All business comes down to a pretty simple question: How do you give your customer what they want? They may need a question answered, they may want timely and personalized information, or they may seek a way to take action – to purchase, click or complete a process. And of course, you want those things too! These actions are known as “Successful Engagements” – and they are key to driving ROI.
What Are Successful Engagements and Why Do They Matter?
A Successful Engagement is defined as any of the following:
- A question asked and correctly answered
- A message delivered and read in a timely fashion
- An action taken to purchase, register, upload, complete, etc.
This is a game-changing concept, because while every organization says it wants to increase “engagement,” until recently, the ability to measure Successful Engagements has been limited. With this new definition, the ROI of communication efforts across all channels can be measured and compared – whether that’s a website, social media, email, phone call, app or even a face-to-face interaction.
Importantly, when any customer interacts and opts in to engage through a specific channel, they become a Connected User.
What Are Connected Users and How Do Successful Engagements Vary Across Channels?
Connected Users are the lifeblood of any business. These are customers who either actively reach out to a business or have opted in to receive communication through a specific channel. These customers want to engage and all businesses want more connected users.
And as it turns out, the way to attract and retain more Connected Users is simple – create more Successful Engagements.
It’s simple, but it isn’t always easy – a message that is sent but never read isn’t a Successful Engagement – whether that message is sent by email, an event app notification, a social media post or a website. Surprisingly, the issue is rarely the message itself. Instead, it’s the fact that the target recipient didn’t even see the message – because they weren’t looking for it, and they didn’t ask for it. That’s why Connected SMS Users – contacts with valid mobile numbers that have opted in to engage over SMS – have now become one of the most important business metrics for successful businesses.
Why are Connected SMS Users So Valuable?
When gaining and retaining more Connected Users is a priority, then SMS has three unique advantages over other engagement channels:
- SMS (texting) is available on every phone
- Text apps never get deleted
- Text has a 98%+ read rate
Event apps struggle because they must be downloaded and are almost always deleted after an event (imagine paying to open a channel that is nearly universally deleted promptly??). Plus, most users turn off notifications, which means they’re not reading your messages. Social media apps are everywhere, but users are fragmented across countless social media channels, and control when they read messages. Finally, while email is available to everyone, spam filters, inbox clutter, and younger demographics’ disdain for the channel can lead to abysmal read rates.
The end result is that while other channels face declining usage, SMS – done right – is the greatest remaining untapped engagement channel in business today. It can increase ROI, strengthen relationships, and drive revenue.
How Does Conversational A.I. Drive Connected SMS User Growth?
The key to growing Connected SMS Users is to provide enough value to gain and retain opt-in. For most potential Connected SMS Users, this starts with the promise of high-value customer support – allowing users to ask relevant questions and get answers through SMS and web chat. While users initially opt in through registration or purchase (with appropriate privacy and opt-in terms), the key to a long-term Successful Engagement is that the user receives customer support that’s instant AND correct..
Currently, using A.I. tools is the only way to cost-effectively deliver instant, 24/7 customer support at scale over both SMS and web chat. But, since accuracy is critical to any users’ satisfaction and retention, using Curated A.I. instead of generative A.I. is essential.
What’s the difference? Curated A.I. delivers specific, predefined and approved answers every time – with a 95%+ Correct Response Rate. Generative A.I. makes its best guess at the answer, delivering about an 80% Correct Response Rate (which goes down as the questions get more specific and more time constrained). Additionally, Curated A.I. cannot hallucinate and will not discuss topics that it shouldn’t, both of which are well-documented risks of using generative A.I. The choice should be clear.
How Can You Continue to Deliver Value to Connected SMS Users?
Ultimately, your goal is to create a steadily increasing base of Connected SMS Users who genuinely want to hear from you. How do you do that? By listening to your users and consistently delivering more Successful Engagements. Consider the following examples:
- Questions asked and correctly answered: Conversational A.I. captures each user's need and responds instantly – exactly the way you want, 24/7. That is a Successful Engagement.
- High-value notifications: Users receive a targeted and timely message that they read and can act on. That is a Successful Engagement.
- Clicks: Users click a link included in a question response or a high-value notification. That is a Successful Engagement.
Why Successful Engagements Drive Lasting Growth and SMS Marketing ROI
Every Successful Engagement is proof that your SMS messages matter to your community.
Over time, this creates a compounding growth effect:
- More Connected SMS Users expand your reach
- More Successful Engagements increase loyalty, influence and revenue
Connected SMS User growth should compound year over year. Short-term tactics like event apps or campaign-specific signups deliver fleeting results, giving you only a temporary spike in engagement. But long-term loyalty and retention take consistency and trust. Done well, using SMS as a strategic growth channel boosts the number of Connected Users and Successful Engagements, which can maximize any business’ potential by increasing SMS Marketing ROI.
The SMS ROI Formula: Expand Your Base, Leverage the Channel, Drive Business Results
Businesses thrive when they deliver exceptional customer value through Successful Engagements (answers, notices, clicks). SMS offers the highest possible reach and read rate, drives higher click rates, and delivers better ROI than any other channel.
This formula works across all industries. It’s a repeatable approach for growth, effectively engaging users through SMS and translating those interactions into measurable business results.
42Chat’s Curated A.I. chatbots set the industry standard for SMS opt-in, retention and Successful Engagements by delivering instant customer support (questions asked and accurately answered), high-value notifications (98% read rate) and clicks.
Here are some of the results 42Chat curated A.I. solutions have generated:
- Red Butte Garden Connected SMS Users growth: Red Butte Garden, the premier outdoor concert venue in Utah, used 42Chat’s Oakley ConcertBot to grow its Outdoor Concert Series community from zero to more than 6,400 Connected SMS Users in just five months.
- National Safety Council questions asked and answered: NSC turned to 42Chat’s ConferenceBot when its event app usage dipped. The bot delivered successful support that cut call center volume by 54% and grew Connected SMS User reach by 25% year-over-year.
- Arizona State University revenue growth: One high-value SMS notification generated 6,000+ clicks for GradImages photo packages, increasing web order sessions by more than 300% and growing revenue-share dollars for ASU.
To learn more about how to create more Successful Engagements and grow your Connected SMS User community, reach out to us at 42chat.com/contact-us.
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