Are you taking text messaging seriously? Whether you're a product or service provider, you should start for the sake of your business. Surveys demonstrate that 82.1 percent of smartphone owners open every single text they receive. And only 17% of consumers consider texts from businesses to be intrusive.

Numbers don't lie. So why not take the plunge and try text messaging for your business?

There's much more to it than attracting new clients. In fact, the team from TextMagic.com have made it simple for you in their infographic. They have jotted down the most common use cases of SMS for companies. Let's go over some of them.

Text messages are usually read within the first 3 minutes of receiving. So they are the best solution for time-sensitive promotion campaigns. For even better results, combine email and SMS.

Gaining new customers is good, but what about retaining the old ones? With text messaging you can raise the bar of your customer service. Send them order confirmations to let them know their order is being processed. Notify them about deliveries, flight changes, appointment reschedulings, etc. Make the customers feel cared about. It's a safe bet, they will appreciate it.

It's a no-brainer that both the business and the customers benefit from appointment reminders. Customers don't forget about appointments, while companies reduce the number of no-shows and service delivery costs.

Texting can be used not only for customer attraction and retention. Think inside your company. Effective communication with the staff is another way to use text messaging. There's an administrative side to it-send your employees meeting notifications. And then there is a staff retention side-send them holiday greetings, discount vouchers-anything that can make your coworkers happier.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Texting can be used for a huge number of other cases. We invite you to explore the infographic below and think how your business can utilize SMS.