Did you know that 90% of texts are opened in the first 3 minutes after they are sent? On top of that, nearly 100% of texts are opened and read eventually. Knowing that your message is almost guaranteed to be read immediately shows just how valuable text marketing really is to a company. The only down side? You have to figure out how to get customers to sign up for texting, which can be challenging. Here are some ways you can get customers to sign up.
Show them the value of two-way communication
Being able to text a company to get information instead of having to make a call is very valuable to customers. However, not every business offer this and most customers don’t even know it exists. The best part is that your business can use mobile texting to answer the customer questions in real time and automatically respond immediately. Make sure they know you can communicate both ways, and you’re more likely to get some new subscribers.
Offer a promotional coupon or code
There’s nothing like a good promotion to get people signed up. One mistake businesses make when they offer a coupon in exchange for signing up for a texting service is not making that coupon available until the next visit. We live in a world of instant gratification, and if customers aren’t able to immediately redeem a promotional offer, they are less likely to sign up for the offer.
Another thing to remember is that you need to make the offer worthwhile enough for people to be willing to sign up. For a fast food restaurant, just a free drink or free food item might be enough to get customers to sign up. However, a company trying to sell $500 products isn’t going to get signups by offering a $1 off coupon. The discounts need to be something the customer actually wants.
Advertise the program
Many of your customers may not even know you have a texting platform. If they don’t know about it, how are they supposed to sign up? Here are some ways you can let your customers know you have a texting service and that you’d like them to sign up for it:
- Social Media: Post on your social media accounts about the texting service and the promotion. Many of your customers likely already follow you on social media, so this is a great place to let them know about it.
- Leverage discount bloggers: This is a great way to get new customers who want a coupon to try out your product. Let discount bloggers know that customers can get a discount by signing up for your service, and they will advertise it to their followers if they think it is a good enough deal. It is basically free advertising and may be your way into getting new customers
- Put up signs: Customers who already are visiting your company will be able to see and use their discounts immediately if you have the signs up in your store when they come in. For example, a pretzel place I liked to go to put up a sign for a free pretzel if you signed up for their texting club. As I already visited the place a lot, it was worth my time, and I was excited to get a free pretzel on that trip.
- Put it in your emails: You probably already have a solid customer base getting your promotional emails. Why not let them know in your next email they can sign up for texts from your business too?
- Tell people: Anytime you are working with a customer, let them know they can sign up for texting. You can have cashiers ask customers before they check out if they want to sign up, or you can announce it during company presentations to customers.
The more customers you can get to sign up for your texting platform, the more opportunity your business has to reach out to them and sell.
