There are hundreds of messaging apps, SMS marketing apps, and chat apps available, which can make it difficult to choose the best one for your business.
In this article, you'll learn about the benefits of using a high-quality business messaging app and what key features it should have. We also show you three of the best text messaging apps for businesses of any size and share other interesting options for the Latin American market.
Why do you need an instant messaging app for your business?
A text messaging or SMS platform is one of the most effective communication tools and marketing channels for both small and large businesses to reach out to prospects, customers, and team members.
Messaging apps help improve customer experience by sending relevant notifications and reminders, and answering queries or complaints through private messages. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 80% of customer service organizations will abandon native apps to focus on messaging apps .
However, there are regulations for sending commercial messages that seek to strengthen the blocking of unwanted messages to guarantee secure messaging services with privacy controls for personal data. This has had a negative impact for many companies because it causes their direct messages to end up in the spam folder and, therefore, makes it more difficult to connect with customers on a larger scale without having a platform that guarantees secure communication.
Although SMS does not have end-to-end encryption, apps that offer business text messaging services help you comply with current regulations. These providers have security features for private messaging and are approved for sending mass text campaigns.
Likewise, messaging platforms for businesses offer a range of options to improve, speed up and automate your marketing activities . This makes it much easier to interact with your consumers.
What a messaging app or text messaging service for businesses should have
The features that a text messaging tool should have for your business will depend on the size and structure of your business, as well as the stages of your sales cycle and your marketing campaigns .
However, some key features you should look for in a messaging app are:
Ease of use . When choosing an instant messaging or text messaging software, one very important factor to consider is ease of use. If it will take your team months to master the efficient use of the messaging app, you will be wasting valuable time and resources on this tool.
Message management . A powerful messaging app overseas chinese in uk datac should have several messaging management features beyond sending and receiving text messages. Some apps offer shared message inboxes that allow teams to collaborate and improve customer service .
Scheduling and automating actions . Another important feature of instant messaging software is the ability to schedule automatic sending of reminders and alerts to contact lists based on their behavior.
Auto-replies . Some messaging apps offer auto-replies based on keywords. When someone texts you, the app scans the message for keywords and takes action. For example, if someone responds with a confirmation like "I agree," the software might add that contact to your mailing list for marketing and promotional messages.
Mobile and web apps . The best messaging apps for business come in mobile (with support for both Android and iOS operating systems), desktop, and web versions so you can use them in multiple ways.
Message templates . Messaging apps often offer customizable templates and also allow you to create your own to streamline communication. Some even offer more specialized after-sales service templates , such as templates for loyalty programs.
Contact management . Another top feature is the ability to organize contacts, add labels, and integrate data from your instant messaging app with your current contact management tools .
