Integrate Cross-Channel Messaging with MessageGears SMS

Pop quiz: What’s the most effective channel to get your customers to engage and interact with your brand?

Here is a hint: B2C SMS messages have a 98% read rate within 3 minutes of send time. 

While that number is surprisingly obvious — think of how many more unread emails you have than text messages — what is shocking is that 61% of marketing departments aren’t taking advantage of using SMS messaging. Despite the library of statistics showing that users want to connect with their brands via text, marketers are still dragging their feet — and there are a few reasons why: 

• Lack of knowledge or subject matter expertise in the SMS domain 
• Lack of straightforward integration with other channel messaging tools

If your department has tried SMS in the past and failed, don’t feel alone. Support for SMS programs usually fails due to the “need” to find an SMS-specific solution and the friction that comes with copying your data into yet another channel-specific silo. 

But what if you could add SMS directly into your email and mobile messaging workflow? MessageGears’ cross-channel marketing platform directly integrates SMS alongside other channels to allow marketers to easily create and send texts to their customers. In this blog, I’ll walk through how easy it is to set up an SMS workflow, and the ways that you can use SMS in your existing cross-channel workflow. 

The Simplicity of SMS 

Today, let’s review how MessageGears’ SMS functionality can elevate your customer communication in two use cases:

• Creating and personalizing SMS messages in a standalone text campaign
• Seamlessly fitting SMS into MessageGears’ cross-channel workflows for detailed messaging on the channel that matters most to your customers 

To start, let’s walk through adding SMS capability to an existing campaign we already have here in MessageGears. 

Using the SMS templating section, I’m going to define my Short Code and Keywords for any 2-Way Messaging we want to enable for our customers. 

• Short Code: 5- or 6-digit number used in America for high-volume SMS communication
• Keywords: Words that trigger auto-responses from a brand, determined by country-level legal regulations
• 2-Way Messaging: A brand communicating with a user back and forth through SMS in real time

I can use the clickable personalization section to make use of my live data and reference any of my customer’s data attributes. Think, information like their name and points balance. 

Now that I’ve created my template, I am going to review it in the preview section by using live customer data. For the best QA experience, I can also send a test message to any of my devices using any form of personalization.

A Cross-Channel Approach

Now that we’ve created our SMS message, let’s take it a step further and send a campaign on multiple channels. 

Let’s imagine that I’ve already created an audience and some email and push content for a pre-existing campaign. In that case, I can easily add SMS to my workflow in the same way I added push notifications. On the campaign screen, we can add, design, and test SMS functionality within the campaign. 

With MessageGears installed directly on top of your live data, you can reach your customers via live 2-way messaging. This enables you to provide your customers with real-time data on information like loyalty points status, shipping confirmation, or their order status. 

Takeaways

As easy as it is, it’s equally effective, with 97% of organizations finding they communicated with customers most effectively using SMS against other channels. If you aren’t taking advantage of the customer interaction that comes with texting your customers, get started today.

It’s simple and straightforward to start leveraging MessageGears’ SMS! Reach out to us at sales@messagegears.com.