The effectiveness of short message service (SMS) marketing is hard to ignore. Once merely a means for people to conveniently keep in touch, business texting has become one of the trendiest marketing methods used today. However, few businesses realize you can use texting for more than just informing your customers of your latest deals.

Texting is an ideal customer service tool, making communication between you and your customers easier than ever. Businesses can even implement texting internally. When done correctly, it vastly strengthens communication between departments.

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You probably already have a way for your team to communicate internally, but there are many advantages to utilizing texts. For one thing, texts have a much higher open rate compared to other forms of communication such as email. When you need to quickly send a short message to several people, it’s hard to do better than texts.

It’s also easy for business texting to go wrong, though, so don’t rush into it. There are a few essentials you should be aware of first. Learn the facts so you can do business texting the smart way.

Business Texting and Traditional Texting: What’s the Difference?

Whether you want to communicate with your customers or with your staff, texting is the best way to quickly message large groups of people and, more importantly, to ensure the message is not ignored. This is largely thanks to the high open rate of texts. How high? Gartner reports rates as high as 98% for SMS compared to 20% for email. People just can’t ignore the ping of a new text.

Modern cellphone users also love sending text messages. According to Forbes, 23 billion texts are sent daily. Tired of sending out emails that get no responses? Perhaps you should switch to text.

How Texting Compares to Emails and Phone Calls

It’s a good thing customers respond well to SMS marketing because marketing teams prefer it to other forms of outreach. For instance, regular email marketing requires your team to spend time crafting paragraphs of copy and developing images and other marketing materials. You need to get several things right for the email to be effective: a strong subject line, compelling content, and adequate branding.

By contrast, texts only require a few short sentences, saving your marketing team time and resources. Texts also help you avoid the dreaded spam folder, where so many marketing emails perish unseen.

Similarly, calling is an unfavorable communication method in many situations. First, it’s time-consuming—the recipient has to stop what they’re doing to take the call. It’s also terrible for sharing information with large groups of people quickly. Calls may be good for one-on-one situations, but when you need to contact your entire team or customer base, texting is the superior option.

SMS marketing is an ideal way to inform customers about your latest deals and to announce new products. This is great, but think beyond basic marketing to get the most from your investment. For instance, send texts to remind customers about appointments, inform them of unexpected changes, or announce big news from your business.

With its fast response time and convenience, business texting could be the key to a better overall customer experience.

Internal Uses for Texting

Most businesses think of marketing when considering business texting. However, there are also various contexts where it’s preferable to rely on business texting internally.

For example, you can use texts to remind employees about meetings, inform them about sudden changes to schedules, and share deadlines. Most people open a text within three minutes, so if you need to send an urgent message to your team quickly, not many ways are quicker than text.

Internal business texting has become more important than ever in a post-pandemic world that has adopted hybrid workplaces. While remote setups can be great for employees, they can result in a breakdown in communication—especially when teams are split between work and home.

Texting allows you to conveniently keep remote workers informed of all that occurs in the office. Furthermore, unlike emails, texts have less of a formal tone. This can help build a more trusting and open relationship between leadership and the rest of the business.

Although business texting is extremely useful, keep in mind that it is not foolproof. There are ways SMS marketing can go wrong, especially when it’s overused. Customers don’t mind getting texts; they do mind being bombarded by them. As with all good things in life, moderation is key.

It’s also worth remembering that texting does have limitations. Therefore, there are situations where other forms of communication would be better. Texting’s strength—its simplicity—is also its weakness. The succinct nature of texts makes it easy for misunderstandings to creep in.

Furthermore, words on a screen can’t always convey nuances of communication, such as tone. For these reasons, when you have serious matters to discuss with staff or customers, texts aren’t ideal. Instead, go for emails or make a call.

Business Texting vs. Traditional Texting

You’re probably eager to implement business texting, but there’s an art to getting it right. While it’s easy to send a text with your personal phone, it’s not the best way to handle business texting.

Your personal phone only offers basic texting functions. This isn’t a problem in daily life, where most texting occurs on a one-on-one basis. But, when you need to text on a larger scale, like a business with hundreds or even thousands of employees or customers, traditional texting simply won’t do.

In addition, your phone doesn’t allow you to perform more complex functions that would be incredibly useful in a business context. For example, for SMS marketing to be most effective, you’ll need to organize your customer base into different groups and assign different marketing materials to these groups. You will then need to organize texts, and you’ll need security features to protect your customers’ personal information. For these functions, a business texting platform is necessary.

Invest in a Business Texting Platform

The right business texting platform can supercharge your SMS marketing campaign. Good software allows you to easily send bulk texts and organize your contacts list by groups.

It also provides a shared inbox, which gives you a consolidated view of all communications. This lets your team work together when dealing with clients, allowing for more efficient customer service. Furthermore, you won’t be limited to working off your cellphone, as you can install the software on PCs and tablets.

Look for software that offers auto-reply options. This allows your customers to respond to texts to receive basic information. For example, a customer could text your business to find out about their accounts and subscription. They could also get quick answers to FAQs without needing to call customer care. This can drastically improve your business’s customer experience. You can also use auto-reply texts internally to answer employee questions.

Some business texting software even offers trigger-based texts that are sent out when an action is performed. Has a customer just opened an account with your business? Send a text welcoming them to the family. You can also send an automatic text with a due date when an employee claims an assignment.

Send Them Yourself, or Hire a Service

It doesn’t take a genius to send a text, but it does take time. While you can send your business texts yourself, you should be aware that it will divert you from other important tasks. For maximum efficiency, hire a service.

There are many options available on the market. With automated texts, you can even arrange texts to be sent precisely when you need them. Want to remind your team about an early morning appointment? Set it up weeks in advance and sleep well, knowing your team will get the reminder.

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Do some quick research to find the right texting software that suits the specific needs of your business. For instance, when picking a service, consider whether it’s compatible with your business’s current tech stack. There’s no point in getting new software if it doesn’t work with your business’s current technological setup.

In addition, consider the cost. Is it within your budget? Is there a subscription fee? You must also pay attention to its ease of use. Your marketing team will be using the software. If it has a steep learning curve, it will slow down productivity.

But Are You Texting a Mobile Phone?

Texting is very cost-effective, especially when sending bulk texts. However, issues arise when your list of contacts is filled with numbers that aren’t mobile numbers. Sending texts to disconnected, fake, and landline numbers results in wasted money.

There’s also another issue to consider: the Do-Not-Call (DNC) Registry. Consumers have a right to refuse to receive telemarketing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established the DNC Registry in 2003 and continues to maintain it, as U.S. citizens add their numbers to the registry to opt out of telemarketing.

Telemarketers must pay a small fee to access the registry and check whether their contact lists contain DNC Registry numbers. Businesses that don’t comply may incur hefty fines. In fact, since the DNC Registry was established, the FTC has made telemarketers pay more than $290 million in judgments.

It is possible to sift through your list of contacts manually, but it is exceptionally time-consuming. For the most efficiency, you need a contact list scrubber. There are many options on the market, including Landline Remover.

Simply upload a CSV file of your contacts, and Landline Remover takes out all unwanted numbers, whether they are DNC Registry contacts or landline numbers. You get results in seconds, so you don’t have to worry about it impeding your business’s productivity. You’ll also have peace of mind knowing you won’t run afoul of the DNC registry or waste your money texting landlines.

Landline Remover and Business Texting Are a Match Made in Heaven

Businesses are finding new and innovative ways to implement texting to enhance communication with customers and employees. To thrive in this new space, you need to think beyond marketing. For instance, pay attention to the ways business texting can improve customer service and better synchronize departments within your company.

Although business texting shares many similarities with personal texting, certain requirements in the business world make business texting software necessary. There are many options on the market, so assess your needs and do your research before choosing an SMS marketing platform.

You will also need a contact list scrubber. Accuracy is an essential factor to consider. The DNC Registry is not static, and a good contact list scrubber will regularly check the database for new numbers. Some service providers aren’t very good at this, and their data may be months or even years old. In contrast, Landline Remover uses data that’s within 72 hours fresh from the federal and state levels, so you never have to worry about violating the FTC’s terms.

You should also consider the service’s cost. Your scrubber should save you money, not break your budget. Landline Remover is an economical option. We’ve done away with subscription tiers and only charge you for what you use.

For just $0.002 per number or $2 for 1,000, you can’t afford to not arm your business with this powerful tool. Sign up with Landline Remover today and get 1,000 free credits.