Short Message Service Marketing can Streamline Franchise Operations, Increase Revenue and Enhance Customer Experiences
Short message service (SMS) marketing can help businesses increase revenue, save time and create better customer experiences. So, what is SMS marketing? Essentially, it is a form of direct marketing that leverages text messages to communicate with customers. By sending promotional or transactional messages via SMS, businesses can engage customers, promote products or services and drive sales.
According to research from Text Request, 90% of consumers prefer texting with a business, and 70% say texting is the fastest way to reach them. This preference can be a powerful tool to enhance franchisee profitability. Here are five SMS marketing strategies to help you achieve this goal.
1. Decrease Your Cost-Per-Lead by Enabling SMS Lead Generation
You’re already spending money driving people to your website. SMS helps you convert more of that traffic into paying customers, because it’s how consumers want to engage with you.
- Update “Call us” to “Text or call us”: Text-enable your business number and start promoting “Text or call us at …” You’ll be surprised how many more people reach out, particularly through text.
- Add SMS Chat on your website: Think of this like a live chat widget for texting. Viewers have questions or need to schedule, and they’d rather text for help. SMS chat allows them to start a conversation, and that results in more leads from the same volume of traffic.
- Text a keyword for a discount: You’ve probably seen this in ecommerce. You look at a product, then get a pop-up prompting you to text “SAVE20” to their number to get 20% off your purchase. Or you may see a promotion like “Text FREE to get your first class free.” It’s an easy way to get people over that final hump to work with or buy from you.
2. Increase Sales Conversion Rates by Texting Leads
Speed-to-lead is critical, and a text is the fastest way to reach most leads. Here are three options to add SMS into your sales process.
- Auto-respond to new leads: When a prospect submits a lead form or texts you for the first time, create an auto-response that says something like, “Thanks for your message! A rep will personally follow up with you ASAP.” This opens up that communication channel, so you don’t have to play phone tag later.
- Personally follow up to tee up the deal: As available, send a follow-up text to the prospect. Ask them for more details, answer their questions, or find a time to jump on a call. Sometimes you can close a deal entirely through text, but think of this as the next step to turn that lead into a qualified opportunity.
- Confirm appointments or services: Need to complete a service before you get paid? Let’s make sure customers show up! Messages to confirm times and availability cut no-show rates and ensure you actually get paid. A text is also going to be seen at late notice, while a call or email will often be missed.
3. Re-Activate Past Leads and Customers
This is particularly helpful for reconnecting with leads who never purchased, and with customers who haven’t interacted with you in a while.
Create an excuse to reach out — a seasonal discount, new services you offer, touching base before prices go up, etc. Then text your past leads and customers about that offer, and ask them to buy. For instance, you might say:
“Hi [First Name], we’re offering 10% off annual contracts for [XYZ services]. Would you like to take advantage of that, and schedule your next service? — [Rep Name @ Company]”
You’ll be pleasantly surprised by the revenue boost from so little effort.
4. Send SMS Promotions People Actually Want
Three things are critical to successful SMS promotions: opt-ins, content, and frequency.
You should only text contacts who have opted in, either by texting you first or by giving you their contact info with consent to receive SMS messages. Next, you need to send good SMS promotions that include:
- Excitement: This is new and great!
- An offer: Here’s what you can get.
- A call-to-action: Take this step to claim your offer.
- Urgency: Do it before time runs out!
These are the same principles that apply to most advertising. No need to be fancy — brevity and clarity will do the trick. Be sure you’re sending promotions at regular intervals, but not so often that you annoy customers. For different industries, that might look like:
- Retail: 1x a week, and around holidays
- Food service: 1-2x a week
- Professional services and healthcare: 1x a month, up to 1x a quarter
- Associations and member groups: 2-4x a month
- Home services: 1x a quarter
5. Rank on Google by Earning More Reviews
Google is still the largest opportunity for franchise marketing. SMS will help you rank higher in search results, win more business at a lower cost to acquire, and encourage buyers to spend more for your products and services. It all starts with earning more reviews.
After you’ve completed a service, or after a customer has had a chance to use your product, send them a text thanking them for their business, and ask them to review their experience on Google. Include your Google Business review link to make it even easier.
As you earn more reviews and higher ratings, Google will increase your ranking in search results. The first organic result gets roughly 25% to 40% of clicks. So it’s incredibly valuable to be at the top. Consistently asking for reviews by text will help you get there.
Start Increasing Franchisee Profitability with SMS Marketing
You don’t need to start all five of these SMS marketing strategies at once, but you do need to start. Pick one — whichever seems like the lowest hanging fruit — and implement it. As you get comfortable, add in a second, then a third, and so on. Before long, you’ll be wondering how you grew your franchise without it!
