With so much change sweeping across the country now, you want to make it a priority to keep in touch with clients. They need to know you are thinking about them, and you want to keep them up to date on your business and its state of readiness for reopening. Many spa and massage practice professionals are very comfortable using text messaging to “keep the conversation” going.
With the increasing dependence on mobile devices, it should be no surprise that text messaging is becoming more and critical to businesses to keep in touch with customers. Here are a few statistics about text messaging for business today from TextMagic gleaned from surveys and reports:
- S. smartphone users send and receive five times more text than they make and receive calls
- 3 out of 10 consumers would give up phone calls to use messaging
- Smartphone users spend 22% of their time on their phone texting but only 10% of their time using email
- 77% of consumers who can text aged 18–34 are likely to perceive positively a company that offers text capability
- 55% of consumer prefer SMS for appointment reminders versus 35% of consumers who prefer email for those notifications
Getting started
If you aren’t already using text as part of your outreach to spa and massage practice clients, you’ll want to think about a messaging strategy. Text messages can focus on:
- Appointment reminders
- A discount for a special message or skin treatment
- Invitation to a special event
- Announcement of a new treatment
Effective Communication:
Keep the message simple: A text message has a limit of 160 characters, so don’t try to convey too much information in one. It’s also best to focus on one point per SMS and when the message is for marketing, make it compelling.
Personalize: Business SMS makes it easy to personalize mass texts. Business text messaging platforms use merge tokens, which are automatically populated fields that enable you to insert information about your contacts to personalize a message. Using merge tokens, you can pull information from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to insert such information as first names and information about past services.
Inspire action in your text: Using an action word at the beginning of your message keeps the copy lively and encourages the recipient to act. For example, when your message is marketing oriented; use words like buying or save. Also, keep your sentences short, so recipients don’t get lost trying in a lot of descriptive copy.
Timing is everything: Don’t text late at night; it’s inconsiderate. Some say it’s best to text mid to late afternoon toward the end of the workday when people are more inclined to focus on a message.
Consider frequency: No one wants to receive texts all the time. Let clients know how often you will be messaging them. Two to four times a month should be the limit. More than that, and there’s a good chance client will start to feel annoyed.
Abide by the law
As effective as text marketing can be, you can only text to clients who have agreed to opt-in to receive your messages. Clients also can opt-in by texting a keyword to your shortcode to permit you.
Text marketing can be an effective way to reach clients and increase sales. And considering that you are texting clients and prospects who opt-in, you know your messages are of value to them.