- Text messages get read within minutes — which is why they must be earned, not cold.
- Use SMS/WhatsApp mid-sequence, after engagement on another channel.
- Two sentences max, sound like a human, always identify yourself.
Your emails compete with two hundred others a day. Your texts compete with maybe five. Open rates on SMS and WhatsApp hover near 98%, most within minutes of delivery — no other channel comes close. That power is exactly why texting is the easiest channel to ruin: an unearned text doesn't feel like outreach, it feels like an intrusion.
Earn the text first
The rule that keeps texting effective: it's never the first touch. Text after a prospect has engaged somewhere else — replied to an email, accepted a connection, clicked a link, visited your pricing page. At that point a short message feels like natural escalation: "Hi Sara, James from BixJet — you'd asked about the CRM sync. Free for a quick call Thursday?" Cold, out-of-nowhere texting to a scraped number is how you get blocked and reported.
Write like a person with a phone
Two sentences, tops. Identify yourself, reference the context, make one small ask. No links in the first text, no formatting tricks, no emoji unless they used one first. WhatsApp tolerates slightly more warmth than SMS — voice notes even work for later-stage conversations in some markets — but brevity wins everywhere.
Where texting fits in the sequence
- Mid-sequence nudge after email engagement — the highest-value use
- Meeting logistics: confirmations, reminders, running-late notes (huge no-show reduction)
- Reviving a warm thread that went quiet after a good call
- International prospects on WhatsApp — in much of the world it IS business communication
Compliance is not optional
Know your rules: consent requirements vary by country and channel (TCPA in the US for SMS, WhatsApp's own business policies globally). Practical basics: text business numbers in business hours, honor opt-outs instantly and permanently, and keep records. A platform that manages outreach across channels — the way BixJet threads SMS and WhatsApp into the same sequence as email and LinkedIn — should handle opt-out tracking automatically across all of them.