SMS vs Messenger – Better Together

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No matter which industry a company falls into, businesses all over the world are constantly searching for the best ways to not only stay in touch with their current customers but to expand their audience and continue converting new leads as often as possible.

Part of what makes a business worth talking about is the way it talks to its customers, and while the world is full of diverse individuals that use different brands of communication applications, it’s important for companies to be able to stay ahead of their competition by using an expansive marketing system.

It’s not often that companies swear by a communication method other than Facebook Messenger or email marketing, but there are many different tools on the market just waiting to improve your company’s customer relations.

For example, some companies choose to reach out to their customers through text (SMS) messaging applications that are included with smartphone service. While this approach may come with budget and audience concerns, it’s worth exploring the ways that Facebook Messenger and SMS messaging systems compare with one another.

Pros/Cons of SMS Marketing

Text message marketing isn’t a new concept, but in recent years, it has developed in a way that makes it more of a marketing benefit than it was in the past. Though many businesses don’t utilize SMS features, it’s good to weigh the pros and cons to determine whether Android or IOS texting applications are a good addition to your marketing mediums.

PROS:

• There are more people with mobile phones than there are people with Facebook (or other social media) accounts. As such, there are more opportunities to communicate with a wider audience through SMS messages than the numbers you can reach through Facebook Messenger.
• Unlimited SMS messaging typically comes with most mobile phone plans, so many people rely heavily on the “free” text messaging feature at their disposal over downloading applications that require them to use data on their plan.
• Text messages do not tend to go unopened for long. In fact, 83% of text messages are opened and read within the first minute and a half after they’re received.
• Mobile phone users feel more secure using their phone’s default applications to communicate. While there are existing privacy issues for any communication method, SMS concerns are not usually at the forefront of people’s minds.

CONS:

• Obtaining phone numbers to contact your customer base might be more of a challenge than reaching out through Facebook profiles.
• It’s quicker and easier to report and block contacts through mobile phones than it is through Facebook Messenger, so sending short, relevant information will be a key part of maintaining SMS contact.
• SMS can be costly for the sender, especially if you’re trying to reach international clients.

Pros/Cons of Messenger

Facebook Messenger has been performing quite well for a number of years, both at connecting family and friends from afar and allowing business owners to reach out to their audiences. While there are an array of obvious benefits to using Facebook for marketing, it’s a good idea to take a look at the few setbacks as well.

PROS:

• Facebook Messenger is free to use for both senders and receivers. No matter how many messages you send, Facebook Messenger is a free service.
• Facebook Messenger is an international application, so reaching millions of customers all over the world is quick, free, and easy for business owners.
• Though not everyone uses Facebook, MMS messages still have the capacity to reach a massive audience. Billions of people use the platform every month, and because of this, there is an impressive customer pool to tap into.
• Automation through Messenger is much easier than automation through SMS. A few simple steps on your ManyChat dashboard and you can have a sophisticated, human-like chatbot automating your Facebook Messenger funnels in no time flat.
• It’s easier to collect customer and prospective customer data through Facebook Messenger. Usually, you already have their name if you’re interacting through Messenger, but Facebook can quite easily collect locations, email addresses, and phone numbers as well.

CONS:

• Due to privacy concerns, there are a lot of potential customers that are going to decline to communicate through Facebook Messenger.
• Facebook Messenger has rules when it comes to the type of messages and the frequency that business owners are able to send messages to customers.
• Though Facebook Messenger is attempting to make its communication tool a worthy adversary of default texting applications, the application size might make it more difficult for Facebook users to add Messenger to their smartphones.

When To Use Each Medium

Because there are strengths and weaknesses to both applications, it’s a wise choice to utilize both SMS and Facebook Messenger to improve your digital marketing strategy.

For example, if you’re properly segmenting your leads, you can sort contacts by their communication preferences (whether they have and use Facebook Messenger or whether they prefer SMS messages).

This way, you can take the steps needed to customize the way you reach out to your target audience. You can automate chatbots and send messages to users that commonly use Facebook Messenger, especially if they’re international while using SMS to contact the smaller demographic of customers that don’t have a Facebook account.

Integration Produces the Best Results

A wise person created the proverb, “never place all of your eggs in one basket,” and that snippet of information is great advice for any business owner.

While choosing a primary messaging system is acceptable and understandable, it’s in a company’s best interest to diversify. Perfecting communication strategies by integrating more than one program into a wide-reaching system will yield better results than a single application every time.

As a business owner, your company’s marketing strategy is yours to command, and as a result, you don’t have to limit the way you contact your customers to a single tool. The more flexible your approach, the larger your lead funnel’s volume can be.

If you’re planning or re-examining your company’s marketing strategy and you find that expert advice would benefit your approach, we at Automated Dreams would like to welcome you to reach out to us. Together, we can come up with individual marketing techniques that will allow your business to reach its widest audience yet.

We can’t wait to hear from you!