Top 5 Advantages of Texting | Why Business SMS Beats Email

Email was at the center of every business messaging strategy for years. It’s not a new tool, but it’s reliable. Email still works well for lead nurturing, follow up campaigns, and every day back-and-forth messaging.

But email response rates aren’t exactly… great.

Why? Because email is a saturated form of business communication. It’s the most widely used form of messaging, but you’ve really got to compete for attention once you get in someone’s inbox.

Need proof? Well... emails only get about a 20% open rate and about a 6% response rate.

Compare those rates to text messaging. Texts have a near 98% open rate and a 45% response rate.

The bottom line is this: Texts Get Read - Emails Get Ignored.

Top 5 Advantages of Texting

1. Instant Delivery - contacts receive messages instantly 100% of the time
2. Less Competition - the average consumer has over 500 unread emails at a time
3. 98% Open Rate - compared to only 20% for emails
4. 45% Reply Rate - compared to only 6% for emails
5. More Personal - the right messaging tools allow you to send more personalized messages.

Instant Delivery

The average consumer spends over 3 hours on their phone each day compared to only spending about 37 minutes on email. This leaves a small window of opportunity for your email to get read.

By comparison, text messages almost always get read immediately. 98% of texts are read in under 1 minute. Plus, average response times are much quicker than email too.

This is a big advantage. Especially when it comes to customer service and sending appointment reminders or meeting notices. In fact, texting is a proven way to reduce no-shows and missed appointments.

How about reminding customers or clients about upcoming bills or payments? Text messages are great for sending quick payment links.

Everyone has a smartphone or cell phone capable of receiving texts. Texting’s reliable delivery also helps you avoid the “sorry, must’ve been in my spam folder” or “I didn’t have an internet connection” excuse.

What about employee updates or emergency messages? Well, texting works great for broadcasts.

Your message gets delivered and each employee sees the notification immediately. No need to worry if they checked Slack or had their computer in front of them.

Less Competition

When you send a text message as a business, your message goes straight to your contact’s mobile phone. It lands right alongside messages from friends and family.

This is unlike email. With texting, you’re no longer competing with other businesses and advertisements for attention.

The average consumer receives over 120 emails per day. It’s hard to make your emails stand out from a crowded inbox.

But…

Text messaging allows you to be one of only 10 text conversations your contacts receive each day. Not only do you face less competition with texting, but your message is almost 10x more likely to get a response.

Why does this really matter? Business communication revolves around reply rates. The more replies you get - the more conversations you can have. The more conversations - the more sales.

Texting allows you and your team to talk to more people in less time. The long email campaigns you’ve been sending still have a place (email isn’t going away). But texting gives message recipients a more immediate and conversation experience.

Text Messages Have a 98% Open Rate

No kidding - texts have a 98% open rate. With texting, you’ll spend less time chasing down contacts and following up with cold leads.

Imagine the increase in sales, booked meetings, and online reviews. You can generate a lot more business simply by sending and receiving customer text messages.

Too many canceled appointments?

Send out a text to your unscheduled clients and see if anyone can fill the vacant spot.

Struggling to collect online reviews?

Text customers after you complete a service asking for a 5-star review.

Unpaid invoices?

Text out past due notices to clients and include a payment link so they can quickly pay from their phone.

45% Reply Rate

What if 1 out of 2 people replied to each of your emails? Ask yourself: how much time do you spend each week following up with contacts?

What if you could change all of that and start conversations instantly?

Text messaging’s high reply rates also mean that your contacts enjoy the conversation more. No longer do your contacts need to feel anxiety about checking their emails in fear of missing an important message.

Instead, your contacts can trust that the most important messages will show up on their phone 100% of the time. They’ll receive the right message at the right time.

More Personal than Email

Texts aren’t like email messages. Texting feels more conversational and relaxed.

You’ve got a chance to loosen a few buttons here. Feel free to get a little more casual with messages that are shorter, sweeter, and more personal.

You always want to get right to the point. Your contacts need to quickly read the message, know what’s going on, and reply.

With texting, it’s also easier to address people in a more friendly manner. Think about adding emojis, images, or other media. Each element adds interest to your message makes it feel more human and face to face than the average email.

The best text messaging platforms will also have personalization features like Tags. These make it easy to personalize messages at scale.

Suggested Article: Text Messaging Etiquette for Business

Next Steps: How to Build a Text Messaging Strategy for Your Business

Okay, so texting is a great complement to email. But how can you get started and start seeing results?

1. Ask yourself if you’re ready for a business-grade SMS texting platform.
2. Understand why customers text a business.
3. Have a goal in mind - it could be volume or outcome-based (e.g. “text 100 contacts this week” vs “get 5 google reviews from text message follow up this week”.
4. Start planning your texting strategy around your daily business operations.
5. Find other solutions - you’ll want to know all the different options available.
6. Determine what kind of integrations with other software and systems you need.
7. Ask yourself what types of messages you need to send - this could affect pricing.
8. Set your budget based on and how many texts you need to send.
9. Make a decision and set up a training session.

Suggested Article: How to Choose the Best Business Texting App

Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Ready to start texting your contacts and customers? MessageDesk is here to help with smarter, simpler business text messaging for keeping connected.

Most messaging services allow you to set up a free training session when you first get started. At MessageDesk, we offer unlimited training sessions. Our goal is to get you up to speed as quickly as possible.

You can also visit our learning center for information on how to get started with MessageDesk. You’ll find a quick start guide to texting, a features overview, and an explanation of what MessageDesk is.

Finally, feel free to start a 7-day free MessageDesk trial with 50 free text messages.