We’re delighted to announce that TextAnywhere has won Best Business SMS Communications Company 2020 at SME News’s UK Enterprise Awards.
Our platform has been designed to be intuitive for business users and operate from a browser-based application, enabling customers to send and receive a variety of SMS communications including ad hoc updates and much larger bulk marketing campaigns, in just a few clicks.
We have always taken pride in being an SMS partner that can deliver secure, reliable communication solutions to help businesses bridge the gap between their brand and customers; and winning this award demonstrates our commitment to SME businesses in the UK.
The power of business SMS
As text messages benefit from an unrivalled 95% open rate and are 35 times more likely to be seen than a brand’s email, they have become an increasingly popular business communication channel, particularly for those in competitive markets.
Over the years we’ve come to understand the associated communication pain points, in businesses small and medium sized, to enterprise level. And while we would always advise that companies opt for a multichannel communication strategy and keep their target audience’s communication preferences in mind, the applications for business SMS are vast. For instance, SMS can help businesses digitise communications and where appropriate, introduce automations which reduce administration and improve business and organisation efficiency.
Furthermore, as people pick up their mobile on average 58 times a day and 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes, there are significant advantages for businesses managing systems which require strict monitoring; for example, the performance of vital computer systems.
What’s more, because SMS is such a robust communication channel, it genuinely can be an asset to every industry – see our use case hub for industry specific examples.
Popular business use cases
To give a quick overview of how SMS can help transform business communications, we have detailed a few of our most popular use cases below:
Bulk marketing campaigns
Not only are SMS vouchers 10 times more likely to be redeemed than print, the opt out for text marketing campaigns is also less than 5%. So even if cases where businesses may not have the appropriate set up for SMS opt in, it is certainly worthwhile putting something in place.
Time-critical messages
The average user response time to a text message is just 90 seconds. So with SMS your business can be confident that your communication has been seen and read within a matter of minutes. In terms of external communication, this can be great for timed offers and managing booking and appointments, and internally, this is great for communications which may need to be sent to engineers or to notify staff of business continuity plans in a rapid and effective way. This feature has been particularly valuable to businesses recently, with ongoing changes due to the pandemic.
Two-way communication in real time
Utilising SMS Long Numbers businesses can enable two-way conversations between themselves and recipients. Recipients can reply to your messages without charge, engaging in a real-time conversation thus enabling your business to communicate any further detail which may be required outside the standard 160 characters of a single SMS. This can be particularly useful for delivery notifications as customers can reply stating that they will be out during the delivery window and leave instructions to leave a parcel with a neighbour, and for organising shift cover.
If you would like to discuss further, how SMS could help to support your business communication strategy, please email [email protected] or call 0845 122 1302.