{"id":155989,"date":"2025-06-10T13:04:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T17:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constantcontact.com\/blog\/?p=155989"},"modified":"2025-06-10T13:04:55","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T17:04:55","slug":"sms-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constantcontact.com\/blog\/sms-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is SMS Sales? How to Effectively Sell to B2B Clients by Text"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The average American checks their phone over 200 times per day<\/a> — about once every five minutes during waking hours. In total, they spend more than five hours a day on their phones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The time and attention people devote to their phones create an opportunity for brands. With a simple text message, you can direct your audience’s focus to your brand name and products or services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text message marketing isn’t new, but many companies still overlook the potential of sending sales-focused texts. SMS messages are a more personal way to communicate with business-to-business (B2B) clients. You can stay in touch through a channel you know they use frequently and are likely to pay attention to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s explore the ins and outs of SMS sales, from how to create and implement your own SMS sales strategy to key best practices that will help you avoid common challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are SMS sales?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

SMS stands for short message service — the service used to send text messages up to 160 characters between phones. SMS sales uses this platform to send promotional text messages to your clients and audience members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text messaging is an often underutilized yet highly valuable channel for brands, including B2B companies seeking to connect with clients. By sending texts about upcoming events, shipment updates, and even appointment reminders, you can stay in touch with your clients and drive sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember that obtaining permission is crucial for effective SMS marketing. You must get permission from each client before sending them any promotional text messages. Don’t simply start cold texting potential clients and hope for the best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why sell to B2B clients through SMS text messages?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You have plenty of channels to choose from when communicating with your B2B sales clients, but text messages stand out from many of the others. If you follow SMS best practices<\/a>, this sales approach can offer tons of benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Higher open rates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When your phone beeps and you see you received a new text, you tend to open that message right away to see what it says. It’s no surprise, then, that the average SMS campaign has a 98% open rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By comparison, a good open rate<\/a> for an email marketing campaign is typically between 15% and 25%. You can expect most recipients of a marketing email to ignore it, with only a smaller percentage opening the message. The opposite is true of promotional text messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the reasons behind these incredibly high open rates is that text messages have an inherent immediacy factor. People’s instinct is to check their phones as soon as a new message comes in, and with SMS sales, your message could be the one they’re opening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increased conversions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The ultimate goal isn’t to get people to read your promotional sales messages, though — it’s to get them to act<\/em>. Fortunately, SMS campaigns also boost strong click-through rates compared to other marketing channels. The average click-through rate on an SMS campaign<\/a> is over 6%, compared to around 2.8% for email marketing campaigns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once again, immediacy works to the advantage of SMS marketing. Many of your audience members will likely read your text as soon as they receive the alert, which means you can use SMS campaigns to convey time-sensitive messages, such as limited-time deals. That immediacy may lead more people to click on the links your messages contain and complete conversions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more personal feel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Compared to other marketing channels like display ads or social media, texting may also seem more personal. Since your clients must opt in to receiving your messages, there’s a feeling of familiarity that works to your advantage. They’ll recognize your brand name and view your text as a message from someone they know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, they will likely be more willing to read and engage with your texts than with marketing messages they did not specifically choose to receive. You can take that feeling of familiarity even further by personalizing your messages. With SMS marketing integrations<\/a>, you can easily sync customer contact information with their buying history to personalize messages with each recipient’s name and interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, your message will seem less like marketing or sales speak and more like a personal note from a trusted contact. Through texting, you have a direct connection with decision-makers, so jump on that opportunity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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