strategies to grow your list:
- Opt-In Forms: Utilize opt-in forms on your website, social media platforms, and in-store to collect phone numbers from interested customers.
- Incentives: Offer exclusive discounts or promotions to encourage customers to subscribe to your SMS list.
- Events and Trade Shows: Use events and trade shows to collect phone numbers and add them to your subscriber list.
- QR Codes: Use QR codes on your marketing materials to make it easy for customers to subscribe to your SMS list.
Personalization & Segmentation Strategies: Personalization and segmentation are key to delivering relevant and targeted text messages to your subscribers. Here are some strategies to personalize and segment your text marketing campaigns:
- Personalize Messages: Use the subscriber's name and past purchase history to create personalized SMS messages.
- Segmentation: Segment your subscriber list based on demographics, purchase history, and engagement level to send targeted and relevant messages.
- Automate Workflows: Implement automated workflows to send personalized messages based on specific triggers or actions taken by the subscriber.
- A/B Testing: Conduct A/B testing to determine which messages resonate best with your audience and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Text Marketing Rules & Regulations
5 Compliance Tips from the CTIA
- No Unsolicited Messages
- Use Proper Opt-In Methods
- Explain Your Recurring Text Program
- Allow Customers to Opt Out Easily
- Your Content Must Be Appropriate
As you know, text marketing is a permission-based activity. Additionally, small businesses are subject to the rules and regulations of the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
These rules and regulations are intended to prevent spamming and protect personal privacy. The Mobile Marketing Association has produced a Code of Conduct that condenses TCPA into a series of best practices for text marketing. Additionally, EZ Texting offers compliance tips for small businesses.
Furthermore, text marketing for small businesses is also subject to the rules of the companies that carry and deliver text messages.
The CITA stipulates that text marketing must not contain content such as profanity, pornography, or hate speech.
This organization will also prevent the delivery of any small business texting campaign that endorses illegal drug use or violence.
Familiarize yourself with regulations such as the TCPA and GDPR to ensure compliance with legal requirements when sending SMS marketing messages.
- Consent Management: Implement effective consent management strategies for obtaining and managing subscriber consent in compliance with legal regulations.
- Opt-Out Procedures: Offer clear and easy opt-out steps to comply with regulations and respect customer preferences.
- Frequency Capping: Set limits on the number of messages sent to each subscriber within a specific timeframe to avoid over-messaging.
- Data Security: Protect customer data collected for text marketing purposes to maintain trust and compliance with privacy laws.
Examples of Text Marketing for Small Business
New Product Launch
Promotional Messages
Event Invitations
Customer Feedback
Experience the Benefits of Text Marketing with EZ Texting
Is your small business ready to implement a solid marketing and sales solution? Then it’s time to take advantage of text message marketing for small businesses with EZ Texting.
As a recognized leader in SMS marketing services for small businesses, we have helped more than 165,000 businesses just like yours. In minutes, you’ll have everything you need to get started!
To begin your text marketing journey, we recommend downloading our quick-start guide: The 8-Step Roadmap to Mastering Text Message Marketing. Then contact us to find out even more about our SMS solutions and pricing for small businesses.
Because small business SMS marketing gives you direct access to your customers, you not only increase the number of eyes on your content, but the two-way messaging feature allows you to have one-on-one conversations. This ability to engage with your customers can help you improve your customer service experience, increase customer acquisition, and further drum up interest in your brand and products.
Text marketing for Small Business FAQs
Cost per message. Sending an SMS text message costs between $0.01 and $0.05. MMS messages cost a bit more because they contain media (like images, gifs, etc.) and more character allowances. Learn more about SMS vs MMS.
Cost per keyword. When your text message CTA includes a keyword (like “text HELLO to 21212”), that costs money. This cost ranges from $15 to $25 per keyword. Many text marketing platforms include keywords in their plan pricing.
Platform/service cost. Consider the cost of the text marketing service your company uses, as that affects your SMS marketing ROI.
You bet! Because of its convenient and highly personal nature, text marketing for small business is incredibly effective at engaging customers. Most customers respond positively to text message communications from brands once they've opted in to receive them. An impressive 81% of consumers say they’ve signed up to receive text messages from a business or organization, a 15% increase from 2021.
- Character limit.
- Opt-in requirement.
- Potential for spamming.
Here is a simple ROI formula to keep in mind:
Return - Investment = ROI
The return is the campaign's revenue, and the investment is what it costs to run the campaign (including the costs involved in sending text messages that we noted earlier).
To determine the ROI percentage and quickly compare the success of every campaign, you can use this formula:
(Return / Investment) x 100 = ROI percentage
Remember to track metrics like opt-in rates, engagement rates, click-through rates, conversions, and donations generated to assess effectiveness of a texting service for small business.
Obtain clear opt-in consent, be transparent about message origin, respect unsubscribe requests, and comply with data privacy regulations like CAN-SPAM.
Learn more about the legalities behind text marketing for small business here.
Absolutely! Integrate text marketing with social media, email, and events for a multi-pronged approach.
Personalization is crucial for capturing attention and driving action. Use voter data to segment your audience and send targeted messages addressing their specific concerns and interests. You can also utilize dynamic content to personalize greetings, reminders, and calls to action, boosting engagement and ultimately, campaign success.
Gain more tips on personalizing your small business text marketing here.
