What’s the Hype About RCS Marketing and Should Your Business Care?

The chances are you’re already using mobile channels, like SMS, MMS, and over-the-top mobile applications (e.g. WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger) for marketing purposes. But there’s a new player in town for mobile advertising, and it’s making serious waves: RCS marketing.

Countless companies have already discovered the benefits of traditional messaging channels for advertising – in fact, 64% of customers actually want companies to contact them more often through SMS and similar channels. But SMS, MMS, and even apps like WhatsApp do have limitations.

For instance, an SMS marketing strategy can help you reach and engage millions of potential customers – but the messages you send will be limited to text only.

RCS offers a more flexible way to build impactful, interactive marketing campaigns with multiple forms of media and unique features. Here’s your guide to using RCS for marketing in the mobile age.

What is RCS Marketing?

RCS marketing is the art of using the Rich Communication Services (RCS) protocol and Rich Business Messaging tools to send engaging, interactive messages to customers via mobile.

With an intuitive business messaging platform, companies can create comprehensive marketing campaigns designed for mobile users, with features like rich media, interactive carousels, and more.

Just like with email and SMS marketing, there are tools and platforms that can help you automate your marketing strategy, track engagement metrics, and even integrate your RCS marketing strategies with other platforms, for an “omnichannel” approach.

RCS Features and Functionality

RCS marketing might sound a lot like SMS or MMS marketing on the surface. After all, you’re still going to need mass texting software to create campaigns and monitor metrics, and you’re still going to be primarily communicating with customers via their mobile phones.

However, there are various unique ways companies can modernize business messaging using RCS, with advanced features like:

• Multimedia messaging: With RCS, companies can create custom text messages with images, videos and voice clips, as well as other unique elements – making messages more engaging.
• Branding: Companies can apply custom branded elements to text messages and business profiles, such as logos and specific business details.
• Quick Replies: RCS messages support suggested replies or “canned responses” making it ideal for companies using SMS to deliver fast-paced customer service.
• Embedded rich cards: Rich cards allow companies to add carousels, buttons, forms, and other interactive elements to messages, streamlining interactions.
• Integrations: As a web-based service, RCS integrates with various tools, such as invoicing and payment services, map and location tracking systems, and scheduling platforms.

RCS vs SMS vs MMS

If you’re wondering about the key differences between RCS vs SMS or MMS, the main thing you need to know is that RCS offers access to more features and flexible messaging options than either SMS or MMS, as mentioned above.

However, it does lack some of the reach of traditional messaging channels.

Virtually every mobile user on the planet can receive SMS or MMS text messages, while RCS is only supported by certain smartphones and networks. Notably, it did recently become available for iOS users, which helped to increase adoption. (Check out the difference between RCS vs iMessage here)

Like SMS and MMS, RCS is natively available within a user’s phone messaging application. In other words, users don’t need to download a third-party solution like WhatsApp. However, RCS does require users to have access to the internet to send and receive messages, because texts are sent over internet protocols and mobile networks (rather than relying on carrier connections).

The fact that RCS allows companies to send unique, engaging, and interactive promotional text messages to customers at scale, makes it a valuable option for marketing teams. However, the limited reach of this messaging protocol means it’s unlikely RCS will fully replace SMS or MMS.

The Benefits of RCS for Marketing Strategies

So, why should you consider using RCS for marketing? Although it has limited reach now, RCS adoption is growing, and this messaging solution can deliver a host of benefits to companies investing in flexible, omnichannel marketing campaigns.

In fact, RCS is already surpassing some other common marketing channels in certain ways, for instance, Google found that people are 35 times more likely to read an RCS message than an email.

Let’s cover the biggest benefits of RCS marketing.

1. Increased Customer Trust

Trust is everything in today’s world. While adhering to a comprehensive SMS compliance guide and implementing strategies to protect your customer’s data can help you earn their trust with any messaging strategy, RCS has some unique features to help boost your credibility.

For instance, companies can create RCS verified sender profiles that show recipients your official brand name, logo, colors, and more whenever they receive messages from you. This can help to reassure your customers that they’re actually talking to your business.

2. Growing Reach

RCS doesn’t have the global reach of SMS or MMS yet – but user numbers are growing. More than one billion people worldwide are already using RCS, and more carriers and vendors are supporting RCS all the time. Even Apple supports RCS today.

Additionally, as mentioned above, RCS doesn’t require your customers to download an external application. So, if you’re considering RCS vs WhatsApp for business messaging, RCS means you don’t have to convince users to download additional software.

3. Endless Flexibility

Unlike text marketing campaigns created for SMS or MMS, RCS gives companies more ways to experiment with unique components in their promotional content. You can add video, audio, and images to text, entice customers with product carousels, and even share forms.

Plus, you can enhance customer service with RCS and conversational AI, building on your marketing strategy with a two-way communication service. An AI tool can instantly answer customer questions, help them choose the right product, and even resolve problems for buyers 24/7.

4. Higher Engagement

While SMS and MMS marketing strategies both benefit from high engagement rates, the interactive elements of RCS marketing can take engagement levels to the next level. You can deliver branded, visually appealing, and interactive messages to customers that help them sort through products, complete purchases through their phone, and even locate physical business locations.

Plus, because RCS supports two-way messaging, it’s ideal for conversational marketing strategies, giving your sales and promotional teams a way to handle customer objections and answer questions before a purchase instantly.

5. Excellent Omnichannel Results

RCS marketing strategies don’t have to replace your existing marketing efforts across channels like email, social media, or SMS. In fact, the best way to use RCS is as a compliment to your existing strategy. With RCS, you open up more ways to engage customers on the platforms or channels they prefer, boosting your reach and customer satisfaction scores.

RCS is excellent for adding a new A2P messaging or P2P messaging solution to your marketing campaigns, so you can have rich two-way conversations with your target audience. With RCS APIs and integrations, you can easily add other channels to the mix too, like WhatsApp and Telegram.

RCS Marketing Use Cases: Applications for RCS

We’ve covered some of the major benefits of RCS for marketing, now let’s consider the various ways you can use RCS to engage, convert, and retain your audience.

1. Seasonal Promotions and Sales

You should already be taking advantage of a business texting service around the holiday period, as mobile messaging solutions offer the fastest, most convenient way to directly connect with customers when you’re promoting limited-time offers.

Adding RCS marketing into the mix is an excellent way to make your promotional campaigns stand out during a time of fast-paced shopping. You can use RCS to send texts to multiple contacts, complete with seasonal images, videos, and even a carousel showing off your latest products.

Plus, since RCS supports two-way messaging, customers will be able to respond to you with questions, so your team or conversational AI solution can share personalized recommendations on the types of products or deals they might like.

2. Personalized Promotional Messaging

Aside from giving you an excellent way to reach, engage, and convert customers during “seasonal” periods, RCS marketing also makes it easier to create highly personalized promotional strategies. For instance, since RCS integrates with maps and location tracking services, you can use it to send texts to local customers giving them discounts they can use at stores or business locations. These messages can even include maps to help customers find your location.

With integrations between your ecommerce platform and messaging tools, you can create personalized “abandoned cart recovery” messages too, showcasing the products your customers might have left behind with an automated text message service.

You can even enable customers to buy products directly through their smartphone, allowing them to take advantage of payment processing tools and conversational AI assistants that can help them rapidly complete their transaction.

3. Product Launch Messages

One of the best things about using RCS for marketing, is that it can help you add more rich storytelling elements to your advertising campaigns. For instance, if you’re about to launch a new product, you can schedule a text message to reach your customer before and during the launch, drawing attention to unique benefits, features, and promotions.

These messages give you a fantastic way to showcase your product in action, with rich image carousels that provide insights into product elements, descriptions, and prices. You can even embed rich cards into messages that make it easy for customers to “pre-order” a product, register their interest in an item, or request extra support from a sales professional.

By optimizing your product launch messages with rich, interactive features, RCS can help increase your conversion rates and improve customer satisfaction.

4. Transactional and One-Time Password Messages

Most companies use SMS for the majority of their transactional messages – such as texts that keep customers up-to-date about the status of their order. However, for messages that require a high level of customer trust, RCS marketing options could be a better solution.

For instance, if you use multi-factor authentication to help customers keep their data secure when they’re shopping with your business, you’ll need to send one-time passwords (OTPs) to your audience. When OTPs are delivered with RCS, they can feature your brand logo and verified sender profile, which makes them look more legitimate and trustworthy.

Plus, you can include suggested actions in OTP messages, such as allowing customers to “copy” a code with the tap of a finger.

5. Customer Newsletters

SMS marketing has a lot of benefits over email marketing for many companies – but with SMS, you are limited in the amount of content you can include in a message. This makes it hard to send mass texts to customers sharing your latest news, product updates, promotions, and so on.

With RCS marketing, you can share email-style newsletters with customers directly on their mobile devices. You’re not limited to the same character restrictions offered by SMS and MMS, and you can experiment with a wide range of media, from embedded videos to links.

Best Practices for your RCS Marketing Strategies

Here are top tips for integrating RCS into your marketing efforts.

• Know your compliance standards: Opt-in consent is already baked into the RCS messaging protocol – so it can give you less to worry about from a compliance perspective. However, it’s still work making sure you’re familiar with TCPA texting compliance standards and industry specific regulations. Remember, RCS messages revert automatically to SMS or MMS messages when an RCS connection isn’t available.
• Choose the right use cases: Some types of texts don’t require all the features that RCS has to offer. Before you start to automate workflows with RCS, make sure you choose your use cases carefully. RCS works best for sending rich, interactive messages to customers, and enabling conversational marketing techniques.
• Invest in segmentation and personalization: As mentioned above, personalization is relatively easy with RCS marketing – and it’s something you should be investing in. Make sure you’re segmenting customers into groups based on their demographic characteristics, behaviors, and purchases, so you can send more relevant messages.
• Integrate RCS with other marketing tools: Take advantage of the integrations offered by your business messaging platform to align your RCS tools with SMS, email, chat-based, and other marketing channels. Make sure you’re taking advantage of CRM integrations too, for better personalization opportunities.

Challenges and Limitations of RCS Marketing

While there are a lot of benefits to using RCS for marketing, it’s worth noting there are some limitations to consider too. First, you’ll need to find and invest in a conversational messaging platform for enterprises that supports RCS features. Then, you’ll need to teach new users how to design messages for RCS that drive the right results.

Creating RCS campaigns with multiple multimedia elements and features can be a lot more time-consuming and complex than creating SMS campaigns. Secondly, it can be expensive to send RCS messages compared to SMS or MMS campaigns, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll see an instant return on your investment.

You could even end up wasting money sending mass texts to users with phones that don’t support RCS. Or you could struggle with the deliverability of your RCS messages if you’re trying to connect with customers in areas with limited internet access.

The key to success is choosing a messaging platform that makes it easier to create comprehensive RCS campaigns, as well as SMS and MMS marketing strategies that boost your reach and help you increase your marketing ROI.

Trends and the Future of RCS Marketing

RCS marketing is becoming a particularly popular option for companies seeking new ways to engage and convert customers on mobile channels. In the years ahead, RCS will only continue to grow in value, as innovators implement new anti-spam measures and security solutions for RCS messaging, and carriers enable more integrations.

New trends will also continue to shape the landscape. For instance, companies like Clerk Chat already empower companies to align their RCS and SMS marketing strategies with conversational AI agents for advanced customer experiences.

As we move forward into a new era of messaging, the key to getting the most out of your RCS marketing strategies is embracing the right technology. A platform like Clerk Chat can give you an easy way to implement RCS into your marketing efforts with intuitive templates, workflow builders, and integrations with your existing business tools.

Clerk Chat has its own conversational AI agents, for intuitive two-way messaging, as well as rich reporting and analytical tools to help you track the impact of your campaigns. Plus, with Clerk Chat, you can easily combine RCS marketing with campaigns across channels like SMS and WhatsApp. Join the RCS revolution with Clerk Chat today.