SMS for Sales: Capture Attention with Merge Fields

Outreach texts that include a personal touch capture attention significantly more than non-personalized texts.

Here’s how Merge Fields can help you encourage customers and leads to take more actions that increase sales.

1. What is Personalization?

Personalized texts target leads and customers based on their individual details.

Which would you be more likely to care about? An offer tailored specifically to you, or something that feels mass produced? Personalization is creating those tailored experiences, so you can strengthen relationships and conversions.

Personalization in your text messages can look like:

Referring to a customer or lead directly by name
Referencing previously established pain points and use cases
Calling out previously purchased products or services in relation to upsells
Timing messages based on purchasing habits

The key is to consistently document personal details about customers that you can then easily refer back to. Merge Fields help you do exactly that, so you can increase conversions through text message.

2. How Merge Fields Work

Merge Fields allow you to personalize individual messages to different people based on the info you have saved about them.

When you add info about a customer or lead to their contact details, you can than automatically insert that same info as custom fields while composing individual messages with Merge Fields. These details could include:

First and last name
Last service or appointment date
Most recent product purchase
Top use case
Birthday
Preferred store location
Number of existing points for a reward system

While Merge Fields only work when sending individual messages, you can create templates intended for multiple people that contain Merge Fields. That way the template is ready for you to use as needed.

3. When to Use Merge Fields

Merge Fields fit naturally into the texts you’re already sending.

In other words, they’re useful anytime you want to capture someone’s attention with a message. Even if it’s just adding a Merge Field for the customer’s first name into an existing message campaign, you're going to see a significant boost in engagement.

That said, it also helps to consider:

Seasonal events or offers the customer usually participates in
How long it’s been since you last reached out to a lead
Upcoming appointment or service dates
Milestones or sales deadlines you’re trying to meet

Any kind of personalized texts will capture a customer’s attention. Combine that with the speed of texting, and you’ll hook customers and leads as soon as you put the line in! That all goes back to the engagement and returns you want to see.

Want to dive deeper? Check out our guide, 7 Steps to Closing More Sales with Business Text Messaging.