3 Key Ways RCS Can Transform Text-Message Marketing

By Haleigh Beckman, Director of Product Marketing, Listrak

A revolutionary shift in mobile marketing is coming soon.

With over a billion active users worldwide, Rich Communication Services (RCS) is an interactive communications channel that has taken the world by storm, allowing users to send and receive text-like messages, voice calls, video calls, and multimedia files directly from the phone’s messaging app.

With Apple’s support for RCS now in place, RCS will transform how brands engage,  expanding interactive engagement functionality and modernizing text messaging to keep pace with OTT messaging apps like WhatsApp and GroupMe.

What will RCS and RBM (RCS for business messaging) mean on the court? Here are three key ways RCS can elevate and transform your D2C marketing:

Send more engaging messages – and confirm they are being received.

With RCS, messages can be more dynamic and engaging, and marketers can obtain  confirmation that their messages are being delivered and opened.

RCS incorporates user-friendly features for interaction and engagement. Think buttons, tap-to-call and higher resolution multimedia.  RCS will also allow marketers to use dynamic product carousels and fun interactive features like questions, surveys and polls, making text message marketing a lot more engaging. Plus,, RCS enables full circle-experiences from product search to recommendations through purchase and order updates without leaving the channel.

Plus, with RCS additional reporting features, marketers will now be able to get read receipts for their messages, a feature that currently has been limited to email and had not been previously available in SMS.

Create trust with a verified sender ID – and extend that trust worldwide.

In a time where fraud is a growing concern, having a verified brand ID will build consumer trust – which will translate into consumers being less hesitant to click on links, in turn equating to higher conversion rates.

With the current system of text message marketing, consumers may not always be certain they are communicating with the actual brand. This issue will be solved with RCS, which allows for brands to establish themselves as a verified sender, in fashion similar to what we are familiar with from verified social media accounts.

What’s more, with RCS, marketers can register their sender ID across countries. With a billion monthly active RCS users worldwide, the opportunity for a verified global presence is vast.

Leverage enhanced communication tools – and close sales with two-way conversations.

RCS provides an amped-up application of communication tools, which is great news for marketers since 89% of consumers want two-way communication with their favorite brands, according to technology company Sinch.

The nature of RCS is highly interactive and conversational. RBM, allows marketers to ask multiple-choice questions, poll their customers, and more. It can be a great complement to Text Message Marketing depending on the goal of a given campaign, and it’s perfect for when further two-way communication is needed to close a sale.

Bottom line

These are just some of the dynamic ways that RCS will level-up text message marketing.  Start strategizing how you can leverage the benefits of RCS in your marketing program.