SMS marketing has started to gain a lot of traction in the business world. With SMS open rates as high as 98% , texting offers a great way for businesses to interact with customers. If you thought texting was only reserved for family and friends, you’re mistaken.

In fact, 68% of businesses are reported to have already been using texting to engage their customers. Texting is a versatile marketing tool that can be used with a few simple settings for promoting sales, announcing products, and customer service.

Texting, being an informal medium most of its life, may make it seem difficult for companies to engage users while appearing professional. It’s also difficult to know what you should say over text, which leaves most businesses sleeping on this massive opportunity.

If you resonate with the above, using a text template is a great place to start. A text template will allow you to automate your SMS campaigns and customer service, and maintain a consistent tone for your brand. It can leave a positive impact on customers, improve ROI and increase conversion rates - giving you peace of mind in order to save effort to focus on your business. It just makes sense!

In this article, we’ll note what text templates entail, the benefits of using them, and a list of ready-to-use templates for different scenarios.

What is a Text Template?

A text template is a preset text that is sent to customers after being triggered. Triggers are usually set up, such as when a customer types in “DONE” and a preset response layout thanking them would be automatically sent to the customer. It automates your SMS marketing and customer service, and helps send pre-written texts repeatedly.

Text templates are not always called that. They may also be known as saved replies, canned responses, or text snippets. Professional messaging software such as Salesmsg helps you set up a text template through their saved replies feature. This allows you to send the same messages repeatedly, send mass texts, and include a multimedia template file or multiple files.

Rather than coming up with new ways of engaging with customers for each interaction, businesses write a text template for each occasion thanks to their versatility and cost-effectiveness.

Why Should You Use a Text Template?

Competition is fiercer than ever and customers expect fast responses from businesses. According to a report by Hubspot 82% of customers expect an immediate response to a marketing or sales question. This figure jumps to 90% when they have a question related to customer service.

Since a text template can be automated, it is faster and more convenient to use when interacting with customers than by sending a manual text message each time.

Here is how text templates can offer a wide range of benefits to your business:

Speeds Up Response Times to Customer Queries

A text template's main program helps automate responses to customer questions. As soon as the customer sends a message or performs a recorded action, it will trigger the preset text. This means customers get lightning-fast responses to questions and complaints, and quick access to key information. Customers take this quick response time as a sign of your devotion to them!

It may be necessary to set up a particular template for much more demanding industries, such as banking and security. People would expect businesses operating in these industries to reply promptly as they possess important and sensitive customer data.

For example, if you just transferred money to someone, you would want an instant message from your bank to notify you whether the transaction was successful or not. Getting an instant response will confirm they sent the money to the right person. It also allows them to check if they sent the money to the wrong person, which will help them reverse the transaction before it’s withdrawn.

Often businesses will set up responses for questions they are asked multiple times (FAQs) for general customer questions. For example, if a customer wants to know what time the business opens, automated response templates could be used. 

By setting up a saved reply you can quickly let customers know the business’s timings without having to reply to dozens of customers manually with the same response.

Streamlines the Onboarding Process

Onboarding new employees requires a lot of attention, time, and effort. You need to teach them necessary skills and requirements to get them up to speed with the business.

This process can be accelerated through one template. For most organizations, preset texts can be used to provide new employees with the necessary information they need to understand how to engage customers.

Team members can share text templates to give each other an idea of how to respond to a certain query or issue and what information needs to be included in a message.

A text template can also be used to keep them updated with internal activities inside the business. This is especially useful for larger enterprises where newer employees may feel lost and overwhelmed with not much idea of what the work culture is like. Through mass-texting with text templates, managers can inform employees of meetings, delayed packages, and time shifts.

Maintains Brand Image and Tone

If you want your brand to sound fun and joyful, it can be difficult for the whole team to maintain that image when writing and engaging with customers. This is where text templates come in handy. A preset response ensures your customers get the same vibe throughout their interaction with the brand.

Sometimes different employees have different approaches. Some may be straightforward and give blunt responses whereas others might overwhelm the customer by bombarding them with too much information.

Having access to a text template for every scenario will help bring consistency to the whole team and guarantee a personalized experience for your customers every time.

Prevents Mistakes

When you’re expected to send key information, sales promotion, and customer service texts quickly, it’s easy for some errors to slip through the cracks. A typo may not be a big issue but mistakes in time-sensitive notifications, such as writing the wrong date on a doctor’s appointment, can lead to big problems.

Spelling errors, typos, false information, and improper formatting harm the customer experience. It leads to reduced trust, a bad reputation, and customer complaints.

By using a written text template, these issues can be easily avoided. Note that since they are pre-recorded, team members can quickly respond to queries and mass-text appointment reminders, updates, and other important data. Since text templates will also save time on responding to general questions, by setting up saved replies to FAQs employees will be able to give more time and attention to other aspects of the business.

Improves Overall Customer Experience

With faster response times, error-free texts, and consistent branding, text templates offer a full suite of benefits.

But, if you’re still not convinced, you should know that 76% of millennials prefer texting over other mediums of communication due to the ability to check their messages whenever they want and save time. 69% of customers also prefer communicating with their favorite brands over text.

A golden rule of providing a positive customer experience is giving them what they want. And from the data available it’s clear that customers want to be reached by businesses through text.

Although manually texting may work for a sole owner, more established businesses with 20+ employees would need to use a text template to keep every customer feeling valued and happy with the service consistently.

A written text template has many benefits when it comes to answering customer needs and improving the overall customer experience. However, customers prefer talking to humans rather than chatbots and a text template might make companies sound disingenuous.

So, keep reading for our collection of ready-to-use text templates that you can use for your brand. These templates will not only guarantee higher engagement but increase conversions as they have a natural tone with powerful CTAs.

15+ Powerful Text Template Examples to Use for Your Business

Text messaging  has evolved quite a lot since its inception. What started as a medium for chatting with friends and family is now one of the best formatting and marketing tools used by businesses. But businesses were quick to frustrate customers with annoying spam and over-promotion of their products, which has led many of them straight to the blocklist.

If you want to avoid the dreaded block list and reap the benefits of a template text, save your energy with these tried-and-true text templates will prove to be effective:

Sales & Marketing

These are the most common types of sales messages that customers receive. To stand out, you need your SMS to have a custom function, catch the viewer’s eye, create a sense of urgency, and include a click-worthy CTA.

The below sales and marketing text templates are concise and have a conversational tone. You can edit these as you like to incorporate your brand’s voice, but beware of common spam words and cliches like FREE, SALE, BUY NOW, etc.

New Product Release

“Our XYZ make-up box will be launching on 25th September at 10 AM EST! Get ready to strut your best pose as you get your hands on the best makeup in town”

Alternatively, you can also provide a countdown that builds up to the actual product launch:

“Only 5 more days left before the XYZ make-up box hits stores worldwide! Get the exclusive first look by clicking this link: [URL]”

Including images and videos of the product is also proven to increase the chances of a purchase. According to Attentive Mobile Consumer Report, 51% of customers are more likely to purchase after receiving a message including multimedia. Your first file could make a big difference!

To take advantage of this, you can include a product image or teaser along with your message.

Promotional Sales

“ABC Jeans is offering a flat 20% off on all their items until the end of October. Visit our branch at [address] for details and exclusive prices.”

It’s a good practice to keep your sales messages short and direct. Sending a simple sales message will help you avoid sounding too “salesy” and can quickly give customers the info they want.

Exclusive Events Invite

“On this Father’s Day show your love by buying the ultimate gift for your dad with amazing discounts on the latest version of X at XYZ Gift Shop. Start shopping: [URL]”

Events and special occasions are the perfect time for sending a promotional text template to potential customers. Adding an emotional touch to your SMS campaign that is relevant to your offer is also key for increasing the chance of a click-through.

Offer Discount Vouchers & Gifts

“Planning to eat out? Text ‘FREEAPT’ on this number to receive a free appetizer with your order. To unsubscribe to promotional messages reply UNSUB”

Giving customers an incentive to keep in touch with your business works wonders. Nobody denies free stuff, and giving customers a discount voucher can create a sense of urgency to use it before it expires. 

Gifts are also a great way for customers to get a feel for the product, which can make them loyal customers in the future.

Also to filter out unwilling customers, make sure to include an unsubscribe option to the SMS list. This will be appreciated by people and helps you target only those customers most likely to purchase from you.

Customer Service

Customer service text templates are one of the most preferred forms of messages customers would like to receive. With instant notifications of confirmation, appointment reminders, a follow-up text template, and tracking info, texting can keep customers in the know and increase engagement.

Appointment Reminders

“Hey, John! We’d like to remind you about your appointment with XYZ Tech tomorrow at 11:00 AM. If you can’t make it on time and would want to reschedule please give us a call at 000-000-0000”

According to ZipWhip’s State of Texting Report, 64% of customers find appointment reminders to be the most valuable text message template they receive. Sending out reminders for customer appointments is the pinnacle for improving the customer experience.

It’s also best to keep appointment reminders short, simple, and professional. Showing a lot of personality or cracking jokes is typically not appropriate formatting for appointment reminders in order to convey the seriousness of committing to the decided time or rescheduling.

Want more info? See our guide on how to create a text appointment reminder.

Confirmation Texts

“Hello, Samantha! Your order for the XYZ make-up box has been confirmed and will be shipped to your address. Thank you for your purchase!”

Confirmation texts aren’t entirely necessary but allow businesses to go the extra mile to assure the buyer their order went through. For some industries, it may be key to include confirmation texts for security purposes and a custom function.

We’ve seen confirmation text templates being best implemented on application of security layers to accounts:

For example: “Two-factor authentication has been successfully applied to your account” or “thank you for confirming your email”.

Follow Up Texts

After sending someone a text template you may follow it up with another text as a reminder.

For example: “We launched our XYZ make-up box yesterday and it’s selling fast! If you haven't gotten your hands on it yet, you can order it from the official website: [URL]”

This increases the chance of getting a lead and the reader clicking through to the link. These templates are different from an appointment reminder and don't have to be overly formal or personally reach out to the customer by name. It acts as a general reminder for anyone who may have not acted upon your first text template and attempts to pursue them again in order to close the sale.

Product Tracking

“Hi, Henry. Your Black Coffee Table has been received by us! The delivery is estimated to arrive on 8th October 2022. To stop getting timely updates, text UNSUB.”

After appointment reminders, product tracking updates are considered the most valuable text templates customers expect to receive. Remember to only include info relevant to the delivery status of the product. Suggesting they buy another product whilst the current one is on its way will lead to customer disapproval as they only subscribed for tracking updates.

Once the user is subscribed for getting product status updates, you can keep them in the loop by updating them along the way through follow-up text template.

For example: “Hey there, your order for Black Coffee Table is on the way! Kindly arrange the shipping cost as your product is on route for delivery.”

And then a final message for when the product is delivered:

“Hi, Henry! Your package has been delivered and is waiting for you at 123 Post Office. For any complaints or questions kindly call 000-000-0000”

Text to Join

Text to join campaigns are one of the most effective ways to grab customer information. These can be automated and mass-texted to thousands of people. Since they typically include an incentive like a free discount voucher or collectible, it has the potential to massively increase your customer base.

These campaigns are usually hosted to grab as many numbers as possible and include them in the business’s contact list. You can then use these numbers as potential customers and send them promotional messages or product offerings.

Customer Feedback

“On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate our services? Your feedback is highly appreciated! XYZ Tech”

Text messages are an effective way to grab valuable customer feedback since it’s much more personal. This will allow you to gather data, send an error message, and discover opportunities for improvement in the business.

Alternatively, you may also use YES/NO responses such as:

“Thank you for contacting us! Did our support team help solve your problem? Kindly reply “YES” or “NO”. Feedback is appreciated!”

These kinds of messages may be limiting as there isn’t any scale to judge how good or bad the service was. However, it still helps you identify if there are any issues in your customer support team.

Link to Surveys

“How did you like our new Vrooom Electronic Vacuum? Kindly take this 5-minute survey at [URL] and win a discount voucher for our electronics section to use in any Vrooom store”

Surveys are also a great way to collect and gather customer data. It’s much better than the previous yes/no questions because they give context and can add custom replies from customers.

Since surveys take time to complete, many users may be hesitant to click through. Offering an incentive such as a free voucher would motivate them to complete the survey.

Contests

“What is the name of the tallest building in the world? Text your answer to 7777 and win a chance to go on an all-expenses paid holiday!”

Hosting contests are a great way to excite audiences and include them in your contact list. Since contests naturally create a sense of urgency (everyone wants to get their hands on the prize) they are the most highly engaging texts to send to potential customers.

Alternatively, you can also add links to polls. This will not only gather members for the competition but also direct traffic to your website and help build an engaged community for your brand.

For example: “Interested in winning an all-expenses paid trip to Abu Dhabi? Answer the latest question on our website [URL] and get a chance to be the lucky winner”

After the competition ends you’ll also have to inform the winner they won the competition. An example of that would be:

“CONGRATULATIONS! You’re the lucky winner of our “Guess that Place” competition! To claim your prize contact: 000-000-0000”

Giveaways

“In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we’re giving away free t-shirts to the first 100 customers that text ”FREE” to 7777”

Giveaways are a great way to engage customers and improve brand reputation. By giving away free stuff such as shirts, mugs, or other collectibles, people would be more likely to engage with your brand in the future.

COVID-19 Safety Precautions

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, millions of people around the world have been filled with uncertainty. Many are hesitant to go to stores or restaurants for fear they might be infected or would be presented with closed doors.

During times of uncertainty, it is crucial to keep your customers informed about the status of your business. If you’re limiting in-person services, direct people to your website, or if you’re closing the business let your customers know.

Not only does this keep customers updated, it also shows that you value and appreciate them coordinating with you during times of unease. However, since a pandemic is something you’d be the least prepared for, here are some text templates to send out to your customers.

Limited Services

“Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, we have discontinued our party dinner event hosting. However, we’ll still be taking orders for deliveries and takeaways!”

The coronavirus outbreak led to increased costs for many businesses. Some businesses were forced to limit their services.

If you resonate with the above situation you should inform your customers of the services you will be discontinuing, as well as provide alternatives if they still plan on communicating with you. The latter is important to keep the customer relationship intact and prevent losing loyal customers.

Reopening Updates

“We are happy to announce the reopening of ABC Food! Please follow all safety guidelines issued by the government and wear masks when visiting the premises.”

COVID-19 brought in a lot of uncertainty not only for the general public but also governments. The fluctuation in the spread of the virus has forced the government to issue laws for the closure and reopening of businesses.

Some customers may be confused as to whether a brand is operating or not due to the change in the law. Some businesses, despite being allowed to reopen, did not reopen in COVID and left a lot of customers facing closed doors. It’s essential to keep your customers updated and happy to avoid losing them.

COVID-19 Precautions Disclaimer

“Your order has been dispatched. To comply with social distancing guidelines, our rider will leave your package in the doorway and ring your bell.”

Many customers will be hygiene-conscious to reduce the risk of infection of the coronavirus. It’s best to respond to these hesitations before they come up. Sending a disclaimer to the customer before delivering a package will give them the peace of mind that your business is following safety standards.

Business Closure Alerts

“We regret to inform our customers that ABC Food will not be operating due to the newly imposed coronavirus laws. We hope to return as soon as things settle down”

Closing down your business is a tough decision to make but you can’t forget the customers that helped support your business before it hit hard times. Informing your customers of a branch closure will show them the business values them and prevent them from wasting their time by trying to contact the business.

Best Practices for Using Text Templates

Adhering to best practices when crafting your template text will help ensure maximum effectiveness. Since these texts can be used over and over again they should be done right before mass-texting them to all your customers.

By adhering to best practices you can guarantee your text templates will massively improve customer engagement and conversion rates.

Keep Your Texts Short and Simple

SMS text messages have a character limit of 160 characters. This means that you need to write your texts concisely. Although most modern devices allow texts to be up to 1600 characters, keeping your texts short will lead to better readability as customers don’t like to read long walls of text.

Don’t let the character limit stop you from conveying important information about your business. Businesses can use this as an opportunity to be creative with their message and direct traffic to other sources for details.

Include Other Multimedia

Adding images and videos to your messages can make them visually appealing to customers and is a sign of creativity. Take advantage of MMS to send messages regarding products. By attaching videos and images to text templates, customers will be able to get a good look at the product, which helps them in deciding to purchase the product.

Add an Attractive Call-to-Action

Effective text messaging templates include an enticing call-to-action that triggers a response from the customer. After reading through the text the customer would need to be guided as to what to do next.

For example, you may be offering a 20% discount on clothing items in your store, but what does the customer do with that information? Should they order from your website, go to your store, or reply to the message to use the discount?

Adding a call to action will guide your customer to the “next step.” It also helps create a sense of urgency by using CTAs like, “click on this link to enter now…” which makes it seem natural for the customer to want to click through.

Be Transparent

Texting allows you to engage with customers on a personal level. However, you can quickly find yourself on the “blocked” list if you seem robotic or fickle. You should have a conversational tone and talk to customers naturally as you would in person.

By being transparent and communicating in a way that reflects your company values, you can rest assured that customers won’t deal with you as spam and will be much willing to coordinate with you.

Conclusion: Use Salesmsg to Create Effective Text Templates For your Business

Today businesses are expected to keep a consistent image and give faster responses to customers. Business texting has enabled businesses to achieve that by automating replies to customers.

Text templates allow businesses to create preset responses for customer needs and mass text campaigns. In this article, we looked at its importance, and its multiple use cases, and provided a list of high-converting template text examples.

To create your text template through a simple template source code and start capturing audiences opt for Salesmsg today. Salesmsg gives you an all-in-one suite for managing your contact lists and inboxes. Its Saved Replies feature allows you to create preset responses, set up frequently asked questions, and built-in opt-in, opt-out management.

Salesmsg painlessly integrates with your current workflow and gives you a beginner-friendly dashboard to manage all your Business SMS. 

Try Salesmsg for free today!!