At its inception, the brands’ marketing, promotions, and communications were unidirectional. Newspaper ads, banners by the road, and other print and broadcast media for brand marketing. What changed it to a bidirectional process, so much so that it became ubiquitous?
It’s the dynamic market and the awareness that developed with time among the users. And policies that governments and authorities rolled out for consumer rights. So, if you’ve been avoiding conversational marketing and texting, it’s time you come out from behind the rock.
Why is Conversational Texting Crucial to Customer Relationships?
Whether an interaction is user generated or initiated by a brand, two-way communication is important for brands to satisfy users’ every question and need.
Done are the days when users would listen to your jingles on TV or read about your product on a billboard alone and reach out for services or purchases on a number. Users today are extra cautious and aware of their needs and demand the highest level of satisfaction. Wherever they put their money, they ensure to reap the best benefits. They research and analyze and factor their expense vs. the return value from a product.
So, if they don’t get smooth and clear answers, which is possible only via conversational marketing, they wouldn’t hesitate to dump the brand right there. If they pick you, voila! But that’s not even the end of their purchasing story once they choose you and invest in your offering.
Your audience demands a frictionless journey throughout. Imagine why exchange offers work so well? Because at the end of a product’s shelf life, it can still offer benefits to the user. Customers need attention at each phase, whether they’re sorting out possible choices, zeroing down on the final selection, purchasing the product, or giving feedback.
If you keep them out of the loop, you’ll lose their loyalty and references. Remember, word of mouth is still a huge PR channel.
So, keep your users connected to your brand all the time. Keep conversing and stay at the top of their minds. You never know who might refer you on social media after a one-on-one discussion.
However, you may ask why SMS for conversational marketing and communication? Let’s understand.
Why Use Text Messaging for Conversational Texting?
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Personalized Experience and Engagement
Users demand personalized attention. That’s the key to marketing these days. If you’re not able to render a personalized experience, forget to engage with them. Every successful step in engagement is a result of human touch, not the metallic expressions of a chatbot or a robotic wait message at the IVR.
In fact, these features, however useful and time-saving, can never surpass a human touch in communication. With SMS being easy to personalize and a spam-free zone, it offers better opportunities for engagement.
Since you send SMS only to those who have opted in, your first barrier of being coldly unwanted, like telemarketing calls or emails, is removed. Then text marketing being short becomes sweet too. Within 160 characters and without any scrolling, you can win the users. And yet you can personalize the message with updates on what they need.
The opt-out code proves you are authentic and keeps them engaged.
- Fast And Positive Interaction
42% of millennials and youngsters check their text messages at least 10x a day. So, SMS can be the easiest and most approachable way to reach out to people from younger generations. However, people from all age groups want positive and fast interaction with brands. This is proven by the fact that sexagenarians pick up and check their phones a minimum of 3x per hour
But why SMS for conversational messaging?
Because long code allows users to text to the same number from where they receive calls. Or they call back at. Using the 10DLC facility, you can engage your users in 2-way communication and converse with them in real-time.
This feature makes conversational texting a cakewalk when your users reach out to the helpdesk for their queries. It hardly takes a few minutes with messages flowing back and forth to solve a problem or cater to a new service request.
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Omnichannel Leader
Your users are on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and every other channel we have come to know. But think again, which is the most approachable one? If Facebook and Instagram have billions of users and Twitter has millions, the SMS facility is inbuilt with every mobile.
And that makes it available to every human who has a mobile in their hands. Doesn’t this fact make conversation texting the leader of all?
Our research shows that marketers who use over 3 communication channels lock an engagement rate 250% higher than those who deploy just one channel. And since SMS marketing stands at the top with a 98% read rate, there’s no reason not to encash the benefits
If you haven’t invested in text marketing thus far, your chance is yet not lost. Here are some great reasons to include SMS campaigns in your marketing budget and make a profit.
Start Your Conversational Marketing and Text Messaging Today
Textmunication has been serving various industries for 14 years now. SAM, our smart automated marketing tool, comes with a bouquet of over 25 best-in-class features. Several brands have shown revenue generation in the first month of using our software. Should you need to start conversational marketing for better engagement, reach out to us here.
References: All statistics picked from State of Texting and Textmunication’s Brochure.