Original Article published via AWS (Amazon Web Services)

When harnessed strategically, Short Message Service (SMS) can be an extremely effective marketing tool. According to Gartner, SMS open rates are as high as 98 percent compared to email’s 20 percent average. Companies looking to run scalable SMS applications often rely on commercial software from independent software vendors (ISVs) such as BNS Group to reach their target audience.

BNS is an Australian software provider focused on secure enterprise SMS and fax messaging. Its software runs on the Windows platform and is licensed to public sector organizations such as the Australian Taxation Office and to private firms like Suncorp. For Suncorp, BNS software handles between 2 million and 3 million monthly SMS messages.

Pursuing a Cloud-Based Deployment Model

The COVID pandemic was a sobering reminder for many that preparedness should never take shortcuts. The effects on “business as usual” were devastating, with travel restrictions and office closures causing significant problems in communication throughout the country. Yet, these challenges also gave birth to new opportunities.

The recent report by cybersecurity firm FireEye showed that 66% of businesses have admitted they felt the pandemic exposed weaknesses in their digital strategy.

The communication strategy for your business is an essential tool in helping you serve the needs of both current and future customers. With economic recovery taking hold across many regions, it’s more important than ever to have a well-researched plan that can withstand any disruption on par with what happened during The Great Recession – when businesses were left without employees or infrastructure due mainly because they didn’t know how best protect themselves from risk factors like this happening again.

BNS has a unique insight into the many and varied ways that businesses deploy communications technologies to meet their challenges.

Below are some of the more common use cases we’ve observed for communications platforms as a service:

Appointment and reminders

• Appointment confirmations
• Scheduling system communications
• Appointment reminders
• Appointment amendments or alterations

Security and Compliance

• Two-factor authentication
• Secure communication platform
• Sending and receiving sensitive documents
• Maintaining compliance and privacy controls

Urgent notifications

• Crisis management
• Worker safety
• Patient notifications
• Banking security notifications

Marketing and sales communications

• CRM updates
• Promotional marketing messaging
• Lead nurturing
• Sales outreach

Updates and Confirmations

• Dispatch and delivery updates and confirmations
• Booking confirmations
• Contact centre communication
• Billing confirmations

Education and Awareness

• Student engagement
• Charity Outreach
• Government awareness programmes
• Surveys

Internal Communication

• Remote work communication
• Workplace transformation
• Employee satisfaction and wellbeing
• Internal staff communication tools

SMS, or text messaging, has been used mostly for personal conversations up until recently. A2P, or application-to-person messaging, is for business purposes to send texts from software directly to mobile users. It allows brands to send many automated business messages at once to customers. Smartphone usage is increasing steadily lately, and businesses have started to notice SMS’s scope and importance in their marketing strategy.

SMS marketing is one of the most straightforward ways to communicate with consumers. However, it has yet to be fully utilised. Furthermore, SMS may not only be used to interact with existing clients but also to target new consumers. The ability of Transactional Messaging to deliver timely information is also useful.

The benefits of text messaging for businesses are too good to be ignored.

The major advantage of text marketing is that it is constantly present in our lives, thanks to the widespread use of mobile phones. As a result, sending a message to the device nearest to the individual is simply a matter of convenience.

The low price of bulk text messaging and the wide reachability of the right audience are two of its advantages. Furthermore, you may employ SMS short codes and long codes for a variety of marketing goals.

• Almost 60% of users reply to a text message within 1-2 minutes
• 45% of prospects choose a brand after getting an SMS.
• 67% of users prefer texting with a business about scheduling an appointment to email or phone communication.

Why use SMS in business?

High open rates

Bulk SMS messaging is greatly beneficial because text messages have higher open rates in comparison to phone calls or emails. For example, 98% of the messages sent are opened, making SMS services a fantastic asset to any enterprise needing quick and effective customer service.

Better conversion rate

Many people think that SMS is outdated because of the high usage of instant messaging apps, but there are plenty of advantages to using SMS in business. For example, SMS has a better conversion rate than all its new-age counterparts. People are more likely to visit your business and take action on promotions or offers shared through SMS than any other marketing service.

Enterprise SMS Server software security

BNS’s enterprise SMS server software runs in the customer’s cloud tenancy, protecting sensitive SMS data from exposure to service providers. The SMS Server software only sends the minimum amount of information to the SMS network service provider using secure encryption industry standards protocols. Once the data is sent to the SMS network,  service providers in Australia and some other countries are required to keep the data secure.  All other metadata provided by the customer’s applications to the SMS Server software is securely stored in the customer’s SQL databases in the customer’s cloud tenancy and not exposed to any SMS service provider.  The SMS Server software comes with rich analytics capabilities allowing the customer to examine SMS delivery performance to their customers.

Greater audience reach

Many businesses are moving to SMS as a method of communication because it does not require the internet, and nearly everybody has a working phone. With the high usage of phones, SMS is nothing less of a goldmine. As a result, businesses can use this opportunity to reach customers right where they are by email, giving them the advantage of getting more people involved.

Instant delivery

In order to see the advantages of text messaging for businesses, you must make sure you are associated with a good Cloud telephony provider that has strong network operator connections all over the world. This network-operator relationship can come in handy when businesses need to deliver time-sensitive OTPs.

Campaign success visibility

When analysing the success of bulk SMS campaigns, businesses need insights into how they’re performing. After that, they may use this data to develop their text advertising plans and target the correct audience to gain more attention.

Cloud telephony providers offer real-time data and detailed graphical analytics, including the number of messages delivered, timestamps, message status, whether the customer has read it, which browser was used to visit the site, geolocation data, and much more. Such insights help businesses better understand their target audience, assess a campaign’s success, and plan future campaigns for greater reach.

Easy Opt-in/Opt-out

The major advantage of SMS compared to email marketing is that messages may be stopped if clients don’t want to hear from the business. Shortcode and long-code numbers allow consumers to choose whether they wish to Opt-in or Opt-out of communications. Customers may respond instantly, and businesses can set simple keywords that allow customers to reply quickly. This simplicity enhances customer pleasure and loyalty since they have a way out if they decide they no longer want to receive messages.

Flexible and reliable

SMS services are helpful for businesses- they can announce sales, provide coupons and discounts, remind customers of appointments, share online order status, and more. However, because SMS messages are limited to 160 characters, businesses need to be mindful of how best to utilise this restricted space to most effectively reach their customer base.

msXsms Enterprise SMS Server for Office 365 & Microsoft Exchange

With the rapid growth of email use for interagency communications within the Australian government, a strong case was made for a standardised and machine-readable marking scheme for security purposes. Initially introduced in 2005, the Email Protective Marking Standard (EPMS) was created as part of the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF) to meet this need. At their core, EPMS and PSPF require each entity to identify information asset holdings, assess the sensitivity and security classification of these assets, and implement operational controls for them proportional to their value, importance, and sensitivity.

This framework enables individuals to identify whether any information requires special handling measures. As all Australian federal government agencies are affected by changes to the framework and standards, so are organisations contracting with government entities.

As all Australian federal government agencies are affected by changes to the framework and standards, so are organisations contracting with government entities.

Your organisation should keep several considerations in mind:

1. Acceptance of both old and new standards: Does your organisation require users to be able to mark in both new and old versions of the standards at the same time?
2. Updating schema for new fields and adjusted policies: Is your organisation prepared to update schema for new areas and adjusted policies, such as recipient validation, for example?
3. Addition of optional elements: With this transition, do you require the addition of optional details?
4. Sensitivity level changes: Does your organisation now need to mark material at a higher sensitivity level?
5. Although all these questions are essential, the biggest question to ask internally is, “Are our users ready for the change?” Without buy-in from users, your organisation’s ability to comply with changes to EPMS becomes increasingly tricky.

BNS has made this process somewhat more accessible by ensuring that msXsms is 100% Email Protective Marking Standards compliant. So reach out today to learn more about packages, pricing, and how msXsms can assist your organisation.