It started innocently enough. 

You decided to try out the new Netflix show everyone at work is talking about.

Only now, you've binge watched half the season. You need sleep, but you can’t pull your eyes away from the screen. 

It's not you. Netflix is designed to be addictive. Everything from signing up to using the platform has been engineered to hold your attention. 

It's a seamless experience that takes you from not even having Netflix to someone who can’t stop watching the latest show. 

Now, imagine we applied this same philosophy to your lead generation process. 

You might have an email opt-in, an automated welcome sequence, or a kick-off call. But it still doesn't feel like a seamless experience for your new leads. But there's a way you can make this experience effortless and even enjoyable for your leads. 

It's all through the power of using simple text messages. 

Salesmsg + HubSpot: Why Use Both for SMS Lead Generation

Adding texting to your lead generation process makes it easy for qualified leads to raise their hand and say, "Yes, please contact me."

Then, you can nurture those leads with timely, personal, and relevant text messages, until they’re ready to become your customers. All the while, the experience feels effortless—just like watching the latest series.

With Salesmsg, you can create this seamless experience with text messages. Our simple, scalable platform makes it easy to generate, qualify and nurture new leads all with SMS.

If you’re already a HubSpot user, you can integrate your HubSpot account with Salesmsg in just a few clicks. Once your accounts are connected, you can use Salesmsg to generate  and nurture SMS leads that make you, your business, and your customers very happy.

Why SMS Marketing is Effective for Lead Generation

Customers in just about every industry prefer texting over any other channel. 

• 75% of customers would rather contact companies via SMS
• Text messages have a 98% open rate, ensuring your messages actually get seen and read
• 90% of text messages are read within three minutes, which means no more waiting for leads to respond
• The response rate for text messages is 45%, compare that to email that’s 8-10% on a good day.

Your customers want to hear from you via text, it’s that simple.

One important point, before we jump into SMS lead generation, is that you need to get permission before you can text your leads. This can be through a compliant opt-in or having your user’s text you (using a unique strategy we’ll reveal below).

With that said, let’s get into how to use HubSpot for lead generation by using all the SMS features you’ll find inside Salesmsg. 

Use Text-to-Join Keywords for Easy Lead Generation

You need to make it as easy as possible for people to join your HubSpot list.

Think about how your business generates leads now. You likely have web forms on your site to capture lead information. So, when someone wants information about your business, they have to enter their email address into that web form, hit confirm, and then have to open up a new app and dig through their cluttered inbox to find your email. 

This creates several obstacles for a new lead to join your list. Instead, you can make it an easy and seamless process by using text-to-join keywords.

When you use a text-to-join keyword, you ask people to text a specific word to your business phone number to join your SMS list. For example, you may say something like: “text the word DEMO to (561) 680-6681 to book a sales demo.”

You can use text-to-join keywords to build your SMS list anywhere your leads might hear about your business—whether that’s a podcast interview, a guest article, a webinar, or any offline event. 

Inside Salesmsg, you can set up a phone number to text for your business. You can also create as many keywords as you like to grow your SMS list. When you’re asking leads to text your keyword, be sure to add the proper compliance language, so you have permission to text your leads back. 

Lead Magnets for SMS Lead Generation

Lead magnets and content upgrades are a great lead generation strategy you can use to capture leads on your site. Maybe you're offering a free guide to improve their golf swing, or a PDF that exposes secrets of the insurance industry.  

Traditionally, most businesses only ask leads for their email addresses when they download a lead magnet or content upgrade. Then they deliver that same lead magnet through email. 

However, you can also use SMS to capture leads. On your web form, ask potential leads for both their email addresses and phone numbers when they download a new lead magnet. To be fully compliant, make sure to add an unchecked checkbox that gives you permission to text your leads back. You can see an example below.

You can also deliver that lead magnet through both email and text message. Inside Salesmsg, you can create a text message to send any content upgrade to your new leads. You can either link your text directly to your content upgrade. Or, you can attach PDFs, videos, infographics or other files to your texts if you like.

When new leads subscribe to your list, they'll receive the download instantly through text, and can start consuming it. Compare this to email, which is a much bigger hassle, and there's a chance your subscribers will forget why they even opted in the first place.

Event Reminders and Notifications

Whether you're running an in-person workshop, a webinar, or an industry-wide conference, SMS can help in four ways: 

• Generating leads for the event
• Reminding attendees to show up for the event
• Sending out real-time updates during the event
• Follow-up with a SMS replay after the event

First, always get your attendees’ permission to text them. You can ask for permission to text them on the event sign-up page when you’re capturing lead information. After that, you’re free to text them about upcoming events. In the past, we've used SMS here at Salesmsg to drive webinar sign-ups in a matter of minutes.

Once people are registered, you can use reminder messages to make sure your attendees show up. If your HubSpot account is connected to Salesmsg, you can set up workflows inside HubSpot to send out these SMS reminders. Here’s what it looks like inside HubSpot:

Once your event is live, you can easily use SMS to send out real-time event updates to your attendees. You can also follow-up by texting attendees a replay or final offer.

Promotional Offers and Discounts

Promotions and discounts can help with lead generation and encourage existing leads to buy your product or service. For example, you can add a discount or coupon to high-converting landing pages to encourage leads to join both your email and SMS list. 

Beyond list sign-ups, you can also send SMS promotions to turn existing leads into customers. For example, you might use Salesmsg to send your HubSpot contacts a SMS broadcast with a holiday coupon or a special offer to your VIP customers.

You can also create an SMS promotion without discounting the price. For example, if you're a dental clinic, you can offer two free teeth cleanings if they join your SMS list and give you their email and phone number. 

Follow-up Text after Initial Contact

Only 2% of sales are made during the first contact. The majority of sales are going to come much later on in the sales process. In fact, your conversion rate goes up to 10% after the fourth follow-up message.

Having an SMS follow-up workflow is a surefire way to improve your conversions. The best thing about SMS follow-ups is that they feel like chatting with a friend. There's no pressure and it makes potential buyers feel much more comfortable.

After you generate leads, here are some ideas to send follow-up texts:

• Automate follow-up texts after a live event or webinar
• Automate follow-up texts that re-engage cold leads
• Automate follow-up texts after a product demo or free trial
• Automate follow-up texts after making a purchase
• Automate follow-up texts after a missed meeting or appointment
• Automate follow-up texts after a client meeting or sales demo

You'll notice that follow-up text messages can be added to virtually any automated sales or marketing campaign you're already running. Consider a follow-up text as a gentle nudge or reminder that turns leads to customers without pushy sales tactics.

If your HubSpot account is connected to Salesmsg, you can add follow-up text messages to your existing automated workflows—without even leaving your HubSpot account. Check out our video below for details on how.

Customer Surveys and Feedback for Lead Insights

Running surveys and generating customer feedback helps your business in two ways. It improves conversions by giving you more positive reviews to use in your marketing while also offering you insights to improve your products and services.

The problem with collecting user feedback is that getting customers to complete a survey can be challenging. But with SMS, you can easily send text messages during different parts of the customer journey. For example, if you're looking for product feedback, send text messages during the following moments:

• Right after a recent purchase
• Ask for feedback after a customer support session
• Send a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey within two weeks of completing their customer journey

Again, make sure that you take compliance into account when texting your leads. Only text customers or leads who have opted into SMS communication.

Appointment and Demo Scheduling

Your goal should be to make your customers' lives as easy as possible. 

Think about how simple it is to buy from Amazon. You click two buttons, and your new T.V. appears at your front door in two days. You want appointment scheduling to be this simple.

Most booking forms are clunky, and you're forcing your leads (with already packed schedules and hectic lives) to remember they booked a meeting with your business weeks ago. Instead add texting to every step of your scheduling process.

For example, you can encourage leads and customers to text your business appointment requests. You can also use texting to finalize and confirm bookings, handle rescheduling, and send reminder messages to make sure they remember to show up. 

Once again, you can use Salesmsg to automatically send out all these SMS reminders and scheduling texts from inside your HubSpot workflows.

Re-engagement Campaigns

Leads go cold for a variety of reasons. For example, you could have leads who:

• Were initially unsatisfied after a conversion, meeting, or product demo
• Disappeared after you started to talk about pricing
• Had to put working together on hold for personal or business reasons
• Canceled an appointment and completely disappeared 
• Simply have gone silent over time

All the money you’ve spent to capture leads doesn't have to go to waste. Before you spend another dime on paid advertising, or your SEO strategy, make sure to plug revenue holes with SMS.

SMS offers a quick and easy way to check in with leads and see if they're still interested in your products or services. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple text to reintroduce your product or service into their world.

For example, a simple "Hey, are you still interested in solving "X" problem?" reminds leads what your product or service can do for them. Of course, you can also build longer re-engagement campaigns that include multiple texts and follow-ups that continue to nurture leads for several weeks. 

Once you connect your HubSpot account to Salesmsg, you can automate any of these follow-up texts to re-engage your leads.

Drip and Lead Nurturing Campaigns

Do you find nurturing leads and moving them through your sales funnel difficult? You're not the only one.

Good news: By using SMS, you can create automated drip campaigns that nurture your quality leads without having to do any additional work. Any lead added to your workflow will automatically start receiving your drip campaigns. 

The best thing about lead nurture sequences is they bring leads closer to the point of sale without additional work. Instead, your team can focus on lead generation and conversion. 

When you integrate Salesmsg with HubSpot, you can use Salesmsg triggers to send certain text messages when your HubSpot contacts take specific actions. For example, whenever a new lead signs up for your HubSpot list, you can send a series of texts to nurture them.

Having automated SMS nurture sequences running continuously exposes your subscribers to your business and makes your sales process more effective. 

SMS-Based Lead Scoring

HubSpot and Salesmsg can help improve your lead management. HubSpot offers built-in lead scoring tools that let you score leads based on the likelihood they'll become customers.

Then, you can also use the SMS engagement metrics you get from Salesmsg to better help prioritize and qualify leads within HubSpot. For example, inside Salesmsg, you'll find incredibly in-depth and detailed engagement metrics:

• Conversion tracking to track the monetary value of text messages
• Link tracking to measure clicks and link performance
• Detailed performance metrics like replies, total sent, and more
• View individual contact metrics to see how they engage with your campaigns
• And much more.

Having access to this data improves lead management, helps you create better lead profiles, makes sure you’re focusing on more qualified leads, and makes your marketing and sales process more data-driven instead of relying on guesswork.

Conclusion: Integrating SMS for a Holistic Lead Generation Strategy

By now, you should have a better understanding of how SMS marketing can be used throughout your lead generation efforts. From using promotions and discounts, to automated follow-ups, appointment scheduling, cart abandons, re-engagement campaigns for cold leads, and so much more. 

By using these powerful tools (HubSpot and Salesmsg), you can make lead generation much simpler, and easily take prospects from a visitor all the way to a happy customer. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How effective is SMS marketing for lead generation compared to email marketing?

SMS marketing has higher open rates, response rates, and is better at delivering information instantly than email marketing. Not to mention your leads might be higher quality too, since leads need a higher level of trust to give out their phone number.

What types of messages work best for SMS lead generation?

When generating quality leads via SMS make sure you’re sending highly engaging messages. This can be personalized offers, time-sensitive discounts, timely follow-up messages, and more.

How can I measure the success of my SMS lead generation campaigns?

Successful campaigns are more than just the total number of leads. You’ll want to look for engagement rates, clicks, and an ROI on your messages. Our actionable analytics dashboard shows you everything you need to determine high quality leads and campaign success.

Is it possible to integrate SMS marketing with HubSpot for automation?

Yes, integrating HubSpot and Salesmsg is as easy as a couple of clicks. With this integration you can add advanced SMS functionality to your existing HubSpot workflows and automations. 

What are the best practices for avoiding spam complaints in SMS marketing?

To avoid spam complaints you need to follow the latest SMS compliance regulations, opt-in/opt-out protocols, and respect frequency and sending limits. At Salesmsg, our team can walk you through all this. 

I’m not sure if SMS can work for my business. Can I get a demo?

Yes, our in-house team of experts would love to show you how Salesmsg works with HubSpot, and how texting can work for your specific business. Book a live demo with our team right here. Or text “DEMO” to (561) 680-6681.