OTT communication; Onboarding users
When a user creates an account for practically anything these days, they normally have to enter their mobile number and confirm the creation of the account. These days many are working in non-traditional circumstances and may not have instant access to emails or have data limits that cause them challenges. An omnichannel messaging service enables a user to create an account from a mobile phone using an application. This means that the user no longer needs to enter additional information that the app cannot collect automatically, making it easier than ever to onboard users. There are a few different suppliers of this technology however Message Whiz’s OTT communication is the best for service and offerings and have been delivering solutions for many years.

Messaging within the application
The omnichannel messaging service is a great way to also provide a two-form authentication route that is integrated into the software used and because it is used on a mobile phone everything is much more convenient for the user. Additionally, GPS telemetry could be used with the application for verification the user is where they should be. For example, most banks these days require users to notify them of travel dates to different countries to stop their system from blocking a credit card during that period. With GPS telemetry consented the OTT communication process can report this back to help confirm the user credentials.

Secure connections
OTT communication can be used to generate one-time passwords to access systems and OTT communication works worldwide. They are exceptionally useful for remote access to organizational networks and used already in many secure VPN services for corporations that need military level remote connection security. Another use is in eCommerce purchase authentication, with one of the interesting uses being in cryptocurrency purchases and transfers where a dissimilar currency transaction takes place through a broker or third party. As the number of cryptocurrency users has doubled over the past year and currently around 1-2 percent of the financial marketplace it is expected that applications using this technology will accelerate significantly over the next 5 to 10 years as countries continue to acknowledge it as legal tender.
A large part of a company’s IP has become decentralized and hosted on cloud solutions with secure access to cloud services being a key requirement to business success. In the early days of cloud usage there were many breaches that this OTT communication technology helps to reduce.
The gaming sector has changed considerably over the past decade, with many users livestreaming content and it becoming their income source. Digital assets have a financial worth as does the time to gain such assets, and a perfect reason to integrate omnichannel messaging services into applications. By doing so games and associated software will gain better adoption in a saturated marketplace thanks to the peace of mind omnichannel messaging services help provide.

Passwords and sensitive data
These days with hundreds of passwords being created for each site or application it can be very difficult to recall which password is for each site. As such it makes sense to use OTT communication for the recovery process as well as during the onboarding process.
Some data is sensitive such as healthcare data that also can be protected through using an OTT communication system in any solution. In the unlikely event of data being viewed by others the liability is reduced by the company offering a secure system.
The future of your company
No matter what industry you are in, when you have new or existing users accessing your system you need them and their data to be safe. By ensuring good security to the user, you improve the image of the company while making the onboarding and governance of users far easier. This allows you to focus on growing the business.

smart messaging; automating your workflows
Reaching customers is becoming increasingly difficult these days due to everyone utilizing the same technologies to sell a product or offering to the end recipient, as such you need the most direct way possible to cut through the digital noise. One way to achieve this is through a smart messaging platform that can get your message to the customer directly through their phone. This is a device closer to the user than any others and has no automated blocking for SMS. An SMS is around 184% more likely to be actually read than an email that may end up in a spam folder or deleted at a glance; worse yet is the user unsubscribing the email address.

These days many companies use smart messaging to achieve a deeper level of interaction and automation for repetitive workflows. For example if you need to qualify a potential sales lead then you can use smart messaging to achieve this through artificial intelligence (AI) that is integrated into a chatbot. Now this has some benefits due to the means of communication. For example there are people thinking that the message was sent by a real person and others that know otherwise, and in either case this is useful. For example, the user that thinks it is a message from a real person will likely respond to a short and concise message due to the obligation and the small size of an SMS, making the user think that there is nothing further after the first reply. For the user that thinks it is a chatbot, they may still respond to it for the exact opposite in terms of obligation, they may not see it as a starting point for a marketing funnel. Again, in both cases the first call to action (CTA) is achieved.

Once the first message has been answered it is likely that a user will wish to complete consecutive messages from the basic idea that once they have started something they need to finish it, and so long as the smart messaging replies are not too long in number of responses it is likely that all information will be gathered successfully. Here it is important to know how fast smart messaging should operate, if too fast in replying it will feel to the user as an irritation while if left too long the original incentive to complete the task is lost and the process stopped by the user. To optimize the smart messaging platform some form of testing is required on a smaller portion of the call list demographic.

A smart messaging platform can be integrated into existing enterprise solutions such as the client requirement management CRM system through convenient APIs. These can be set up in a few minutes and allows an existing CRM system which contains all customer contacts to be filtered for SMS contact lists for a marketing campaign much more easily than trying to do it manually and enables the smart messaging platform to use the list to quickly make contact with the details provided in the CRM but also to return information back to the CRM later. Interestingly a smart messaging platform can be used to take users through the process and assess if they qualify for a follow-up by a member of the sales team, reducing many hours of wasted staff time chasing contacts through the equivalent of cold calling. If you are not using the system for sales you may be using it to schedule and confirm appointments with SMS using the same type of process making smart messaging platforms a highly effective customer management tool for many sectors from healthcare to logistics.

Targeted SMS Messaging
Getting the right person and the right time enables you to sell to them; at any other time, they are useless to you. Funneling potential leads is not to add to your call list for the day, but remove the outliers to stop you from wasting your time. At some point in time everyone can be sold to, however is that now, and is it worth the time to call them? Engage with customers through application-to-person (A2P) SMS messaging. SMS smart messages that use chatbots enable users to be either directed to the right support content, automate workflows such appointments, and funnel and filter through an automated validation process.

Optimized Messages
A2P SMS messaging providers get SMS specialists optimize messages and personalize content. Personalized domain URLs can be used. Multimedia messaging service (MMS) can allow you to have up to 40 seconds of video or equivalent media content added to a message, including audio. Images can be used in slideshows to show a user a product quickly.

A2P verses P2P
There are two main ways to send SMS messages to an individual; A2P and P2P (person-to-person) messaging. Due to A2P allowing for a high degree of automation it is regulated or restricted in many countries such as India and France. As such best practice is to use one of many A2P messaging providers and Ideally one that offers specialist creation of messages to not just aid the sale of the offering in the best light it can be, but also get around any potential regulatory challenges a non-experienced team may face. Restrictions that you could face may include message filtering by recipient carriers or delayed message delivery.
Typically, along with A2P, a messaging provider may also provide P2P SMS messaging as a service. This is a two-way SMS messaging conversation between two humans. As you can tell this method is another effective way of working and most companies using these will have predefined scripts and responses that can be used by staff. The only challenge with it is that it takes relatively a lot of staff to run it effectively, or a reduced throughput.
So, what can you do to make life easier for your staff? Well, combine your approach; first use A2P where you can without loss of response quality, automatically feed responses to CRM and then follow up on validated potential clients through P2P before taking things further. Better yet get the a2p SMS messaging provider to do the heavy lifting and follow up once a potential lead has been validated.

Administration
Users can manage and monitor campaigns through an accessible user interface. Straight away you are aware of the money you have spent and adjust accordingly. The great thing about A2P SMS is that the A2P messaging providers is that they specialize in optimization and may be able to help improve the yield of campaigns and worth talking to prior to adjustment.
What numbers or senders should I focus on?
In the US you can send to long phone codes, short phone codes, and toll-free phone numbers. For non-US countries you may wish to look into using short codes or alphanumeric sender IDs to help your campaigns. If you use P2P messaging, you should use custom numbers from the same country as your client list to ensure two-way SMS messaging functionality works correctly.

Summary
A2P messaging providers allow you a whole new world of SMS messaging that can be either used by itself or better yet together with P2P for an optimized approach with users. No matter your business SMS smart messaging solutions can generate sells quickly with little investment from corporate staff.