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There are plenty of business text messaging solutions and services available online. Over the years, text messaging has become increasingly popular. Yet, many companies do not text their customers. Especially for sales driven companies, SMS texting and marketing cannot be underestimated. As a business owner, it’s time to get right into the pockets of your prospective customers. Business texting offers higher open rates, faster engagement and more opportunities to follow up. In this post, we’ll explain how to send text messages for your business.
Pick A Use Case For Business Texting
Every business should have a specific use case before signing up for business texting service. With a reliable SMS and MMS platform, you can service new leads, follow up with existing customers or provide support for customer service. Some companies will even use texting as part of their recruitment and hiring campaigns. Additionally, your business messaging platform allows you to schedule appointments, notify customers, and follow up automatically. You can send business text messages for any of these reasons as long as you have proper consent and permission. In-person business meeting destinations are not always a viable option for every discussion. Before setting up a business text messaging service, clarify the exact use case for your business.
Look For The Right Business Texting Software Features
Next, your use case will determine the best business texting solutions and features to look for. Some providers offer keyword texts, short code numbers and group messages. You may need specific features for two-way texting, text forwarding or media texting support. A significant percentage of business texting platforms do not support MMS (multimedia messages) like images and videos. Additionally, you may need the ability to schedule texts to send at a later time. Or, set recurring reminders or updates on repeat. Other platforms allow you to integrate with website chatbots and widgets to encourage website visitors to text you as well. Certainly, you will have to choose the most important business texting features before looking into a provider.
Analyze Your Business Texting Usage Or Volume
Additionally, the costs for business texting platforms vary greatly depending on the usage. There are limited providers who offer unlimited calling and texting. In this case, you might go with a traditional phone carrier. However, as you increase your need to users and messages, a web based system will have some limitations. Many business texting systems have packages starting as little as $24.99 per month and offer a free trial. To increase your sending and receiving limits, you may have to pay between $0.004-$0.07 cents per message. Additionally, the costs may increase depending on the type of message and length of characters. Estimate your expected business text messaging volume by calculating the number of messages you are likely to send per day, week or month. This way, you streamline enterprise resources and choose a business text plan that works for your company.
Choose A Business Text Messaging Platform
With features and costs in place, choose a texting platform that matches your business. Many of the best platforms offer integrations with your existing tools and business applications. With a full integration in place, you can send customer data from your texting service directly into the CRM, email blast or order system. Plus, you can setup automation for calendar invites and invoicing systems. These innovative business ideas and integrations allow you to automate your workflow throughout multiple departments and teams. Definitely, choose and integrate a business text platform that fits with your current application suite.
Start Sending Business Text Messages Online
Sign up for your account and start sending text messages by staying compliant. Consult with your business attorney or texting provider to ensure that you have the proper permission to text customers. To send bulk SMS messages, you may have to ask customers to text a keyword to your short code. Or, you may ask them to opt-in to a specific list. For one-to-one interactions, the customer may have to initiate the conversation, and additionally opt-in to receive additional messages. Additionally, your messages should be relevant, appropriate and allow customers to easily opt-out if they wish. Certainly, you can start sending business text messages legally by staying compliant.
Follow these steps to get started with business texting services and solutions. Pick a specific use case or outcome that you would like to achieve. Then, look for the business texting software features and phone numbers that fit your needs. Calculate how many text or media rich messages you plan to send each month. Then, choose a business texting provider that will integrate with your current business cloud suite of applications. Furthermore, establish your account and start sending messages to customers while following the laws of SMS marketing. By completing these steps, you can certainly start sending business text messages with an online platform.
