Podcast

CX Education 07: Learn how SMS helps you communicate with your customers with Nick Lane from Mobilesquared

Join Nick Lane and Sunny Dhami as they chat about SMS and the importance of an omnichannel marketing strategy.

Learn how SMS helps you communicate with your customers with Nick Lane from Mobilesquared
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About this episode

SMS was the first mobile channel, and with so many new communication channels — like WhatsApp and Viber — popping up, some brands are deciding to leave SMS behind.

But SMS is still a powerful way to communicate with customers and build a positive customer experience.

In this episode of the CX Education podcast, our host Sunny Dhami welcomes Nick Lane, the chief insight analyst and founder of Mobilesquared. They chat about the power of SMS, rich messaging, and why brands should implement messaging into their omnichannel marketing strategy.

Image for Nick Lane, Chief Insight Analyst & Founder | Mobilesquared

Guest Speaker

Nick Lane, Chief Insight Analyst & Founder | Mobilesquared

Nick is a specialist in all aspects of mobile and engagement based on 25 years’ experience. Over the past ten years, Nick has become recognised as a leading authority on business messaging, as a result of Mobilesquared’s deep dive research into the messaging market.

Nick regularly delivers the keynote analyst presentation at messaging events around the world including; Mobile World Congress, Messaging & SMS World, WAS, GSMA and MEF. Nick’s work is extensively covered in the mobile, business, and marketing press, and he has been interviewed by media including the Sunday Times, BBC, Bloomberg, The Financial Times, Forbes, and CNN. During this time, he has judged the Global Mobile Awards, Messaging & SMS Global Awards, the MEFFYS and the EMMAs. He has also written strategic industry reports on diverse mobile topics including messaging, unified communications, mpayments, mobile advertising, premium rate services, apps and content, and technology.

Prior to founding Mobilesquared, Nick was principal analyst at Ovum, having spent ten years as a tech journalist working on leading global B2B titles.

Image for Sunny Dhami, VP Product Marketing | Sinch

Host

Sunny Dhami, VP Product Marketing | Sinch

Sunny Dhami is a product marketing leader with 12+ years’ experience in Marketing and Product Marketing roles across the CPaaS, SaaS, communications, and technology industries. In this time, he has held responsibilities within global product marketing functions and has been fortunate enough to have worked in high-growth organisations like Sinch and RingCentral, where he has supported triple digit revenue growth.

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Key insights

Despite what some people think, SMS is still very much relevant today. Nick explains, “Our view has always been that it hasn’t started yet, and we still have that. We still think this is a platform, but we’re only at the tip of the iceberg. So what is happening now is largely because of the pandemic and the way brands have started to think about how they engage with their consumers. And also, maybe the digital journey and transformation that they’ve undergone in that time have really brought them to realize that actually messaging — SMS, for example — is not sexy, but in terms of effectiveness, there’s

One of the best things about SMS is that consumers trust it the most. Nick says, “I think it’s still trying to understand what the engagement is and how to engage with people when you only have a few characters. Because right now, the big thing within SMS is one-time passwords. That’s really effective, and there’s so much security around any purchase or online activity that I’d say that it’s increasing the level of trust that people have in the channel.” 

According to Nick, the future will be dominated by messaging. He explains, “We don’t have to reach everyone all the time because that’s not how advertising works anyway, which is why people advertise on Sky, BBC, CNN, Star, or wherever, depending on where you are in the world. You’ve got different audiences that you’re trying to reach. So again, it’s kind of understanding that. But we think WhatsApp will drive things, and that will then pull and drag along the others for a while, and then, they will start to flourish as well. So, in 10 years, the world we think will be very different, and it will be dominated by messaging.” 

Episode highlights

SMS is the next big thing

“Billion-dollar industries have emerged on smartphones, so there’s absolutely no reason why messaging isn’t the next industry to kind of capitalize on that. We genuinely think that will happen. It’s just a case of the web, and there will need to be some catalyst or trigger that will suddenly make the brands or their agencies go, ‘That is why we need this.’ I don’t think we are quite there yet. I think there are probably a number of key things that need to happen, but they will happen.”

Rich messaging takes it to the next level

“Rich messaging is more intriguing with more immersive content. So I guess the simple way of looking at it is that right now, you typically send an SMS, but if you put a picture in it, it becomes an MMS. So you have an image in there, and that is rich content. So rich messaging is taking it to the next level whereby you are more engaged on that platform.”

Take it one step at a time

“You’ve got to do it step by step and understand from a brand perspective how it’s going to work for you. So it is smaller steps — small incremental steps — ultimately getting you where you need to be. And it’s not to say that in the years to come, every brand won’t be sending carousels via whatever channel works for them or works for their target consumer. But right now, we’re still learning what this is. So it’s a gradual process, and I think it’s the journey that the industry has been predicting, but the brands still need educating, and there’s a lot of education to be done.”
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