Are you sure you’re ready to get the most responses you’ve ever had to your business text messages?

Text messages get the fastest response of any time of communication, except for a face-to-face conversation. In fact, research has shown that text messages have a response rate that is nearly 40% higher than phone calls.

When you don’t hear from someone after several attempts to reach them, whether it’s your request for an RSVP, appointment scheduling, or the next stage in a sales process, it’s frustrating.

In an ideal world, you get a response for every message that you send. But as amazing as text messaging performs for businesses, 100% response rates just aren’t likey.

So what’s the secret to maximizing the probability of getting a response? Well, it’s pretty simple. Just remember to do your PART. PART is the dirty little secret of the industry that maximizes your chance of getting a response or another desired action from your text message.

• P – Personalized
• A – Actionable
• R-Relevant
• T-Timely

How to Write a Personalized Text MessagePersonalized

Somebody once said that the most beautiful word in the world, is your own name….and why wouldn’t it be? When someone says your name to you in a conversation, you feel special right? The great news is that Txtra makes it super simple to personalize every text message with the recipient’s first name if you want it to!

Add a personal touch, use a conversational tone and add in an emoji or two!👍 – people are more likely to respond to a text that sounds like it’s from a human being, not a robot.

Whether you’re sending bulk texts to a million opt-in users or having a two-way conversation through our built-in chat functionality, Txtra can automatically personalize every message with the recipient’s name or with other dynamic information like the recipient’s city, state, or even their favorite sports team! There are many options within Txtra to help personalize your text messages.

How to Make Your Text Messages Actionable

The best text messages are ones that ask the recipient to do something specific. For example:

“Hey [First Name], we’re sorry we missed you. Can we reschedule your appointment for tomorrow at the same time?”

“Thanks for signing up for our newsletter! Click here to confirm your subscription.”

“We’d love to get your feedback! Please take this quick survey [First Name].”

Asking someone to take an action in your text message will increase the likelihood of getting a response. And, if you make it super simple for them to respond with pre-written responses or keywords, it’ll be even easier for them!

If you weren’t paying attention in 8th-grade science class, you may have missed Newton’s third law, which states; for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. 

Back in 1687, Newton wasn’t thinking about text messages of course, but the same principle applies to the conversation and messaging. As the sender, you must do things that invoke action from the recipient. And there are so many things that you can do to help increase the probability of a response. You can:

• Ask a question
• Include an incentive
• Give a deadline

How to Make Your Text Messages Relevant

Your text messages should also be relevant to the person receiving them. For example, if you’re a business that sells running shoes, it wouldn’t make sense to send a text message about your latest sale to someone who has never bought from you before and isn’t interested in running.

Instead, you would want to send them a message that is relevant to their interests. Perhaps a message about your new line of cross-training shoes or a guide to the best running trails in their area.

The relevance of your message will help increase the likelihood of getting a response as well as keeping your business top-of-mind when they are ready to make a purchase.

One of the many beauties of text messages is that people must opt-in to them. Typically, folks will opt-in to things that are of interest or value to them. So make sure, that whatever you are sharing with your subscribers is consistent with the original reason they chose to subscribe to your list.

So if you own a beer brewery and you have people subscribe to receive a text message every time you have a new beer available, only send them that information. Don’t waste their time and the integrity of your list by texting them when the Great Balls on Tires food truck is scheduled to be at your place. That’s not relevant to your subscribers.

How to Make Sure Your Text Messages are Timely

Timing is Everything

Timing is Everything

And finally, timing is everything!

The best text messages are timely. They are sent when the recipient is most likely to be available and able to respond. For example, you wouldn’t want to send a text message about your latest sale at midnight on a Tuesday night.

The best times to send business text messages are typically during business hours or in the evening after work hours. Of course, this will vary depending on your business and your customers. The best way to determine the best time to send your text messages is to experiment and track your results.

Research has shown that 90% of SMS marketing messages are opened within 3 minutes. What’s even crazier is that 99% of SMS marketing messages are opened within 20 minutes. 😲

With that being said, sending timely messages for your business has a few different meanings.

1. If you have an event scheduled one month from now, sending one text today won’t be timely and effective to drive people to that event. A series of text messages would work or scheduling a text message to be sent closer to the event would also work. You can send text message campaigns and schedule text messages easily within the Txtra platform.
2. Drive response within a certain period of time. As we know that 99% of text messages are read within 20 minutes of receiving them, put some urgency and incentive in your message to motivate a quick response.

Next time you send a text message for your business, keep PART in mind. You’d be surprised at how much it will help. Other best practices to keep in mind are:

• Keep your messages short and sweet – nobody likes reading a novel over their phone!
• Have fun and use emojis or pictures
• Use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling
• Don’t use all caps – it’s just annoying
• Do give people a way to opt-out or unsubscribe from your messages
• Don’t send texts too frequently – people will get annoyed and you’ll start to look like a stalker!
• Do test out different types of messages to see what gets of future texts if they’re not interested
• Don’t forget to proofread your message before you hit send!
• Don’t be afraid to follow up if you haven’t received a response after a reasonable amount of time

And lastly, remember to have fun with business text messaging – it can be a great way to build relationships with clients and customers!

So, there you have it – a few simple ways to make sure your text messages get the response you desire. And if all of that sounds like too much work (it’s really not), then sign up for Txtra and let us take help you.

Now that you know how to write text messages that get responses, it’s time to put it into practice! Experiment with some of these tips and see how they work for you.

And if you’re looking for an easy way to send business text messages, sign up for Txtra! With our easy-to-use platform, you’ll be able to send text messages that get responses in no time. So what are you waiting for…give Txtra a try.

Happy texting! :)”