What Are Employees Looking For?

With the Covid-19 pandemic came a change in the kind of work job-seekers will accept. Many businesses have had to raise their wages to attract new employees, as well as providing other incentives. Job-seekers are being much more selective than in the past. Flexibility has become a priority in many job searches. Workers often want flexibility in both hours and location. Working remotely has shown a significant amount of job-seekers that they prefer to work on their own time in the location of their choosing, so retail and restaurant employers may have to sweeten the deal to get as many applicants as they would in the past.

Seasonal employers can attract more applicants in a number of ways:

• Increasing flexibility
• Paying higher wages
• Creating a pleasant work environment
• Offering employee discounts
• Providing certain benefits that outshine the competition

Using SMS Messaging To Reach Job-Seekers

Now that you have structured or restructured your business to be more attractive to job-seekers, you need to get the word out. There are many ways for you to start searching for applicants, but one method that should not go ignored is through SMS messaging. Here are some ways to use this method to your benefit.

Check Your Customer List

Some valuable employees may actually be found in your customer base. Your customers already have knowledge of your product or service, and they have some level of interest in it. If they are not interested in your job offer, they may still know someone who is and make a referral. 

Include SMS Methods To Apply In Job Listings

Including a QR Code or text-to-apply language wherever you are looking for workers can make the hiring process much easier. Using this method in your bulletins can really help draw in job-seekers, as getting someone to your application page could not be simpler.

Reach Out To Current Employees

You can send out texts to your current employees offering special bonuses for bringing in potential new hires. The employees you already have can give the best pitch to those within their network, and all they have to do is forward your text to a new applicant.

Set Up Keywords For Text Support

You can set up keywords to be texted to your company that come with automated responses. You can use these to answer certain questions you may aniticipate that applicants may have or even help set up interviews.

Keep In Touch With Your Network

Those who have worked for you in the past may be willing to do so again next time seasonal workers are needed. Ensure that their work experience is positive enough that they may want to return. Invite them to events and give them access to bonuses your full-time employees can receive. Most importantly, keep in touch. Do not lose their number. When that busy time of year comes around next time, they may be glad you reached out.

Using TextP2P In Your Marketing

You can set up a form on your website for people to apply and feed that directly into TextP2P. From there, you can kick off an automated drip campaign of messages. Your business could also install our click to text me wordpress plugin or embedded code into their websites.

To start using all the benefits of text messaging to market your business, click here for a 14-day free trial of TextP2P.

The post Tips for Hiring Seasonal Employees with SMS Messaging appeared first on TextP2P.

As business owners, your first major concern now is how to effectively reconnect with your customers. This would require you to clearly communicate your plans to them, including updates on opening hours, products available, and the new safety and health protocol in place as precaution against COVID.

One efficient and practical way to do that is to use text messaging service for business. With over 3.5 billion mobile phone users in the world, taking advantage of text messaging platforms would help you connect to your customers amid the pandemic.

With that, here’s how you can use text marketing to promote your business’ reopening after the COVID lockdown.

1. Reach out to your customers personally and directly

Nowadays, almost everyone is with their mobile devices all the time. Whether  at home or outside, these devices are safely tucked inside our pockets. This makes it the most accessible and convenient communication device for anyone. And with the prevalence of smartphones, people have become more reliant on their mobile devices than ever especially during the pandemic where physical and social gathering are still restricted.

Thus, using SMS marketing services means you can reach out to your customers personally and directly. Your plans on re-opening would immediately reach them with or without the internet. No more logins, loading times, and searching for Wi-Fi connections. Just hit send and your customers will instantly be notified by their mobile devices.

2. Show empathy and concern with your messages

During these tough times, a little show of empathy can get you a long way. This helps build trust between you, your customers, and employees. Upon seeing how much you care about their health and safety, everyone will feel safe enough to start going back to your establishments.

Compose a unified and timely message and send them through various text marketing platforms to let your customers know about your reopening plans after the Covid-19 lockdown. Likewise, include your employees and staff as well to boost their confidence and morale. Through this, you will be able to encourage both your customers and employees to return with the knowledge that they are protected when they do so.

3. Provide continuous updates to your customers

Of course, sending one empathic message won’t be enough to start encouraging your customers to come back. The key is an open and continuous communication line between you and them. Let them know about the details of your reopening plans and send updates regularly.

Most importantly, prepare yourself from possible questions from your customers. Reply to their queries and reassure them of possible concerns. Be transparent and timely about changes in your operations so that your customers are properly informed about these things. You can take advantage of mass texting to reach out to all your customers at one time.

4. Increase your open rates compared to emails

With 65% of people constantly checking their phones over 160 times a day, SMS marketing increases your open rates compared to emails. Unlike email marketing, text messages can easily be read without the hassle of connecting to the internet and logging in to your account. They simply have to whip out their phones and look at the screen to start reading.

Likewise, it has lesser chances of being overlooked by your customers. This is because SMS has no spam folders to speak of. It will be treated just like any other messages without the dangers of getting buried in your customers’ inbox. This makes it harder for them to ignore your messages.

5. Integrate with other types of marketing

The value of text marketing is that it can easily be incorporated with your current marketing strategies. With its ability to quickly connect with your customers, you can use it to promote your social media pages, websites, and products.

Picking up on SMS marketing is quick and painless thanks to the various business SMS platforms. This makes it easier for you to send mass messages in seconds while retaining its personal touch. It can also help streamline customer engagement and manage your contact lists.

Go spread the word

With cities slowly recovering from the devastating effects of COVID-19, it’s time for your business to start re-opening your doors and reconnecting with your customers, and what better way to do that than through text marketing.

Based on the mobile marketing software analysis by FinancesOnline, mobile commerce or m-commerce trends are steadily rising as new devices, technologies, and applications are innovating mobile services. This paves the way for more opportunities to connect to your customers and improve your marketing strategies after the COVID lockdown.If you want to take advantage of what text marketing has to offer, you can check out the features of TextP2P.

The post How to Promote the Re-Opening of Your Business Using Text Marketing after COVID-19 Lockdown appeared first on TextP2P.

4 Ways Restaurants can use Text Messaging: 

Brand Promotion: When it comes to brand promotion for your restaurant, a text marketing strategy can be an ideal option. Promote new menu items, send coupons and point customers to your website to keep your name top of mind with your customers.

Reservations: Text messages are perfect for sending reservation reminders to guests. You can schedule messages to be sent whenever you want and even allow guests to text you back to confirm or cancel.

Gather Customer phone numbers: By creating a keyword you can ask users to text a particular keyword to opt into your loyalty program. Ex. “Text the word SAVE to XXX-XXX-XXXX to save 10% off your meal. Then you have their number to bulk text them whenever you are running special promotions.  

Communicate With Employees: Business text messaging is an excellent, low-cost way to make announcements and share other personalized group communications with your staff. Additionally you can carry on two way conversations to coordinate work schedules.

To learn more about how you can better utilize text messaging for your business, please read SMS Text Marketing For Businesses

How to Get Started Immediately with Text Marketing

The next step is to decide which platform to use to run your text message marketing campaign. We highly recommend our system, TextP2P – Group Texting Made Personal.

TextP2P is an easy to use web application designed to used on a computer or mobile device. TextP2P provides a SMS & MMS text marketing system designed to help small-midsize businesses cultivate better relationships with customers and streamline follow-ups. Send your customers text messages from a virtual 10 digit local number with a maximum of 1600 characters! It offers features like: Sending bulk personalized texts, surveys, drip campaigns, Ringless Voicemails, keyword signups, scheduling, and more.

At TextP2P we offer a FREE 14 day trial where you will receive 100 text credits to use.

Start Free Trial

How Does the Free Trial Work?

  Sign-up for a FREE TextP2P account. Take a tour of the system and watch a demo.

  Sign up for a FREE trial by entering your credit card to start and immediately receive a local area code phone number matching your cell phone and receive 100 FREE text credits.  You credit card will not be charged until your trial is over unless you go over your 100 free texts. After the trial ends your membership begins for just $20/month with our Starter Package Plan.

  You’re in control! Upgrade, Downgrade, Buy Additional Credits, or Cancel at Anytime.

Creating Your First Text Marketing Campaign is Easy

Once you have activated your account by starting your free trial or subscription, you easily send your first text message marketing campaign in just 3 simple steps and in less than 2 minutes.  Watch the video below to see an example of how easy it really is.

The post SMS Text Marketing Strategy For Restaurants appeared first on TextP2P.