Why a Text May Be Worth More Than a URL

Show Notes

• Sending people to a website is a common method for initiating a customer relationship.
• If you have a website pixel for Facebook on your website you will at least be able to track your website visitors and follow up with them.
• If people understand your message and are motivated to take action, you want to reduce the number of steps they have to take in order for them to identify themselves to you.
• If you are doing a podcast, a guest on someone’s show, or using direct mail, you will want to use an SMS call to action.
• If a person is interested enough to go to the website, they will be just as motivated to text into your phone number.
• The difference between getting someone to visit your website and getting them to text in an SMS message is:
• You can still follow up with them on Facebook since their account is likely associated with their cell number.
• You now have their phone number.
• You can communicate via text message which allows for an automated text conversation that rolls into a live conversation.
• You will have more success in being able to continue to market to a potential client as they may sometimes be accessing the site through a phone rather than a desktop computer and it will be more difficult to track the visitor.
• Remember to ask yourself, "How am I going to initiate the customer relationship?" or "How am I going to close the sale?"
• You need to get the right contact information through the sales process.

Transcription of Episode

[00:00:00] Hello, this is Ryan Chapman with Fix Your Funnel. The other day, I had somebody asked me a question. The question was: why would I want somebody to text me when I can just send them to my website? Sending people to a website has been a common method for getting people introduced to a place where maybe you'll generate a lead by having them fill out a form or something like that for quite some time. As we see automation technology continue to advance and take root in terms of small businesses adopting it, we're seeing more and more of that happening.

What I want to tell you today is that that's actually not the best course of action for you to take when you're in some other media and you're trying to push people towards a website and here's why: when I send somebody to a website, now if I'm smart, and I'm advanced and you listen to this podcast, and you probably already have a website pixel from Facebook on your website, then you'll least be able to follow up with them that way. But, if I'm in a situation where I have people understanding my message and they're motivated to take action, [00:01:00] if I can reduce the number of steps they have to take to be able to get that piece of information and at the same time identify themselves to me, that's going to be in my best interest.

This is where the text message actually comes into play. If I'm doing a podcast for example, or if maybe I'm a guest on somebody's show, or I'm speaking to somebody from the stage, in these scenarios I definitely want to be using an SMS call to action.

Another place where I'd be doing it is in direct mail. If I'm doing direct mail, before I put a website on there, I put a phone number and a text message call to action. The reason being is, if a person is interested enough to go to the website, they will be just as motivated to text in to my phone number. The difference is, once they text into my phone number, I can still follow up with them on Facebook, more likely than not, because their cell phone number is associated with their Facebook account, but I have now opened up the phone. I've opened up the text message because I'm going to do a back and forth automated conversation that rolls over into a live texting [00:02:00] conversation. I might even be able to initiate off of that automated portion of the conversation a conversation that will lead to a customer relationship. I've also been able to send them the link to the website or the information that they requested and I'm not having to worry about someone hitting the website, bouncing off, and never identifying themselves to me.

So, in any kind of situation where they're not already on the website or they're not somewhere where a click may make even more sense because I'm going to be getting some of their tracking going on there, I want to do an SMS call to action. If I'm doing a book, I want to do it in the book. I don't want to send them to a website directly. I want to send them to a text message call to action because in that text message call to action, I'm going to be able to identify who this person is. I don't want to do it in direct mail because in direct mail ,if they just go to the website, I don't know if that person responded at all unless I'm using a pearl, and that frankly is a lot more difficult for people to go to than to have them [00:03:00] text. I really want to be looking at the text message call to action in direct mail.

If I use these interactions, what happens is I identify that person who's expressed interest much quicker. I may ask for an email address in that process so I have a way to deliver stuff to them quickly and inexpensively, but because I've got that phone number I do also open up the door to be able to send direct mail to them in the future specifically, even if they got it through an ad in the newspaper or something like that.

Regardless of the media, we see that having people text message in is going to be much more effective than just having them go to a website because we're adding another point at which they can potentially fail to identify themselves. If I have a path and I have to get a lead off of this and I just send them to the website, if I'm at least doing the Facebook pixel or the Google pixel on them, I'll at least be able to follow up and do some remarketing to them, which means it won't be a total loss. [00:04:00] But if I could take that same motivation I'm using a get them to go to the website and text in, I've got a much better situation I've placed myself in in terms of being able to continue to market to them.

I haven't lost anything in terms of the pixeling because I could still redirect them from that text message to the website, which I've probably done a one up on. Chances are, they're spending most of their time going through Facebook on your website and are on their mobile phone or their smartphone versus their desktop computer, if they even have one. I'm going to be way better off even there than I am just sending them to the website because that may or may not be a computer that they have associated with their Facebook. Either way I'm going to be winning when I have them text messaging.

Next time you're thinking about, how do I generate the lead? Also remember to answer this question: how am I going to initiate the customer relationship or how am I going to close the sale? Because if you don't know how you're going to sell, then you don't have any business starting to generate the lead. Know how you're going to close the sale so that you get the right contact information through the process [00:05:00] to be able to actually have the sale occur or have the customer relationship initiate. This is Ryan Chapman with Fix Your Funnel. Keep moving forward.