The question is, how do you go about setting up your bulk SMS integrations? Do you take the direct route in connecting your SMS platform to other tools? Do you use a go-between like Zapier? Or something else entirely?

To help you work out which route’s right for you, let’s look at each option in a bit more detail and get started with SMS integrations.

Option 1: Using a direct SMS integration

How to get started with a direct integration on Shopify

Hint: To get started in other apps, head to the ‘Integrations’ page. This should give you a list of direct integrations, as well as instructions on how to connect. 

1. Open Shopify, and select ‘Apps’ – this will take you to a page that lists all the current apps you’re using in conjunction with Shopify

2. Select ‘Visit the Shopify App Store’ in the top right.

3. Use the search bar to find MessageMedia – two options should appear (Reconvert or Marketing Automation)

4. Choose the tool you want

5. Add your details, and you’re connected

Option 2: Using a third-party connector like Zapier

Your second option for connecting applications and making it easy to send SMS? A third-party connector (think, translator).

Zapier is an example of a ‘connector integration platform’ that helps different applications talk to each other. With the ability to connect 5,000+ apps, Zapier is a great way to get these important business conversations flowing.

A tool like Zapier is super helpful for applications that don’t have pre-built integrations for other tools. It’s quick and easy to create a workflow, or ‘Zap’, between your apps. And it saves you time and money on coding your own integrations.

For more tips on using Zapier as your SMS integration tool, see our support guide or head over to Zapier to learn how to create a Zap.

Option 3: Build your own SMS integration

Fancy a more bespoke approach? If you want to set up complex workflows or have a unique need in your business, direct integrations and third-party connectors might not be right for you. 

Instead, you might be better off taking the time to create your own integration using our REST API gateway. This way, you can set things up to do exactly what you want.

More to love about SMS integrations

Jump back to the basics of SMS integrations or get inspiration with common text messaging integrations.

The post When to use Zapier vs direct integrations for SMS appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

Integration, sometimes called an omnichannel approach, involves bringing all your channels onto a single platform. It can be a simple, efficient way for government organisations to reach and engage with constituents and employees. Integration makes it easier to reach out and simplifies data collection, helping you gather insights as you go.

Still using disconnected systems to handle messaging, email and other comms? Here’s how integration could make all the difference.

Keeping up with customer expectations

Integrated, omnichannel communication is a basic expectation in retail and marketing settings. The stats show that 75% of customers want to communicate with businesses in the same way they communicate with friends and family and that 50% regularly use more than four brand touchpoints before making a purchase. In short, people want to interact with businesses on their phones, via email or through social media – wherever they happen to be at a given point.

Of course, government organisations aren’t selling products or services, but your constituents and staff members are still consumers who are accustomed to smooth, seamless brand experiences.    

Meet people where they are

You reach a broader audience when you have a range of communication channels available. It’s about giving your staff or constituents more ways to interact with your organisation so they’re more likely to engage with your message. If you’re working with a diverse audience, it’s even more important to use multiple channels – some groups will strongly prefer SMS and ignore email communications, others will prioritise email, and some will communicate through messaging platforms like WhatsApp.

An omnichannel approach lets you maintain consistent messaging across different channels. Whether people interact with your organisation through SMS, email or social media, they should access the same information. For example, a constituent should be able to click through from an email, SMS or other messaging platform to access a rates bill or payment details. It’s about curating frictionless journeys – not making things harder for your audience.

Try it out for yourself

Try Sinch MessageMedia for 14 days for free, and see what an integrated comms strategy can do for your business.

Start texting for free

Engage and convert

In marketing, conversions are often used as shorthand for sales. In government organisations, it’s a broader term that covers any desired action you want your audience to take. For example, if you send a message to constituents asking for feedback on a district plan, anyone who clicks through and leaves feedback counts as a conversion. In other cases, you might look for engagement rather than a conversion – for example, you may want employees to read a message or email about a new policy when it’s sent out.

An integrated approach helps boost engagement and conversions simply by giving your audience more opportunities to see messages and more chances to connect. Think about it: it’s easy to miss or forget a single email, but it’s harder to ignore an SMS or MMS reminder and social media update.  

One Sinch customer, a leading US-based telecom provider, found that an integrated approach worked wonders for engagement. When they added email to the existing SMS strategy, they saw a 400% increase in conversion rates. Adding MMS boosted conversions by another 260%.

More channels, deeper insights

Managing multiple channels on one platform has another benefit for government organisations – data collection. When you use disconnected systems to communicate with your staff or constituents, data is also disconnected, making it hard to get a cohesive picture of audience behaviour or the impact of your messaging.

With an integrated approach, you can track the response rate for all channels in one place, as well as conversions, open rates and other behaviours. These insights can help you tweak future marketing or outreach campaigns to make them more effective. This could be as simple as sending SMS messages at a particular time of day because it correlates with higher open rates, or using rich text messaging with embedded links to promote local events.   

Integration = impact

While government organisations and retail businesses have little in common, they do have similar goals when it comes to audience outreach: engaging with their audience, communicating key messages, and getting people to take action.

An integrated communication strategy is one way to level up your engagement and get those crucial messages out there – whether they’re about the latest sale or a tax refund. Connecting comms channels can help your organisation reach a broader swathe of constituents or employees and make it more likely for them to engage. 

The good news? Sinch MessageMedia handles integration for you, giving you a simple, user-friendly platform for all your communication.

Want to find out more about integration in your organisation? Visit our booth at TIG or book a chat with our team.  

The post The importance of an integrated comms strategy appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

HubSpot is a great customer platform with many helpful tools for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. However, it’s missing one thing: a tool to send and receive SMS.

In order to use HubSpot for text messages, you have to have a HubSpot SMS integration. We’ll walk you through the entire process, explain different use cases for HubSpot and SMS, and show you how other companies are using HubSpot and text messages successfully.

Why should you even send SMS with HubSpot?

Because SMS simply work. Facts! Not many other channels have an open rate of 98% and reach click-through rates of up to 36%. Because people love communicating via text, mobile messaging has some of the best engagement rates and will allow your business to cut through the noise. Integrating SMS into your marketing, sales, and customer service strategy will create a better customer experience, improve customer loyalty, and definitely grow your revenue.

If you’re already working with HubSpot for your customer communication, it only makes sense to use the same tool for SMS as well. With an SMS integration, you won’t have to switch to another platform or learn how to use a new software. You can simply add SMS and MMS to your existing automation and nurture leads.

It’s also a great way to optimise multichannel communication. After all, you always want to meet your customers on the platforms they love, but without adding more work to your plate.

That’s exactly where a seamless HubSpot SMS integration comes in handy.

What can you do with a HubSpot SMS integration?

Integrating text messaging into your HubSpot communication unlocks several possibilities to engage with customers.

Have a two-way conversation

You can send and receive individual text messages directly from your contact records. This works directly from your HubSpot account or from the integration tool you’re using.

Here are some examples for one-on-one conversations you can have through HubSpot SMS:

• Personal outreaches 
• Sales follow-up 
• Resolving ServiceHub customer support tickets

Send bulk SMS

Use your SMS integration to send out campaigns to multiple contacts in your address list. You’ll be able to set up enrollment triggers and add a Sender ID that’ll show recipients your business’ name (rather than just a phone number).

Here are some ideas for (automated) bulk SMS sales, marketing, and support teams can send through HubSpot:

• promotions
• special offers
• back-in-stock notifications
• abandoned cart reminders
• loyalty campaigns
• event reminders
• onboarding appointments
• sales handovers
• …

Set up SMS and MMS automation triggers

If you’re already using HubSpot, you know how helpful its workflow triggers are. With an SMS integration, you can do the same for text messages. Define keywords to automatically trigger a new workflow when a person replies to your text. It’ll save you time, help close for deals, and keep your contacts engaged.

Here are some ideas for SMS workflows:

• reminders and notifications for appointments or events
• customer onboarding journey
• NPS surveys

By the way, you can also include images (MMS) or mobile landing pages in your HubSpot SMS campaigns.

Get insights from reporting dashboards

Understanding the interactions with your customers is key to improving your communication.

Some SMS integration tools include detailed reporting dashboards for you to not only automatically record your contact activity, but also split contacts and run A/B tests to better understand your customer groups to optimise your campaigns.

These are some of the insights you’ll get:

• open rates (including date and time of day)
• conversion rates (including booked meetings)
• automated reporting on outbound sends to understand what drives sales
• click-through rates and link interaction (use our Short Trackable links feature to track link clicks from messages sent from your HubSpot workflows)
• delivery status
• access to broadcast reports in our Hub

Use personalised SMS templates

Choosing an SMS integration for HubSpot with personalised SMS templates has some perks. With Sinch MessageMedia’s HubSpot integration, for example, it’s easy to either create your own branded SMS templates or select one of our ready-to-go templates. Just use the different fields to customise your message with names, dates, and other personal information.

Segment your customers with HubSpot Smart Lists

Even when sending out bulk SMS, you want to send the right content to the right audience. That’s where customer segmentation comes in to make sure your message is really catered to a specific target group. Aside from using HubSpot’s Smart Lists for this, you can also create specific workflows around each segment to get better results. More on this later.

These are some ideas for building segmented lists:

• new subscribers
• engaged subscribers
• frequent shoppers
• abandoned carts
• lead by used asset (e-books, webinars, etc.)

How to get started

You’ll need two things to start sending text messages through HubSpot: a HubSpot account and an SMS integration.

Now, we might not be fully objective here, but we strongly recommend the Sinch MessageMedia HubSpot integration. Of course, you shouldn’t just take our word for it. Rather, listen to the more than 1,500 happy customers that are using our integration and gave us an average 4.7 stars rating.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5

“Phenomenal workflow integration, and with Sinch MessageMedia’s email to SMS feature we can easily interact with our customers using HubSpot’s conversations tool.”

Hearty, E.  │ Hospitality

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5

Easy to set up and use!

Really easy and intuitive to use. Currently using this for our SMS marketing, I really like the mobile landing page feature as well. The support from the Message Media team during the induction phase is great.

Lo, A. │ Medical and Wellness

Do more with SMS for HubSpot

Build strong connections without switching platforms. Add SMS and MMS to your existing automation and nurture leads with ease.

Let’s go

First steps with your HubSpot integration

In order to connect your SMS integration tool with HubSpot, you have three options:

1. Directly on our hub (if you already have an account with Sinch MessageMedia)
2. On our website
3. Through the HubSpot marketplace

We’ll walk you through the last option.

First, go to Start the HubSpot App marketplace and search for “Sinch MessageMedia”. Then select the app from the list.

If you haven’t installed the app yet, go to the site of the app and click on the install button in the top right corner. Here, you can either connect an existing account or create a free trial account. If you choose the free trial, you’ll see a sign-up form to create an account. In order to make it easier for you to get started, we’ve also added 25 free credits.

Once you fill out the form, you’ll be asked to verify your phone number and then to select the account you want to connect. If you don’t have another account with Sinch MessageMedia yet, you’ll only have one choice.

That’s it! The whole process only takes a few minutes, and now you’re ready to set up your workflows for SMS on HubSpot.

Using SMS workflows on HubSpot

You can manually send SMS and MMS through HubSpot or set up automated workflows.

A manual send makes sense when you only want to send one highly personalised message to one (or maybe a few) contacts. All you have to do for this is select the option “send message“, type your text, select the contact, and send it. It’s a very easy setup. However, in most cases, you probably want to scale and automate your business texts to save time and ditch the manual work.

That’s when automated workflows come in, like event reminders and sales follow ups.

With HubSpot workflows, you can design automated if-this-then-that scenarios. For instance, one workflow could be: If a new user subscribes to your SMS messages, send him a welcome message with a 25% discount voucher. Another one might be: If a contact downloads a specific lead magnet, they’ll receive an invite to a free trial after two weeks. In HubSpot, you set this up by defining “event triggers” (the “if this” part) and workflows (“then that”).

By the way, this also works with any deal workflows to help make sure the right touch points are sent throughout the transaction. 

For detailed instructions on how to set up a workflow for SMS and MMS, check out our step-by-step guide for setting up SMS workflows on HubSpot.

Two companies that are winning with SMS and HubSpot

Adding SMS to your HubSpot flows can be a winning strategy. It allows you to be flexible and always contact your customers on the best-converting channel. And it keeps your work flow simple. Let’s take a closer look at two companies that have grown their business with this approach.

Vinomofo reduces churn by adding SMS to HubSpot workflow

For the Australian online wine brand Vinomofo, incorporating SMS into their HubSpot workflows made all the difference. The e-commerce business for wine aficionados focuses on highly customised recommendations for their mofos (aka customers). They were already using a personalised email flow in HubSpot and seeing good results. But they knew that there was one channel they still weren’t tapping into for maximizing the individual customer experience: SMS.

As they were looking for a tool that would allow them to send SMS from HubSpot, they found Sinch MessageMedia. With this integration, they started using SMS and email in tandem for their campaigns to create a true multichannel experience for promotional offers, new customer onboarding, birthday automations, and reengagement campaigns.

SMS proved especially successful for reengagement. Vinomofo was reaching out via SMS to target customers that hadn’t made a purchase in several months. Based on this, they set up workflows on HubSpot and also added SMS into several slots. For example:

• Last date of purchase > X weeks, send email with xxxx.
• Two days later, if customer did not purchase, send another email. 
• Two days later, if customer did not purchase, send an SMS.

Adding SMS to the flow made a big difference. Vinomofo saw:

• 50% reengaged customers 
• 120x return on investment 
• 21% increase in sales conversion 
• 0.05% low unsubscribe rate 

House of Golf: Managing 20,000 SMS a month

SMS and HubSpot are not only a great combo for e-commerce companies. Brick-and-mortar retailers can also benefit. Take for instance House of Golf. The Melbourne store offers literally anything and everything you could possibly want to step up your game. As golf players are passionate about the sport, they want to be updated immediately when a new item hits the store or know when they can pick up an order.

House of Golf was sending out SMS manually to keep their customers up to date. Until they found Sinch MessageMedia’s HubSpot integration through their entrepreneurial advisory firm Blue Rock. With this, they can now keep their customers in the loop with automated flows from HubSpot. The SMS integration enabled House of Golf to scale their text messaging. They now send over 20,000 SMS per month.

Getting started with SMS and HubSpot

Integrating SMS with HubSpot makes it easy to add one of the most engaging channels to your customer communication. With the right tool, you don’t even have to switch platforms and you can simply add SMS and MMS to your existing workflows.

Get in touch with our team, and we’ll gladly walk you through the process and answer all of your questions.

The post A beginner’s guide to HubSpot and SMS appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

Here, we explore the many ways you can integrate SMS into your favourite ecommerce, sales, marketing and business platforms. Once integrated, your team can easily send SMS to customers straight from the tools they already know and love. 

Why use integrations over APIs to send text messages?

While you can use an API to send text messages (and we’ve got you covered there with our SMS API gateway), native integrations take things up a notch. They’re built specifically for two platforms to work in perfect harmony. 

When two platforms are natively integrated, it means their developers have worked behind the scenes to create a seamless connection. They’ve done the hard work, so you don’t have to. 

You can use a wide (and growing) range of MessageMedia integrations for different business processes, like ecommerce, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation software. Let’s take a look at each one.

Sell smartly with ecommerce SMS integrations

With more people shopping online than ever before, how do you make your ecommerce store stand out from the crowd? How do you engage with customers you never meet? 

SMS is a powerful platform for ecommerce customer service, and an SMS ecommerce integration makes it easy to send personalised messages. By integrating text messaging with your ecommerce platform, you can create targeted campaigns around: 

• Cart abandonment
• Lead generation
• Win-back campaigns
• Back-in-stock notifications
• Re-marketing to existing customers
• Customer engagement
• Personalisation

Here’s an example

Simply for Strings used our SMS integration with Shopify to tackle the issue of cart abandonment. It was a big problem in their business. So they set up automated SMS workflows within Shopify to remind customers about the items in their cart and entice them back to complete the purchase.

They’re also using the integration to send promotions and offers to regular customers. Because it’s all in one platform, it’s super easy for the team to manage. Read the full case study.

Ready to connect? Head over to our integrations marketplace to see all ecommerce platform SMS integrations, including Magento, BigCommerce, Shippo, ShipStation, Shopify and WooCommerce.

Work smarter with ERP SMS integrations

ERPs like NetSuite are all about simplifying business processes, right? So, if you’re planning to use SMS as part of your marketing or communications strategy, then it absolutely makes sense to bring this powerful channel into your ERP family, too. 

With an SMS/Netsuite integration, you can set up SMS-driven automations to improve customer service, enhance your marketing, or even set reminders for customer payments – all from the one spot. Simple.

Here’s an example

An online retailer sells limited edition hoodies, which regularly sell out. When new stock comes in, customers pounce. Then, boom. They’re out of stock again. Regular customers get frustrated about missing out on all the deals. 

To keep these customers in the loop – and to keep them happy – the retailer prompts them to subscribe to SMS restock alerts. This way, as soon as the hoodie is restocked, the ERP system triggers MessageMedia to send out an automated SMS so the customer doesn’t miss out.

Ready to connect? Get started with our direct integration for Netsuite.

Connect with customers using a CRM SMS integration

Proven to cut through the noise and reach customers faster, SMS is the perfect fit for your CRM program. And, by integrating SMS with the platform you already use to manage customer relationships, you can keep all your customer information and communications in one place. Too easy.

Here’s an example

Say your business is chasing new leads. Your sales team is following up on prospects with phone calls. Great idea in theory, but no-one seems to answer their phone or listen to messages. 

To let customers know you’ve received their query, you set up an automated workflow in your CRM to trigger an SMS when a new lead comes in. First, you’ll need to capture their mobile phone number and opt in on the form. 

Then, in the SMS, you can thank them for getting in touch and say you’ll call shortly. The customer feels heard and knows to look out for your call.

Ready to connect? Head over to our integrations marketplace to see all CRM SMS integrations, including Adobe Campaign, HubSpot, NetSuite, Salesforce, Shopify and Zoho.

Zapier connects you when direct SMS integrations don’t exist

If a direct SMS integration isn’t available for the platform your team uses, we’ve got you covered with Zapier. This ‘connector integration platform’ helps different applications talk to each other. Learn more about when using Zapier to connect SMS to your tools. 

And remember, if you’re new to all of this, you can get started with a free trial of MessageMedia now.

The post Making text message integrations work for your business appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

Scratching your head at all these acronyms? (Hello, IDK*. LOL*) We’re here to unpack one acronym you hear a lot of when using SaaS (ok, there’s another one). We’re talking about the all-important API. 

Here, we explore APIs and how you can use them with SMS marketing.

*IDK = “I don’t know”

*LOL = “Laugh out loud”

First, here are the API basics

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are bits of code that make it possible for different devices and apps to ‘talk’ to each other. APIs are used in most things you do online – like tracking an order, making dinner reservations or sharing a story on social media.

Say, for example, you’re reserving a table for dinner. You enter your details on the restaurant’s website. An API takes your details from the site and pops them into the restaurant’s in-house bookings system. 

Or, say you’re booking a holiday. You head to a travel booking site, enter your destination and travel dates, and see what comes up. Behind the scenes, APIs are busy pulling in info from all the different airlines and hotels to give you up-to-date pricing and availability.

In a nutshell, APIs make it possible for different apps, sites and systems to share near real-time information and data – so customers and end users get a seamless experience.

How do APIs work?

APIs act like middlemen. They build a bridge between systems. And, to do this, they use a set of rules (aka code) that define how the different apps and sites talk to each other. 

Unless you’re a developer, you don’t really need to know what the code looks like. All you need to know is that APIs exist to help different systems work better, together.

Why use APIs with SMS?

SMS is an invaluable addition to the modern marketing mix. So it makes sense to integrate SMS into your existing marketing platforms, such as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform like Salesforce or marketing automation software like HubSpot.  

And with APIs, it’s easy. The ‘middleman’ lets your Salesforce or HubSpot platform ‘talk’ to your SMS platform. It means you can schedule and trigger text messages based on customer actions, right in your CRM or marketing automation software.

Let’s look at an example.

A customer fills out an enquiry form on your website. It goes to HubSpot, which has an automated trigger to send a ‘Thanks for your enquiry, we’ll get back to you soon’ SMS back to the customer. 

The API between HubSpot and MessageMedia makes it possible. It means that an SMS can be sent automatically, without you or one of your employees having to copy the customer’s details from HubSpot, add them to the MessageMedia platform, and hit ‘send’.

Yes, there are different types of integrations

Now that you’ve wrapped your head around how APIs work, let’s look at three ways to integrate SMS with your favourite marketing tools.

1. Native

A native integration is where a services provider, like MessageMedia, is listed in the app store of the software you’re using (e.g. Shopify, HubSpot, or Salesforce).

You simply visit their app store, search for the appropriate provider, and click to add. Then, the service is added to your software — it may appear like an extension or plugin, which you can access by clicking a button. You generally just need to pop in your password and then you’re connected and ready to go.

2. Webhook

With this type of integration, the webhook acts like a translator. It sits between the software you’re using (like your CRM) and your SMS services provider, enabling information to flow freely from one to the other.

Without getting too technical, it uses a unique URL to send the info from one app to another. For example, if a customer replies ‘Y’ to an SMS to confirm an appointment, a webhook can pull data into your Google Calendar to lock the appointment in.

3. Rest API

A REST API (REST stands for Representational State Transfer) is a secure, reliable and efficient way to exchange information over the internet. It works by fielding requests for information and translating the data into a format the recipient can understand.

REST APIs can save a lot of time, energy and money. For example, with the Google Maps API you can use their existing mapping technology rather than building something from scratch. Yet while your developers will love them, they’re not simple to explain to non-technical types. If you’re keen to learn more about our REST API, head here.

Ready to get started with APIs?

Schedule a demo to see how you can set up your own APIs with MessageMedia.

The post What is an SMS API and how do they work? appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

By automating key tasks, not only do you free up your team’s time to focus on what matters, but you help build predictable, reliable journeys for your customers. And, if you’re a fan of HubSpot, then its marketing automation tools are a great place to start.  

HubSpot’s automated workflows use pre-set rules to trigger a ‘journey’ for your customers. You can set dates or delays for certain actions, and create follow-up actions depending on how a customer engages.

The best bit? Workflows hum away at all hours, even when you’re sleeping, so your customers get the same great level of service – no matter what time of the day or night it is.

Why add SMS to your HubSpot workflows?

Most businesses use workflows to achieve specific goals. Like, nurturing relationships. Engaging with customers. Following up leads fast. 

In all of these cases (and many more), SMS is the perfect fit. Not only do 90% of text messages get read within 90 seconds, but SMS also has one of the highest open rates imaginable – a staggering 98%. 

Even better, you can combine SMS marketing with other communication channels – all within one automation journey. This can significantly improve the customer experience and generate even greater returns.

Like the sound of 120X ROI and 21% uplift in conversions? Find out how online wine retailer Vinomofo used SMS in HubSpot Workflows to get these great results

Sound good? Here’s how to get started with HubSpot workflows.

First, make sure you’ve added SMS for HubSpot to your HubSpot account. 

Then, before you get started, we’ll walk you through some of the basics: workflow type, enrolment triggers, and actions.

1. Workflow type

‘Workflows’ means the type of automation journey you’re creating. In HubSpot, there are two workflows you can add SMS to:

• Contacts.
  Based on individual contacts in your CRM, this works across marketing, sales and service. For example, you could send a “Thanks for contacting us” message after a customer completes a form on your website. 
• Deals.
  This relates to the sales hub in HubSpot. It focuses on sales and deals pipeline workflows.

2. Enrolment triggers

An enrolment trigger is an action that kick-starts your workflow. In other words, what needs to happen for your workflow to begin?

It could be a visitor on your website completing a form, or an existing customer reaching a particular stage of their lifecycle.

Learn more about HubSpot enrolment triggers.

3. Actions

Actions are the things that happen once a workflow has kicked off. For example, when your customer or lead enters into a workflow, the first action may be to send an email or an SMS.

Learn more about HubSpot Actions.

Speaking of action, are you ready to go?

Start by creating a single-step workflow

Say someone fills out a form on your website. To automatically flag their query as a deal for your Sales team to follow up, you can create a simple, single-step workflow.

Here are the details: 

• Workflow type: Contact-based (not Deal-based as they came through a contact form) 
• Enrolment trigger: Form submission  
• Action: Assign property value

You’ll need to let HubSpot know which form you’re adding the workflow to, and which webpage it’s on. Let’s say, in this case, the registration form appears on all pages of your site; you’d choose the any page option in HubSpot. 

You can also tailor actions based on when a form was submitted, by setting specific dates or times.

For example, perhaps there’s a closing date for an offer or free trial. Or maybe you’d like to let people know they’ve reached you outside office hours and there’ll be a small delay before your team reaches out.

Next, it’s time to choose your action.

In this case, you’ll want to assign a new Deal property value, rather than Contact property value. This tells HubSpot to change your recent form-filling friend from a Contact to a Deal. The person enters the Deal pipeline for your Sales team to follow up.

Go from single-step to multi-step workflows

Want to add additional steps to a workflow? No problem. Let’s assume your customer has registered their details, and their record has been updated in your CRM. You want to send a message to let the customer know their query was received. 

You’ve got a ready-to-go email template that’s perfect for the job. To add this email to the automation journey, you’ll need to create an action to send a follow-up email.

When you add the action, select ‘Send an email’, then choose the email template (if it’s uploaded into the hub) or create a new one from scratch.

TOP TIP:

Learn how to set up automated marketing email templates in HubSpot.

Your multi-step workflow now looks something like this.

Take it to the next level by adding SMS

To make the workflow even more powerful and get through to customers fast, it’s time to add SMS. First, you’ll need an account with MessageMedia. Add our SMS for HubSpot integration to your HubSpot.

Then, you’re ready to add a new action to your workflow: Send SMS.

This could go straight after the ‘Send new email’ action. It’s a great way to ensure customers don’t miss important messages from you.

In the ‘Send SMS’ pop-up window, add a contact token for the customer’s phone number by clicking the drop-down on Contact Token (search for mobile phone number). 

Then, type in your text message. You can personalise it using the customer’s first name and other info, by using contact token properties.

You can also choose to send from an alpha tag if you’re sending SMS to Australia or the UK. Once approved, the alpha tag will appear at the top of the message, where the phone number normally is. You apply for an alpha tag related to your business name, or similar, so your customers know who the message is from. 

If you’re sending SMS to the US or New Zealand, your Sender ID will be your dedicated number or short code (or leave blank if you don’t have one).

Your journey now looks like this.

For more information about adding SMS to a HubSpot workflow, read our support article.

More great ways to use SMS in your workflows

As you can see, adding SMS to your HubSpot workflows is quick and easy. Here are some more ideas for how to put the power of SMS to work in your customer journeys:

• If/Then rules – create a quick rule for when a customer does/doesn’t do something e.g. if they don’t an email, then follow up with a text 
• Time delays – send a follow-up text or SMS reminder after a certain amount of time 
• Internal notifications – alert internal staff to follow up with a lead quickly 
• Marketing campaigns – send a series of automated texts to keep customers in the know about deals or a specific campaign 

For more inspiration, check out our eBook on how to increase sales with SMS in HubSpot.

Ready to get started?

To help you hit the ground running, HubSpot is offering free consultations with messaging specialists. Otherwise, dive in by installing SMS for HubSpot today. 

The post A beginner’s guide to creating SMS workflows in HubSpot appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

Twitter vs TikTok. Instagram vs Facebook. All across the interweb, everyone’s talking about which marketing channels are best for business. But what about when you need to get in touch with customers? Is it email, or is it SMS? 

Well, the truth is, there is no winner. That’s right. We’re not going to say that SMS is best (even though we’re in the business of helping you send text messages). Why? Because certain types of messages suit certain channels better. 

So instead of forcing your teams to choose between channels, why not embrace the benefits of each? The trick is to know which channel to use for what types of messages. That’s what we’re here for.

In the inbox: The pros and cons of email

Let’s look at email first. After all, it’s been around for longer as a business messaging tool (if you’re keen on a trip down email memory lane, here’s a great podcast looking back on the early days of email, before it took over the world).

For relationship building, customer nurture journeys, and general communications, email is super useful and pretty cost-effective. Here’s what to love about it:

• Pretty much everyone has an email address.
• Once you’ve taken the time to write and prepare your email, it’s cheap to send to the masses.
• You can easily brand your email with custom headers, images, fonts and colours.
• You can add loads of content, links to your website, calls to action (CTAs) and more.
• Customers can easily save your emails and refer back to them later.

All of the above sounds great. So, what’s not to love about email? Well, there’s the fact that customers today are constantly bemoaning how full their inboxes are. The average worker receives over 100 emails per day, which means that your helpful little missive may very well get lost in the deluge. Many people ‘park’ marketing emails to look at later, which is why their open rates are much lower than SMS (which has an incomparable open rate of 98%). In other words, some of your emails won’t get seen.

Want to take SMS for a spin?

Get a free trial to see some of the benefits for yourself…

Let’s go

Textbook texting: The pros and cons of SMS

Then there’s SMS. Text messaging is rapidly growing in popularity as a marketing tool, and for great reason. Customers are constantly on their mobile phones, and who doesn’t love that little ping of dopamine that comes with a new message?

Here’s why marketers rate SMS as a solid communications channel.
SMS marketing offers:

• Unbeatable open rates, with 98% of messages opened. Plus, 90% of them are opened within 3 minutes of sending. 
• Sky-high response rates of around 45%.
• Cheaper rates than email marketing.
• Better ROI – due to its higher response rates. (Just saying.)
• A concise and clear way to communicate – perfect for your busy, time-poor customers.

Plus, SMS is great for sharing time-sensitive messages like flash sales or appointment reminders.

But, like email, SMS has its drawbacks. There’s the 160-character limit for a standard message, of course, which doesn’t make it ideal for longer or more complex messages. There’s the fact that you really shouldn’t include more than one CTA. And, because texting feels more personal (as it’s going straight to your customer’s phone), you can’t rely on SMS for all your blasts – or you’ll risk your customers opting out. Less is best.

SMS + email = the perfect match

Given the unique pros and cons of email and SMS, no wonder they’re a match made in heaven. Some types of communication suit email; others suit SMS. Then there are those types that suit both. Let’s take a look.

If you want to send out a newsletter full of tips and styling ideas about your products or services, then email is best. It’s the ideal forum for non-urgent communications that include more detail, links, images and more.

If there’s a time-sensitive or urgent message you need to blast out to your customers, then SMS is best. It gets straight to the point and, importantly, straight in front of your customers’ eyeballs. 

Then there are customer journeys that suit both forms. For example, you might send out an email campaign to build customer engagement. If a customer doesn’t respond or open their emails, you could send a quick SMS to remind them to check their inbox. 

Or, you might use SMS as a reminder if emails about overdue invoices aren’t getting through. As SMS cuts through like no other channel, this can help ensure customers pay up, STAT.

Want more ways to match up email and SMS?

The more you use both SMS and email, the more you’ll appreciate the ability to switch seamlessly between the two channels.

Check out our Email to SMS feature – it lets you send SMS messages from any email service. Better yet, see if your platform integrates with text messaging. For example, you can send both SMS and emails from HubSpot. Check out our integrations marketplace.

The post SMS vs email: Know when to use each channel to connect with your customers appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

Why SMS, you ask? It has a 98% open rate, and 90% of messages are opened within 90 seconds. In other words, SMS delivers incredible ROI for Shopify sellers. The best bit? It’s extremely simple to set up using our SMS for Shopify integration.

Under the hood of Shopify SMS marketing

To see just how effective text marketing can be, we analysed hundreds of thousands of SMS campaign sends from Shopify sellers. We discovered that:

• The average consumer spends 2 hours and 51 minutes on their phone each day. That’s a lot of screen time.
• On average, most Shopify stores expect a 15% click-through rate for their sends. This is almost double the click-through from email marketing campaigns.
• While Mondays and Fridays are the most popular days to send, campaigns sent on Fridays and Saturdays produce the best results.
• The most popular SMS campaigns include new product announcements, early access to sales, exclusive discounts, and alternative offers (such as 2-for-1 deals).

Get started with these four tactics

The magic of SMS marketing for Shopify lies in automation. Once it’s all set up, you barely need to lift a finger – the technology does all the hard work for you.

Here are four common ecommerce experiences that can easily be automated to send targeted SMS marketing messages to help win your customers over.

1. Abandoned cart reminders

In retail last year, over 76% of ecommerce carts were abandoned. Ouch.

Don’t despair, though. All those customers who abandon you at the last minute might just need a little prodding to complete the purchase. And SMS is the perfect way to do this.

It’s easy to set up simple, automated text messages at timed intervals to remind customers about something they were thinking about buying. You could even add in a sweetener, like a discount or extra deal, to help seal the deal.

Use our MessageMedia: SMS Marketing app for Shopify to monitor your ROI for each message sent, and watch more of your customers come back for more.

CASE STUDY: Music retailer Simply for Strings used our Shopify app for MessageMedia: SMS Marketing to recover an impressive 40% of abandoned carts. Read their story.

2. Entice customers back

If your customers regularly need to replenish whatever you’re selling – like pet food, personal care items, or cleaning products – nudge them into action with an automated SMS reminder.

For example, say you sell hair care products in your Shopify store. You know a certain bottle of conditioner lasts about 60 days. Send a friendly reminder to customers on day 50 post-purchase, giving them plenty of time to order their next bottle.

Winning customers back (aka winbacks) aren’t just for items that need to be replenished. If it’s been a few months since a customer last visited your online store, send them a surprise message with a discount code or news about an upcoming sale or event.

Want more SMS tips for Shopify?

Grab our ebook packed with SMS marketing templates and best practice tips for Shopify.

Let’s go

3. Back in stock

Give your loyal customers first dibs when their favourite products are back in stock. And, to make sure they’re the first to know about your restocked situation, set up automated messages.

You can create rules so customers are automatically alerted when a product they recently browsed or purchased is back on the virtual shelf.

4. SMS as part of broader marketing campaigns

With Shopify, it’s easy to set up a multi-step, omnichannel marketing campaign that uses a range of different channels, like SMS, email, and ads. This strategy is great for seasonal campaigns such as Christmas, Black Friday or Mother’s Day.

Text messaging forms just one part of your omnichannel campaign, as part of a more comprehensive journey that might include email, paid advertising, and more. To monitor performance and see which channels work best for you, it’s possible to add unique codes that track each channel.

Want more Shopify SMS templates and ideas?

Get more inspo and best practices for using SMS marketing. Find ways to boost Shopify sales by reading our Shopify SMS best practices ebook.

The post 4 easy automations for SMS marketing on Shopify appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

It’s easy to send and receive SMS and MMS messages from within the NetSuite platform. It means your teams don’t need to leave the tool they’re already familiar with to put the power of text messages to work. But that’s not all. Below, we look at how you can work more effectively with the NetSuite SMS integration.

NetSuite marketing automation made easy with SMS

From real-time conversations to bulk SMS campaigns, SMS has well and truly proven itself as one of the most cost-effective ways to communicate with customers. And, once you integrate SMS with NetSuite, there’s no looking back. 

You’ll gain the ability to automate a huge range of e-commerce and marketing use cases, freeing up your team’s time to really focus on delivering exceptional customer service. For example, you can set up automated SMS to send helpful updates and notifications like: 

• Order status notifications
• Shipment notifications
• Updates on expected delivery dates
• Delivery confirmations
• Post-sale customer feedback surveys 
• Promotional content to encourage return business

The integration comes with some powerful features to help your team save time and deliver targeted, timely messages:

• Workflows and triggers.
  Within NetSuite, you can schedule messages based on customer actions, dates, or changes in order status. You can also set up recurring daily, weekly, or monthly batch messages based on specific criteria using a NetSuite Saved Search.
  
• Templates.
  To save even more time, create and use SMS templates with mail merge functionality. Store the headers and footers you use regularly for automatic inclusion in every message.
  
• Keywords.
  Use keywords to route inbound messages and trigger auto-responses to quickly answer common questions. Not only do keywords help speed up response rates, but they remove the manual burden of monitoring and replying to each message.

• Visibility into customer communication.
  All SMS messages sent and received in NetSuite CRM are recorded in the message log, so you can keep track of it all in one place. Replies are delivered to the same record, and the appropriate NetSuite user is notified via email.
  
• Analytics and reporting.
  Measure the success of your SMS campaigns, monitor individual message results, and generate reports on batch SMS messages.

Powerful use cases for your NetSuite SMS integration

Across departments, your various teams will love the ease and convenience of being able to reach customers at the right moment, all within NetSuite. Here are just some of the ways that teams use the SMS integration for NetSuite.

Marketing campaigns: Reach, convert, and engage customers

Boost revenue and improve conversion rates by sending personalised, high-impact messages to customers – like lead nurtures, special offers and promotions, event notifications, and ‘back in stock’ alerts.

Customer support: Help your customers in the right moment

Deliver impeccable customer support with two-way SMS conversations, all easily managed in NetSuite. With your NetSuite SMS integration, a contact centre agent can conduct several SMS conversations at once, instead of dealing with one person at a time on the phone.

Automatically sending support updates and notifications to customers helps reduce the volume of inbound calls to your contact centre. It’s a clear sign that you’ve got happier customers. And it’s a great way to cut your contact centre costs. Wins all around.

Before we added SMS support to our NetSuite account, a network outage meant 5 to 10 minutes of support tech time for every affected customer. Using MessageMedia Text Messaging for NetSuite, I can send a batch SMS alert, heading off those calls and reassuring our customers that the situation is under control. Instead of complaints, I get thank yous!

Hugh Bethell, Port Networks

READ MORE: Click here to read the Port Networks case study

Sales: Watch your conversion rates soar

Forge stronger connections with prospects by adding SMS to your sales process in NetSuite. Text messaging helps generate highly qualified leads. Follow-up messages further improve lead qualification and conversion rates. And customers will love the easy ability to schedule and reschedule appointments via SMS, directly with their sales rep.

Billing: Improve cash flow with billing reminders

Whether you choose to automate reminder messages or send them on an ad hoc basis, sending alerts to customers when a bill is due is a proven way to get paid. You can also send purchase receipts, statement notifications, and payment confirmations.

Want to know more?

It’s easy to integrate MessageMedia with your NetSuite platform. To learn more about how it could transform your business, explore SMS for NetSuite or get in touch.

The post Save time. Cut costs. Integrate NetSuite with SMS. appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.

Whether you’re just starting out with SMS marketing or you’ve been onto it for a while, you should be thinking about a CRM SMS integration. Why? Not only does it help you deliver timely, helpful, and engaging messages to customers at a click of a button, but it’s all seamlessly contained in a central place for much easier management.

Here, we look at why and how you can elevate your marketing campaigns and communication with customers by integrating SMS with CRM.

Transform the customer experience

Delivering delightful experiences is key to attracting and retaining customers. And, these days, you need to consider all channels and touchpoints when crafting the perfect customer experience.

It’s why adding SMS functionality to your CRM platform makes such good sense. If a CRM is all about creating personalised journeys for each and every customer, then you’ll want SMS to be a part of this – particularly given that people check their phones 150 times a day.

79% of people say the experience you provide is as important as your products or services.

By integrating SMS with your CRM platform, it’s easy to deliver great customer experiences, time and time again. Here are some examples of how you can use SMS in your CRM to leave a positive impression.

• Customer support
  Set up two-way customer support on a convenient channel, making it easier than ever for customers to ask questions about your products or services, and get the help they need.
  
• Notifications and updates
  Keep customers in the loop about their orders, by sending timely delivery and order confirmations and updates. Or automatically send reminders about upcoming appointments, so they don’t forget.
  
• Build relationships
  Use the power of personalisation in SMS to strengthen relationships across all points in the customer journey.
  

And the best bit? You can automate so many aspects of the SMS journey, which helps to:

• Take the burden off your marketing team 
• Ensure your customers always receive the most timely and effective messages.

Behind the scenes, your business benefits too

Once SMS is integrated with your CRM platform, everything just gets easier for your sales and marketing teams. All of the possibilities of SMS open up within a familiar platform, leading to greater efficiency, productivity, and performance.

Key business benefits of sending text messages within your CRM include:

• Centralisation of data
  Keep all of your customer information in one place, with no need to replicate, duplicate, or update customer details across multiple platforms. Campaign data is centralised, too, so you can easily track performance of different SMS campaigns.
  
• Automation
  Empower your teams to do more with less. It’s easy to automate key moments in the journey and set up triggers to send customers SMS based on particular behaviours or actions. This way your teams can focus on relationship building and strategic thinking.
  
• Multi-channel messaging
  Set up automated workflows that include different channels, such as SMS and email. This way, you can reach customers in the right channel at the right point in the journey.

RELATED: 4 ways to supercharge your marketing with SMS automation

See SMS CRM integrations in action

At MessageMedia, our SMS platform integrates with heaps of the leading CRM solutions in market today. Let’s take a look at a couple of them, so you get an idea of what it might mean for your business.

SMS for Zoho CRM

Ensure your sales team never misses an opportunity with our integration with Zoho CRM. And, to help you respond faster and build better customer relationships, SMS notifications are automatically sent when new leads are created or updated.

SMS for Microsoft Dynamics 365

It’s easy to bring the power of SMS into Dynamics. By integrating, you can create SMS templates, send and receive messages, search conversation threads, create custom workflows and more.

Mercury SMS for Salesforce

Stay connected to leads by integrating SMS into Salesforce. Automatically create or update records when an inbound SMS matches a keyword. Or set up workflow rules, like a welcome message when a new contact is created.

Ready to get started?

To find your CRM platform and add SMS to your marketing automation strategy, visit our integration marketplace.

The post Boost your marketing efforts with a CRM SMS integration appeared first on Sinch MessageMedia.