How utilising inbound SMS can benefit your business

Mobile messaging has been on the grow for years but it’s only recently that it’s been widely brought into the marketing mix. Despite the rising statistics, 65% of brands still don’t have a mobile strategy in place to take advantage of the huge amount of time people spend on their phones.

When we talk about mobile marketing, people still tend to think of bulk SMS alone; where a generic message is blasted out to a purchased or cultivated list. The message is created, sent and that’s that. Not a huge amount of people think about utilising messaging the other way, and that’s where inbound SMS comes into play.

Virtual numbers, both longcode (standard 11-digit mobile numbers) and shortcode (typically around four or five digits) can be used by businesses to allow their customers – and potential customers – text them as a way of generating new leads or initiating a two-way conversation. Outside of the traditional text-to-win competitions or receiving text requests, inbound SMS can help you build your customer base and engage your users.

Easy-to-remember shortcodes

About 65% of the world’s total population send and receive text messages, and mobile phones are never far from people’s reach. With shortcodes, there’s no need for your customer to have to memorise a long number or remember to visit your website when they’re next online. They simply text a five digit code – often at no cost to them – and that’s all there is to it!

Simple lead generation

As many as 45% of people reply to branded text message blasts, so if you have a list of 1,000 people, you could potentially see up to 450 leads. Inbound SMS is a fast and convenient way for customers to engage or reply to prompts, but it also gives you a list of hot leads of customers who are interested in your products or services.

An effective way of measuring your offline marketing

Shortcodes can be a great way of generating leads from offline media list print adverts or brochures. Unlike digital marketing where you can track clicks and website traffic, it’s historically been hard to qualify leads from offline ads. By using a simple shortcode, your customers can register interest or ask for information.

Start a conversation/engage your customers

Even if you’re not looking to immediately generate a user action like a sale or a booking, inbound SMS gives a unique level of interactivity and makes conversations possible between you and your customers. 66% of consumers say they would pay more for something if it was supported by a mobile messaging channel.

International connectivity

If you work with a company that offers worldwide connectivity, virtual numbers can be chosen for countries all over the world. Virtual numbers – particularly longcodes – make contacts locally even if you have offices elsewhere. China and India have the most people who send SMS messages – over a billion on China and 730 million in India – so you may want to run an international campaign using numbers local to that region even if you’re not based in the area.

About MessageCloud

MessageCloud is a multi-award winning mobile messaging provider. Its cloud-based SMS and messaging products enable companies to set up and manage one-way and two-way communications effortlessly. Plus, it offers products to analyse phone numbers, verify users and accept payments by mobile.

With its range of products, ‘Send’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Verify’, ‘Analyse’ and ‘Pay’, MessageCloud delivers tools that maximise mobile marketing; from virtual numbers to payment systems for carrier billing. And with more than a decade of delivering messages for diverse markets around the globe, it is a service on which you can rely.