Using Conversational SMS Marketing to Build Relationships with Customers

Phone tag is frustrating. Voicemails add to your to-do. Emails overflow your inbox. And you feel like you’re missing out on opportunities with potential customers.

So maybe that means it’s time to use a communication channel where sales, marketing, and support conversations are quick, easy, and effective.

Conversational SMS is more than just a text message - it’s two-way communication that’s interactive and personalized messaging. Customers can ask questions, you can resolve issues - it’s an accessible way to connect - and maybe even close a deal along the way.

Learn more about the benefits and how to implement conversational SMS marketing.

What is Conversational SMS Marketing?

It’s the engagement aspect of two-way text message conversations. During these exchanges you build relationships by answering questions, helping customers solve problems, getting to know their pain points and struggles. You can offer personalized recommendations, check in on customers, quickly address concerns, and gain feedback to show you value their opinion. While the ROI (return on investment) is obviously important, building a sense of community is also.

Conversational texting is not one-time, one-way messaging. Instead, it’s as-needed, 2-way messaging for businesses. It allows a company to text message a client or customer and the client or customer is able to respond. It’s interactive - both can participate.

Traditional SMS blasts are typically limited, one-way promotional messages. Conversational SMS is more interactive with two-way, personalized (as needed) communication for just about any type of message you can imagine. It’s engaging and much more productive.

To benefit from conversational SMS, you need to choose an SMS marketing platform like Clerk Chat, where you can handle multiple conversations simultaneously, track metrics, and set up automated responses. It’s also beneficial to be able to access customer data and conversation history when you’re in an SMS conversation.

Why Your Company Needs Conversational Business Texting

There are endless possibilities when adding conversational SMS to your business strategy. Here are some notable examples:

Customer Engagement and Brand Loyalty

• Build Relationships: Texting is more personal.
• Spark Conversations: Create a back-and-forth dialogue and give customers the opportunity to participate in the SMS conversation.
• Humanize Your Brand: It’s friendly, approachable, relatable, and accessible.

Customer Satisfaction and Support

• Instant Support: Customers get help instantly, without waiting on hold.
• Personalized Assistance: Tailor your responses and offer relevant solutions.
• Proactive Solutions: Address issues before they become a significant problem.

Conversions and Sales

• Convert: Make product recommendations and process transactions.
• Close Deals: Notice a customer has items in their cart? Remind them to complete the purchase.
• Additional Sales: Suggest additional products or services.

Feedback and Insights

• Data: Ask for immediate feedback.
• Pain Points: Learn from your customers through your text conversations.
• Test: Get instant feedback on products or features.

Conversational SMS is not simply sending texts. It’s a communication channel for your business.

How to Adopt Conversational SMS Marketing in 3 Steps

Step 1: Choose the Right Platform and Features:

• Two-Way Messaging: Conversational SMS is back-and-forth communication.
• Scalability: How many messages can the platform handle?
• Automation: Create and schedule workflows for automated text messages.
• Analytics: Track incoming versus outgoing messages.
• Personalization: Templates pull from contact details and make it easy to add names, companies, numbers, etc.
• Integrations: Connect your SMS to your CRM.
• Compliance: Assistance with 10DLC compliance or options to export conversation history.
• Snippets: Create pre-written texting templates that could be used at any time.

Step 2: Create Conversations (that Convert)

• Know your Audience: Is your audience okay with laid back messages or is a more formal tone a must?
• Preferences: Be mindful of frequency and content.
• Call to Action: It’s okay to be direct - what do you want the customer to do?
• Be Interactive: Ask questions or share a resource with the intent of audience responses.
• Timely Responses: Respond promptly and encourage dialogue rather than script.
• Experiment: Always be testing. Try different approaches to learn what works.

Step 3: Integrate with Your Existing Tech Stack

• CRM: Sync customer data. Clerk Chat offers a Salesforce SMS integration in addition to many other popular CRM like HubSpot and Dynamics.
• Communication Platforms: Connect with popular tools like Microsoft Teams and respond to SMS messages directly from your preferred platform while covering your customer service text messaging needs.
• Video Conferencing: With integrations like Zoom or Webex, you can send follow-ups related to scheduled meetings or webinars.
• Compliance: Some industries require archiving, and Global Relay helps make sure SMS conversations are securely stored and accessible.
• E-Commerce: Connect your messaging to your online store, Shopify for instance, to send confirmations, updates, and reminders. Assuming your customers are always on their phones (who isn’t, these days!), it’s worth investing in an SMS service for e-commerce.

SMS Conversation Strategies

Conversational SMS can be used for customer support, sales, marketing, internal communication - just about anything. And although there are best practices, there’s not a specific box that SMS falls into. Here are a few ideas:

Lead Generation: Use SMS as a method for growing your business. For example, offer a discount in exchange for a phone number - it’ll build your contact list.

Application to Person (A2P 10DLC): If you’re a large company sending many messages, you need a reliable and compliant method. One option is to use a 10DLC number as an enterprise messaging solution for your business, but you must register your brand for high-volume SMS campaigns.

Transactions: Some companies use email for confirmations, others send transactional text messages. It’s a timely format for sending information on orders, shipping, reminders, delays, etc.

Conversational AI SMS

At Clerk Chat, a conversational messaging platform, we amplify human agents with the option for AI SMS. It’s both efficient and scalable. Here’s how:

• AI-First or AI-Second: Choose whether you want the AI to respond instantly to incoming messages or have a human agent review and approve the response first.
• Time-Gated Responses: Set a timeframe for the AI to respond. If a human agent doesn’t intervene within that time, the AI will automatically respond.
• AI Assistant for Response Suggestions: Get suggestions from the AI to help you write the perfect response.
• Automated FAQs and Basic Inquiries: Once you guide the AI by filling it with a Knowledge Base, the AI can handle routine questions and simple tasks.
• 24/7 Availability: With conversational AI SMS, you can provide round-the-clock support and engagement, if you choose, even when your team is offline.

Getting Started: Conversational SMS with Clerk Chat

Clerk Chat enables conversational text messaging for your business. It’s intuitive, you can easily navigate and manage conversations, there are options for automated responses or scheduled messages, it’s possible to connect with your favorite CRM, and its dedicated support team is there for guidance and problem-solving.

Conversational SMS is the now of customer engagement. It’s the communication channel that’s readily accessible.

By implementing conversational SMS, you can:

• Create connections beyond transactions.
• Problem-solve proactively.
• Create additional profit.
• Stay cool and current.

Well, what are you waiting for? Start creating conversations that convert.