Supercharge Your Business with SMS Lead Generation

Let’s face it: your customers live on their phones, and if you’re not texting them, your competition is. Lead generation with SMS helps you connect with your audience faster and more effectively than email ever could.

What Is SMS Software, Anyway?

SMS (short message service) is how you send text messages to your customers. SMS software makes it easy to send these messages in bulk and reach your audience in seconds. But why does it matter?

• Texting is king: Around 66% of people prefer texting with brands to any other form of communication.

• Better open rates: Text messages get opened over 90% of the time while emails…well, don’t. SMS software helps you cut through the noise and grab your customers’ attention where they’re already looking.  

Fill Your Pipeline with Leads from SMS Marketing

If you want more leads, SMS is the way to go. Here’s how to do it right.

Set Goals & Objectives

Know what you want to achieve. Do you want to generate leads for a specific product or service? Or are you more focused on building brand awareness than conversions? Identifying what you want to achieve with SMS marketing will help you tailor your message campaigns and track the results that matter to your business.

Don’t forget to define what a conversion is for you. Is it a sale? A form completion? Someone pressing the “Call Now” button? Tracking conversions is the most important aspect of a marketing strategy, so now’s the time to clearly identify what that means for your business.

Choose a Keyword That Works for You

Your keyword is how new leads opt into your messages. Keep it relevant, simple, and easy to remember.

For example, if you’re a real estate agent, you might use “HOME” or “KEY” so potential clients can quickly sign up. Your ad might say: “Ready to find your home sweet home? Text HOME to 22334!” Boom. Instant lead.

Set Up an Auto-Responder

When a potential client texts your keyword, it’s like they’re holding up their hand for a high-five. Don’t leave them hanging! Respond instantly with an automated message. Your auto-responder should:

• Acknowledge their interest
• Provide helpful info or next steps
• Include an opt-out option for compliance

Keeping with our example of a real estate agent, an auto-responder might look something like this:

Your dream home isn’t far away! Browse listings here: [link]. Questions? Reply anytime! To opt out, reply STOP.

With TextSpot, you can even add trackable links, images, and more to keep leads engaged 24/7 without ever lifting a finger.

Make the Magic Happen with Your Follow-Up

Getting a lead is great, but staying in touch is what seals the deal. Keep leads engaged with:

• Regular (but not overwhelming) follow-up messages
• Valuable content, not just promotions
• Messages tailored to why they opted in—skip the generic fluff

Timing is everything. Send too few messages, and they forget about you. Send too many, and they unsubscribe, or worse, mark you as spam. The right balance depends on your audience.

There’s a saying in marketing that targeting everybody means you’re targeting nobody. The more specific (dare we say, niche) your target audience becomes, the easier it will be to create SMS marketing campaigns that resonate with them and draw them down the conversion funnel. 

Consider your ideal buyer persona with questions like these:

• Who is this person?
• What do they do?
• Where do they live?
• What matters to them?
• What problem do they have that your product or service can solve?

With SMS marketing, as with any marketing, your goal is to create specific messages that speak directly to your target audience’s pain points and desires. And one thing’s for sure: consistent follow-ups build trust and drive sales. In fact, 50% of sales happen after the fifth contact.

Text Lead Capture Example

Let’s check on our real estate agent, Jennifer Smith. She’s a new agent looking to grow her client base. She’s gotten a few leads through her brokerage’s lead-sharing program, but she wants to grow her own pipeline. 

At first, she tried cold calling, but it was nothing but rejection and it was starting to ruin her reputation. Next, a friend suggested she get a billboard like the biggest agents in town, but she checked the price and it was out of her budget. Then, she tried social media, only to watch her posts get buried by an unfeeling algorithm. The few visitors who did find her came and left without reaching out. 

Frustrated with traditional marketing, Jennifer switched gears. Instead of relying on social media, calls, or even billboards, she made it simple.

She created a free guide called “5 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Home.” Then, she hosted an open house for another agent in her brokerage. There, her marketing materials included this message: “Want my free home-buying guide? Text HOME to 22334!” She also sent follow-up texts to open house visitors and ran an SMS campaign targeting first-time buyers.

The result? Prospects texted in, instantly received her guide, and stayed in touch. Her auto-responder provided valuable information, and, over time, Jennifer built strong relationships without the digital clutter.

By using SMS for lead generation, Jennifer turned casual interest into serious buyers, all with a simple text message. 

Examples of SMS Lead Capture Tactics

Share Exclusive Offers & Promos

People love feeling like they’re part of a secret club! Let your customers unlock special offers by joining your SMS list.

Offer Valuable Downloads

Don’t be afraid to give away good stuff for free! Earn your leads’ trust and get them to your website with a link to relevant content.

 

Encourage Engagement

Encourage your leads to connect with you in other ways, like signing up for your newsletter or following you on social media.

Send Short Videos

Whether you’re sending a helpful video as a first contact or you’re providing value to existing subscribers, a video is a great way to engage with your leads.

Keep It Simple

No matter what method you choose, be direct and keep your message simple, personal, and personable.

Why SMS Is a Lead Gen Game Changer

It Runs Laps Around Email

In 2024, email had an average open rate of around 36% and a click-through rate of 2.6%. That means that if you emailed 1,000 people, only 360 of them would ever read it—and only 26 of them would click through to your website.

But it gets worse. One study found that the average conversion rate for people who clicked through was only 15.22%, which means that, if you’re relying on email marketing, roughly four out of every 1,000 people are going to convert. 

On the flipside, SMS has an open rate above 90% and an average click-through rate (CTR) between 20% and 35%. (Keep in mind that your CTR may vary enormously depending on what kind of text you send.)

Another important data point to track is your conversion rate (CVR). For instance, cart abandon messages that notify customers when they leave items in their cart have an incredibly high CVR: between 24.6% and 39.4%.

So, let’s do some math. Let’s say you have 1,000 customers who left your site without going through the checkout process, so you send a cart reminder text to all of them.

• If 90% of your customers open your abandoned cart text, 900 customers see your message.
• If 25% of those customers click through to your site, that’s 225 potential sales.
• If 32% of those customers finish their checkout, that’s 72 conversions compared to four from email.

How’s that for a game-changer?

It’s Personal & Powerful

SMS messages are wildly versatile and can be tailored to specific audiences. If you’re tracking website and conversion analytics, then you already know different things about your customers and their behaviors when engaging with your brand. That makes it easy to sort them into different contact lists or groups and ace the trifecta of marketing: getting the right message to the right people at the right time.

For example, let’s say you own a clothing store. You could text customers who previously bought winter coats to offer a discount on other winter accessories. Or maybe a recurring customer looked at a product on your website but didn’t buy it. Nothing like an “It looks like you found something you love!” text with a discount code to close that sale. 

It’s Affordable Marketing Made Easy

SMS software like TextSpot is incredibly cost-effective compared to other marketing tools like email or social media. With SMS, there’s no paying for advertising space, designing eye-catching graphics, or fighting for recognition by whatever algorithm is calling the shots. Instead, you can focus on perfecting your messaging to engage your audience where they already are—instead of hoping they see your post. 

At the end of the day, SMS marketing helps you:

• Get eyes on your message in minutes, not days.
• Boost conversions with clickable links or promo codes to nudge leads down the funnel.
• Keep your brand top-of-mind with regular texts that aren’t intrusive.

SMS Lead Generation Best Practices

Ethical Contact List Growth

We’ve touched on this already, but don’t text anybody who hasn’t opted in to hear from you! Under no circumstances should you purchase lists of phone numbers. Not only is it a gross marketing tactic, but texting people who didn’t consent to receiving communication from you also violates the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The legal headache and damage to your brand just aren’t worth it. 

Luckily, there are lots of ways to use TextSpot to grow your SMS contact list without resorting to such scummy tactics.

• Add your text-to-join keyword to your website, ads, and social media posts.
• Embed a sign-up form on your website.
• Import your list of contacts who have already agreed to hear from you.

Personalization & Segmentation

Personalization can be as simple as adding a variable to address the recipient by name. (Pro tip: Use their first name. Getting a text that says “Dear Jane E. Smith” feels disingenuous and robotic.) You can also tailor your message to their interests or behaviors.

Segmentation involves dividing your audience into groups based on criteria such as location, age, or interests so that the right people get the right offers. For example, a clothing retailer wouldn’t want to send a message about a sale on snow boots to their entire customer list, only to the people who live in snowy states.

Incentives & Calls to Action

Include incentives to encourage conversions, like limited-time offers, discount codes, or free trials. Every message you send needs to be valuable to your audience. They’re looking at your messages saying “What’s in this for me?” Tell them upfront.

How to Measure Your Campaign’s Success

It’s not enough to simply launch a campaign and hope for the best. If you don’t track and measure, then you have no way of knowing if your efforts are working or if you need to tweak your SMS lead generation strategies. 

Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

There isn’t a set list of KPIs that every brand always needs to monitor. What you track depends on what matters to your business, but these three metrics are generally helpful to track:

• Open rates: Measures how many people are actually opening your messages. A low open rate could mean your messaging needs work or you’re not targeting the right segments of your contact list.

• Click-through rates (CTRs): This measures how many people click on the links in your messages. A low CTR might mean your messaging isn’t engaging or the CTA isn’t compelling enough.

• Conversion rates (CVRs): The king of the KPIs. This measures how many people are taking a desired action after they land on your website. This might be filling out a form, making a purchase, or requesting more information. A low conversion rate could mean your landing page needs improvement or that your messaging isn’t aligned with your target audience’s needs.

Analyze & Optimize Your Campaign

Once you’ve established your KPIs and started collecting data, you need to analyze the results and optimize your data over time. Evaluate your results at the same interval (no less than quarterly) to track progress and identify areas that need to be optimized.

Don’t be scared of experimenting with your text message marketing strategy. Play with timing and frequency, different CTAs, or alternate segments. There are no silver bullets for successful marketing, but the experimentation is part of the fun!

Revolutionize Your Marketing with TextSpot

TextSpot simplifies SMS lead generation with powerful features that help you reach your audience faster and smarter. Get started for free and watch your leads roll in.

 Start Your Free Trial