Leveraging CRM with Text Messaging for Increased Sales

Statistics show that text messaging is here to stay.

With 55% open rates and 100% view rates, texting your audience is one of the most effective ways to reach them. People tend to prefer receiving texts as it is more convenient than emails. Moreover, texts are short and to the point.

Text messaging is a great fit for your marketing strategy as it is customizable to your business needs. It's a low-cost marketing channel that offers insights into real-time metrics, including click-through and response rates.

So, imagine having this feature as a part of your CRM - you get an unbelievable level of benefits at a next-to-zero initial investment.

This post shares how businesses can combine the power of CRM and text messaging to boost their sales.

Significance of CRM and Why You Should Combine It with Text Messaging

A customer relationship management system (CRM) is a priceless solution for a business. It collects, organizes, and manages all of your customer-related information in one place and offers a single view of the customer - their interests, purchase history, and interactions.

A CRM also has in-built collaboration tools that allow several teams to work simultaneously on drafting sales emails, crafting marketing messages, or creating sales quotes. The efficiency helps you have quick response times.

For instance, when determining how to write quotes for a specific client, the sales and marketing teams can follow the progress of a document simultaneously. And when AI is built into the CRM such quoting tasks can be accomplished within seconds with auto-generated quotes or proposals.

A CRM with text messaging functionality helps digitize customer records and interactions, thereby boosting customer experience. Here are the significant benefits of integrating texting with CRM...

• Engage in meaningful and personalized conversations with leads and customers.
• Generate top-of-the-mind recall at the right time and place (channel) to increase the chances of conversion.
• Build better experiences.
• Empower the team (sales, marketing, and customer service) to be more productive.
• Make data-driven decisions.

How CRM with Text Messaging Impacts Sales

Here’s how leveraging CRM with text messages improves sales performance.

Increased Sales Numbers

As mentioned above, text messages have a "view rate" of 100%. Hence, businesses have a higher probability of actually reaching customers. CRMs with a texting capability allow businesses to automate their customer acquisition efforts through targeted and personalized campaigns.

Furthermore, it helps in re-engaging old leads, automating sales.

Ease of Procuring Customer Feedback

Getting feedback from customers is central to business success. A CRM powered with text messaging capabilities allows the sales and marketing teams to create surveys or polls to understand customer emotions for the brand.

This survey data is invaluable to tweak experiences and improve customer retention.

Grow Customer Database

A CRM with text messaging stores all customer data in one place for the sales and marketing teams. This is highly beneficial for businesses, especially those relying on email marketing to reach their customers.

For instance, if customers opt-in for text messaging, their data can be added to the database for further communication on promotional campaigns and brand offers.

Further, the database allows sales professionals to create and execute targeted campaigns.

• Boost Customer Loyalty

Sending automated and personalized messages using CRM allows businesses to better engage their audience. This empowers the sales team to maintain a deeper connection with their customers, leading to loyalty and retention.

Effective Tactics to Increase Sales through CRM Text Messaging

Now that we are clear on how CRM with text messaging puts incredible power at your fingertips, let’s look at some effective ways to leverage it for more sales.

Opt for a Messaging Software That Works with Your CRM

Customer relationship management software puts all the text messages for customers and prospects in one place. This makes it easy to engage leads and track conversations, thereby reducing repetitive work for sales reps and boosting their productivity.

Using SMS software with your CRM will centralize all data and communications, making it easy for the team to coordinate. An automated business texting solution offers features for managing alerts, marketing, and more. This helps the sales team manage customer queries effortlessly.

The platform allows you to use keywords that trigger an auto-responder that guides the customer. You can also create contact cards, and surveys, and schedule automated drip campaigns to drive sales growth through text messaging.

A texting solution like Mobile Text Alerts offers an SMS link service to share template links and track their performance. Thus, A CRM integrated with a texting solution makes sending an SMS hyperlink easy and quick.

With a suitable text messaging platform, you can set up your CRM text messaging integration effortlessly. Most platforms easily integrate with popular CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce using Zapier.com or a built-in API for developers.

Work on Audience Segmentation

Regardless of the software you choose, speaking to a relevant audience is critical to closing more deals through text messaging.

Consider segmenting your audience based on CRM tags. Tagging customers and leads based on their buying behavior and interests allows you to send them relevant and engaging messages that drive conversions.

For instance, you can automatically apply tags as soon as a lead converts into a paying customer. Using this, you can send special promotional messages to this segment of customers who contribute to your revenue.

Tags can be based on:

• The type of service they are interested in
• Demographics: Catering to specific geographic locations.
• Lead source: Tags in the CRM can track how leads are generated. This information can be used to optimize effective marketing channels.
• Company size
• Campaign tracker tags to determine which customer is a part of which campaign.

Tagging data points with specific keywords makes it easier to generate reports that can be analyzed later.

Segment your audience based on this method to create varying SMS campaigns for different types of leads and customers.

Employ Custom Fields for Personalization

Custom fields are great for personalizing your text messages to the right audience. The Next in Personalization report by McKinsey confirms that businesses can generate as much as 40% more revenue by leveraging personalization tactics.

Nine in 10 businesses have shared that their customers expect at least some personalized content. In fact, a customized shopping experience will make the customer return to the brand because it will provide a great experience and brand satisfaction. After all, no one wants to read generic messages from a business.

A customer relationship management platform offers several opportunities for text message personalization. You can create custom fields to enter personalized information for a specific customer segment. You may want to include fields like customer name, order number, event date, customer loyalty number and level, and the branch location.

These custom fields assist in creating automation, allowing you to send text messages as per the customer lifecycle stage, order, or other information.

Adding such a level of personalization to your strategy will build relevant experiences, thereby generating more sales. A CRM platform enables you to achieve all this at a scale.

Split Test Your SMS Campaign

The difference between a successful SMS campaign and an ineffective one is whether or not the business has employed A/B testing to see which one works. Start by split-testing 2 SMS templates for the same audience. Determine which one’s more effective in engaging the audience and driving them to conversions.

This will help you optimize your resources and make the most of your campaign.

A few metrics to consider for tracking success:

• Opt-in rate / opt-out rate
• Click-through rate
• Response rate

Summing Up

Maintaining a strong relationship with customers is critical for the success of your sales team. Using a CRM interface that allows text messaging enables them to identify their target audience, reach out to them, and re-engage them using a personalized note. They can also automate their customer follow-up process, thereby allowing them to focus on sales-generating tasks.

All this contributes to more deals closed and more revenue.

We are sure the information shared in this post will help you make the most of your CRM and leverage text messaging to boost sales. So, go ahead and combine your CRM with SMS messaging to streamline your workflow and improve customer experience.

Get your free SMS system trial account here to see how it works.