Effective and efficient communication with your customers, clients, and employees is crucial for business success. Nowadays, text messaging has become one of the most popular and efficient communication channels. SMS has better response rates and higher engagement compared to the typical channels of phone calls and emails. However, implementing native SMS capabilities to an existing software suite of offerings can be challenging, costly, and time-consuming. As product leaders look to add value to current and future offerings, the question of build vs buy will drive the planning strategy and impact the timelines of the software development lifecycle. To overcome these challenges, product leaders may look to leverage the expertise of a technology provider to white label or embed a text messaging solution into their existing software platform. We’ve seen firsthand the benefits of leveraging a technology provider for SMS and can ultimately aid in outpacing your competition and help deliver immediate value to your customers.

The Strategic Importance of SMS in Modern Business

Let’s first unpack the business case for SMS as a communication tool in business. According to a report by TechJury, 90% of text messages are read within 3 minutes of being received, indicating the immediacy and attention that text messages command. Furthermore, a recent study indicates that consumers are showing an increasing preference to receive text messages from businesses. A study by RingCentral also found that 80% of professionals use text for business purposes. This solidifies the point that SMS is not just an emerging medium of communication among businesses and consumers – it is a necessary one to drive meaningful results.

While the numbers are compelling and make a strong case for expanding an existing product suite, implementing SMS technology can be challenging for product and engineering teams that have to manage limited resources and complex customer needs, especially if it is in an area where they have limited expertise. Furthermore, maintaining and updating these capabilities requires an additional level of technical expertise that can draw resources away from a company’s core product.

The Advantages of Ready-Made SMS Solutions

Leveraging a proven SMS platform and integrating it into existing software brings several advantages over trying to build it out yourself or leveraging a complicated API for SMS. A proven SMS platform like TextUs has already done the heavy lifting when it comes to working out the kinks and ensuring a high level of reliability, thereby saving you the time and effort of troubleshooting complex API issues. Additionally, integration is typically straightforward and seamless, which means you can have your SMS functionality up and running quickly, without disrupting your current processes. In contrast, working with an SMS API within an existing system can be complex, often requiring a high level of technical expertise and a significant investment of resources. Plus, the risk of compatibility issues or integration problems is much higher. Therefore, utilizing a proven SMS API platform offers an easier, more efficient, and less risky path to enhancing your communication capabilities.

Another significant advantage of leveraging a technology provider for text messaging solutions is the expertise and support they provide. With a proven platform like TextUs, you can rely on their team’s knowledge and experience to guide you through the implementation process. They can also provide ongoing support and assistance with any issues or questions that may arise.

Maximizing Impact with White Label SMS Solutions

Software product managers, at their core, concentrate on constructing solutions that alleviate the pain points of customers and prospects. As digital trends evolve rapidly, it’s paramount for product managers to remain agile and adapt swiftly, deploying new technologies to meet the ever-changing needs of the market. It’s in this context that the saying “Don’t reinvent the wheel” rings especially true.

Rather than spend considerable resources and time to build a solution from scratch, product managers can strategically leverage proven solutions that are already in existence. By embedding such solutions within their current product, they can not only expedite time-to-market but also ensure a high level of reliability and performance. This is where we see a significant advantage on the ‘buy’ side in the build vs buy argument. The move presents an excellent opportunity to enhance your product’s communication capabilities swiftly and efficiently without the need for complex development processes. This gives product managers more opportunity to focus on their core competencies while also delivering a highly effective and efficient solution to their customers.

In today’s digital age, software customers place high value on strong User Experience (UX) and ease of use. A software solution that is intuitive and user-friendly not only increases customer satisfaction but also enhances productivity by reducing the time spent on learning and adapting to the platform. This is particularly important when it comes to incorporating an SMS gateway solution within an existing software platform. The integration should be seamless and non-disruptive, ensuring that the SMS solution feels native and works harmoniously with the existing functionality of the software. This means the SMS gateway solution should not only share the software’s visual language for consistency but also align with its workflow, allowing users to easily transition between tasks without unnecessary complications.

A text messaging solution like TextUs, which can be embedded into your platform, provides this intuitive, user-friendly experience. By offering a native-feeling, easy-to-use text messaging feature within your software platform, you can significantly improve UX, foster customer satisfaction, and ultimately drive adoption and usage of your software solution.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the Top 5 Reasons that product managers would look to buy a text messaging solution versus building it in-house:

1. Faster Implementation: Building a native text messaging platform from scratch can be a complex and time-consuming process. Incorporating an embedded or white label text messaging system drastically reduces development time and effort, allowing businesses to provide a more effective communication channel to their customers. This means that they can release their solution to the market much faster, gaining a competitive advantage, and meeting customer needs more quickly.
2. Reduced Development Effort: Creating a text messaging platform requires a variety of specialized skills such as engineering, design, and marketing. By partnering with a proven technology provider like TextUs, businesses are able to eliminate this complex and expensive process. Additionally, development teams can focus on their core competencies and work on the areas they excel in, such as product design or customer service.
3. Ongoing Support and Updates: A technology provider like TextUs provides continuous development, maintenance, and support for its solution. This ensures businesses benefit from the latest updates, including new features, bug fixes, security enhancements, and integrations with other software platforms. Businesses can be assured of the continued availability of quality support, which is essential to long-term success.
4. Compliance Expertise, Including 10DLC Registration: Compliance is critical in the texting landscape, and 10DLC (10 Digit Long Code) registration is a complex process that businesses must undergo to send text messages at scale. TextUs provides expert knowledge and support for businesses that want to register for 10DLC and adhere to regulations. In-house development teams would either have to learn the process or potentially risk compliance violations, fines or even suspension of their texting capabilities.
5. Customization and Branding: TextUs offers customizable text messaging solutions that businesses can white-label or embed into their software platform. This means that companies can brand the messaging system with their unique identity and customize it to fit their needs, such as adding custom messages, images, and videos.

Leveraging a technology provider to white label or embed a text messaging solution into your software platform is a cost-effective way to improve your communication strategy. TextUs offers businesses an efficient way to incorporate an SMS gateway into their communication tactics and attain benefits that only a leader in the space can offer. More software providers are turning to TextUs’ white label sms solution and seeing immediate impact on revenue growth and adding value for customers. Learn more by talking with a TextUs expert and schedule a demo today.

State of SMS Engagement 2024

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