Message Broadcasting — Cheaper and more effective alternative to SMS

Customer’s rising requirement for content, communication and marketing to be in their own terms, have made Messaging stand out as a form of direct and personal communication that allows you to get closer to your customer, more than any other channel. Message Broadcasting, hence is the mode of communication that helps businesses leverage the immediacy of Text Messaging with the effectiveness of One-to-One Conversation. It not only has the power to engage your customers on a daily basis but also can initiate context based two way conversations that help in boosting sales.

In this article we will highlight details about Message Broadcasting and as we do so, we will also highlight different Use Cases of the same

Let me first explain what Message Broadcasting actually is:
Message Broadcasting allows Organizations to send a message to a list of subscribers directly on their Internet-enabled devices. In most cases, these messages can be scheduled for broadcast based on the recipient’s time zone and other preferences in order to achieve the maximum impact.

Use Cases of Message Broadcasting:
In this section we will laborate how few of our customers are using Message Broadcasting:

• Message Broadcasting is extensively used by businesses to make any sort of announcements to Users. These announcements can be promotional, informational and even educational.
• Another widespread use can be seen in Project Management Applications for internal communication between employees. These messages can be about Task Updates, Project Status intimation, Major Announcements at Organizational/Departmental Level etc.

Other prevalent uses that we have seen are:

• Sending generic updates to all Users about New Feature Release or major updates
• News apps: Sending latest News snippets to Users
• Sports app: For sending score updates, Match Result updates etc.
• Emergency Services: To send alerts to Users about Emergency situations, Precautionary Measures during Emergencies etc.

Message Broadcasting — Cheaper and more Effective compared to SMS:
The widespread adoption of smartphones and the emergence of mobile apps as the new rising stars, has shifted focus from SMS to In-App Messaging for most online businesses. This apart the availability of low cost alternatives and the popularity of IP-Based Messaging platforms like WhatsApp have made consumers comfortable with In-App Messaging. Therefore Message Broadcasting being IP based is both economic for the broadcaster as it negates the need to subscribe to Bulk SMS packages and also convenient at the same time. Simultaneously Users are also open to receiving Broadcast Messages as the communication takes place within the confines of the app.

Opt In to a Message Broadcasting List:
The first step to Message Broadcasting is creating a list of subscribers. This is important because Mobile being a very personal device, users want communication to be on their own terms. Hence it is important to seek permission from Users before sending them Broadcast Messages of any type, be it promotional or informative/educational etc.
The best way to do so is by using “Click to Join” widgets, another way can be by using short code keywords that can be sent over the chat window, for example, send “JOIN” to get exclusive offers right in your inbox.

Sort and Segment your Subscriber list:
This is probably the most important step in the overall Message Broadcasting process. Getting Customers to subscribe to your Broadcast list is one thing, but engaging them with the content and ultimately making them click on the content is the real deal.
For a clear analogy let’s consider television, where hundreds of commercials are vying to grab your eyeballs at the same time, but does every advertisement instigate you equally? The answer is no, it doesn’t. Just like television ads, where the level of interest one manages to invoke depends on a large number of factors like the relevance to the audience, based on the demographic, the audience’s interest etc. not all kinds of broadcast messages are equally welcome. Hence once a recipient list is compiled it should be sorted into groups for easier management, so that recipients only receive messages that are relevant to them.

Ways to segment your list:
There are various ways in which companies can segment their Subscriber list:

• The most traditional way to do it is based on User demographics which can be the age, gender and location of the user.
• Another way to segment users can be based on User interests, which can be collected at any point during the User onboarding journey, similar to how companies like Stumble Upon or Quora does where one needs to select a minimum of 3 or more interests before proceeding further in the signup process.
• A more recent approach is based on analyzing User-Generated Data. Companies monitor User Behavior and draw insights into the same to realize their current need and interest to segment them into relevant lists. This is more welcome as most of the resulting communication is contextual.

At Applozic Inc. we not only provide an end-to-end communication platform for custom messaging, but also have provisions for Data Export using Webhooks so that businesses have access to Real Time User Data for analytics.

Sending Broadcast Messages using Applozic:
Once all these setup has been done, sending a Broadcast Message using Applozic is very simple. All you need to do is Login to your Applozic Dashboard, navigate to the Broadcast Message Section, Compose your Message and Send to the list of your choice. Yes it is that simple, you don’t need any technical expertise for sending Broadcast Messages anymore.

Have you started integrating Chat into your Mobile and Web apps for more Customer Engagement?
If not, Sign Up now or get in touch with us at contact@applozic.com and we would love to hear from you about your business and consult with you about your specific Use Case on how you can use our platform to build Real Time Chat & Messaging in your apps, that can help you engage your Customers better.