Cross-channel marketing allows online enterprises and retailers to use multiple communication channels to interact with consumers and build a unified shopping experience. In this post, we’ll look at the importance of SMS in cross-channel marketing and why it’s essential in a complete consumer journey experience.

Consumers today shift from one channel to another to engage with businesses via email inboxes, social media platforms, smartphones, and laptops. Google found that consumers shopping across multiple touchpoints have a 30 percent higher lifetime customer value than those who don’t.

In relation, Aberdeen revealed that 51 percent of marketers use at least eight channels in delivering customer experience. SMS is one of the touchpoints with increasing usage in online cross-channel marketing strategies. The latest data shows that 69 percent of marketers leverage it worldwide.

In 2020, the number of mobile messages sent increased by a whopping 400 percent. This is likely due to the SMS conversion rate experiencing year-over-year growth of 102 percent. When done correctly, SMS provides an easy way for brands to connect with consumers and convert them into customers. Here are some solid reasons why mobile messaging capabilities are now a must for online brands and retailers rather than simply being a nice perk.

Personalisation

Consumers check their phones about 80-150 times daily, making mobile messaging increasingly personal, immediate, and direct. However, this isn’t the only reason to utilise SMS to customise customer journeys. According to a Salesforce poll, consumers expect it, and those who don’t adapt their communications risk losing almost half of their customers.

Relationship Building

For 75 percent of consumers who already care about a brand, receiving text messages is something they’re open to. As a platform for boosting loyalty and retention, brands can keep shoppers in the loop with the latest updates on rewards.

Mobile messaging can be a great way to connect with customers and offer exclusive deals and offers. You can also use it to survey your customers, collect feedback, and get reviews.

SMS is a quickly-growing tool that brands use to improve customer interactions, loyalty, and retention. Not only is it personalised, accessible, and engaging, but it has also been shown increase conversions. With SMS conversations, you’re no longer limited to just emails and social media platforms. As a highly effective communication channel, SMS rounds out a successful cross-channel marketing strategy.

Enterprise SMS Server software security

BNS’s enterprise SMS server software runs in the customer’s cloud tenancy, shielding sensitive SMS data from service providers. The SMS Server software sends the necessary information to the SMS network provider via secure encryption protocols considered industry standards.

Service providers in Australia and a few other nations are obligated to keep the data safe after it has been transmitted to the SMS network. All metadata supplied by the customer’s applications through the SMS Server software is securely stored in customer’s SQL databases in the customer’s cloud tenancy and isn’t accessible to any SMS service provider. The SMS Server software offers comprehensive analytics tools that allow customers to analyse how well their services perform.

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