With an astounding average response time of a mere three minutes, it overshadows traditional approaches like email and voicemail, not merely by a few strides but by miles. But the benefits of SMS messaging extend far beyond the time limit to get a reply from your candidate. It has the potential to redefine your recruitment landscape, slashing your time-to-hire, and magnetizing the digitally-inclined millennial and Gen Z talent pool. 

In this comprehensive guide, we will navigate the intricacies of messaging as a recruitment powerhouse and equip you with 9 actionable insights to ensnare top-tier talent. But before we dive right into the crux of our discussion, it’s essential to highlight the powerful role of text messaging in modern recruitment. 

Why Text Recruiting is the Key to Streamlining your Talent Hunt

With escalating costs and extended time-to-hire, traditional recruitment channels are increasingly proving inefficient. Over 83% of talent leaders acknowledge recruiting and retaining talent as their chief priority, adopting cost-effective and time-saving strategies is paramount. Here’s where using text recruiting messaging steps in, slashing cost-to-hire and significantly boosting efficiency, even with heightened hiring volumes.

Messaging’s real-time simplicity stands out from other communication methods. It efficiently engages candidates, especially since 39% lose interest from prolonged hiring. It’s especially useful for connecting with passive candidates, letting recruiters nurture relationships for future needs. Later in this blog, we’ll discuss using Text Recruiting Software to enhance recruitment strategies.

Harnessing the Benefits of Conversational Messaging into Text Recruiting

Conversational messaging, with its superior response times and increased reach, can slash your time-to-hire significantly. It enables real-time interaction with potential candidates, accelerating the screening and interview coordination process, thereby landing you the desired talent swiftly and seamlessly.

Transition from Passive to Proactive

The transition from passive to proactive recruiting can be a game changer. Using messaging as a tool, recruiters can actively reach out to candidates, fostering an engaging two-way conversation. It not only enhances the candidate experience but also allows recruiters to glean essential insights about the candidates, paving the way for informed decision-making.

Speaking the Digital Tongue in Text Recruiting

Millennial and Gen Z candidates are digital natives. To attract this tech-savvy talent, recruiters must communicate via their preferred channels. Messaging serves as an effective platform to engage with these candidates, by offering the quick, informal, and interactive communication they prefer.

Agility Personified

Filling temporary positions quickly is crucial to maintaining business continuity and productivity. With text messaging, recruiters can instantly connect with a broad network of potential candidates, streamlining the sourcing, screening, and hiring process. It’s a game-changer when speed and efficiency are the keys to success.

Crowning Practices

While the potential of SMS messaging in recruitment is vast, it must be employed strategically. From crafting engaging messages, and respecting candidate’s privacy, to timely follow-ups – best practices should be at the heart of your messaging recruitment strategy such as the Best SMS Marketing Services provided by SMS-Magic. This ensures optimal use of the tool while enhancing the candidate experience.

Text Messaging Templates 

Effective messaging demands the right blend of professionalism and personalization. To help recruiters navigate this balance, we provide proven text messaging templates. These templates, tailored to various stages of the recruitment process, ensure consistent, concise, and effective communication with candidates. So, to get these templates, get your sms-magic login and start conversing today to recruit the premier talent. 

Cultivating Personal Bonds

The power of messaging lies in its ability to cultivate personal relationships. Unlike formal emails, text messages foster casual and warm exchanges, making candidates feel valued and engaged. This personalized approach can significantly boost your brand image, leading to higher acceptance rates.

Decoding the Generation

Messaging resonates with younger candidates due to its immediacy and informality. This digitally-adept cohort prefers quick, concise interactions over lengthy, formal communication. Understanding this preference is crucial in tailoring your communication strategy, enabling you to attract and retain young talent more effectively.

The Recruitment of Tomorrow

With digital transformation permeating every aspect of business, recruitment is no exception. Embracing messaging as a key tool is not just about staying current; it’s about anticipating and adapting to the future of recruitment. Leveraging the power of Text Recruiting Platforms today can set your recruitment strategy on the path of success for years to come.

In the dynamic realm of recruitment, standing still is not an option; evolution is the key to success. As we’ve journeyed through the various ways text messaging can revolutionize your recruitment process, it’s clear that the power of Conversational Messaging is undeniable. By harnessing this tool, you can attract and engage top talent, reduce your time-to-hire, and enhance client satisfaction, all while future-proofing your recruitment strategy. As we navigate the digital age, embracing messaging is not just a strategic move—it’s an imperative.

Ready to revolutionize your recruitment strategy? Let’s embark on this journey together! Contact one of the Best SMS Marketing Services Provider SMS-Magic today and allow us to guide you through the transformation. With our cutting-edge messaging solutions and expertise, we’ll help you unlock the full potential of text messaging in your recruitment process. Start your journey to recruitment excellence today — because your future talent is just a text message away. 

Connect with us now, and get full insights about what we have to offer. 

Leveraging that behavior, colleges and universities can use SMS or MMS to capture the attention of incoming and current students in a way students will immediately understand and use. Students read most messages within three minutes, and they respond at a much higher rate to messages than they do to other communication channels. And if that isn’t enough to convince you to incorporate messaging into your digital marketing strategy, here is more information about how messaging can help you reach an audience of digital natives – your students.

Cost

Compared to most marketing channels, messaging is one of the most cost-effective methods and has the greatest ROI. While email and text campaigns are both affordable, text messages have a much greater open rate than emails, 98% and 20% respectively. The low per-message cost is an asset for colleges and universities, because text-message marketing is best executed with multi-message campaigns and follow-up messages.

Convenience

Text messaging offers a level of convenience that can not only save your team time but allows students to read and respond to messages with minimal hassle. Most messages are opened within minutes of receipt, which makes SMS and MMS messaging an effective medium for timely communications, offers and reminders. It also means you get real-time alerts about the messages that have been received and opened, so your team can adjust its approach when needed.

Performance

We know texting has an edge with open and response rates, but it is also an effective channel for facilitating sales, event registrations, class enrollments and more. Where emails that try to prompt certain actions can often be mistaken for spam, text messages can move more students through the chosen pipeline.

Interactive

Consider this scenario. Your university wants to send communications about financial aid applications to students who have been accepted but haven’t enrolled yet, and current students who still need to submit applications for the upcoming school year. The goal of this marketing initiative is both to build awareness of the financial aid resources available to students and act as a reminder for the students who are already aware of the resources but have yet to complete their forms.

When you send the information over email, some students may follow the action items all in one sitting: open the email, read the information, click on the links to complete the application, and finish/submit the application. But our paths are rarely that linear. Some student users will read the email one day, Google the information in a separate browser tab (without using the links in the email) and may even fill out the application in-person. That leaves marketing staff with a disjointed view of how their communications are influencing students.

With text messaging, the path is most likely to be linear thanks to short code keyword response options. As students respond “HELP”, “APPLY” or other quick replies, marketing teams gather better insights and engage in more student interactions.

Approachable

While text messaging can be used to achieve many university objectives, it’s the most personal method to connect with students, which is key to building brand loyalty. Giving students the ability to communicate in a convenient and accessible channel helps cultivate trust, break down barriers and maintain personalization with each and every student.

When to Use

Now that you know why to use SMS and MMS messaging, let’s talk about when to use it. The applications are limitless, but here are some ideas to get you rolling:

• Admissions and enrollment
• Financial services
• Retention
• Campus alerts
• Campus events
• Career services
• Alumni relations

Need More Information?

Just take a look at how SMS-Magic client, Northwest University, upped student engagement by 15x with messaging. This case study and others will give you plenty of inspiration on how you can use messaging at your institution. 

Contact us to set up a free demo, or if you prefer to chart your own course, start your free trial today.

If you haven’t already implemented SMS marketing into your business strategy, there couldn’t be a better time. Text messages can help you build and maintain your customer base and stand out from the rest of the pack. What makes this form of marketing so powerful? Read on to find out what SMS marketing can do for your tech company!

Nurture Leads and Customers With High-Value Content

Your leads might be interested in your products, but may not be ready to buy yet. Maybe a customer bought from you several years ago, but they’re due for an upgrade soon. Your challenge is to nurture a relationship between them and your brand, so they’ll stick with you until the right time comes.

SMS marketing offers an organic way to become a valuable source of facts, tips and useful information for your leads. Since text messages have around a 98% open rate, your leads will see your outreach. By sending helpful information that meets their needs, you’ll keep them subscribed to your messaging list, and your brand will add value to their lives. Consider reaching out with:

• Common problems your leads might be facing and explanations of how your product or service can help.
  • “Worried about security on your company’s devices? We can help  . . . “

• Interesting statistics or facts relating to technology in your leads’ specific industries or interests. With advanced SMS marketing solutions, it’s easy to both personalize and automate your outreach.
  • “A federal judge recently ruled against scanning students’ rooms during virtual test proctoring. Does your institution need new remote testing solutions? We’ve got options.”

• Creative shortcuts, tricks and strategies to help your leads solve tech-related headaches
  • “Record podcasts that sound better with these simple tips!”

Remember to keep messages short, to-the-point, and properly spaced (typically, once a week is a good schedule for promotional outreach). You can also use text messages to invite recipients to more in-depth sources of information, like your company’s blogs or how-to web pages.

Keep Customers Excited About New Innovations

Text messaging is a great way to let your customers know when you’ve rolled out a new product or upgrade. Texts are unobtrusive and easy to read, and your customers typically prefer them over any other channel. With multimedia messaging solutions (MMS), you can not only send product stats and information, but also multimedia files, like product images.

To quickly gauge interest in new products, whether you’ve already developed them or they’re still on the drawing board, you can message your customers with a quick survey. Asking for their opinion helps you tailor your offerings to their specific needs, and it also helps them know that you care about them and hear their concerns.

Offer Quick, Seamless, Multichannel Support

In the tech industry, product support and customer service are key. Today’s tech users don’t want to sit on hold for an hour waiting for someone to help. They want responsive, in-the-moment support that fits seamlessly into their busy lives. Your customers need to know that you’re there for them, not just before the sale, but afterwards as well.

Advanced conversational messaging solutions make it easy for your support team to answer questions and solve customers’ problems. Using keyword automation, your customers’ questions can easily be routed to the right agent. Members of your team can seamlessly collaborate on the same conversation, and messages from multiple channels will appear in a single inbox. Easy access to message history ensures every agent who works on a particular issue has all the facts they need to quickly resolve it. Your customers will appreciate the convenience of a text-based support conversation, which can take place while they’re on the clock, in the field or juggling other tasks.

With SMS marketing, your tech company can drive revenue, boost customer satisfaction and improve agent efficiency and workflow. Want to get started with SMS-Magic? Contact our customer support team for a demo or a free trial!

Conversational messaging focuses on encouraging leads and inactive customers to initiate conversations with your brand. Once leads and customers reply to conversational messaging content, your team members can connect with them by answering questions, offering insider information and even recommending products or services.

Behind every successful conversational messaging text is an effective call to action (CTA). Read on to learn what CTAs are — and how to create one that will encourage customers to interact with your content.

1. Pick Powerful Action Words

Compel the user to take action. Using the right words is key in improving the click-through rates in your CTA. Make sure to use compelling, authoritative and clear wording. You don’t want to confuse the user, so using words like “join,” “start” and “explore” can be beneficial to creating an eye-catching CTA.

A few examples include:

• Join us
• Get started for free
• Explore the collection

2. Create a Sense of Urgency

Now that you’re using effective language, create a sense of urgency so that the reader feels compelled to click on the CTA instead of coming back to it later. You can add words like “now,” “instant” or “today” to verbs that make potential prospects feel that waiting will only put them at a disadvantage.

Some examples of this include:

• Start growing today
• Join for instant access
• Explore the collection now

3. Keep It Short

Most of the time, you don’t have much space for your CTA. This is why you should always aim to keep it short and get your point across in the fewest words. You only have seconds to get your point across, so using simple language will definitely work in your favor here.

Here are a few examples:

• Instead of writing “Donate to our cause today”, you can say “Act today!”
• Instead of saying “Fill this form”, you can write “Sign up today!”

4. Use a Conversational Tone

Addressing the reader directly is an effective way to build a personal connection. When you use the word “you” in your message, the reader feels special, making it feel like a personal interaction rather than a sales pitch.

Here are a few examples:

• You can get a 15% discount here.
• Build your free website today!

5. Make It Pretty

Nobody wants to click on a bland, static button, right? Make sure your CTA button stands out from the rest of the text. Even something as small as making the font bold can do wonders as it demands the reader’s attention. If your brand identity is light-hearted, you can add GIFs or emojis, which will prompt the customer to take immediate action.

Some examples include:

• Click here for more information.
• Flat 50% off on first purchase.

Writing the Most Effective CTA

Not all CTAs are the same. They come in various shapes and sizes, and no formula guarantees success. The best way to know whether it is working is to test your CTA against others. You can then iterate upon the CTA that works and create one that gives you the most conversions.

No matter what you use conversational messaging text for, setting up the right campaigns and effective CTAs can help you guide your customers through their buying journey and greatly influence your conversion rates.

Our customer support team would love to show you how SMS-Magic can make reaching your customers easier and more effective with a demo or a free trial!

One caveat: Before you send surveys via text messaging, your respondents must have opted into receiving messages from you. Like other types of solicitations, you must have their permission before the first message is sent. If you’re already working to grow your opt-in list, this requirement will just be another part of your overall marketing strategy.

Designing Your Survey

Conversational messaging lends itself to two different kinds of surveys. The first is a survey conducted entirely through messaging; the other is a text invitation that links to a web-based survey.

Using messaging for the first type of survey is growing in popularity so it’s possible that you might have taken a “quick” survey that only has one or two questions. Responses are generally limited to yes or no and numerical ratings.

For example, the text might read, “Reply and rate your experience today between 1 and 10.” If you reply “8,” your message goes through. If you answer anything other than a numeral between 1 and 10, however, you might receive a message to try again.

When you use this type of survey in your business, it will be powered by an automated messaging sequence that you’ve designed and written specifically for this task. The first message is generally triggered by something your customer does online or with their mobile phone. You determine the trigger, the sequence of messages and the wording of the messages.

You’ll have to consider what message to send if the input you’ve asked for isn’t what you get. For example, if your customer answers the question above with “Loved it!” you’ll have to write a message that asks them to try again.

The second type of survey invitation contains a link to a web-based survey that lives on your website. You can use any survey design software you prefer to create the survey. Customers will use the link in the texted invitation to access the survey, but they will complete the survey on your website. The survey questions can be yes-no, multiple choice or fill in the blank. You can even provide space for longer qualitative answers, if you want those responses.

How Effective is Conversational Messaging in Surveys?

Researchers at the Pew Research Center wanted to know how effective text messaging is when it’s used as an invitation to take a survey. They didn’t have to worry about getting permission to text during the experiments because they already had a study group whose members had opted into text messaging.

The Pew researchers sent invitations by both text and email to one group and just by email to another. Within 30 minutes of sending the invitations, 15 percent of the text-and-email group had competed the survey, and only 6 percent of the email-only group had. Although the research showed that text recipients initially responded faster to the survey than those invited with an email, by the end of the experiment the responses were equal between the two groups.

Text invitations may be especially effective if your campaign values quick responses. Some contests, for example, could benefit from leveraging fast response times.

Researchers also found that, when invited by texts, more respondents completed surveys using smart phones. A little more than half the respondents invited by text completed the survey using their phones. Only 33 percent of those in the email group completed the survey with their phones.

That result may impact your survey design. If you use text to invite respondents to take your survey, you’ll also want to be sure the survey is easy to read and complete on a smart phone.

Finally, researchers found that using short codes to deliver survey invitations allowed cellphone carriers, device manufacturers and/or individuals to block delivery. Short codes are five- or six-digit codes that allow transmission of messages faster than a traditional 10-digit phone number.

Pew researchers chose to use short codes because of the volume of messages they intended to send. Short codes allowed messages to be transmitted faster, even though some of the messages were blocked.

If you are sending a high volume of messages, you’ll need to determine if short codes will perform better than long codes overall. Using long codes would allow access to those respondents who have blocked short codes but would take longer to send.

How Can SMS-Magic Help You?

Staying in touch with your existing customers and getting to know your potential customers has become a requirement in today’s business world. SMS-Magic, through conversational and automated text messaging, can help you reach out to customers with surveys about their experience with your company.

SMS-Magic offers a free trial so that you can get a feel for our product. If you’re as pleased as we think you will be, you can choose the level of service that’s best for your company.

Contact us to set up a demo or to start your free trial. Let us show you how you can engage your customers in new ways!

What is multichannel messaging? It’s very much like it sounds – connecting with your customers via messages sent through a variety of messaging channels. Those channels could include SMS, MMS, email, web push or most social media. The reach they afford is huge.

Meta (formerly Facebook) reported that in 2019 more than 1.3 billion people used Facebook Messenger each month. People and businesses sent an average of 20 billion messages back and forth to each other every month in 2019. The numbers have only grown since then, and that’s only one channel. There are many others.

And by using a variety of channels, you are more likely to reach an audience that increasingly values personal connection. As you establish a one-on-one relationship, you can provide positive customer experiences, building brand identity and customer loyalty.

But what are the real benefits to using multichannel messaging? Here are 5 benefits for multichannel messaging and 5 benefits for using SMS-Magic:

1. Messaging is convenient.
   It allows your customer to connect with you through their mobile phones when they’re on the go rather than waiting until they’re sitting with their laptops or tablets. By then they could have forgotten all about you. Are you trying to reach a customer to make an appointment or to connect with a phone conversation? Messaging lets them tell you immediately when connecting would be convenient so that scheduling becomes possible with minimal fuss.

2. Messaging provides an immediate personal experience.
   Unlike a chat bot, that requires the customer to wait for an agent or the system to respond, messaging is immediate. And because the customer is interacting with a real person in real time, it’s personal.

3. Messaging is efficient.
   Because of the format, texts are shorter than emails. Your customers can ask specific questions and you can return specific answers. You don’t necessarily need to send tons of information, but you can if it’s warranted.

4. Messages can contain text only or a variety of media.
   SMS messages are faster and cheaper to send but still allow you to link to more information in any format. MMS messages allow you to include multimedia elements like images, videos, emojis and GIFs to liven up your message. They can be great attention getters.

5. Time zones become irrelevant – or irrelevant to you.
   You can schedule automated messages for delivery at any time, on any day. You can bridge a 12-hour gap with ease. Set up delivery when it’s convenient for your recipients with a process that convenient for you.

So what are the advantages to using SMS-Magic?

6. SMS-Magic helps you manage messages across popular messaging apps.
   SMS-Magic can handle messages from messaging apps around the world from Messenger to Whatsapp to WeChat. Working with your CRM, SMS-Magic consolidates all contacts from a customer into one record, including phone calls, emails and messages. You can consult with team members and respond to customers quickly because all the facts are at your fingertips.

7. SMS-Magic helps you stay compliant.
   We can help you keep up with the details like customer permissions as they opt-in (and perhaps opt-out) of your messaging campaigns. Our back-end systems are structured so that we can display individual requests, and we can prove you’ve complied with customer requests. You won’t have to worry about regulators asking to see your records. We use on-going processes to collect and store information about distribution and can share it with regulators, if necessary.

8. SMS-Magic helps you automate.
   SMS-Magic is perfect for sending automated messages to your customers and prospects. We provide templates for your use and have lots of information about creating effective messages and campaigns. You can switch from automated to live in an instant so your customers know they’re talking to a person.

9. SMS-Magic allows you to respond from anywhere.
   You can use our mobile app to respond to messages from your own phone. The app works with your CRM to log the message appropriately. No longer will your agents by tied to a desk and your customers will get the response time they expect.

10. SMS-Magic works with your favorite CRM.
    We work and play well with others. We are a preferred provider for Salesforce and Zoho, and we integrate easily with Litify. Contact us to see what we can do with your existing architecture.

We have experts ready to help you take SMS-Magic for a spin for FREE! Schedule a demo or start a free trial today! We think you’ll love what you see!

So we were surprised when she absolutely raved about an online retailer she used during the holidays last year. She wanted to send food to relatives, and the company didn’t have their favorite treat in stock. When she ordered everything else, the company recommended a substitution for the out-of-stock treat, and she sent it along to her family, but she wasn’t thrilled.

After the sale, the company sent her a one-second survey, and she decided to let them know how disappointed she was. She wrote in her survey response, “We are so disappointed that the Blackberry Farm sausage isn’t available. Guess the pigs got tired of giving their all for our breakfasts. Sigh.” She didn’t expect a response.

The customer service rep wrote back, “Thank you for your order. I too am disappointed that the Blackberry Farm sausage is no longer available. It was delicious. I will let our marketing team know since sometime stuff becomes available again. Have a great night.” Our team member was floored. This was either the best artificial-intelligence response ever or she was talking to a real person. She felt heard.

Fast forward many months. Our team member placed another order with this company. Everything went well, and again she responded to the company’s one-second survey. She gave them a “10” and wrote, “You guys rock! My interactions with you make me smile.”

Jane from the company wrote back, “Your email made me smile! Thanks so much for that.” She continued, “And thanks for answering our one-second survey. We’re glad you think we’re worth recommending! Please take 10% off your next order!” The message continued with a secret discount code, the expiration date and the note, “Feel free to share the love with your friends and family – forward the discount code to them. Feel free to like us on Facebook too, if you do that sort of thing.

What’s my point in telling you this story?

This company turned a grumpy holiday shopper into an advocate for their company with two orders, and one of them didn’t even contain everything the customer wanted. With a few simple interactions, they built a relationship with a single customer. And if they delighted one customer, we expect that they delight others, too.

The good news? You can, too – and conversational text messaging is a great way to do it. You can build relationships quickly using a format that allows you to send messages to customers using their preferred delivery method – text. And you can combine automated text messages with messages sent by individuals on your customer service team.

It’s probable that our team member triggered a personal response when she sent back more than the requested rating. If she had responded with just her rating, it’s likely she would have received an automated response, “Thanks for answering our one-second survey. We’re glad you think we’re worth recommending! Please take 10% off your next order!”

Because she added a personal note, however, it’s probable her response bumped her message into the “personal-response” queue and allowed a mail order team member to respond. Your CRM can help you sort customers and send messages that will build loyalty to your products and your brand.

But even automated texts can help build customer relationships. Your texts don’t need to sound like they’ve come from a robot, even if they’re automated. Here are a few ideas from this food retailor:

• You shopped, we shipped, how did it go? Take our survey and get 10% off!
• Our one-second email survey – this is not a tricky sales pitch, promise. If you have a second, we’d love to know what you thought of shopping with us. Our survey is low-tech, just like our food. Respond with a number from 1 to 10.
• We wanna hear about your holiday shopping experience. Tell us and get 10% off all the food you buy!
• Your order is totally confirmed!
• Thanks for your order! If you need to contact us, please reply or call. A real, live human will be with you promptly. We answer phones till 10 p.m. Eastern Time every day at this time of year.

It’s a competitive world and if you can help solve your customers’ problems, you earn an amazing competitive advantage. And if you communicate effectively using a channel your customers prefer, you can build relationships that will extend far beyond a single sale.

Being authentic in all your customer interactions is increasingly important in today’s business world. Staying in touch has become a requirement. SMS-Magic can help you reach out to applicants faster and with better results.

We offer a free trial so that you can get a feel for our product. If you’re as pleased as we think you will be, you can choose the level of service that’s best for your company.

Contact us to set up a demo or to start your free trial. Let us show you how you can engage applicants in new ways!

You don’t have to be a professional writer to be effective, and we’d like to share 5 tips that can help hone your writing skills:

1. Understand your audience and their challenges.
   Before you write, think about what makes your recipients special. What common traits do they share? Is it their industry, their job responsibilities, their goals or their interests? For example, you might segment your audience by age. A 64-year-old person would have much more interest in information about Medicare than someone in their 20s.
   
   You might consider dividing your total audience into smaller groups. Your customer relationship management system can help you sort recipients and make it easier to target your messages.
   
   You will want to focus on how your product or service can help solve the challenges your audience faces. Your audience doesn’t care about your new technology or the great new system you’ve adopted – unless it has a direct benefit for them. Answer your customer’s question, “What’s in it for me?”
   
   Because you’ve already sorted your audience by their common traits, you know that everyone on your send list has similar challenges. With that understanding, you’re ready to communicate with them.

2. Distill the message.
   
   With a standard text message, you only have 160 characters to make your case. Even with longer MMS messages, you don’t have room for a lengthy discussion. Take a few minutes before you start writing and think about exactly what you want to convey.
   
   If you prefer a visual exercise, write down everything you think you want to say. Don’t worry about writing too much; just get it down. Once you have all the information in front of you, start to edit. Keep what’s most important. Cut out the extra words. Get the info in the right order. Then trim the message to fit your word count.
   
   Make sure you’ve included basic information – who, what, where, when and why. Start with what’s most important for your audience, not necessarily what’s most important for you or your company. Write from your customer’s point of view.

3. Throw away jargon, buzzwords & clichés.
   
   This tip is also based on knowing your audience. If they’re just getting to know your company or are new to your industry, don’t confuse them with acronyms. Make it easy for new customers to understand what you do and what you offer.
   
   Also, as a rule, avoid professional buzzwords. You don’t want the language in your message to make it difficult for your audience to understand. Of course, you’ll also want to consider the opposite if you’re sending messages to seasoned professionals. For example, you might not choose to use the term “heart attack” if your audience regularly calls it by a more technical name.
   
   And finally, avoid clichés like the plague. They aren’t helpful and they’re as boring as watching paint dry.

4. Consider your tone.
   
   Because you know your audience and you’re focusing on the things they have in common, you can vary your tone depending on the message. Is your audience ready for a little humor or a light tone? Is it okay to be provocative? Or are you sending messages from an authority and need a formal tone? Your message and your knowledge about your audience will dictate what tone you take but be intentional about choosing it.
   
   One caveat – Be careful with off-color language. It might work well with some audiences, but it can ruin your appeal if you use it inappropriately.

5. Proofread – then send.
   
   Research has shown that our brains sometimes work against us by being too efficient. Here’s how: If you’ve been working on a text for a while, your brain will frequently skim over misspelled or missing words. It fills in the blanks for you. Your brain helps you understand what you’re reading, but it doesn’t necessarily help you find typos.
   
   So fight back. Take a break before you hit send. Let your brain settle. Then come back to your message. If there is a typo, you’ll be more likely to see it. If you have available colleagues, let them read the message. A fresh pair of eyes can help find mistakes. Many communications teams make text reviews part of their culture, and everything is read by at least two people.

It’s a competitive world and if you can help solve your customers’ problems, you earn an amazing competitive advantage. And if you communicate effectively using a channel your customers prefer, you can build relationships that will extend far beyond a single sale.

Being authentic in all your customer interactions is increasingly important in today’s business world. Staying in touch has become a requirement. We hope these tips will help you tackle writing tasks more effectively. SMS-Magic can help you reach out to applicants faster and with better results.

We offer a free trial so that you can get a feel for our product. If you’re as pleased as we think you will be, you can choose the level of service that’s best for your company.

Contact us to set up a demo or to start your free trial. Let us show you how you can engage applicants in new ways!

These messages are conversational, and they are generated individually. Their tone is friendly, and they offer advice or information as if it’s coming from a trusted friend. In fact, it’s coming from an attorney who is a trusted member of the client’s team. In certain situations, that’s even better than a friend.

I can hear you object, “But our business isn’t like that. We have to send thousands of texts to reach our audience.”

I’m sure that’s true. But your text messages don’t have to sound like they’re going to thousands of people at one time.

When a new client reaches out to the law firm, they might do it by email or phone. Chances are they’ve also reaching out to other law firms. In order to win their business, our law firm quickly responds with an automated text message to say hello and to clarify who they are.

The automated response is written in a style that a friend might use – “Hi, this is Brittany from the AlwaysWin law firm. Can I help you with questions about a legal issue?”

When the prospective client responds, the system switches them to a personal exchange with a member of the intake team. This quick response allows the firm to ask initial screening questions and establish a relationship before other firms can respond to the client’s initial query. It helps win business.

To use this technique at scale, you need to think like your customers. Ask yourself what you know about them:

• Why are they contacting you?
• What problem are they trying to solve with your product or service?
• What help might they need initially or on a second query?
• Where are they?

Once you know who your customers are, you can craft automated messages with a personal touch. You can even add a first name to the opening sentence, if you track of that information.

Your CRM should help you personalize the message. And it can help you segment your queries into those that share common characteristics. Your outreach may be unique to customers in the U.S. or customers in Asia, Europe or Australia. Or you may need to modify your interactions with customers in different countries because of laws governing the use of digital information. Segmenting can help with all of that.

Once you’ve started the conversation, managing the flow of information is critical. If you use a CRM like Salesforce or Zoho, SMS-Magic can help you track of all your applicant interactions. Your incoming texts, emails and phone conversations, as well as your responses, can be archived in your CRM so that anyone on your staff can access the entire interaction. Your customer doesn’t have to repeat themselves and your staff can hand off customer interactions confidently.

We know that customers prefer texts because globally we send 5 billion texts a day, and we open 98 percent of them. Conversely, we only open emails 22 percent of the time, according to Gigaom. Research from Asurion shows that we look at our phones 96 times a day or once every 10 minutes. You can bet that your customers are just like the rest of us.

It’s a competitive world and if you’re able to respond to customers faster than your competition, you can earn an amazing competitive advantage. More than that, however, is the benefit that a conversational tone can provide. Handle the first few interactions well – like a trusted friend – and you’ve started a customer relationship that can last for years.

Being authentic in all your customer interactions is increasingly important in today’s business world. Staying in touch has become a requirement. SMS-Magic, through conversational and automated text messaging, can help you reach out to applicants faster and with better results.

SMS-Magic offers a free trial so that you can get a feel for our product. If you’re as pleased as we think you will be, you can choose the level of service that’s best for your company.

Contact us to set up a demo or to start your free trial. Let us show you how you can engage applicants in new ways!