SMS lead engagement uses text messages to interact with potential customers, nurturing them and guiding them through the sales funnel as you build their trust in your brand. It has the potential to offer substantial advantages to your brand, whether that means increased convenience or higher response rates. With modern technology, those benefits are closer than ever—and you can start experiencing them for your brand sooner than you think.
How SMS lead engagement works
SMS lead engagement starts by collecting phone numbers from users who are interested in connecting with your brand or utilizing your services. Often, those numbers are captured by offering some type of incentive. For example, a discount or access to specific, beneficial information may be given in exchange for contact information. Those phone numbers are then used to increase customer communication.
Personalized messages
SMS engagement is typically highly personalized based on the information provided by the customer. That includes not only personal information included in the messages, but also information tailored to the specific products or services. SMS messages are crafted based on user interest and information collected.
Interactive communication
SMS engagement isn’t a one-way conversation. Unlike many marketing strategies, it does not simply push information out to customers and wait for them to decide to engage with it. Instead, it allows customers to interact directly with the brand, often through AI chatbots and other tools.
Automated connection
Most customers require multiple contacts with a brand before they’re ready to make a buying decision. Unfortunately, that also means that leads can fall through the cracks all too easily. Ultimately, failure to reconnect with them may mean that they fall out of the sales funnel completely. Automated reconnection can include things like:
- Reconnecting after a period of time without contact
- Following up when a customer has checked an email or visited the website
- Sending abandoned cart reminders
- Sending out information when a customer has visited a specific page or checked out key information
Those automated connections help bring customers back to the brand’s sales funnel and increase their sense of connection.
Benefits of SMS lead engagement
SMS lead engagement offers several potential advantages when you’re ready to choose a marketing method.
Increased visibility
One of the top benefits of SMS lead engagement is its increased visibility. Most people take their phones with them everywhere—and when they get a text message, they check it. Unlike traditional ads, they’re harder to ignore, since they appear directly on the phone. And unlike emails, they generally don’t get mass deleted without a customer ever actually looking at them. As a result, even when customers do not open a message to read its full content, they will likely see that it’s from you. Furthermore, they have a high open rate, with around 98% of texts getting opened.
Higher response rates
SMS ads often have a higher overall response rate than other types of marketing messages, around 45%. This is in part because of how easy they make the process. Since customers’ phones are already in their hands, they are connected and able to engage immediately, rather than having to wait until they are back at their device. Furthermore, text messages offer a simple, accessible way to connect with the brand.
Timely updates
SMS is perfect for sending timely updates and reminders, whether that’s information about an upcoming appointment, a payment deadline, or a response to a question. Those updates are perfect for keeping customers engaged with your brand and ensuring that they know what’s coming—not to mention preventing them from missing out on key information.
Cost-effectiveness
SMS marketing is a highly cost-effective marketing strategy that is easy to scale according to the needs of your brand. It often decreases your cost per lead, allowing you to more easily nurture each lead and keep them in your sales funnel. Furthermore, it works seamlessly with your other marketing channels, improving the overall customer experience.
Utilizing AI for your SMS marketing
AI tools like Verse can offer significant advantages when conducting your SMS marketing.
Engage with customers directly
AI agents are a highly useful tool for direct customer engagement. You can program your AI agents to respond to a variety of customer questions. You can even allow them to handle simple tasks like setting up a call for a quote. Those interactions provide customers with a deeper sense of connection to your brand and increase the odds that they will choose you for their needs, particularly since it makes those communications easy and seamless.
Automate follow-ups
Failing to follow up with customers—including times when they have asked for those communications—is one of the fastest ways for them to fall out of the sales funnel. For many businesses, that can mean significant losses. With AI, however, you can automate the follow-up process, ensuring that you do not miss out on those vital customer connections.
Personalize content
AI is ideal for delivering messages and marketing at scale without losing the vital personalization that helps you genuinely connect with your customers and leads. AI can automatically personalize every message, giving your customers that special feeling of recognition, while still sending out mass messages. That enhanced personalization can deepen customers’ appreciation for your brand without requiring substantial extra spending on your part.
Scale with ease
AI agents and automation in your SMS marketing make it easier to scale your marketing efforts without adding employees or significantly increasing your costs. Your automated agent can manage many of the interactions that would otherwise require input from a customer service agent, freeing them up to handle more complex cases and ensuring there is no break in your efforts as your business grows.
How other brands are using SMS marketing to enhance customer engagement
Many brands are already using SMS marketing to enhance their customer interactions and improve their interactions.
Appointment scheduling
Many industries have discovered the value of SMS appointment scheduling. Customers can easily connect with your AI agent to schedule an appointment at a time that works for them. Automated appointment scheduling isn’t just for the medical industry! Beauty professionals may find it highly convenient to let their AI agent control their calendars, while businesses in the construction industry may benefit from automating appointment scheduling for consultations or estimates.
Customer service
Many of today’s customers are already accustomed to connecting with chatbots when they have customer service questions. Retailers may find that using SMS solutions for their customer service can make it easier for customers to connect with them, since they can simply text their concerns and quickly get a response.
Using SMS for customer service means that customers aren’t stuck waiting on the phone for an agent to figure out what to do with their case or holding a chat open so that it doesn’t disconnect—unable to use their phones in the meantime. This enhanced customer service solution can improve customer satisfaction without substantial investment on the part of your brand compared to other tools.
Alerts and reminders
Do you have a construction worker or technician scheduled to arrive at a certain time? Not only can SMS issue a reminder about what time they’re supposed to arrive, reducing the odds of a missed appointment, but they can also notify customers if the tech is running late or send a quick query about whether they can arrive early if they happen to be ahead of schedule. SMS reminders can also help customers keep track of packages and deliveries or remind them that they need to provide more information or schedule an appointment.
Collecting feedback
SMS makes it easy to collect customer feedback, whether you want to know more about how they appreciated or used a particular product or whether they had a good experience with your brand overall. You can quickly and easily send out a survey, whether you want a quick rating or more in-depth commentary. AI can also help collect and evaluate that feedback, turning it into actionable insights for your brand.
Personalized recommendations
As part of the communication process, AI agents offer personalized recommendations for customers based on their specific interests or needs. An AI agent that fully understands your brand’s offerings can help customers find their ideal product or offer them choices based on available solutions, including incorporating factors like budget or functionality as the agent gets a better idea of what is most important to the customer. For many customers, this simple solution can take some of the stress out of the decision-making process, increasing the odds that they will make a purchase.
How AI benefits your SMS marketing efforts
If you’re ready to launch your SMS marketing to increase customer engagement and reap the benefits of personalization, timely reminders, and scalability, our fully-managed AI texting platform will make texting easy.
Book a demo with Verse to learn more about AI that engages every lead in real-time, two-way conversations that convert.
