SMS lead generation

Get more leads through text messaging

Use text messaging to generate and keep in touch with interested leads for your sales team. Learn how to create leads on Textline’s SMS platform.

Textline makes lead gen easy for sales teams

Sales teams across the U.S. rely on Textline to communicate with leads. See what our customers think for themselves.

<span class="platform__quote">“Textline is so easy to use! I literally use it all day every day! Makes my day so much easier and it's so easy to communicate with all my leads. <span class="platform__quote--blue60">If you’re in sales, you need this product.</span></q></span>

<span class="platform__quote__author">Rebecca R.,<span class="platform__quote__author--blue60"> Capterra</span></span>

A screenshot of a text message

Why SMS for lead generation?

Text message lead generation is a game-changer in marketing and sales for three compelling reasons. First, it boasts unparalleled open rates. The average text message open rate is 98 percent, making it a far more effective way to get a message seen than email or social media channels.

Second, the instant nature of text messaging allows businesses to engage with potential customers in real time, facilitating quicker conversions. 

Additionally, its versatility makes it a go-to strategy for various industries, including real estate, health and fitness, insurance, and car dealerships. If your business has a sales team, SMS lead generation is efficient and applicable.

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Key benefits of texting leads

High open rates

SMS messages have a high open rate of 98 percent. This ensures your target audience actually sees your sales and marketing messages. This high open rate makes SMS a highly effective channel for lead generation.

Instant engagement

The immediacy of SMS allows for real-time interactions with potential customers. From promotions to quick follow-ups, SMS enables sales teams to engage leads when they’re most interested. This significantly boosts the chances of conversion.

Scalability

Generating and nurturing leads through SMS is highly scalable. Whether you're launching a national campaign or targeting specific demographics, SMS can handle the volume while maintaining personalization and relevance.

Versatility

Business texting is highly versatile and can be adopted by a wide range of industries. Sales teams can also use SMS in many ways, including lead generation, lead nurturing, and demo scheduling.

Textline’s stand-out features to know

Textline’s business texting platform is equipped with a suite of valuable sales texting features.

Mass texting

Mass texting allows you to send a single message to many contacts, making it ideal for announcing new products, special promotions, or events to generate leads quickly.

Automated text messages

Our automated texting service can help your team reach prospects at the right time without manual intervention. For example, you could trigger an automatic text after a customer fills out a contact form on your website or create a text message series to nurture leads.

Scheduled text messages

Scheduling text messages in advance ensures you reach your audience at the optimal time. For example, you could prepare demo reminder texts to trigger 24 hours before to remind prospects. 

SMS surveys

SMS surveys can be used to gather valuable feedback from potential or existing customers, which can inform future lead-generation strategies.

MMS messaging

MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) allows you to send rich media like images, videos, or PDFs to prospects. This can help you send personalized quotes, links, or photos via SMS to improve lead engagement and retention.

SMS dashboard

Use our collaborative SMS dashboard to win as a team. Textline is a multi-user platform, which makes it easy to collaborate. You can use Whispers, which are private internal notes, to ask team members clarifying questions to help you close deals.

Text templates

Create pre-saved text message templates, which we call Shortcuts on Textline, to help you reply to leads quickly. You can create templates that answer common questions or a template that asks them to set up a demo of your product.

Tagging

Textline lets you internally group and categorize contacts by adding tags. These labels help you segment your lead list to send targeted messages to specific groups. This enhances personalization and increases the likelihood of conversion.

Metrics

Measure and view your sales team lead outreach performance with metrics from Textline. Our dashboard shows metrics like average response rate and response time.

Two-way SMS

Two-way SMS enables real-time conversations with leads, allowing for immediate clarification of queries or objections, speeding the sales cycle. 

Auto-replies

Are you out of the office? Set up an auto-reply from your texting number to let prospects know. This helps you set expectations and improve the sales experience for potential customers.

Seamless opt-ins and opt-outs

Textline helps our customers comply with SMS requirements. We’ll help you register your number and ensure your opt-in and opt-out procedures keep you compliant.

Why Textline is a best-in-class SMS platform

Textline is an industry-leading business texting platform that equips companies with the right tools to enhance sales, marketing, and customer service. But what differentiates Textline as an SMS solution?

Security

Textline takes security seriously. There’s a reason it’s the most secure business texting platform on the market. From continuous monitoring to advanced encryption, Textline has the safeguards to protect your data.

Personalized support

Get quick, efficient, and personalized support with Textline. Our team is committed to providing five-star support via email, text, or chat. Plus, our Standard and Pro plan customers even get a dedicated support manager.

Built for teams

Textline’s platform was built with teams in mind. Its features help teams balance their text workload, collaborate, and measure performance.

Customer-driven innovation

We constantly innovate with customer feedback in mind. We always consider customer feedback when deciding which new integrations and features to add to our platform.

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Industries that benefit from lead generation SMS

Real estate

Lead generation SMS is an integral part of real estate text message marketing. Realtors can use SMS to nurture interested prospects, schedule house showings, and promote new listings.

Car dealerships

Use SMS lead generation strategies to maximize your dealership text marketing campaigns. You can send inventory updates, schedule test drives, and follow up with interested parties via text.

Insurance

Insurance companies can use SMS lead generation to communicate with prospects and get interested buyers. Insurance agencies can quickly follow up with interested parties via text.

Recruiting

Use text messages to generate leads for your recruiting efforts. Two-way SMS lets you connect with candidates quickly and effectively. Send texts to invite candidates to job fairs, remind them about interviews, and more. 

Health and fitness

Your gym or fitness center can benefit from SMS lead generation. You can share ongoing promotions, new group classes, or set up a referral program. Texting is a great way to upsell current members and bring in new ones.

Salons

Use SMS to help you book more hair and beauty services. When a customer fills out a contact form, text them your scheduling link. This enables you to book more services. 

Business-to-business 

The reality is the sales cycle for most B2B companies is longer. Use SMS to nurture leads and continue to follow up with them to close more deals.

Home services

In the home services industry, you want to provide quotes to interested clients quickly. Use SMS to get in touch faster and improve the likelihood that leads will convert.

Education

The education space can also benefit from SMS lead generation. In fact, tutoring centers can use SMS to promote their product, quickly follow up with interested parties, and more.

Dental

Two-way texting can help qualify more leads for the dental industry. For example, use SMS to answer customer questions about your services and accepted insurance. 

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SMS lead generation frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to generate leads through SMS?

The average cost to send a text message to a lead is just over 1 cent. This makes SMS a highly cost-effective channel to communicate with leads.  

Is it legal to text leads?

Yes, texting leads is legal if you follow all relative SMS compliance guidelines. The main component of a compliant SMS strategy is getting proper opt-ins from customers. This means collecting their consent to text. Additionally, there are some industry-specific regulations to keep in mind while texting. For example, healthcare providers should use a HIPAA-compliant texting software to remain legal and compliant when texting patients.

Do I text leads with my own phone number?

You can use your current landline number or get a new texting number via Textline. We offer toll-free numbers and 10-digit long-code numbers, which are great options for texting leads. We don’t recommend using your current cellphone number as you’d lose voice functionality and the ability to text from your phone's native texting app.

How do I get started with SMS lead generation?

It’s easy to send your first lead-generation message via Textline! You just need to create an account and register your phone number. Textline even offers a 14-day free trial to test our platform before buying. Claim that free trial here.

Work smarter with Textline’s integrations

Textline’s powerful integrations help your sales, success, and marketing teams work smarter. Sync key data between Textline and your favorite sales tools. Textline integrates with top CRM platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. Adding these integrations will help your team get the data and context needed to improve communication and close more deals.

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