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One of the biggest challenges that businesses have today is developing effective methods of internal and external communication. Employees and those within the company (internal) need to be able to exchange messages quickly and efficiently while also creating a viable communication platform with their customers (external). How can businesses reach both of these groups, deliver messages in a way that they will be read, that will elicit a response?

Are you struggling with this? SMS messages just may be the answer for your business.

A Case for SMS Messages

People are people. Whether they are affiliated with your company, they like to spend their money with your company, or they are considering it, they all have similar habits when it comes to their mobile devices. We’ve seen the stats. Almost two-thirds of Americans have a smartphone. Around 19 percent of them use their smartphone to access the internet, choosing it over conventional methods of internet access.

An estimated 65 percent of American smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up in the morning and 15 minutes before going to sleep. Many keep their phone next to them while they sleep – and 75 percent say that when nature calls, their phone is going with them. More than three-quarters of Americans with smartphones spend more than 2 hours using their phones.

In other words, we live in a connected world – a very connected world.

External SMS Messaging

That is where SMS messaging becomes very important to your business. If that isn’t enough, consider this:

• 53 percent of American consumers use their smartphone or mobile device to go online and reach a product while they are shopping.
  
  
• 40 percent of American consumers will check out a minimum of 3 different channels before they make a buying decision – and they do it while they are shopping
  
  

Chances are, your customers are using their phones while they are browsing your store. This makes a powerful case for external SMS messages.

SMS messaging should be part of your marketing strategy. It can put important messages, buying prompts, coupons, and deal in front of the customer when they need to see it.

Internal SMS Messaging

Text messaging is a powerful way to sell your brand via internal marketing. You can quickly and efficiently relay important information to your employees via text. This could be information on your products or services, or it could be messages that elicit from the employee a strong emotional connection to your company. It engages them and makes them feel like they are a part of the company and not just a component of it. This type of personal internal marketing encourages a connection with your brand so that your employees believe in it and feel engaged – they care about your brand and they believe in it.

5 Arguments for using SMS messages for internal and external communication.

Yes, it’s easy, quick, and cost effective, but there are more advantages to using text messaging:

• It forces you to stay on target and use concise language. You don’t have the room to talk about anything else than the topic at hand. Your message zeroes right in on the topic and you say what you have to say in as few words as possible.
  
  
• Your message is documented. If there is a discrepancy or if it is misinterpreted, a record of the message exists and can be referenced by anyone who needs to see it.
  
  
• You have to stay on target and be very specific in what you want to say. It allows for more detail, but detail that is very relevant.
  
  
• You can organize your thoughts in the messages. Sure, the messages are short, but because of the brevity and specific nature of this type of communication, you have more control over organizing the messages.
  
  
• It is personal. It isn’t so much the messaging itself that is personal, but the device definitely is. Most people are very emotionally connected to their devices and this gives you a huge opportunity to use that bond to reach people on a very personal level.
  
  

4 Areas to pay attention to when using SMS messaging.

• It is difficult to know the tone of a text so you have to be careful what you write and how you write it – and try to follow up with face to face communication at least part of the time.
  
  
• It is easy to misinterpret a text. This is another reason to keep it concise, but also pay close attention to grammar, punctuation, and typos.
  
  
• It can be construed as impersonal. For the most part, it is a good way to convey messages and ideas, but if a particular message requires sympathy, concern, or compassion, then a face to face or phone call is a better option.
  
  
• It is limited in its ability for discussion, particularly for groups. It is very good for one on one discussions, but when several people are involved it can be more difficult, even ineffective. Choose SMS when it works best for the situation.
  
  

Whether you are using SMS messages to provide alerts to your employees about an upcoming meeting or an impending emergency, it works as a viable form of internal communication. If you are using it to send a coupon to your customer or informing them of a new product, it is excellent in that capacity as well.

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