How many times a day do you check your phone to see if anyone has messaged you?

Keeping a potential client from going ‘dark’ on you is half the battle of making a sale. Buyers get flooded with emails daily and the open rate of those messages is on the decline. As recently suggested by Hubspot, texting a prospect could double your conversion rates, if done correctly.

Even though email marketing is still an effective communication method, only 22% of emails get opened, according to Mobile Marketing Watch. Genuine emails can get lost in a sea of spam and your efforts to connect or follow-up could get glossed over.

With cell phones and wearable tech, texting could be a better way to stay in contact as well as build a strong rapport with potential customers. However, follow these tips to avoid the pitfalls between being professional and just being plain annoying.

• Don’t text before making an initial connection. Let’s say you receive notification of a new lead, immediately texting them to say ‘Thanks for downloading my eBook‘ could come across too forward. Texting before calling is a no-no.

• Always ask for permission. By simply asking, ‘Would it be okay to text you? My clients have told me it’s easier to confirm meetings as well as prefer to get quick answers rather than email,’ conveys why you’d like to text and establishes that other customers are okay with it as well.

• Make sure you aren’t texting for the wrong reason. If you are looking to confirm a meeting or answer a question they had earlier you’ll likely be in the clear. If you are simply ‘checking-in’ or trying to find out why you haven’t heard back from them, you may want to avoid being so needy.

• Keep it light and professional. If your text starts to look like a paragraph, you may want to consider sending an email instead.

• Don’t text outside of business hours and use emoticons sensibly. The Chicago Agent magazine feels emoticons are a nice touch if you have that type of rapport with a client as well as help relay the tone of the message, but can also be a turn off if overdone.

Texting may not suit every client or situation, but when done with professionalism and concisely it could be the extra measure to keep you top of mind with your potential clients. Trust is king in sales, and when prospects trust you to have a level of constant communication, you could be on your way to closing the sale.

Lead411 has built in solutions and direct dials to help you formulate texting into campaigns the right way. Contact us for more info.

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