In this new era of digital marketing and social media, it’s easy to forget about the earlier forms of technology such as SMS and voicemail. However, you would be surprised at how effective these are in today’s business world.
According to research, emails have a 19-26% open rate depending on the industry. While this does give many businesses an effective method of lead generation, it can be difficult to penetrate saturated markets with email alone. Compare this with voicemail, which has a click rate of up to 90% or SMS at 70%. These statistics allow you to see the potential that these two methods, SMS and voicemail drops, can have when it comes to your business’ growth.
Here’s how both communication tools can benefit your business:
Benefits Of SMS To Businesses
Some customers will opt to sign up for your business’ services and provide their mobile numbers. This offers a great tool for businesses to send their marketing campaigns. Note, however, that it’s important to seek permission first.Based on customer purchasing behavior and customer interests, you can segment your customer list in your database. Doing so will allow you to send customized messages to each type of customer.
By using a top-quality SMS platform, you’ll be able to send messages to multiple customers with a simple click of a button.
Other than that, let’s take a look at more benefits that SMS can bring to your business:
1. More Personalized Communication
Since many people can access them, messages sent through social media are not considered personal. This means that while a percentage of the audience may click or respond, business promotions sent through this means won’t make customers feel special.However, sending a text message makes the recipient feel as if the business took time and effort to consider them. As a result, any call-to-action is likely to be acted upon.
A business can, therefore, use SMS to send not only personalized messages, but also promotions and deals to loyal customers.
2. SMS Is Cheap
Small businesses often have budget constraints, which is why they need to keep their costs to a minimum. Marketing is one of the areas that takes the largest portion of a business’s capital. Moreover, social media and other forms of media advertisement are quite expensive. However, a business will incur very little costs when sending SMS, especially when texts are sent in bulk. In addition, as mentioned above, the click-through rate of SMS is high due to the fact that customers will feel special.When your business decides to use SMS, one tool that it needs is the ability to send messages in bulk as it allows you to save time, as well as money.
3. Instant Delivery
SMS is not only simple to do, but will also deliver the messages immediately. What’s more, by using a reliable and top-notch SMS software, such as Drop Cowboy, you can see which of your customers have opened and read your message.Moreover, thanks to the high open and response rates, businesses can use SMS to learn more about their audience’s preferences. They can do this by asking customers to answer a few questions via SMS.
With the information gathered, businesses can make the required changes and improvements that will appeal to the needs of their customers. This will increase your bottom line, helping the business grow and thrive.
4. Can Work With Other Marketing Methods
A personalized SMS marketing strategy can be used with other types of digital marketing, such as email and social media.The main benefit of this is that it allows the brand image to be omnipresent. Customers can see your brand through various channels, which helps solidify your business in their minds.
Consequently, clients are likely to take action and purchase the business’ products or services. This is because they will have already seen your brand through social media and other types of marketing. By sending an SMS, they will already be familiar with the business and are more likely to commit to a purchase.
5. Send To A Global Audience
One thing about social media marketing and email marketing is that they require access to the internet, which can be challenging to people in developing countries. However, almost everyone owns a mobile phone. By sending an SMS, they can access the message without the need for internet connection.This way, you have a larger audience with SMS compared to other types of marketing, significantly boosting your business growth.
Furthermore, regardless of the country where you’re sending the SMS to, the recipient will receive the message instantly.
6. It’s Highly Convenient For The Involved Parties
One major benefit of sending SMS to customers is that the message will remain on their mobile phones. Hence, they can read the message when it’s most convenient for them.On the other hand, for the business, since the receiver can choose the best time to read the message, the sender doesn’t have to allocate a specific time to send the messages and can also do so at their convenience.
Furthermore, since the receiver will read the message at their convenience, they’ll likely be in a good mood and act upon the message.
7. Improved Customer Experience
SMS offers a great opportunity to improve customer experience. One of the ways that a business can do this is by responding to a customer’s questions in a timely manner.By setting up a response team, customers can have their questions answered in real time. A good SMS software allows businesses to automate responses about the most commonly asked questions. Such software, therefore, helps improve customer engagement.
This prompts the customers to maintain a healthy working relationship with your business, which turns them into repeat clients.
Quality Control
Sending SMS also allows for quality control. A one-on-one conversation with a client could result in the wrong use of words or a message interpreted the wrong way, resulting in a disgruntled client. The downside is that the odds of getting back the clients are slim. Furthermore, the client may spread the word about their bad experience with your business, putting a dent on your business’ brand.However, with an SMS, you can edit the message and make sure that it suits your target audience. Since you’ll be able to check the message before sending, the chances of making mistakes are eliminated.
Benefits Of Voicemail Drops To Businesses
Creating a good SMS marketing strategy is simple and affordable for businesses. Furthermore, it’s highly effective. That said, another effective way to improve customer engagement is through voicemail drops or ringless voicemails.Let’s find out how this can be used as an effective marketing strategy:
1. It’s Non-Intrusive
One of the main features of a ringless voicemail is that it’s non-intrusive. Many customers don’t enjoy being on the phone with a salesperson on the other end of the line trying to pitch their products or services. Cold calls can also be annoying as they disrupt the potential customer’s day.With ringless voicemails, however, the customer isn’t going to get any notification. The voicemail simply drops in their phones. When the customer sees the voicemail, they can decide on the best time to listen to it, which is convenient for the client. Because of this, they'll likely be in a good mood when they listen to your business pitch, increasing the odds of closing a sale through the marketing voicemail.
2. High Rate Of Return Calls
Ringless voicemails have a high return rate, which stems from the fact that customers don’t feel interrupted, hence they feel respected.Customers can pick a time that’s most convenient to engage with the business. A major benefit of this is that customers will likely be direct with their intentions and are more likely to commit to purchasing your business’ products or services.
3. Allows For The Perfect Pitch
Before you can send a voicemail message, you can take your time to craft the script for the ideal pitch that’ll appeal to your target audience. Once you’ve created the voicemail, you can then send it with a simple click of a button to hundreds of individuals.On the other hand, imagine cold calling 300 clients a day and repeating the same pitch. While your sales representative may start on a high note, it’ll eventually end up sounding like a repetitive robotic sales pitch.
With ringless voicemail, you can define your target audience and create a pitch that’s specifically designed for them. What’s more, you can put in all your enthusiasm in that recording so that all potential customers receive the same pitch, increasing the odds of conversions.
4. Allows For Quality Control
Another major benefit of voicemail drops is that they allow quality control.With the traditional cold calling approach, a discussion between a sales representative and a lead can go south if the salesperson uses the wrong choice of words. The customer may get offended and cut the call, which means that there’s likely no chance of getting that customer back. The offended customer may go ahead and spread the word about their negative encounter with your business, ruining your business’ reputation.
Fortunately, this can be avoided through voicemails. This is because you can pre-record the voicemail and edit the parts that didn’t come out the right way. Furthermore, you can ensure that enthusiasm is maintained throughout the message.
When sending the message to your customers, you don’t have to worry about making mistakes. Even while the receiver may choose their most ideal time to listen to the message, the enthusiasm remains and will not fade. This means that the customer will still be encouraged to take action on your business.
5. Voicemail Drops Are Convenient
During cold calling, your sales representatives may need to talk to hundreds of people. Considering that each call can take several minutes, the sales rep may spend the entire day making cold calls.With voicemail messaging, you’ll only need to record a single message and will only take a few minutes to send it to hundreds of potential clients. This leaves the sales representative with plenty of time that they can dedicate to searching for new leads. This can also create more opportunities for your business as it can expand your client base.
6. You Can Work Within the Law
One of the most important things to uphold is receiver privacy. While you can send voicemails to hundreds and even thousands of clients, it’s important to ensure that you’re not violating any communication or privacy laws.The best ringless voicemails service providers will allow you to work within the law by letting you know your limitations. This way, you can send ringless voicemails confidently as you know that your business is compliant with consumer protection laws.
Therefore, when choosing your ringless voicemail service provider, one way to vet them is to see if they protect your business against any legal violations.
7. Can Work With Other Marketing Strategies
Just like with sending SMS, ringless voicemails can be easily integrated with other types of marketing. This way, you don’t have to change strategies just to incorporate a ringless voicemail.For instance, if you’re doing social media marketing, you can send voicemails to leads from social media who have displayed interest in your business’ services or products. The marketing teams can, thus, spend a short amount of time sending ringless voiceless to the leads and spend the rest of the working hours searching for more leads.
Final Thoughts
As a business, you can reach hundreds to thousands of potential clients by sending SMS in bulk. Thanks to the fact that many people view SMS as personal, the message is likely to get a response. This can turn into a highly profitable marketing strategy for your business.The same can be said about ringless voicemail drops, as the recipient can check the message at their convenience. Also, one of the most striking features of this type of messaging is that it’s highly non-intrusive and makes the recipient feel as if the business respects their time and space.
