4 Reasons to Start Texting Your Clients

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t always sold on the idea of a business communicating with clients via text. To me it seemed invasive; I didn’t want to see sales pitches in between messages from my friends.

Fast forward a few years, and I text with my hair stylist, Lyft drivers, tailor, cat sitter, and the list goes on. That’s because they are using text only to deliver the information I need and want to know. 

I’m not the only convert to SMS business texting. More than half of consumers say they like interacting with businesses through messaging apps, and that number increases among Millennials. So if you aren’t already reaching for your phone, here are 4 reasons to start texting your clients.

1. High Read-Rates

I’ve deleted hundreds, probably thousands, of emails without ever reading them, but I’ve never let a text message go unread. I’m not alone in this–text messages are opened and read 98% of the time. Compare that to email, where a 20-30% open rate is considered good.

Because the read rate is so high, using text to communicate schedule changes to your clients is incredibly effective. You can quickly let a client know that a class has been cancelled, or that a spot in the class has opened, or whatever else is important to know right now.

2. It’s Personal

The reason I delete so many emails without even opening them is that I never asked to receive them in the first place and I’m just not interested in the content. But your clients opt in to receiving text messages from your business. That means they are already poised to be more receptive to the information you send. Keep the info relevant, and you’ll keep your clients happy.

3. It’s Timely

Clients are more likely to immediately check a text message than they are an email. But this can change if you’re texting too much and your messages start to feel like spam. Only text when there’s an important update or reminder your clients need to know. Mobile messaging is not the place for long-winded sales pitches.

4. It Converts

I know I just said above to not text your clients with sales pitches, but incentives can be an exception to this. Coupons and discounts are especially effective to send through mobile. In a long-term study, close to 40% of consumers report using mobile coupons, and 58% report engagement with a business because they received a coupon. Those statistics alone are a pretty good reason to reach for a mobile device, and just one of the reasons Pike13 partners with ZipWhip to make text communication easy.