Texting Options Vary by Task at Hand

Retail marketers now have options for text messaging, thanks to the widespread availability of Rich Communication Services (RCS) on mobile phones. This technology offers app-like features, similar to the evolution of email from text-only to HTML.

Email originally only supported text, similar to mobile’s Short Message Service (SMS), commonly known as texting. It wasn’t until 1996, with the release of Hotmail, that email messages fully supported HTML.

RCS Reaches Ubiquity

An estimated 96% of U.S. mobile devices include RCS, according to the report from Bandwidth Inc. This widespread adoption has led to a growing number of businesses considering RCS for their marketing efforts.

In fact, 59% of surveyed businesses were planning an RCS deployment, according to the report. However, the cost structure of RCS is still evolving, with some carriers charging per message and others per session.

The cost of sending an RCS message can be at least twice as much as an SMS, if not more. Despite this, RCS offers a range of features that can enhance the shopping experience, including images, video, audio, and files.

Comparing RCS and SMS

The decision to use RCS should begin with the shopper’s needs and end with a comparison of RCS and SMS performance, costs, and conversions. RCS makes the most sense when it helps shoppers complete a task, such as recovering a purchase or evaluating an item.

The jobs-to-be-done framework, developed by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen and consultant Anthony Ulwick, can be helpful in guiding an RCS campaign. This framework focuses on a product’s ability to solve consumers’ immediate tasks rather than its features.

For example, a shopper may need to see the items in a cart to complete a purchase. In this case, RCS can provide a more interactive and engaging experience than SMS.

RCS is useful when its images, choices, buttons, or conversational features make a job easier than an SMS. The strongest ecommerce use cases for RCS tend to align with the jobs shoppers need to complete, such as recovering a purchase or evaluating an item.

Measuring Success

For an RCS campaign, a marketer can identify one primary job and one completion event. An abandoned-cart message, for example, should be judged by purchases, not carousel views. A delivery message should be measured by successful scheduling, not button clicks.

SMS works well when the shopper’s job is simple, urgent, and easy to complete. It’s a better channel to confirm that an order was received, shipped, delayed, or delivered, or to retrieve a one-time passcode.

When in doubt, testing can help determine whether RCS or SMS is the better choice. By setting up RCS and SMS automations and aiming them at similar customers, offers, products, and timing, marketers can see which channel performs better.

RCS is worth the cost when it helps shoppers complete a job more profitably than SMS. Otherwise, the simpler message remains the better choice. As the technology continues to evolve, it’s likely that we’ll see even more innovative uses of RCS in ecommerce marketing.