Text Marketing on Zoho – Using SMS for Lead Nurturing and Relationship Building

A recent survey of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) revealed an interesting statistic – over 43% of SMEs are looking to improve their revenue growth by focusing primarily on customer experience and retention.

Keeping this goal of an improved customer experience in mind, SMEs can employ texting as an easy-to-implement way to enhance customer retention and brand recall – throughout the customer lifecycle. Texting serves as low-hanging fruit which is ubiquitous, affordable and sure to drive results.

To see this in action, let’s see how Ian’s Investment Advisory Service (IIAS), an imaginary financial planning service can leverage texting to improve customer relationships.

Ian, the Chief Financial Planner and owner of IIAS is stretched on both time and manpower, while his company continues to grow rapidly. Although IIAS has a great lead generation engine which generate multiple online enquiries everyday, he is unable to attend most of them.

This is because his telesales representatives try to qualify each lead by attempting to call them. They also email these leads, but most of these emails go unopened and unanswered.

SMS & texting for lead qualification

Instead of attempting to qualify each lead over the phone, IIAS could leverage texting capabilities within Zoho CRM to send SMSs to his leads and customers. To start off the engagement, he may use a template to send them qualifying questions. Based on the responses received, he can segment these leads further and schedule campaigns based on their unique requirements. He also has an option to automate this process, so a text is sent out to a lead as soon as his salesperson enters a new one in Zoho CRM.

Hi! Please text 1 to set your financial goals, 2 to rate your risk appetite or 3 to make an appointment with Ian’s Investment Advisory Services. Thanks – Ian

Once Ian gets a reply from a lead, he can better gauge the lead quality. Texting can help IIAS move more prospects along the sales funnel. They can also set up a text marketing drips for lead nurturing, related to some helpful tips & tricks related to better financial planning. Such texts can go out every 2 weeks and serve as an excellent reminder to enhance top-of-the-mind recall.

Texting for relationship building

As an extension of the lead nurturing approach above, IIAS can also text financial news to leads and customers, keeping them engaged. As many potential clients are intimidated by numbers, Ian can crunch his content marketing in bite sized SMSs for easy digestion. He can also offer a free service which explains financial concepts to prospective clients using analogies, through texts. These concepts may serve as a hook – helping IIAS to generate more opportunities.

Hi Al, Like each mouthful of stew contains all the ingredients, your investment in a mutual fund has a bit of each security in the fund’s portfolio. – Ian

Texting for transaction alerts & event reminders

Sending transaction confirmations to customers can serve as a confidence building tool amongst IIAS’s customers. It reassures them that their money has reached the intended destination and is being invested the way they want.

Additionally, IIAS can proactively text clients their portfolio performance, check with the ones who haven’t been active for a while and remind some of them to check their email, in case they have not responded to an important piece of communication.

IIAS can also organize seminars and workshops once in a while, to catch up with leads and customers face to face. Text reminders going to potential attendees a day before the event can help IIAS improve attendance. Texting also makes it easy for satisfied clients to refer their friends, which helps Ian grow his business.

Key takeaways

SMSing enables businesses to retain a personal touch, which is crucial for SMEs. Texting leads and customers via your CRM can ensure you improve their customer experience and retain them for a long time. It is an affordable way to generate new leads and referrals as well as build strong relationships with customers, which helps businesses meet their revenue goals.

Get started with texting on Zoho here.