Businesses are always on the lookout for ways to generate leads. After all, customers are the lifeblood of any company.
Without them, your business won’t survive in this highly competitive world.
Fortunately, numerous options exist to get the word out about your company and help you reach a broader customer base. Text and voicemail marketing are two of the oldest marketing options that are still relevant today.
This comprehensive guide will teach you the basics of text and voicemail marketing and their benefits. This article also shares tips and strategies on how to win new clients using these marketing methods.
UNDERSTANDING TEXT AND VOICEMAIL MARKETING
Text marketing, also known as short messaging service (SMS) marketing, refers to using text messages to promote and market a business and its products or services. It’s usually referred to as ‘mass texting’ since it distributes marketing messages to hundreds or thousands of recipients. Generally, SMS marketing is similar to email but uses text messages instead.
On the contrary, voicemail marketing is a relatively new branch of telemarketing. This marketing method allows you to leave strategic pre-recorded sales pitches or voice messages on your prospects’ phones. However, unlike traditional voicemails, this marketing method uses ringless voicemail drop technology. Through service providers like Drop Cowboy, you can deliver voicemails directly to a contact’s phone without it ringing. For more information on this service, you can watch this video:
ADVANTAGES OF TEXT AND VOICEMAIL MARKETING
1. Texting Works – So, is text marketing really effective? Well, there’s undeniable evidence of the effectiveness of this marketing method.
For starters, text messages have a high open rate of up to 98%. It also has a higher engagement rate than other marketing channels. In fact, statistics show that text messages have a 45% response rate to email, with only a 6% response rate.
In addition, user response to text is also faster, taking only 90 seconds to reply, in contrast to the two hours average response time for email. Moreover, text messages have higher click-through rates at 36% than more popular marketing channels such as email (2.4%) and Facebook (0.98%).
2. They Reach Prospects On Their Favorite Device – Mobile devices have been a significant part of people’s lives. Did you know that, on average, mobile users touch their devices over 2,600 times daily?
Mobile devices are the undisputable favorite gadget of today. As such, targeting prospects on this platform via text and voicemail only makes sense, ensuring a higher return on investment.
3. They Reach A Wider Audience – Text and voicemail marketing allow you to send and broadcast your sales messages to a broader audience with just a single click. This is particularly true for voicemail marketing. Unlike traditional phone calling strategies, you don’t need to wait for each prospect to answer your call. Using intuitive software, you can quickly dispatch your pre-recorded message to your contact list.
In addition, you can do this without manual intervention from your sales agents, allowing them to contact more audiences in short periods. As you reach more prospects, you also increase your chances of generating a sale.
4. They Are Trackable – Most people may think tracking marketing data with text and voicemail is impossible. Well, nothing’s untraceable with modern technology.
Using an intuitive SMS and voicemail marketing platform, you get extensive reporting and analytics functions to help you measure and audit the success of your marketing campaigns. You can monitor how many messages and voicemails were sent, the response percentage, and much more. With the suitable analytics feature, you can understand and tweak your SMS and voicemail marketing to perfection.
5. They Are Cost Effective – Text and voicemail marketing are simplistic. There’s no need to write a long copy or record a minute-long sales pitch. You only need to worry about choosing the right text and voicemail software. The software then helps streamline your marketing efforts.
As such, text and voicemail marketing are super cost-effective to produce and distribute. You only pay for the software and the messages and voicemail you send, ensuring flexibility in your marketing budget.
HOW TO GENERATE LEADS WITH TEXT AND VOICEMAIL MARKETING
SMS and voicemail can help enhance your overall marketing strategies. If you’re ready to start with text and voicemail, here are tips to help you use these marketing methods effectively and generate more leads for your business.
DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE
Defining your audience is a fundamental component of any marketing campaign. For the most part, how successful your marketing will be—whether SMS, voicemail, or email—depends on how well you know who your audience are and what makes them pay attention.
So, in terms of making a compelling text and voicemail campaign, you need to research several things, including:
- Audience demographics
- Mobile devices used
- Activities they do on their phones
- Time spent on their device
- Exact time they use their phone the most
By knowing who your prospects are, you can divide your list so you can send different messages and voicemails to each segment. With proper segmentation, you can identify which messages can have the most impact on a specific audience and text or send them voicemails differently to amplify conversion rates.
PLAN YOUR OPT-IN
SMS and voicemail marketing require you to take the user’s consent. Over the past years, countries have introduced laws that limit how brands and businesses can use marketing channels, especially intrusive ones like SMS and voicemail, to communicate with users. You must ask for their permission; otherwise, you’ll face hefty fines.
That said, you need to consider how you will get users to opt in and get their phone numbers. You don’t want to make up any number and hope that the right audience receives your message or voicemail.
Plus, getting users’ approval is critical for SMS lead generation. When a user decides to opt for it, they’re more likely to be receptive and already interested in your brand. You can then run text and voicemail campaigns on autopilot without fearing being classified as spam by customers.
How do you get people to sign up for your text and voicemail marketing? Here are some popular methods:
- Website Pop-Up – This is the most common method used for capturing subscribers. Pop-ups have a higher opt-in rate than other methods.
- Email – Unless you’re a startup, you probably have a list of email subscribers. You can take advantage of this channel and send your subscribers an email that directs them to a landing page asking for their phone number.
- Checkout – Normally, online retailers ask for personal information, including phone numbers, during checkout. That said, ask if you can use their phone numbers for marketing campaigns.
Regardless of which opt-in method you choose, you should always give customers a reason to provide you with their phone numbers. For example, you can add an enticing offer like access to unique content or a discount in exchange for their phone numbers.
SPEND TIME ON YOUR MESSAGE
If you want to generate leads, you need to master the art of crafting an appealing message. The right message entices users and prompts them to take action. Following are some tips to help you create messages that generate leads and help push them to the end of your sales funnel:
Start With Relevant Information – You don’t want to sound declarative at the start of your message. Thus, you should skip the starting phrase of introducing yourself and your business. Generally, once a prospect realizes that the text message or voicemail is a sales pitch, it’s often deleted immediately.
As such, you should start with something relevant to your prospect. For example, you can ask a thought-provoking question that nudges their pain point.
Be Personal – According to experts, personalizing your marketing efforts can engage users. Customization boosts the positive experience, providing up to a 20% satisfaction rate and at least a 15% boost in sales conversion.
To begin with, text and voicemail drops are already personal since they go directly to a user’s inbox. However, you can level up your personalization efforts with text and voicemail drops.
For instance, innovations such as data science and artificial intelligence are making it possible for marketers to send customers their text and voicemail notifications by adding the user’s name or using name groups to send messages to different customers. This allows you to direct your messaging to a specific customer group for a more personalized message.
Make It Fun And Lively – With text and voicemail, businesses have the chance to make personal connections. While it’s essential to be courteous in leaving a message, you also want to sound fun, friendly, and conversational.
For text messages, you can include emojis. With voicemail drops, you can use slang language as appropriate. You can also use the local language to ensure better engagement.
Check Your Recordings – In terms of voicemail drops, your voice and tone can convey more than you think. You can sound tired, bored, excited, or happy just by your voice.
So, when recording voicemail messages, make sure to check your tone.
If possible, look for someone in your team that can deliver your message in a professional yet engaging tone. You also want to sound as if you’re conversing with a friend.
Moreover, watch how fast you’re speaking. At the start, you want to talk with cadence. Try to go slower to make yourself sound confident and articulate. It also makes your message much clearer.
Furthermore, make sure to remove the awkward silence anywhere in your message. It makes users uncomfortable and takes up precious seconds on your sales pitch.
Keep It Short – Text and voicemail messages should be short and precise. Prospects won’t read or listen to a long message from a stranger. So, a paragraph-long text or a voicemail past 30 seconds is often left unfinished or deleted.
On the other hand, an overly short message can confuse a prospect about the message or assume that it’s unsubstantial. So, you want to get the perfect length balance.
Text messages should be 160 characters or less, whereas the sweet spot for voicemails ranges from 20 to 30 seconds. These lengths can spark curiosity without taking up too much of their time while still getting your message across.
Add An Image – Power up your text marketing efforts using multimedia message service as part of your strategy. You can use various multimedia types, including images, video, audio, and graphics. After all, the content of your text message plays a critical role in your text lead generation campaign.
Images, in particular, can significantly impact your click-through rates. As visual beings, humans respond well to images. So, it only makes sense to include a photo in your text messages as long as it’s relevant to the message. Adding a photo or any multimedia can make your message more engaging.
CONSIDER YOUR TIMING
Timing can mean the difference between an engaged prospect who responds quickly to your messages and an annoyed user who crosses out your brand from their life. A well-crafted text and voicemail sent at the wrong time can be disruptive.
Thus, you want to experiment with the best time to send your text or voicemail messages.
Typically, this depends on your audience. As a general rule of thumb, you should send your message at a time when users are free to receive and respond to your messages, which is before or after working hours. Also, never disturb your users late in the evening or early in the morning, which can cause dissatisfaction and push them to opt out of your marketing campaign.
TAKEAWAY
Yes, social media, SEO, and email marketing remain some of the most popular marketing methods for getting new customers. Nevertheless, text and voicemail marketing also have an edge to help you generate more prospects and broaden your customer base.
Both text and voicemail marketing are effective methods for delivering your offerings and messages to prospects and help you create more pleasant and meaningful communication with customers. They are more cost-effective and provide better results that can help boost your lead generation efforts and sales. Lastly, both marketing methods can complement other marketing strategies to reach a broader audience and grow your business.
Whether this is your first time trying text and voicemail marketing or you want to improve your previous campaigns, follow the above tips as you develop your marketing strategy and get the most out of your efforts.
