It’s a rare day when you don’t see most people with cell phones in hand.

The wearable communications economy has been firmly entrenched for years and consumers aged 18 to 60+ are now part of the ‘digital communications generation’. While some users may be more experienced than others, almost everyone knows how to make basic phone calls and send and receive text messages.

The beauty of it from a marketing perspective is that we always have a direct channel of communication with our potential customers. To ensure your business is ready to jump into one of the most effective forms of marketing and communication, you must first make sure that you can easily find a “send to us” button on your own website.

Why you Need A text button on your website

Live chat has been an advanced form of communication for many years, used by even the smallest law firms and large corporations like Walmart and Amazon. Having a problem with your order? Do you need information about a divorce? The ability to communicate in writing with a stored transcript and a semblance of anonymity appealed to several generations. The problem is that once the tab is closed or the internet connection is lost, your live chat may be lost. It also means that the company is no longer able to contact potential or previous customers to inform them about service updates, sales and other marketing initiatives.

Type text (or SMS) messages directly from your website to your customer’s phone. This form of communication extends the live chat experience into one portable Conversation. Not only can you continue the conversation 5 minutes, an hour or 7 days after the first contact – you also have direct access to your company’s satisfaction, follow-up and future sales pipeline.

When you text your clients, you can ask your leads to save your number as a contact on their phone – then they can give it to them if the neighbor, friend or loved one asks their roofer, plumber or mechanic’s name!

Who texts these days?

Everyone is texting today, from Generation X to Generation Z and the rising generation of consumers, Generation Alpha. In fact, we’re seeing many baby boomers gravitate towards cell phones rather than landlines. While older generations generally prefer a voice call to texting, many see texting as an acceptable way to convey information to companies with whom they do business.

According to a September 2021 study by Klayvio, texting has become even more important during and after the pandemic has forced us to stop face-to-face communication.

according to your study “What have Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers all been counting on in the pandemic? Write sms.”

• Text messaging is the preferred communication platform on mobile phones for all generations, including Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers.
• More than half of Americans (51%) feel happier when they receive text messages from their friends (58%) than from their family members, including siblings (43%), mom (38%) and dad (29%).
• Almost half of Americans (43%) have unread text messages on their cell phones, and the average American has 47 unread messages.

What should your Send Us button say?

As marketers, we know that providing the button is only half the story. Getting clicks is important, so what’s on your button and how that message is perceived and interacted with leads to those leads contacting you.

Consider offering to solve your customer’s problem in this message. “We can help” could be a great call to action. Sometimes something as simple as “Text With Us” can do the trick. Ultimately, the call-to-action that resonates with your audience is the sweet spot — and you’ll never know what that phrase is until you test it.

Accordingly Aaron Soft from Leadferno“Good calls-to-action get straight to the point and trigger an action.” “Try using phrases that answer both the ‘why’ and the ‘how’. He suggests testing CTAs on your SMS button that reflect:

• We can help
• ask a question
• Make an appointment
• reservations
• Plan with us

We encourage you to start there – and test out variations as you try to refine and find the best possible expression. Besides testing the word choice on your button, you should also test the best contrasting color and maybe even a bit of movement in your SMS button.

Where should your Send Us button appear?

Not only should you have a button and carefully design your call-to-action, you also need to consider where your SMS button will appear. It should appear regardless of where on the page the user is scrolling. A floating “Ask a Question” button can make a world of difference in winning that lead soon as soon as they are ready to contact you.

How do I install texting on my website?

There are several tools that not only allow you to integrate an SMS button on your website, but also reply to those SMS with a computerized dashboard to track leads, send messages, and respond to customers when they reach out to you . This eliminates the need to provide cell phones and rely on employees to answer phone messages when they are “on duty”. By managing your text contacts with computer-based solutions (or a mobile app), multiple people can easily manage your contacts.

You can use tools like SimpleText or Leadferno (our favorite here at Sterling Sky – we are Leadferno partners) to easily install the text button with minimal coding.

If you are a sole proprietorship, you can simply install a simple coded “SMS” link that will send the contact directly to your single phone.

We strongly encourage you to try SMS for your business – you might see an increase in leads – and more leads means more business – and that’s what we’re all working toward.