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Without a doubt, business texting is very effective for sales. With an open rate of about 90%, text messaging is easily one of the most efficient ways to deliver your message to prospects. However, it’s best utilized when working in tandem with your other marketing efforts. One such marketing effort is your presence on the Internet.

Prospects Do Their Research on Their Own Time

When you’re marketing to a prospect, it’s important to remember that the Internet has changed buying behavior forever. They now have the power to save your text message, email, or voicemail for after they have done their research. According to a study by GE Capital Retail Bank, 81% of consumers research online before making purchases. When are they doing this research? Whenever they want, wherever they want, and from whatever device they want. Ensuring information about your company online is accurate and easily digestible has never been more important to your sales funnel.

Responsive Website Design

Most likely, your website is the first place prospects visit to learn more about your product or service and the first place they go to make a first impression of your company. An outdated, poorly designed website is a death sentence for multiple reasons, including the irreversible damage to your credibility.

Perhaps the most relevant reason, as it relates to SMS marketing, is an outdated website usually means it’s not mobile-friendly. The difference between a website that’s mobile-friendly and one that is not is the way the website is presented on your phone’s screen. Websites that are mobile-friendly adapt to the size of your phone by organizing the important elements to make them legible, accessible, and easy to understand.

Websites that are not mobile-friendly do no such adapting, and instead just present the full-screen version of your website on a screen a fraction of the size of a computer. Non-mobile-friendly websites force users to pinch, poke, and prod their screen to find relevant information. The problem is, in 2016 where smartphone users have expectations when it comes to mobile browsing, they won’t hesitate to leave your site and visit a competitor.

• 83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important
  
  
• Average smartphone conversion rates are up 64% compared to the average desktop conversion rates
  
  
• 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site
  
  
• According to Idrive media group, an optimized website lets your customers see your website while they are on the go.
  
  
• It’s estimated that by the end of 2016, more searches will be done via smartphones than computers.

Content

Not only must your website be easy to read and navigate, it must have substance. A splash page with your contact information may have worked in 2001, but in today’s world, it doesn’t do you any good. What makes your product or service unique? Why are you better than a competitor? After you clearly articulated your product content and built pages for reviews, news, pricing, and more, it’s time to focus on your blog.

Blogs are the best way to add content and drive traffic to your website. Every time you post on your blog, it’s one more page that gets indexed on your website. This tells Google, Yahoo!, and Bing that your website is active, increasing your chances of showing up quickly on search engines when a prospect searches for a relevant term. Blogging also helps keep your social media presence going strong with a continued source of content to post on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

Call-to-Action

Last but not least is your call-to-action, arguably the most important part of your website. So your prospects received a text and decided to do some research on their own time. After scoping out your cool website (that is mobile-friendly, of course), they want to know what to do next. While the particular call-to-action varies by company and industry (“request a demo,” “make an appointment,” “buy now”), the fact is you need one if you want to maximize conversions. Take your visitors by the hand and guide them to the next step. Curious on what shape, size, copy, or colors to use? Test them!

Author Biography

Anthony Giovine

Anthony is the Director of Marketing for VivioSites, the dental industry’s leading online marketing specialists. Through responsive dental website design, social media management, and advanced search engine optimization (SEO), VivioSites helps dentists across North America grow their practices by filling their chairs with new patients.

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