Use text messages in your customer journeys, and reach them anywhere

It’s not just emails you can use in your engagement plans, but text messages too! Today there are many ways for brands to interact with their customers, communicate promotional offers, or respond to requests for assistance and so on. But what is most important, is being able to do so at the right time, in just the right way.

The text message channel can guarantee opening rates in excess of 98%. In addition, 90% of openings take place within three minutes of message delivery (source: Forbes). It has also been reported that 74% of those who read a text message, then interact with the brand (source: SMS Advantage Report-SAP).

The Send module has always offered you the ability to create and send text message communications. But to provide you with a multi-channel environment that meets your needs through a choice of options, the Contactlab Marketing Cloud platform will be enriched in just a few days, with two new and important features. These will make it possible to leverage the power of text messages and create even more effective marketing campaigns, by:

  • Creating segments and scheduling text message deliveries directly, using the Plan module UI.
  • Enhancing your customer journeys in Flow, by selecting the text messages channel, and sending automatic, personalized communications when a previously identified event takes place.

 

SMS in action using the platform


Plan in action
 

Flow in action

 

By using text messages in your campaigns, you are using a mobile and real-time channel that can guarantee almost instant customer engagement. The text message is immediate, low cost, and does not require an internet connection. It is already present on mobile devices and no app needs to be downloaded. But above all, text messages have opening and conversion rates that are the envy of any other communication channel. Your contacts are used to receiving promotional emails, which unfortunately, often end up in the spam folder. But the curiosity to read a text message, as soon as the mobile phone rings is still very high and is frequently the best contact choice.

A pragmatic example

Imagine your customer is on his way to the airport in a taxi, but must change his flight at the last minute, because he is late. Just at that moment, he receives an SMS telling him the flight has been cancelled and he has been booked on the next one, one hour later. As a result, your customer can easily reach the airport on time, and catch the plane. Luckily, because the company used SMS, he was aware of the changes. Otherwise, he would not know his booking had been updated, as he had no internet connection where the taxi was located.

Conclusions 

The benefits of using text messages in communication strategies are obvious, although you do need to understand the best time to use them in a customer journey, rather than other communication channels. But you can also rely on our experts to help you with this too, by working together to identify personalized and customizable communications plans, according to the different habits and activities that your customers demonstrate over time – information you can now collect in individual and enriched profiles, which are readily accessible and actionable, as required.

Click here for the release notes: Plan and Flow