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Just the other day, I received a business text that looked a lot different than the usual message. It was topped with the company’s color logo, then a photo of a living room, followed by a short message with a limited-time discount for upholstery cleaning and a local number to text or call to schedule a cleaning. All in all, an eye-catching and attractive—in more ways than one–offer.
This company is taking advantage of multi-media messaging service (MMS), which is a new type of text messaging that is now available in Expresso™.
MMS vs. SMS
With the ability to add images, logos, links and messages of up to 1,000 characters, MMS offers fresh ways to engage customers and present calls to action. Traditional text-only messages, also known as short message service (SMS), limit messages to 160 characters, including links.
The look and feel of SMS vs. MMS are much like the difference between plain text emails and HTML emails, which include company logos, different fonts, and colorful images and backgrounds.
MMS is also delivering favorable results. According to Datos Insights research commissioned by our text messaging partner Solutions By Text, MMS has a:
- 98% read rate, often opened within 90 seconds of receipt.
- 300% increase in engagement versus SMS.
- 15% higher click-through rate than SMS.
- Unsubscribe rate 20% lower than SMS because logos and other identifying information lower the risk of being seen as spam.
MMS in Expresso
For clients already using Expresso for text messaging, adding MMS requires minimal setup. Companies use the same short codes as they do for their SMS programs and leverage their existing rules and content libraries, including PNG and JPEG images. Just as with SMS, clients can write and save MMS message versions in Expresso.
One Nordis client is expanding to MMS so it can include the PDF image of the first page of a customer statement or letter, along with a secure link to the entire bill.
MMS for collections
SBT reviews and approves all MMS collections texts to ensure compliance. The messages can be created in Expresso and the approved versions can be viewed in the system, but SBT handles all changes to collections texts for compliance reasons.
Capitalizing on MMS + SMS
We are receiving considerable interest from clients on using our MMS/SMS solution to complement their print and mail and email communications, as MMS and SMS add another channel of delivery. Because there are clear business reasons to use both MMS and SMS, Expresso enables clients to develop effective business texting programs with both types of messaging. Unlike some providers that purge their MMS messages in 7 days, Nordis can archive them for as long as clients want.
Contact us to learn more about how you can build a powerful and differentiating text messaging program with SMS and MMS.
