Best Practices Series: Driving conversion through text messaging

Here at Statflo, we are experts in enabling businesses to engage, retain and grow their customers through compliant one-to-one text messaging. We’ve analyzed more than 6 million conversations on our platform from our 15 000+ users to bring you the do’s and don’ts of building profitable customer relationships through great conversations.

What our data shows is that texting your customers first is the best method for outreach and leads to higher conversion rates. We’ll explore the eight reasons that prove why texting works as the first customer interaction point for your business.

1. Texting crushes conversion rate compared to email and calling

Although it varies by industry and channel, a high conversion rate is considered to be >5%. If your business wanted to reach your customers quickly the traditional way, you needed to call them to achieve that rate. Email just wouldn’t do it either with their average conversion between 2 to 4%¹.

With texting, our users are reaching >5% on average at around 8 to 10% with some outstanding outreach programs achieving higher double digits.

2. Calling first results in the highest negative outcomes

Users on our platform who call a customer as the first point of interaction see more than 3x the negative outcomes compared to users who send a text first before calling. This is not surprising as it is known that the first call is the hardest to train for and even more difficult to find talent who know how to connect with customers.

By sending a text first then following up with a call, you are able to establish a warm connection with your customer. In fact, text messaging response rates are 209% higher than phone call response rates², increasing the chances of reaching your customers in a more effective way.

3. Achieve a high conversion rate with minimal training

To get a high conversion rate with calling, training is a must. Yet even with training, 42% of sales representatives express a lack of preparation and feel that they don’t have enough information before making a call³. Training a new sales representative to full productivity takes 10 or more months³ and with the average sales turnover rate at 35%⁴, the cost of training is expensive especially if your industry is one that has high staff turnover.

Texting requires less training than calling and can assist in ramping up your sales productivity. With TextKit’s tools such as campaign management and message templates, you can eliminate cold call training and enforce consistent brand messaging.

4. Texting has a high read rate and places you on top of mind

SMS messages have an extremely high read rate of 98%⁵ and we see this outcome in our data. The average response rate among our users is 14% and our top-performing leaders reach up to 40% by finding the right strategy.

When establishing a connection with customers, a sale does not have to happen right away. What’s important is that they received the message and read it. And it will be read, even if they don’t respond!

5. Crafting the right message will additionally increase conversion rates

One of the best indicators of conversion rates is if a customer responds to your initial message, sent using one of our recommended message templates. If a customer responds, the conversion rate nearly triples from around 5% to just over 13%.

For example, below is a template used by our telecommunications clients that gets a 4% conversion rate even without getting a response. With a response, the rate goes as high as 11%.

Your first interaction point is the most important. Create engaging messages, experiment to see what works, and record your results to increase your conversion rates and improve the impact of your customer outreach.

6. Reach your customers at scale while keeping a personal touch

With TextKit, you get the personal connection of calling with the scalability of email. In a recent study, 74% of consumers said they liked it when businesses personalize communications with younger audiences twice as likely to agree it increases trust⁶. 

Texting is one of the ultimate personalized communication channels. The advantage of 1:1 business texting is the opportunity to connect with your customers on an individual level and create a lasting relationship that mass texting campaigns can’t recreate.

Our platform streamlines this process with configurable compliance rules to ensure consistent brand messaging and privacy.

7. It’s easy to follow up and can improve results up to 3x

According to Hubspot, 48% of salespeople never even make a single follow up attempt⁷. By not following up, you’re leaving money on the table. 

Our data shows that conversion rates can go up by 24 to 52% after following up, despite not receiving a response after the initial text. A second follow up could get you an increase of up to 60%!

Below is an example from one of our telecommunications clients that successfully received a response and illustrates a great opportunity to follow up with them in the future.

8. Optimize your strategy to build long-term business relationships

Finding the optimal strategy of outreach requires persistence, patience, and experimentation. And a lot of customer love. The number of follow ups will depend on the campaign length and gross profit potential of each sale before it reaches lower returns on additional effort, which varies by business. 

Organizations that focus on “value enhancement” activities, such as anticipating customer needs to help them achieve their goals, can increase the probability that a customer will stay with the company to 82%⁸. Below is another example out of thousands we have seen that result in a conversion:

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(*Note: names and locations in the screenshots have been replaced to protect customer privacy)