Why Texting is an Interface Your Small Business Must Be Utilizing

Everywhere you look nowadays, people have their eyes glued to their cell phones. Between text messaging, taking photos and browsing social media, it’s hard to keep the attention of anyone under the age of 50 for more than a few minutes if their phone is nearby. That’s exactly why marketers started jumping at the opportunity to be right where they wanted to be: a few inches away from their target’s face on a cell phone screen.

In recent years, many small businesses--especially those that use a scheduling system of some sort—have started utilizing SMS (short message service, aka text messaging) as a form of marketing and communication with clients. SMS marketing is an immediate form of communication that has the capability of reaching a largescale audience within seconds, something that emails and phone calls can’t compare to anymore. And with 75% of millennials in a recent surveychoosing texting over talking, it makes sense that SMS marketing is a tool small businesses need to start utilizing.

To understand the importance of using an SMS system as a business, we must first look at some stats relating to messaging use. Text messaging service EZ Texting noted a few key statisticsrelated to the power of a text message. The company found that 75% of millennials say text messaging is their preferred form of communication, specifically for services such as deliveries, promotions and surveys.

Another key feature that comes with an SMS system is a higher deliverability rate than emails or even phone calls. Emails have plenty of spam filters and junk boxes where your business’s emails can often get lost or accidentally deleted. And many people ignore phone calls from unknown numbers, assuming it’s a telemarketer. Texting, however, has very few barriers to cross and ends up getting delivered to the consumer directly, and read more quickly.

So, what exactly do these mean? When you want an immediate response from customers, SMS marketing has the potential to get the best delivery and response percentage. This can be anything, from responding to a survey to scheduling an appointment. Since many small businesses rely on customer response to build success, it makes sense that texting is an easy way to get the feedback you’re looking for.

Messaging app developer Apifonica reported some more interesting statisticsabout consumer perception of businesses that use SMS as a form of client communication. Apifonica found that 64% of consumers think businesses should be using a text messaging system to interact with customers.

It also found that of the people who opted-in to receive text messages from a business, 91% of users considered those messages either somewhat or very useful. This means that only 9% of people who receive SMS messages from a business don’t think the communication is useful. Even if math isn’t your strong suit, those are easy numbers to wrap your head around.

Lastly, Apifonica stated, “74% of text message respondents report an improved overall impression of businesses that interact with them via text messaging.” If you utilize an SMS system for your customers, they are more likely to have a more positive view of your business. This can make your company appear more technologically up-to-date, easily accessible and customer-friendly than alternatives.

As a small business, it’s important to do everything in your power to build a reputation as a brand people feel comfortable working with. When you utilize a “new” form of communication that customers are already using constantly in their personal lives, it shows them that you are willing to make the experience as easy as possible.

If your competitors are still only using email and phone calls to communicate appointment times, discounts or other marketing tools, you’ll be a step ahead of them by appealing to a wider audience. They can choose their preferred method of communication, which means they are more likely to respond if you are contacting them via their favorite platform.

Additionally, using an SMS messaging service is an affordable marketing tactic, which is a major bonus for small businesses. Text messaging service TextMagicsays, “Most bulk texting services offer extremely affordable flat rates, allowing you to send hundreds or even thousands of messages without breaking your budget.” For small businesses with a low marketing budget, this is huge.

Plus, we’ve already established the numbers behind the high response rate text messaging has.

There’s no doubt you’ve noticed the overwhelming power cell phones have in widespread communication, so why not use that to your advantage? Whether or not you like using texting as a form of communication, offering it to your customers is a great way to broaden your audience reach. And even if customers don’t always act on text messages from your business, you can assume they’re at least seeing your name and reading the message instead of it getting filtered into a junk mail folder.