June 11, 2019 5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

If you haven’t done the math, tested the entire marketing funnel or set aside the right funds, then you’re likely working too hard and getting nowhere. Marketing is a challenge if you can’t capture the costs. What’s even more important is knowing the results after the spending is done.

Just think about this: for every dollar you spend, let’s say that you get $3.50 back. This is what we all want to know, but you have a consumer to think about first.  

For every day that goes by without you converting those leads you’ve paid money to acquire, you’re losing money. Therefore, the faster you can turn leads into sales, then faster you can grow and scale your sales.

One of the most overlooked tactics (and my personal secret) to optimizing my marketing funnels and growing quickly is to compress the lead conversion time, one way I do this is through business text messaging. Let’s dive in…

The business texting option.

Text messages are fast, effective and friendly, and your smartphone is optimized to receive them. In being “optimized,” we’re suggesting how easy it is to receive a message without opening it up. It will rest on a locked phone screen. Unlike emails, texts will give you an audible notification after arriving. A business text message, believe it or not, has a 98-percent-open rate.

Few people wait to do the opening. Out of the leads tracked, roughly 85 percent of them read their text within 15 minutes of receiving it. Just think of how busy our lives have become; we have little time to spare. Having the prospect of one glance as enough to convert your leads with is priceless

Why your CAC is important.

Your “customer acquisition cost” (CAC) calculates where your money stands as you try to make more of it. You can only cut down on the costs of advertising when you know how much you’re spending. Still, cost isn’t enough.

Your CAC is how much you’re paying to turn leads into buyers. That is a specific chemistry. Many of you are hesitant. Some have already given up. When you lack the desire and drive, you also lack a direction to go in.

Better understanding the costs, as it relates to acquiring leads, will give you guidance to stay on track with. The simple evaluation is this: If it doesn’t give you the numbers you need, then something needs to be adjusted.

We can even see when our message isn’t strong enough. We learn this by seeing how much it costs to convert people. Keeping your customer acquisition cost down can be achieved with business text messaging.

Related: 104 Facts You Didn’t Know About Mobile Marketing (Infographic)

1. Learn who your leads are.

Making the most out of text messaging is done with a strategy. Don’t pursue your leads at face value. Dig deeper. Find out who they are and then give them the unexpected. Your first step is to uncover their needs.

Every marketer, for better or for worse, has to discover the “pain” of an audience. Simply uncover their biggest challenges, and then present your product as their solution.

2. The art of conversions, persuasion and nurturing.

You now need to be persuasive. Here’s where most marketing campaigns fail. Many have already lost because they immediately scream “buy now!” What you want is to nurture your leads instead. Slowly guide them, strategically excite them and then, when they least expect it, surprise them with your solution. Be honest in your tone, and never go overboard.

Related: 5 SMS Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

3. Building a strong campaign to automate.

Now is when you build a campaign. It’s better when your two-way business texting content is prewritten. If you can set aside some time, work on creating a string of messages, which you can automate later on.

Running a campaign in this manner will give you time to then run your business. You will also stay a few steps ahead of your leads. Consider, for example, writing enough content to send out over a year. This could be 52 messages sent out, as in automated, weekly.

Related: Five Tips for Better Text-Message Marketing

Leaving off with a customer-friendly note.

A true two-way business text messaging system has to have an element that people see as real. It’s good to automate your texts, but be ready to then follow up with a real response. You or your team will suffice as the people responding. Just show us that real people are involved and that you care about the concerns that your readers have.

If you’re struggling to produce business text messages, here are 21 business text templates which I useful when getting started and which personally like to use, all of them are already setup and have been tested by marketers before.

Compressing the conversion time it takes for a lead to buy your service offering will not only help you hit your reveneue goals faster but also put a human touch into your communication with your future customers which in turn drives lower churn in the long term. This is one of my secret tactics I have been using for a years and I’m pleased to share it with you today.