Business texting builds customer trust, engagement, and loyalty while reducing your operational costs and increasing team productivity. But in order to reap these benefits, you need to make sure your team is texting effectively. Below are some tips to help your organization make the most of your text message communications.

Obtain proper opt-in. Federal laws require that you have previously obtained permission from your contacts to send them text messages before you do so.

Your opt-in message should include the following:

You can read more about opt-in and how to document this in your settings so you are in compliance with telecom regulations here.

Personalize your texts. To differentiate yourself from marketing spam, introduce yourself in your text and refer to the customer by their first name — just like in a real-life conversation. It is essential to personalize your texts even when sending an Announcement. Here’s an article on how to insert variable fields in your Announcements.

Keep texts short and simple. The reality is 98 percent of people read their texts because they are short and to the point. Use one call-to-action per text, and limit yourself to 160-character texts. Here is an example of the ideal text:

“Hi ##{{contact.name}}, this is ##{{current_agent.name}} from the Textline Happiness team. Glad to see you signed up! We'd love to learn more about your business. Are you free for a quick call?”

Use more emojis. A recent survey found an 85 percent increase in open rates for texts with emojis compared to texts without emojis 🤩 Observe your audience and their tone to determine the optimal way to use emojis. Start conservatively, and build your brand voice over time.

Make your number visible. Customers often want to connect with someone before they purchase a product. By publicizing your text number you are offering them another channel and the ability to choose their preferred method of communication. Here’s how to make sure that customers know they can text you.

Pay attention to timing. Proactive texting is an opportunity to prompt your customers to take a survey, make use of a promotional offer, or offer feedback. Being mindful of your customer experience is instrumental in order to achieve better business outcomes. Schedule messages or Announcements during regular business hours as a courtesy to everyone’s schedule.

Find the right communication cadence. In addition to controlling the volume of your communications, avoid reaching out too frequently. Your customers like texting because it’s an easy and effective way to communicate. When the volume of texting increases and/or the content is not specific to their needs they will lose trust in that medium of communication with your brand. It helps if you build a cadence in your workflows to ensure that proactive outreach is well thought-out. An easy way to control cadence is by setting up triggered campaigns through our API. We recommend that you limit proactive texting to no more than three text touches per week.

Take advantage of any opportunity in real-time. When a customer or lead submits a form on your website, their information can be pushed into Textline and your organization can instantly reach out to that customer. This system allows you to make the most out of every potential lead that comes your way. Here is an article on how to set this up in Textline.

Scale your communications. Increase your organization's productivity using Textline’s efficiency tools. You can create text Shortcuts to increase response speed, set up Automations to scale your workflows, use Reminders to stay on top of follow-up tasks, and Schedule messages to ensure timely proactive outreach. Finally, you can Integrate with other technology tools.