I’m not sure I am ready to start using texts as a promotional medium. But Matt Warner of Flocknote included texting in his lineup of outreach vehicles at the Digital Church Conference I attended today. His main reason is that texts are extremely interruptive. He cited a statistic that texts have a 97% open rate. With young adults, 95% of young adults read their texts within 3-5 minutes. That’s powerful stuff.
Texts get read too. “By the time they decide they aren’t interested, they’ve already read your text,” Matt added.
His point tracks with what I’ve seen. I almost always open my texts immediately. There’s just something about a text that just makes me feel like it’s important and I need to read it now. As it becomes more and more difficult to break through to people via email, texting has me thinking about the possibilities. Image texts? Audio texts? Video texts? Combine this with a 97% open rate and the mind reels.
Even still, I’m not sure I’m ready to start texting my own promotional messages or counsel my B-to-B clients to do it either. I guess I just have this belief that texts are personal and if someone has trusted you with their mobile number, you better darn well respect it—and that means not being too aggressive or salesy.
Nevertheless, when I’ve been on the receiving end of promotional texts, I have to say, they certainly got my attention. To date, none of them I’ve received (except for ones from blatant spammers) has annoyed me enough for me to block them. So from my own perspective, the tactic works well. I guess I’ll leave it at that; I agree that texting prospects has huge potential.
Whether I’m comfortable with it though, is another matter. I think I’ll stick to other means of reaching out and leave the nuclear option of texting off the table for now.
