Exploring the key benefits of using a text messaging service for your business

Would you like to tap into a reliable communication channel that builds trust among your audience, allows smooth contact with customers, and, most importantly, lets you increase your engagement and conversion rates?

Sounds too good to be true? We’re talking about text messaging for business. A direct way to reach your customers’ phone screens. 

But you might wonder: ‘Is business messaging the same as sending a text to a friend? If so, can I simply copy a bunch of phone numbers and send texts to all of them?’

Not exactly. Business messaging is more complicated than asking your spouse to buy milk. For it to work, you need a well-crafted SMS strategy and a reliable SMS service provider. 

That’s what we’ll try to figure out in this article. We’ll go deep into the benefits of a text messaging service for business. You’ll also find how our clients use SMS messages to promote their services and products.

SMS is one of the main communication methods we use these days. No one has the energy to make or pick up calls, so short texts are a convenient and effective way to reach people whether for personal or commercial purposes. 

Business text messaging refers to SMS notifications sent from a service provider to a customer. It’s a brief text limited to 160 characters. While most phones support emojis and graphic elements, business text messaging usually uses limited visuals to keep messages short and to the point. Marketers use SMS automation chains to contact people in bulk faster and keep a consistent communication strategy.

SMS service lets you send reminders and information to customers, as well as advertise products, deals, discounts, and more. However, each company and industry can find new and effective SMS strategies that work for them and their customers.

Fundamentally, both personal and business messages are similar. They’re short texts. But what sets them apart are the rules, intent, and purpose behind them.

Normal text messages are for personal communication between two or more people. Businesses use SMS messages to reach their customers, inform them, and promote their services or products. 

Most companies use a range of SMS messages strategies, including promotional and transactional SMS. 

Transactional SMSs inform and build customer trust. Use them to welcome people to your SMS list, confirm registrations, orders, bookings, or appointments, verify information, and communicate without trying to sell.

Promotional texts have a sales intent. Send promotional SMSs to alert customers about discounts, offer coupons, or present the latest hot deals.

You don’t want to spam your customers. It’s okay to double-text your friend, but in most cases, your customers wouldn’t think it’s cute. In other words, use SMS messages a few times per month for promotion and as necessary for communication.

To send a message to a friend you just need to have their phone number. But it’s not so easy for companies. While transactional communication has more flexible rules, commercial SMS is strictly regulated. Your customers need to give their consent for you to contact them about marketing deals. Even then, you have to provide easy access for them to opt out of your SMS list.

While with personal messaging you have no rules (as long as you don’t make the recipient uncomfortable or act inappropriately), business text messaging is more complicated. 

You must follow many written and unwritten rules not only to interest and retain your customers but also not to show off too salesy, pushy, or rude.

One part that sets a successful SMS marketing strategy apart from a messy one is finding the right service provider. A text messaging service for business is a company that offers a platform and all the necessary tools to run campaigns and communicate with your customers. 

Through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) or designated platforms, they automate text messaging. You can send SMSs in bulk or personalize your communication for specific customer segments. 

With the right SMS service provider for businesses, you can also expand your communication from only commercial messages to transactional, authentication, and alert texts.

Usually, SMS service providers have an established list of telecommunication partners. This allows them to deliver your texts on time. SMS services also take care of rules and regulations, so that you don’t need to. 

As everything is done in one platform, you can also access statistics and reports about your campaigns. This lets you analyze your progress and meet your goals.

What makes SMS notifications so attractive for businesses is that they have a close to 100% open rate and high user engagement. 

To get all these benefits you must find a service company that specializes in SMS messaging, has a connection with reliable telecommunication providers, and complies with various regional and international data protection laws. Once you find the right SMS service, you can be sure that your business messaging is reliable, deliverable, trackable, flexible, and user-friendly.

If you use other communication channels like email, social media, or app notifications, you can never be sure if your messages reach your customers. 

Email marketing standards and rules make it harder day by day to get to the main inbox of your customers. You have to try a lot to avoid the nightmarish spam folder. 

Social media posting is often hit or miss and you can’t be sure your customers see promotions or your latest articles on time. 

With app notifications, you have to make sure users give the app permission and have a reliable internet connection.

But that doesn’t apply to SMS notifications. No need for an internet connection, apps, or a large social media following list. Since text messages go directly to a person’s phone number, you don’t need to worry about much else. 

Better yet, if you pick an established SMS service provider with a direct connection with telecom companies, they make sure your messages reach everyone and arrive on time.

You may think that the SMS format limits you. After all, you can’t rely on colorful visuals, elegant fonts, or long paragraphs. But short messages can be even more powerful if you use them intentionally. A simple format gets your message across and guarantees it gets delivered. 

For example, if you send an email filled with visuals, heavy files, and details, it might not load for every recipient or not deliver on time.

Fast deliverability was what interested our client Wefarm to give SMS messaging a go. Wefarm is a digital platform for small-scale farmers to maximize their business and have a source of information at hand. Farmers use Wefarm to ask questions and get advice about pricing their produce and running a successful agricultural business.

However, the problem was: How could Wefarm reach farmers when most of them are out on the field all day and don’t have an internet connection or access to a computer? Text messaging was an obvious solution. And it worked wonders. Since starting their SMS journey, more than two million farmers joined the Wefarm platform, representing 97% retention rates. No need to rely on an internet connection, apps, or calls.

Many businesses use phone communication as the main means of reaching their clients. For example, hair salons, SPAs, gyms, and other personal care services make calling the primary method for customers to make reservations, change appointments, and contact them.

But, texting is preferred 3 times more than calling when dealing with personal care services, and 2 times more when communicating with restaurants and similar establishments.

Your business also benefits from texting instead of calling. You can automate your SMS communication to send reminders, notifications, or deals without you interfering. You can trace back information more accurately because everything is in the text. You also make sure people read your messages as not everyone can pick up a phone all the time, or they might even ignore your calls.

Text messaging for business offers more flexibility as there are several ways to use SMS. The right SMS service provider also ensures that you can use all these methods to reach your customers and diversify your communication.

Tracking your campaigns and communication channels is crucial. Only by having accurate information can you make strategic decisions. SMS services provide exactly that. Using an SMS service platform from a professional provider ensures that you not only automate your messages but also accurately track your SMS strategy performance. 

At Infobip, we’ve noticed that some of our clients before coming to us, had attempted SMS marketing in the past but unsuccessfully. Why? Most of them work with multiple service providers or try to automate campaigns themselves. The lack of a unified platform diminishes the purpose as you can’t stay consistent with your messages, might make more mistakes or double text customers, and don’t have information on how everything is working.

A similar story happened to our client MMDSmart, an SMS service provider. They used multiple tools to provide transactional SMS services to their clients. They mainly used this type of communication to send verification information to allow their clients to validate their accounts. 

However, the services they used caused delays. Usually, when you need to verify your account access you have a limited time to do so. So, if the confirmation message comes too late, you need to do it again, and eventually, people get annoyed.

Our SMS service offered them better speed, deliverability, and trackability of their SMS campaigns. This helped MMDSmart increase their revenue in key markets by 4.5 times, showing how important the speed is for transactional SMS.

Text messages for business can be a great way to:

If you want to try SMS messaging in your business, but aren’t sure where to start, we invite you to try Infobip. We’re a leading SMS service provider with a reliable network of telecom providers, ensuring fast and reliable delivery of your messages. With us, you don’t need to worry about breaching data privacy laws, SMS rules, and other regulations as we take care of everything. Try our text messaging service for business for free.