In this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast, titled SMS for B2B Success: Modern Marketing Strategies for Revenue Growth, host Kerry Curran sits down with Amanda McGuckin Hager, CMO of TrueDialogue and a seasoned B2B demand generation expert, to explore the game-changing role of SMS in modern B2B marketing strategies. Amanda shares her insights from over 20 years in the field, diving into how SMS is transforming buyer engagement, shortening sales cycles, and driving revenue growth.

The discussion highlights how SMS outperforms traditional email campaigns with open rates as high as 98% and response times averaging 90 seconds. Amanda explains how B2B companies can integrate SMS into marketing workflows, use it for real-time customer engagement, and even leverage it in sales relationships to build trust and strengthen connections. From personalized messages to event reminders and webinar follow-ups, SMS is becoming a critical tool for marketers and sales teams alike.

Amanda also addresses key considerations for adopting SMS, including compliance with opt-in rules, new regulations for text message registration, and the importance of integrating SMS with CRM and marketing automation platforms. She provides actionable tips for brands looking to build their SMS strategies, ensuring that messaging adds value and enhances the customer experience.

Whether you're a B2B marketer or sales leader, this episode offers valuable insights and practical advice on using SMS to modernize your marketing strategies, improve buyer engagement, and drive measurable growth. Don't miss this deep dive into the future of B2B communication!

Podcast transcript

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.356)

So welcome Amanda, please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background and expertise.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (00:06.798)

Yes, my name is Amanda McGuckin-Hager. I am the CMO of TrueDialogue. I've been a B2B demand gen marketer for 20 to 25 years now, working all through the stack, storage, and networking applications. So yeah, thank you for having me.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:26.05)

Excellent. We're very happy to have you here and talk about one of my favorite topics, is B2B marketing and sales, and just opportunities for shortening that sales cycle and improving the close rate. So you've been in the B2B demand gen space for a while, and I know it's changed from my perspective. So tell me more about what kind of what you've seen in that evolution over the past number of years.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (00:53.902)

Yeah, well, I remember being very early in my career and Eloqua had launched and we were doing workflows and steps and stages and here we are 20 years later and that is still, we're still doing that. We're still doing these bulk workflows and sequences and automation. Things have gotten a lot better in that aspect. Though email is still proving a challenge, right? I think on average we're seeing a 20 % open rate and a 4 % click-through rate, the inbox is crowded. So some of these bulk sequences the engagement levels are a little bit lower.

I think what we're seeing now is the evolution into adding SMS as a step in those sequences. SMS has a much higher rate, right, 95 to 98 % open rate, depending on where you get the stat, 90-second average response time. We know that when companies are sending text messages, it's landing in their recipients' phones and it is getting the attention that they want. So that is an exciting evolution.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:09.854)

Yeah, definitely. we were talking about earlier, we've seen it in our own experiences receiving messages, text messages from companies that we're partnering with or purchased from. I believe it's definitely becoming more and more relevant, both from the marketing perspective, but also I think from the kind of user audience perspective, we're responding to them more accepting it as part of our buying cycle. So it's exciting to see it become more of a stronger communication channel for B2B companies. So talk about some of the effective strategies and activations that you've seen from that perspective for the messaging.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (03:02.252)

Yeah. Well, we talked about how marketing is using SMS. We know that B2C companies have adopted it a long time ago. We're all receiving those now, right? But B2B companies are now looking to that same tactic to execute in their workflows. At the same time, sales, and B2B sales teams are also looking to adopt that strategy. So

Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:07.223)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (03:28.014)

We've been hearing from the market from revenue intelligence tools that sit on top of pipelines and Salesforce, for example. We've been hearing from sales teams that use HubSpot or Salesforce or even Dynamics that they're in these longer sales cycles, these higher deal prices, right? We're talking five, six, seven deals, deal size numbers.

We're seeing sales teams develop such a relationship with their prospects and their buying teams that they have moved it from email to their personal text, which is fantastic. It shows there's an intimacy there. It shows that the relationship is building and engaged. There are a few dilemmas with that, and one of them is that it doesn't update the CRM …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:07.906)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (04:26.156)

… Unless the rep manually goes and says, I've been texting with my prospect, the rest of the company cannot tell what's going on with that deal. So the opportunity there is to be able to capture this engagement, this intimate engagement on taxed in the CRM system so that the rest of the company can see it, the reporting can see it, the revenue intelligence tools can see it, and everyone has a better understanding of the likelihood of that deal to close.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:55.266)

Hmm.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (04:55.694)

At the same time, we're seeing sales teams use it for field visits. I'm going to be in your neighborhood. I'll be in the city. You know, I'm having steak dinner at this restaurant. Please join me. So yeah, I think that's exciting. We are accustomed to, in the B2B world, accustomed to emails. And we are becoming more accustomed to text messaging.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:22.324)

Mm-hmm. No, I see that. And you made some really good points about just how companies can use the messaging tools. think some of the examples you gave earlier as well, I'd love the field marketing example, but the bulk messaging as well around events, webinars, and conferences. I love when I'm at a conference and I get a text message with …

Amanda McGuckin Hager (05:47.054)

Hmm.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:52.108)

… kind of cueing me to go to my next session. And to your point now that you can have that kind of customer or prospect engagement tracked with your CRM just gives you more of that kind of buying intent or that engagement that all B2B companies need to be doing more.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (06:14.167)

Yeah, as a marketer myself, I love the idea of sending text messages to invites to my webinar, right? And follow-ups from my webinar of here's the slides, here's the recording. I think it's really powerful for the webinar, the virtual event, the in-person event, and new research. All kinds of applications can be had in the B2B world.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (06:41.898)

Right. Right. And especially to your point, like if you're sending valuable content, we're all on the go all the time. So whether you're you know, now I can, you know, read your latest, you know, industry report or get, you know, an update on on my stat, my purchase status, like while I'm on the go as well, just making it more time efficient from that perspective. And then from the …

Amanda McGuckin Hager (06:49.55)

Exactly.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:10.71)

… from the one-to-one relationship building, you I think what we were talking about earlier, it's so, love, I love that aspect of it and that that is becoming more prevalent because we know from, you you and I been in this space long enough that we know B2B buying, it's a relationship building process, right? It's the, the salespeople are going to buy from the people that they …

Amanda McGuckin Hager (07:26.926)

Mm-hmm.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:39.906)

… trust and believe will help them with the business challenges they're trying to solve with that purchase. But the buying cycles can be so long, especially as you said, with the higher consideration of purchases that things that you buy once every three or four years maybe, it's something that …

Amanda McGuckin Hager (08:02.168)

Mm-hmm.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:08.634)

… is a subscription base or a, you know, an annual contract perspective so that you could make, they could attend your webinar and love you today, but they're stuck in a contract for eight more months. So it's as B2B marketers and business development leaders, we have to find more ways to show, and demonstrate the value from a company perspective. Show we are your partner in this ...

Amanda McGuckin Hager (08:21.742)

Mm-hmm.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:37.132)

… process we want to help you let's stay in touch and so I love that aspect for the sales representative to be able to kind of have that ongoing relationship in text.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (08:52.428)

Yeah, yeah. I've been talking with sales leaders who go into forecast meetings and they're like, know, Bobby, what's going on with this deal? And it does, you have it, there's been no activity on it for three months. You know, what's, what's happening? I was just texting with them yesterday, you know? So yeah, getting everybody on the same page while still giving the rep the opportunity to develop that relationship and create that, that, and I think …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:08.886)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (09:21.326)

… to your point, we're all on the go, right? I love to be able to go to a text and open up a quick report or get a quick project update. It doesn't take that many words anymore. We can all do it really quickly, very succinctly on text and we have knocked another thing off our checklist and we're moving on. So, text is very handy.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:41.494)

Right, right. Yeah. And especially when it's like a quick answer or quick question as well. so many benefits and I love seeing this again as part of the marketing and engagement strategy for any, any business, but especially seeing B2B move towards this more. I know you mentioned though, there's compliance around this. So talk through what the considerations are.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (10:09.846)

Yeah. So I think in talking with my other B2B friends in marketing, trying to understand what's the biggest hurdle, what is keeping you from adopting this. And a lot of it is just an education, right? An education on how to do opt-in. There are two types of opt-in. There's a single opt-in, which is when your prospect fills out a form and opts into your email communications. That language there also states SMS communications.

Of course you're capturing their cell phone number in that form. That is a single opt-in. And there is a double opt-in where the customer goes through or the prospect goes through all those steps that I just messaged. You bring their phone number into the system, you text them back, this is so and so, are you opting in? And they respond, yes, opting in. That's the double opt-in. Different vendors, different ...

Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:43.202)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (11:04.982)

… solutions have different requirements, but understanding how that works is one step. And then there's the privacy policy on the website that will probably need to be updated to include SMS communications. And then outside of that, you're done. Once those things are in place, the opt-in list is complete.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:26.208)

Yeah, and that's great because they're, they're not, it's not a spam situation like it can be with cold emails. Right, right. So it's right. And nobody wants to receive that either. like you and I were saying, how did you, sometimes we're like, how did you get my number? But, but right. So, again, it's another signal of intent that shows that they are interested and want that relationship with you. So, …

Amanda McGuckin Hager (11:31.982)

Correct. Nobody wants to spam. Yeah, nobody wants to spam.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:54.363)

… think that makes it even more important.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (11:57.132)
Yeah, and you brought up something that reminded me. is against, I think it's some regulations put out by the government to sell cell phone number data to each other. So, you know, if you opt-in as a prospect to an SMS, it should stay only with that company. It's a first-party data rule. So each company will have to build their own opt-in lists …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:06.56)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (12:26.758)

… from scratch and that comes with great offers, right? The higher the value offer, the more likelihood you have to build your SMS list from a bulk messaging perspective. Now, the reps can text one-to-one with the permission of the prospect.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:45.44)

Yeah, that's great. And it gives you, like I said, so many more options for communication and relationship building. And you said there's some new legal regulations coming out as well. Talk a bit more about that.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (13:00.064)

Yeah. So there are the telecom carriers. So AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and the others, have banded together and said, as of December 1st, which is just a month away from this recording, as of December 1st, we will no longer pass text messages from companies on unregistered phone numbers. So there are two types of phone numbers. There's the short code, which is a five-digit number, and the long code, which looks like a regular telephone number.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:11.874)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (13:28.742)

all phone numbers will need to be registered for those text messages to go through, which I think as someone who receives text messages is a great thing. It will cut down on spam. It will cut down on the nefarious texting or smishing as it's called. So I think it's a great thing for the industry and companies. It's a pretty easy process to get registered.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:56.64)

Yeah, and that's great. And they all can be opted out just by someone saying stop or, right.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (14:04.14)

Yeah, yeah, there are some keywords that every text message provider will be able to adhere to, opt out by keyword. And you know those keywords. They stop, quit, and that should opt someone out of the SMS program just like that. So easy enough.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:21.728)

Yeah, yeah, this is great. Yeah. So talk a bit about I know, you work with a number of different types of businesses. So where are you seeing, like what verticals or company types are you seeing kind of lean into the text messaging, whether it's the bulk or the one-to-one?

Amanda McGuckin Hager (14:39.394)

Yeah, well, we're seeing in the B2C world, we're seeing colleges and universities, right? Generally speaking, younger audiences do not like to answer the phone, may or may not be checking email. So generally speaking, younger audiences prefer text messages. So colleges, rightly so. They're facing that younger audience. Sports and entertainment …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:48.043)

Mm-hmm, Yep.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (15:07.912)

… is embracing it, texting the know before you go, bag policy, that's always really helpful, the parking policy, and then ticket sales as well. And we're seeing, oddly enough, we're seeing a lot of movement in the SaaS space in this B2B application, just sort of what we're talking about.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:13.548)

Yep, Mm-hmm.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (15:34.456)

So it's exciting as a B2B marketer, I'm excited to be here at this point. It's fun.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:39.072)

Yeah, and it's probably, you just made me think about it's probably a great retention tool as well to be able to kind of have those check-ins or receive questions from your customers, especially in the SaaS space or other technologies to be able to have that kind of those conversations ongoing and provide that customer support in more real-time.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (16:03.522)
Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:08.972)

That's great. So are there other considerations or kind of recommendations you have for brands that haven't tried this but should consider adding the SMS messaging to their strategies?

Amanda McGuckin Hager (16:25.494)

Yeah. Well, I'll say first and foremost, I think it's going to be important to find a solution that is embedded in your existing tools. One of our value propositions at TrueDialogue is the ability to test workflows in Marketo, Eloqua, HubSpot, Dynamics, other Salesforce marketing clouds, and other marketing automation tools. At the same time, we are embedded in the adjoining CRM system.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:54.316)

Mm-hmm …

Amanda McGuckin Hager (16:54.478)

So Salesforce, Dynamics, HubSpot, whatever CRM you might have of the major players anyway. And that gives the team a unified experience. Everyone's working from the same source of truth, from lists and revenue intelligence. So that's the primary thing I would focus on. And then from there, getting that privacy policy and opt-in in place.

You know, talking with your provider on strategies to grow your SMS list, best practices to grow your SMS list. And then, yeah, just making sure that everyone's compliant and the messaging types are of value to your prospects and customers.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:43.244)
That's great. Well, thank you, Amanda. This has been great to speak with you. Always enjoy conversations with other B2B demand gen and marketing experts. So thank you for joining us today.

Amanda McGuckin Hager (17:56.59)
Thank you so much for having me, Kerry. It's been a pleasure.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:59.372)
Thanks.