Do your texts look like SPAM or a legitimate business offer? If people are not responding, it’s probably because your messages don’t include the five things needed for a trustworthy text.
The typical bad business text
The typical business text has a name, it’s called SPAM. We all get them and probably no one responds to them. That’s because these texts are missing the five important things, trust signals, that make a text message something someone might respond to.
Like any other type of business communication, if you don’t get the message right customers may not respond. But if your message is missing the five trust signals, you are guaranteed to get no replies.
Really bad texts look so un-trustworthy people won’t even risk opt-ing out for fear of encouraging more contacts. Like this one:
The problem with bad texts
Sending bad texts is literally a waste of time and money. You need to ask yourself, “Do my texts look like SPAM or a legitimate business offer?” If your own text wouldn’t give you the confidence to click a link or send a reply, why would your customers?
The problem is bigger than a low response rate. Your texts could be blocked by the carriers and never delivered. Carriers monitor texts sent through their networks to identify and block anything they believe is SPAM. They can block your messages and you will never know it. Send enough SPAM texts and a carrier may block the number you’re texting from. If you reach that level, there may be legal consequences.
All that can be avoided by making sure all your texts include the five things that carriers want to see and things that make your texts trustworthy enough to respond to.
The five elements of a trustworthy text
A perfect business text includes five trust signals that tell the recipient you are a legitimate business, making a legitimate business offer. They are not rocket science. They are common sense things that are easy to setup in your BellesLink account.
The five trust signals are:
- Include the recipient’s name
- Include your name and business name
- Write a clear, simple message
- Set up the toll-free number you’re texting to receive calls and voicemails. This includes adding a custom greeting and voicemail message. (This is easy in BellesLink.)
- Include a website url in your message that matches your business name.
A perfect business text example
Here’s an example of a perfect business text. Call the phone number that sent this message to hear how the custom greeting supports and authenticates the text message, making it more trustworthy.
Sent from: (866) 801-3692
Why this text is perfect
This text includes all five trust signals: recipient, sender and business names, a simple message, a website, and a call-able phone number with a custom greeting that reinforces the text. None of this is hard to do, or to set-up in your BellesLink account. It only take a little of planning.
This message includes a sixth trust signal that really makes it work. Adding the words “just call this number” tells the recipient the person who sent this text is working to earn their trust by being fully transparent. If they call the number and the sender or their voicemail answers then trust and legitimacy is established.
Bad business text examples
You can probably find examples of bad texts on your own mobile phone. The common problems are easy to spot.
- The message was sent from a phone number that doesn’t accept calls.
- There’s no salutation, sender name, or business name.
- There’s no website url or the url doesn’t align with the business name.
In the webinar Paul walks through several bad text examples and why the fail. Many times, texts are almost good, but not quite there. Even a perfect text may not win responses, but imperfect texts are nearly guaranteed to fail.
Make it perfect or don’t
A small and very wise character once said “Do or do not. There is no try.’ Business texting is the same. Either spend the time to put all five trust signals into your texts or don’t bother texting. You’re just throwing away time and money.
The bottom line is this: send perfect business texts or none at all.
Sending a perfect text with BellesLink
Check our two-way texting feature to learn how you can use BellesLink to send your perfect text.