In 2021, businesses need to double their efforts to do well. In these times of pandemic and lockdown, bringing customers to the store requires more effort. Whether it is for B2C (Business to customer) or B2B (Business to business), text messaging is a powerful strategy that can help businesses. The expenses involved in marketing can be cumbersome for businesses. Text messaging is a cost-effective and simple strategy that businesses can use to improve their performance.
B2C and B2B Text Messaging
B2C text messaging refers to messages sent by a business to its customers. Whether it is a Retail Sector, spa, restaurant, or hardware store, they all need to engage with their customers to improve sales. This can be done easily using text messaging.
B2B text messaging refers to messages sent by one business to another. Here one business sells its products to another, who in turn uses them to create products for end customers. B2B marketing depends more on relationship building. Text messaging can be very helpful in doing this effectively and in a simple way.
B2C marketers have been using text messaging effectively for a long time and now this has become the popular trend. B2B companies are also using text messaging in a big way. Using text messaging is helping them connect with their customers constantly. This helps them promote their products in a more effective way.
Text messaging strategies to use
The following are a few strategies that both B2B and B2C companies can use to make their text messaging effective.
1) Use text messaging for a great customer experience
Whether your customers are the end customers or a business, you need to provide them with a great customer experience. You can do this effectively by engaging them using text messaging. Regular interaction can help in this. You need to engage with customers in the following ways:
• Sending messages on offers and promotions to boost sales.
• Sending alerts and notifications frequently, including alerts on service requests, appointments, pending payments, etc.
• Whenever an order is booked, a text message can be sent with details of the order. Text messaging can be used to update customers on order status, including delivery status. This can help in keeping customers updated, which helps in providing a great experience.
• Customers can be encouraged to ask queries and report complaints using messaging. This is a more convenient way for them to get their problems solved.
• You can get feedback from customers through messages and even do a customer survey through SMS.
All these will help in ensuring customers get a great experience. This is vital in ensuring better business performance.
2) Using text to mail services
SMS to Email is a great feature that text messaging software products offer. Instead of sending text messages to a mobile phone number, you can send them to an e-mail address. Similarly, replies sent from the e-mail can be received through text. SMS to Email services is a very useful feature for businesses. Using SMS to email can help a business use its computer system for text messaging. This is beneficial in archiving messages and storing them for future needs.
3) Bringing customers to the store
Whether you have a physical store or a virtual store, you need customers to visit the store. This is the best way of increasing sales. You can use text messages to bring customers to the store. There are different ways of doing this:
• You can send exclusive offers to customers to make them interested to visit the store. This can be in the form of special discounts.
• Loyal customers can be rewarded with special deals. Messages related to this deal can be sent using SMS.
• The SMS you send can contain a link that can attract customers to visit your web store. If you have an offline store, you can ask the customers to show the message to the cashier to avail of the offer.
4) Use SMS chatbots for convenience
You can carry out texting without devoting an exclusive resource to this work. You can make use of SMS chatbots that work using Artificial Intelligence (AI). These chatbots can read messages sent by customers and send automatic replies based on the words used in the message. This is a good way to provide information to customers without having to appoint someone to do only text messaging. Chatbots automate your work saving time and money while making things convenient for the business and the customer.
All the above strategies can be very helpful for business in 2021. These strategies can ensure success for businesses helping them to increase their sales. A text messaging service and a database of Customer are all that you need to start using text messaging. You too can start using text messaging to achieve business success.
