By now, everyone has used text messages to send pictures and videos to friends and family before, but have you thought about the technology that makes it all possible?
There are two major standards of mobile messaging today found on modern smartphones:
If you’ve used platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or Skype, then you’ve encountered rich messaging. Before we dive deep into rich messaging, you should understand why users prefer it so much.
Rich communication services is that same technology Google announced last year (and finally implemented) as the primary texting platform for Android. By default, most Android users will have access to this service by default.
Even if you’re not an Android user, there’s a good chance you’ve used rich messaging before on iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, or Skype.
And regardless of your device, Cloud Softphone users can access rich communication services through any app that they deploy with our platform.
While SMS text messaging was a staple of the early 2000s, the technology is starting to show its age, as it lacks all the features, bells, and whistles that we expect to see today. Rich messaging is actually fairly popular with individuals for personal use as well, but its use cases go beyond just sending funny GIFs to your family members.
Known formally as rich communication services (RCS), rich messaging is an evolution of SMS text messaging that, unlike its predecessor, supports sending and receiving multimedia content from pictures and videos to audio recordings, files, and even phone contacts.
When used properly as part of a mobile marketing initiative, RCS can be an invaluable business tool for building superior customer experiences and boosting client engagement. It empowers your advertising campaigns to capture new leads by working with them through this easy-to-use and convenient real-time communication channel.
RCS has a number of advantages over traditional text messaging beyond the introduction of multimedia support.
Are these advantages backed up by the numbers? They are according to Google’s report on RCS for business use. About 3/4ths of consumers are more likely to engage with a brand if RCS communication is available, and people are a whopping 35 times more likely to read an RCS message than an email.
Rich messaging has become the norm for communications apps today. Your users want it, and you need to deliver a seamless user experience to them.
But just how much do users like MMS?
Nearly 80% of users say they find rich messaging “appealing,” and 74% said rich messaging encourages them to communicate with a business.
Just look at every app out there, from Slack to Snapchat, that have implemented MMS. It’s evident that putting any form of media into a bite-sized piece of communication is an appealing and powerful tool.
While other mediums like email offer similar multimedia capabilities, MMS is far faster and more accessible from anywhere. As communication becomes a driving force in the modern era, users are expecting to be in the know where and whenever they want. Unlocking your phone to check for news is much more convenient than opening a large email.
90% of what the brain processes is visual information. It’s no wonder businesses have noticed the marketing potential of MMS. Here are some popular methods to gain traction with your consumer base through rich messaging.
Companies have always wanted to let their buyers know about announcements for new product launches, loyalty programs, and events. Advertising this way is already highly successful through SMS, so it’ll be even more impactful with added images, emojis, and clickable buttons.
In other words, giving clients a rich interface to personalize the user experiences they receive through MMS can result in more effective marketing and better reach. Most users will have their smartphone on them and are more willing to check text messages they receive rather than emails.
And unlike marketing emails, these texts also have the benefit of avoiding the spam folder, which can greatly improve their visibility.
If a restaurant or other business that handles deliveries directly to customers want to mail a package, it can use MMS to take a snapshot at the exact time of arrival. Doing so can send a message to a centralized server with a notification that the delivery was successful.
Something as simple as MMS can improve the user experience by ensuring that deliveries are made on time, reduce a company’s liability, and let users know the package has arrived safely.
Pizza Hut once sent coupons and promotions through MMS to drive online orders. The restaurant chain timed the messages right before dinner when most people were still deciding on what to have.
Companies can leverage MMS and personalization to send targeted offers that are relevant to a user’s interests. This can greatly improve your conversion rates and brand loyalty.
You’ve probably noticed that the customer experience is a recurring theme of this discussion. Rich messaging, when applied to business use, is mostly geared towards providing a more engaging and convenient way for customers to get in contact with businesses. How exactly does RCS improve the customer experience?
The positive impact rich messaging services have on the customer experience is of great importance to today’s marketing teams, especially as customer service continues to be a distinguishing factor for competing businesses in the future.
So, if we know that rich messaging is something that users like—why aren’t more companies implementing it? Companies want access to rich messaging, but implementing it isn’t the easiest task. Why is this?
However, nothing says your company can’t still be successful with a rich messaging marketing campaign. The benefits far outweigh the challenges, and Cloud Softphones encourages you to adopt this relatively new technology.
We know that many companies struggle with the SIP protocol limitation mentioned earlier, and it inspired us to create our own service based on APIs and web services. We believe that companies will use it to focus on the user experience.
With Cloud Softphone, companies can access and enhance their messaging services without the hassle of implementing complicated technologies. The entire provisioning process is simple and complete within an hour. Best of all, our MMS service is encrypted using an award-winning encryption stack and is even HIPAA-compliant.
Businesses in all industries can easily integrate Cloud Softphone, improving their communications and providing them with access to a useful marketing tool that you can use to reach your customers.
Rich messaging isn’t going anywhere. If anything, the technology empowering it will only improve. If your organization is looking for a reliable way to take advantage of rich messaging and its benefits, then our white label VoIP softphone is the right choice for you.
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