Texting

I know what some of you are thinking - Texting in sales. That’s crazy man talk. Texting is just for your personal life, and friends and family. But the problem is that email is becoming a bigger and bigger blackhole. 

Every year we receive more and more emails, and average open rates are below 20%, whereas the open rate for SMS texts is over 90%! 

I read every text I get, and yes, most of the ones from salespeople are garbage, but this provides an opportunity for us to stand out if we can provide value.

Now, I want to clarify I don’t advocate sending texts to cold leads. Firstly, that’s illegal in many parts of the world and secondly, it’s a little bit invasive. 

But you should use it for inbound leads who give you their numbers or people you’ve had conversations with in the past that could be new opportunities - like former customers that have changed jobs.

OK, but when and how should you text? Here are 2 best practices:

1. Always keep text messages super short – between 1 and 3 sentences. They should be even shorter than emails

2. Don’t use SMS as a first touch but use it to complement other channels like we did with voicemail. So here’s 1 template you could use with an email:

“(first name), this is (your name) from (your company). Any feedback on my email on (insert goal)?”

Cheers,

Michael Hanson

CEO GrowthGenie