Text messaging is a popular means of communication and over the years it has become an effective way for brands to reach their audiences. Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) have become essential to businesses of all kinds. However, with the arrival of artificial intelligence, these traditional methods of communication are being enhanced, transforming into an innovative and efficient way to engage customers and drive sales.
What are SMS and MMS?
Before diving into the ways AI can push us towards higher goals, let’s define SMS and MMS. These are both common text messaging formats that you use on a daily basis. SMS allows users to send short, text-based messages to individuals or groups. MMS, on the other hand, handles any multimedia content that is sent along with text like GIFs or videos. These tools have become a core aspect of everyday communication in the business world.
Empowering your employees to effectively use AI alongside these tools can do a lot for your workflows. Automating repetitive tasks gives your teams room to focus on what’s important. With the help of AI, marketing teams can work more efficiently and provide better service to your customers.
Can AI Change the Way We Communicate?
There are ways in which AI is already changing the way we communicate. As humans living in a digital age characterized by innovative technology, we’re used to certain expectations. Fast responses and succinct, cheery messages are now the norm. Thanks to AI-powered chatbots, customers want positive, informative, and concise responses, and they want them now.
With these changes in communication, how can we adapt marketing to meet the demand?
To determine how to best integrate AI into your current business communications, try conducting a comprehensive S.W.O.T analysis. This covers Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of your current strategy and will help provide a clear understanding of where AI can come into play. Identify how your business is or isn’t providing a 360-degree customer experience—areas that are lacking can be supplemented with additional resources like AI.
Next, create detailed buyer personas based on data analysis. Take advantage of AI in building your target audiences which will allow you to tailor messaging to specific segments more effectively. AI can help you identify personas and target audience groups more precisely because it’s able to dive into data and pinpoint patterns quickly. Use this to create a customer journey map that clearly outlines your entire funnel. Check out our recent post on Customer Journey Mapping for Better Email Marketing Campaigns to learn more.
Finally, define your customer relationship management (CRM) goals. Set clear and achievable objectives for your system and determine how AI can align your goals to your messaging strategy.
In addition to weaving AI capabilities into these steps, you can also utilize artificial intelligence to:
- Gather accurate insights through data analytics
- Enhance networking by identifying key customer touchpoints
- Reduce costs and save time by automating manual processes
- Identify the right systems and data integrations to make your CRM your single source of truth
How AI Can Help Your Business Optimize SMS and MMS Campaigns
Now that we’ve covered the groundwork, let’s explore how AI can be used to optimize your SMS and MMS campaigns.
AI-powered messaging can boost customer engagement and sales through a number of ways. These all focus on easing the workload and providing a seamless experience for your customers as they move through the marketing and sales funnel. These are just a few places where AI can take an active role:
- Appointment Setting: AI-driven systems can help customers schedule appointments with ease, coordinating availability and driving higher conversion rates.
- Two-Way Sales and Support: AI chatbots are capable of providing real-time responses to customer inquiries whether it’s the middle of the day or late at night. This ensures customer questions and concerns are addressed promptly, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
- Automated Campaigns: AI can automate message delivery, providing customers with timely and relevant content like reminders or updates.
- Content Creation: Generate content and copy for your messages using AI. Input a prompt and tailor the output according to your brand standards.
- Customer Segmentation: Analyze your audience behaviors and demographics using AI and segment them accordingly for personalized content delivery based on their preferences.
- Personalized Product and Service Recommendations: Tailor the customer experience even more with personalized recommendations based on history.
- Faster Responses: AI-powered systems have little to no lag when it comes to responding to customers. Typing bubbles appear almost immediately after a customer sends a message, leading to fast replies and quick resolutions of issues.
The Takeaway
The future of SMS and MMS messaging is much more powerful when backed with AI systems. These advancements can streamline your operations, provide better service to your customers, and ultimately, grow your business. By adopting these innovations, you can ensure that your business remains at the forefront of customer communication.
Ready to take your marketing strategy into the world of SMS? The emfluence Marketing Platform has you covered. Check out our SMS messaging and other features made by marketers for marketers. Interested in learning more? Request a demo and we’ll walk you through the marketing automation tool that will change your campaigns.
