Louie Cota, the director of sales at ClubReady, offers three texting tips and results that can happen with a professional strategy.
A recent study found that 98% of text messages are opened compared to just 20% of emails delivered. Cold calling stats are harder to find, but if you don’t ignore calls from unknown numbers, you’re in the minority. That makes it clear that effective and engaging text messages should be your first choice in communications. The great news is that it can also help scale your business while maximizing staff efficiency. Like everything else, start with a plan and strategy.
Have a Call to Action
Whether reaching out to a lead or a member via text the main objective is to get a response that turns into a dialogue that directs them to the purpose for the contact. A common complaint heard from owners is, “I paid for these digital leads, why aren’t they responding?” Just because a person clicked an ad, they don’t owe us a response. It’s our responsibility to create a call-to-action that merits a reply. Remaining in control of the conversation will ensure that the lead stays engaged and open to reply, for example:
Lead: “What are your hours?”
Studio: “We are open seven days a week with classes from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the week and mornings only on the weekends. Tell me, when do you prefer to work out?”
A common mistake is answering their question completely without a follow up call to action. Keep it open. This keeps you in the driver’s seat and prompts the lead to reply to your objective, whether it’s a sale or booking them for a class.
Identify Yourself
First and foremost, identify yourself and where you are texting from to make the client comfortable communicating with your unrecognized number. Without this, you can create a lack of trust right off the bat and decrease your chance of any response. After the introduction you can segway into your purpose for the contact.
Timing is Everything – Be Ready
People are busy. For every person that prefers morning communications, another will prefer late evening. Some locations will send automated messages when a new lead enters their CRM system but if the client thinks that message is starting a conversation when it’s not they’ll be disappointed. Engaging when they initially reach out in minutes is great if you can, but being ready to really communicate when they reply is more crucial to results.
What Can Happen?
The fact is texting is how we communicate, and it can drive results. For example, Rumble Hoboken recently opened its doors in February 2023. During its first month of presale operations it was able to attain 311 members — 302 of which were the direct result of text communications.
