5 Types of Messaging

What Is Mobile Messaging? 

It’s not a secret that consumers are addicted to their phones more than ever. According to Data ai, the mobile landscape is continuing to skyrocket year after year. Consumers are now spending a whopping five hours on their mobile devices per day and global ad spend on mobile is $336 Billion. 

Despite consumers’ reliance on their phones, mobile continues to be an underutilized channel for brands in engaging with consumers. This is partially due to the fact that retailers don’t share customer data directly with brands, so it makes it difficult for brands that sell through retail channels to have a way to communicate directly with their customers. 

This is why brands need to start collecting zero-party data. While zero-party data is extremely beneficial for brands to learn more about their customers, it’s also imperative for brands to have access to this information if they want to send personalized text messages to customers. Mobile messaging is a powerful tool that marketers can add to their inventory of resources to use when wanting to engage with consumers on a closer level. 

Brands can utilize text messaging in many ways to drive revenue and brand loyalty. Here are some mobile marketing message examples brands can send to their customers: 

• Promotional Offers
• Product Launches
• Alerts for a Product Restock 

Text Messaging 101

In one year alone in the U.S., there are over a trillion text messages sent. Text messages have incredibly high open and engagement rates compared to any other channel. The open rate for text messages comes in at 98 percent. Need further convincing that text messaging is the channel for brands to utilize? 90 percent of texts are read within three seconds. 

But did you know mobile messaging encompasses various types of messages? Text messaging is used as a catch-all phrase by consumers, but depending on what type of content your business wants to send customers will have an impact on what type of message you’ll want to send. 

What Is SMS? 

SMS, otherwise known as short message service,  are 160 characters and used by businesses to promote things like product launches, events, alerts, etc. Because of the character limit, businesses will often choose to shorten words or use emojis in their messages. 

What Is RCS? 

RCS stands for rich communication services and works like SMS but has multimedia features, like higher quality pictures and videos, GIFs, a company’s logo, larger files, and longer messages that SMS does not. It enables brands to have rich, multimedia interactions with users right within their native messaging app. With RCS, customers can actually respond to the brand’s message. The major downside about RCS is it’s fairly limited to Android devices.

What Is MMS? 

MMS, otherwise known as a multimedia messaging service, is similar to RCS because it send pictures, audio, video, and more.  

What Is SMS vs MMS Messages?

SMS and MMS messages differ in the content they both are capable of sending. SMS are the most simple messages a brand can send, as they are limited to 160 characters. SMS messages are also not equipped to send media files like images or videos. MMS messages do have the ability to send these larger media files like audio, pictures, or video. 

What Is the Most Widely Used Messaging App? 

That depends. The types of messaging apps a person uses depend on a few things. Let’s discuss various types of messaging apps. The types of messaging in marketing can be done through various apps, including social media, retail apps, or even health and fitness apps. But when talking about text messaging, these types of messages will primarily come in through the phone’s messaging app. 

What Are Two Types of Text Messages?

Not all mobile messages work the same. If you’re an iPhone user, for example, the two types of text messages you’re most likely used to are iMessages and texts. Texts are SMS messages that come in at under 160 characters. These are the messages that appear green on an iPhone. Comparatively, iMessages are not limited to 160 characters and can include media files such as videos or images. These are the messages that appear blue on an iPhone. 

5 Types of Messaging 

The types of messaging one can send depend greatly on the content the sender wants to include in the message. There are three primary forms of messaging that people often refer to as messaging, but messaging is a general term that can also mean messaging customers via email or even through push notifications. 

What Are the Different Types of Text Messages?

There are pros and cons to each type of text message. Here’s a quick summary of the various text messages available and what makes each of them unique. 

• Short Message Services (SMS) - SMS is the most common form of texting, both by businesses and consumers. These types of messages allow you to send texts directly to a mobile device. It’s important to note that texts longer than 160 characters will be split up into multiple messages and organizations sending SMS cannot include media files within the message. 
• Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) - MMS is like SMS’s cooler, older sibling where it is possible to send an image or video via text. While MMS does have the ability to send media files, MMS does not work in all countries which limits organizations' abilities to communicate with customers through this type of text message. Plus, sending a MMS is often 4-5 times the cost of sending a SMS.
• Rich Communication Services (RCS) - This is often referred to as next-generation SMS. Very few companies use it but allows companies to create dynamic messages and enable customers to reply to them. Redbox, Subway, and Booking.com are all examples of brands that use RCS. RCS typically has relatively high conversion rates compared to SMS but is not currently supported by Apple.

Let’s take a look at some of the other common types of messages:

• Instant Messages - Instant messaging is commonly carried out on apps such as Facebook or WhatsApp. These are messages that are sent from one person to another on a specific platform. 
• In-app Messages - These are going to be the messages you receive directly inside a mobile app. For instance, if you were on Twitter, you may receive an in-app message indicating that you need to review your security settings. 

Push notifications are another commonly used tool by marketers to send messages to customers’ phones. Like text messaging, brands can use push notifications to send out important alerts to users for various use cases such as reminders or alerts to new content. 

How Do I Get Started Sending Marketing Messages to Customers?

In order to start sending text messages to customers, there are a few things your team will need to do before you press send. Let’s walk through the steps of what brands will need to do in order to launch a successful mobile messaging program. 

Step One: Define Your Program 

The first thing you’ll want to do is define your mobile marketing program. Not only is ironing out all the details a good practice in general, but you’ll also need to figure out the inner workings of your program for the application you’ll need to submit to carriers.

One of the benefits of launching a mobile messaging program is mobile messaging and text messaging are highly regulated. This means consumers put more trust into these messages coming from brands, and also there’s not a ton of noise on these channels due to the levels of regulation. 

It’s important to note that carriers can audit an organization’s mobile messaging program at any time, so it’s important to follow whatever you put on the form that you submitted to the carrier. Otherwise, you may be prevented from using mobile messaging as a strategy to communicate with your customers. 

Here are a few things you’ll need to figure out in order to submit your form to carriers: 

1. Messaging Volume -The approximate number of text messages your company expects to send to your subscribers in a month. Your brand will not be limited to this number; it’s just an approximate guess for carriers to understand the number of texts.
2. Use Case - This is the category your text messages will most likely fall under, like promotions, alerts, content, etc.  
3. Use Case Summary - You’ll need to provide a short description of how your brand will use the mobile messaging program. For example, you could say “Our mobile messaging program will be used to communicate alerts to customers when new content is available on our website.” 
4. Messaging Content Example - You’ll need to provide carriers with an example of a text message from your brand. Let’s say you were interested in sending customers texts about upcoming product launches. Your example text message could look like this: “It's Here! New sensitive sunscreen launches today at your local department store. Check it out now!” Just make sure your example is 160 characters or less. 
5. Describe the Opt-in Process - Carriers need an explanation of how your brand plans on gathering the opt-ins necessary for the program, including the channels the company will use to promote the program.
6. Opt-in Example - Carriers need a URL to see an example of how your brand will promote the mobile messaging program, which includes all of the legal language required for all promotions. 

Step Two: Collect Mobile Opt-ins

Here are some ways your organization can collect mobile opt-ins from your customers:

1. Amplify your shopper campaigns and brand communications
2. Recommend products specific to various audience segments 
3. Lead capture forms at conferences and trade shows 
4. Capture mobile-opt-ins on a warranty registration form
5. Create an easy event and mobile opt-in registration process 
6. Highlight your brand’s mobile messaging program via a shopper campaign experience
7. Incorporate it into your brand’s loyalty program sign-up 
8. Encourage customers to sign up for mobile alerts after viewing a product lookbook 
9. Add a mobile opt-in form to the rebate submission process 

Step Three: Start Sending Personalized Text Messages

Now that you’ve gone through compliance and collected mobile opt-ins from your customers, you can now start sending text messages to your customers. We recommend segmenting your audience into various groups to enhance their experience by making it more personalized. 

Step 4: Measure, Iterate, and Repeat

Once you launch your mobile messaging program, you’ll want to keep an eye on key metrics to ensure the success of your program. A few statistics to keep an eye on when you start sending your customers text messages include open rates, click-through rates, and opt-out rates. 

Based on the data you see,  your team might have to iterate on your mobile marketing strategy. For example, if you notice any large changes to opt-out rates, you might want to adjust the frequency of the texts you send or even the content you’re sending customers.  

Harness the Power of Lumavate’s Messaging Functionality

We understand that getting started with short codes and mobile messaging programs can seem like a daunting task. 

Here’s the good news - we’ll take care of everything for you. 

When using Lumavate’s mobile messaging functionality, you can put your trust in our mobile messaging experts to help you along every step of the way. We’ll even help you with the compliance forms required to be submitted to carriers. 

With our mobile messaging program, you’ll have access to everything you need to be successful:

• Maximize Subscriber Growth - Provide your customers with a new channel where they can engage with your brand.
• Engage with Customers - Create and send highly-relevant text messages that drive revenue and brand loyalty.
• Easily Promote Messaging Program -Enable your customers to opt-in for your mobile messaging program from anywhere.
• Target-Specific Audiences - Personalize your messages to specific audiences based on their preferences, behaviors, etc.
• Track Message Analytics - See real-time data on the number of messages sent, subscribers, message delivery rates, etc.
• Seamlessly Integrates with Form Builder - Quickly add mobile opt-in functionality to any of your Forms in just a few clicks.
• Automates Double Opt-in Process - Our platform automatically sends the double opt-in confirmation text for any opt-ins via form submissions.
• Expert Compliance Guidance - Access to our team of mobile experts who can answer any of your compliance questions.

Start messaging your customers on mobile and witness the incredible results other brands have seen using text messaging. Talk to one of our experts today on how we can get you set up with mobile messaging or take a tour of our messaging functionality.