SMS Marketing Myth 1: One Size Fits All in Messaging Solutions

Reality: Every car isn’t a Lamborghini, right? Initiated in 2008, SMS-Magic has never stopped evolving. Beyond traditional text messaging services, we focus on creating genuine engagement and fostering customer relationships. Our SMS platform prioritizes results, evidenced by clients experiencing a staggering 40% hike in conversions.

SMS Marketing Myth 2: It’s Just… Texting

Reality: Think of a master chef crafting a gourmet dish: whether they use secret ingredients or everyday food, they always deliver something fantastic. That’s how we view messaging! SMS-Magic elevates business text messaging into an art form. By prioritizing genuine, resonant content, we’ve become the go-to choice for high-stakes conversations such as finance and healthcare.

SMS Marketing Myth 3: Platforms are Too Complex

Reality: Ever tried assembling a 5000-piece jigsaw puzzle? Daunting, right? But with SMS-Magic, the experience is more like snapping together Lego bricks. By designing a user-friendly interface, we let businesses focus on what they excel at, leaving the SMS intricacies to us.

SMS Marketing Myth 4: Compliance is a Constant Battle

Reality: Imagine a world where you can set-and-forget rules and regulations. Welcome to the SMS-Magic realm! We actively monitor and adapt to regulatory updates and changes , ensuring your SMS campaigns remain compliant. Say goodbye to those tedious manual updates.

SMS Marketing Myth 5: Integration Nightmares Await

Reality: Imagine effortlessly blending paint on a canvas so every color is clear, bright, and tells a story. That’s the integration experience with SMS-Magic. Whether you’re using Salesforce, Zoho, or other CRM systems, our seamless integration ensures fluidity in your communication processes.

SMS Marketing Myth 6: Setting Up is Like Climbing Everest

Reality: With us, it’s more of a walk in the park! Begin your SMS marketing journey with SMS-Magic in a day. Should you encounter any challenges our top-notch support team is just a call away.

SMS Marketing Myth 7: Termination Equals Data Loss

Reality: Consider us the guardians of your digital memories. Even post-cancellation, your data is safely and securely maintained, ensuring your hard work and customer interactions aren’t lost to the void.

SMS Marketing Myth 8: Texts Play Second Fiddle to Emails

Reality: In our digital age, timeliness is the name of the game. While emails sit unread, SMS messages boast a jaw-dropping 98% open rate. Makes you wonder: Who’s truly leading the customer engagement race?

SMS Marketing Myth 9: Bulk Messaging Equals Spam

Reality: We believe in quality over quantity. Rather than bombarding users, our personalized SMS strategies ensure that each message feels personalized, leading to a whopping 75% of users feeling more connected to brands.

SMS Marketing Myth 10: SMS Lacks Engagement Power

Reality: If engagement was a dance, SMS would be leading the Conga Line! Brands that weave SMS into their strategies witness a soaring 30% uptick in engagement. It’s time to join the dance!

SMS Marketing Myth 11: Serious Businesses Don’t Text

Reality: Think of professional SMS communication as the modern-day briefcase: sleek, efficient, and indispensable. From appointment reminders in healthcare to transactional updates in finance, secure business messaging has become a keystone in professional communication.

SMS Marketing Myth 12: SMS Isn’t ROI Friendly

Reality: Here’s some economics 101: for every dollar channeled into SMS campaigns, businesses often see returns exceeding $40. It’s an investment that truly pays dividends.

The prowess of SMS marketing isn’t just about numbers or open rates. It’s about resonance. It’s about conversations that matter. Dive deep with SMS-Magic and watch your business narratives turn magical, one message at a time. After all, in this age of fleeting attention spans, it’s not merely the message, but the connection that counts. Stay ahead, stay engaged, and remember: Magic is just an SMS away! 

The Rule of 7 was devised in the 1930s to quantify how many times a person needed to see a movie poster before they bought a ticket for the movie. During the ensuing decades, the rule held true for most products. A consumer needed seven “touches” from a company before they would internalize the marketing message and act on the call to action.

These days, with all the noisy messages surrounding us, a consumer may need more than seven touches. They may need up to 25 touches before they are ready to respond to your message. Fortunately, we have more channels to try than just movie posters. Multichannel marketing relies on your ability to create the mix of channels that will supply the needed touches to convert a prospect into a customer.

So maybe the Rule of 7 still applies, but it needs updating. Your mix of channels may need a little overhaul, too. Here’s a list of the channels you’re probably already using:

• Email
• Direct mail
• In-person contact at a trade show or conference
• Print, television and radio ads
• Social media
• Online ads
• Sponsorships
• Online communities
• Billboards
• Phone calls

We’d like to make the case for adding messaging to your channel mix. And here are five great reasons this could work for your marketing campaigns.

#1 – Your Customers Are Digital-First

Your customers have been “rewired” to be digital-first, according to a recent report by Adobe and eConsultancy. The lessons of the past several years have taught them to rely more heavily than ever on their mobile phones, their tablets and their laptops. Non-digital channels are still effective, but your customers look first to their digital devices. Messaging can be central to a digital-first marketing strategy.

#2 – Messaging Is Available 24/7, 365

Your customers are trying to solve problems in their own lives. Sometimes, it’s an ordinary task like scheduling a haircut or taking advantage of a great sale. But sometimes it’s a life-changing event like securing the right attorney after an accident or applying to college or buying a home. In those cases, your customer might want information about your company, product and services after hours. They might search for a lawyer in the middle of the night. They might wonder about interest rates in the middle of the afternoon. They might ask for a campus tour when you least expect it. With automated messaging, you can provide a personalized, but automated, response whenever your customers contact you. Once the first contacts are made, you can switch to in-person conversations, increasing your chances of making connections.

#3 – Attention Spans Are Getting Shorter

You don’t ever have very much time to attract attention, and messaging helps keep your appeal short and sweet. SMS messages are 160 characters long. Multimedia messages can be longer, but they often contain images or videos, making them very appealing. Customers expect messages to be short and to the point, and they are generally willing to give you the 30 seconds it takes to read your message. Use the message wisely and you can have a real impact. Customers trust that you won’t waste their time.

#4 –Premiums Are Effective In Most Campaigns

You probably offer incentives when you make an appeal. Coupons, sweepstakes and bonuses, among others, can help spur your audience to action. Offer something your audience values and you’ll see your response rate rise. Messaging allows you to ask for immediate action. For example, a university might send this message: “Text APPLYNOW to 534567 to waive your application fee.” The reply text might trigger an automated message that leads to an in-person conversation with an admissions counselor. In other industries, you might link to online coupons or offers, tailoring the offer and the response to your situation.

#5 – Compliance & Analytics Are Critical

You probably use a CRM to segment your audiences, direct your campaigns and report on the results. After all, knowing how your campaign performed is critical to your continuing success. The essence of marketing is to design and launch a campaign for a particular audience, gather data about how it performed, and use the analysis to design even more effective campaigns in the future. You probably are also impacted by privacy laws and regulations. They protect consumers and require certain adjustments for marketers. Messaging allows you to work seamlessly with your CRM and to prove compliance with its reporting capabilities.

Increasing your use of messaging in your multichannel marketing mix makes sense in today’s world. People are using messaging systems for an ever-increasing list of tasks, including very private functions like their banking. Other channels are also effective, but messaging can give your marketing an added boost.

If you’re ready to give messaging a try, contact SMS-Magic for a demo or a free trial today!

As chief operating officer for Kwartler Manus, a personal injury law firm based in Philadelphia, Kwartler’s job is to help the firm’s staff convert prospects into clients. Often, he said, when people are seeking representation because of an injury, they contact several law firms to compare services and expertise. Law firms that can quickly connect with prospective clients have the best chance of earning their business.

When Kwartler started working with the firm three years ago, he realized that emails and phone calls were not the best way to start those relationships. He said it was difficult to get people on the phone.

“We’re all busy,” he said. “People can’t answer the phone right away or it’s inconvenient for them to return a message.”

Conversational text messaging, however, allows the firm to reach out quickly and personally. Clients can ask questions in a live interaction at their convenience.

Research about messaging shows that we prefer texts because globally we send 5 billion texts a day and open 98 percent of them. Conversely, we only open our emails 22 percent of the time, according to Gigaom. Research from Asurion shows that we look at our phones at least 96 times a day or once every 10 minutes or more. Kwartler knew that the firm’s prospective customers were just like the rest of us.

He said it was quickly apparent that his firm needed a conversational text messaging solution, and he contacted SMS-Magic. He chose SMS-Magic because it is integrated with Litify, his firm’s management software.

He was interested in getting the most out of both platforms by synching messaging with his management tools. He has had some advanced training with Salesforce and Litify and has become a Litify advocate. SMS-Magic is designed so that all client contacts are recorded in one place within the Litify environment. Anyone in the firm can see exactly what has been communicated, and they don’t have to open a second platform to do it.

“With SMS-Magic, we’re able to respond quickly to initial client queries via text,” he said. “We can start the conversation and tell the client who we are and then make sure we’re talking to the right person. It’s a conversation between the client and one person at the law firm. Clients really like the personalization.”

In addition to personalization, Kwartler Manus clients appreciate the quick response, as well as the opportunity to either move forward with their inquiry or end the contact altogether. And they really like handling it all without actually talking to anyone.

Everyone in the firm has a license to use SMS-Magic. “That way, if a principle or associate is in court, someone else can respond to the client,” Kwartler said.

Kwartler Manus doesn’t market by sending mass emails to potential clients. Instead, the firm includes space for phone numbers on ads and other materials prospective clients can return to the firm to indicate their interest. The firm uses phone numbers to contact prospects by text messaging.

“We wanted to start conversations.” Kwartler said, “So we wanted a texting platform that allowed us to have conversations with our clients. As a client’s case progresses, our staff can text them one-on-one.”

Working with SMS-Magic has been very easy, Kwartler said. He gives SMS-Magic high marks for creating a product that works well and then supporting it with engineers, developers and staff members who care about their customers.

“The SMS-Magic team responds to our texts right away,” he said. “They get back to us within an hour or two – at all times of day. When we’ve needed extra help, they’ve worked with us without the extra charges other companies use.”

After the dramatic initial increase in messages during the first three months – from 89 messages to 2,634 – Kwartler Manus has sent more than 182,850 conversational messages to its clients. The increase in usage has been steady and is currently averaging just under 7,000 messages a month. Kwartler said he couldn’t be happier with the integration of the two systems and the addition of messaging to the firm’s communications tools.

“Integrating SMS-Magic with Litify has given us a real competitive advantage,” he said. “It’s made life easier for our legal teams and has helped us serve our clients better.”

“I think the numbers will show that we’re converting more prospects and earning business we were leaving on the table before we made the switch,” he continued. “I highly recommend SMS-Magic to any law firm or company that needs fast, personal communication that’s trackable.”

If you’re interested in exploring how SMS-Magic can help you respond to your customers, book a DEMO or 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!

To help you master this part of text messaging campaigns, we have compiled 6 things that we’re sure your boss wants you to know. Here they are:

1. You must have express written consent before your company can legally send text messages to anyone. That means more than just asking for their phone number. It doesn’t matter who it is – an existing customer, a former client, a trade-show lead, or someone on a purchased marketing list. Before that first message goes out, your customer must say it’s okay. In other words, they must opt in.

2. Several governing bodies regulate commercial text messaging. They include individual countries, including the U.S., consortiums of countries like the European Union, state or local governments, and the carriers who deliver messages around the world. Your text messaging partner, like SMS-Magic, should be able to help you navigate the rules for your campaigns.

3. Include the following in your first text:
   • Your company name. Don’t make your customers guess who’s sending the message.
   • The promotion premium. If you’re offering a coupon, discount or e-book in exchange for permission to text, do it at the beginning of the text.
   • Message frequency. Let your customers know how often you plan to send.
   • Message and data rates. Remind customers that they might be charged to receive SMS messages.
   • How to opt out. “Reply STOP to unsubscribe” works well.
   • How to reach customer service or ask questions.

You’ve probably received opt-in requests from companies you do business with. Take a look at how well they’ve provided information to their customers. Some of the offers we’ve seen have been really creative. One was on a parking meter. Learn from the best.

4. Track opt-in and opt-out requests so that you send only to the customers who have specifically asked you to. European laws also require you to “forget” a customer at their request. That means purging all their information from your system and being able to show your work. If regulators ever ask, you must be able to prove you have permission to text.

5. In the United States, commercial text messages are governed by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). It prohibits the following types of text messages:
   • Unsolicited Text Messages – businesses are not allowed to text consumers without their permission.
   • Requesting Payment – businesses may not request payment or additional identifying information before revealing the actual message.
   • Scrambled Messages – businesses must send readable texts. They may not scramble the message or use unintelligible audio.
   • Do Not Call Registry – businesses must respect the Do Not Call registry established by the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.
   • Robocalling & Automated Dialing – businesses may not use robocalling to generate phone numbers or send text messages.

6. The last thing we think your boss wants you to know has nothing to do with rules and regulations. Instead, it’s about being authentic in all your customer interactions. Behaving like a trusted friend helps you build customer relationships that can last for years. Text messaging is the perfect channel for building trust.

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 in new ways.

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!

It doesn’t have to be that way!

We’d be willing to bet that your customer relationship management system (CRM) contains an incredible amount of information about your customers, even first names. By using a name in your emails and texting campaigns, you personalize the communications right from the start. But that’s just one way for your CRM to help connect you to your customers.

Try a Conversational Messaging Hub

If your customers contact you more than once, they may not always reach the same person on your team. For example, a law firm may have a team managing the case load – attorneys, paralegals, intake specialists or other administrative staff members. When clients reach out, their lawyers may not be immediately available, but the clients still need updates. The team member who responds needs information quickly to serve the client.

If your CRM and your texting system work together, it would give you a single record that shows your staff all the interactions with the client, no matter what channel the client uses – text, email, phone or mail. When a text comes in, your staff members would be able to continue the conversation because they have the history at their fingertips.

If you have a customer service team, they will find this capability very useful, as well. One of the most often cited customer complaints is being bounced from person to person trying to solve a problem. If the customer must repeat the problem over and over, frustration can build quickly.

A conversational messaging hub stores all contacts for an individual into a single record. If a customer service rep must transfer a call, the next rep has all the information in front of them. It saves time, aggravation, and maybe, a customer relationship.

Compliance Laws are Getting Tougher. Are You Ready?

The European Union has recently adopted new privacy regulations, and we expect other countries to follow suit. Can your system handle customer requests?

You can send texts only to customers who have given you express written consent. In other words, customers who have opted into your communications. They can also opt out by asking you stop sending texts to them. If regulators ask to see your records, you must be able to prove you are following your customers’ requests.

Opting in and out of texts, however, are not the only customer requests you might be asked to verify if regulators come calling. A customer can ask that you “forget” them entirely – that all mention of them in your system is erased.

If your CRM works well with your texting capabilities, you won’t ever have to worry about compliance with GDPR or other rules and regulations.

Security is Everyone’s Concern

Even the smallest databases can contain enormous amounts of personal information that thieves want. In the past several years, criminals have hacked into the data of some of the largest and most successful companies in the world, and it isn’t pretty.

Keeping your CRM and texting capabilities secure is a shared responsibility, but your texting partner should be able to assure you that they have strong security policies in place. Their policies should be designed to keep all aspects of the system – technological, physical and administrative – secure.

What’s Your Next Step?

Knowing the vital role your CRM plays in your quest for more customers and higher revenues, what should you do next? Of course do your homework, but we would like to suggest that SMS-Magic is the best solution in the marketplace.

Why? Here are just a few reasons:

1. 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.

2. SMS-Magic helps you automate texts while keeping it personal.
   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 – not a bot.

3. SMS-Magic’s Conversational Messaging Hub Gathers Contacts into One Record
   Working with your CRM, SMS-Magic consolidates all contacts from a customer into one record, including phone calls, emails and messages. Our conversational messaging hub is the first of its kind and is designed specifically to meet your needs. Never again will your customers be forced to restate the problem – making them and your service reps happier.

4. 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.

5. SMS-Magic provides technical, physical and administrative safeguards.
   Our technical safeguards include use of access controls, integrity controls, audit controls, identity authentication, and transmission security to avoid unauthorized access. We take extra precautions to ensure the physical security of our servers and systems. Our administrative measures include administrative actions, as well as policies and procedures, to manage the selection, development, implementation, and maintenance of security measures to protect electronic information.

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!

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!