What Is VoIP Texting and What Benefits Could It Bring to Your Business?
Did you know that according to a 2023 Statista survey of business owners and marketing managers, text marketing achieves high engagement from customers? And that texts often achieve higher open and click through rates than other channels?
Unsurprisingly, then, texting for business can bring huge benefits. Fortunately, too, it’s now easier to achieve — even for smaller businesses with smaller budgets — thanks to VoIP texting technology.
Let us walk you through what VoIP texting is, how it works, and the many benefits it could bring to your business.
VoIP With Texting? Isn’t It Just About Phone Calls?
VoIP stands for “Voice over Internet Protocol,” so you could be forgiven for thinking that it’s all about the “voice” part. VoIP services are known for enabling phone calls over the internet, and that’s where they originally carved out their niche.
It’s a good niche, too. So, why add texting to the mix?
Well, for a start, it’s easy to do. VoIP technology can essentially make any internet-enabled device act like a phone. Any decent phone can text as well as call, so why not add that ability for VoIP services?
SMS is also a very different option to other text-based channels, such as email or social media. An SMS is direct and immediate — in the same way a phone call is — but a lot less intrusive. Having the ability to text customers can thus be a huge win for businesses. And texting over VoIP has benefits that traditional texting platforms can’t readily provide.
Read on to learn more about how a VoIP texting service works, how it can benefit businesses, why it’s better than traditional texting, and whether you need a simple VoIP SMS service or a more sophisticated unified communications solution.
How Does a VoIP Text Work?
With VoIP texting, virtually any internet-enabled device can send texts. A virtual phone number gets assigned to an individual or account rather than an individual device. Businesses can then use that account to send bulk texts to customers from any device with which they can access the account.
VoIP texts land in the recipient’s inbox like any other text message, meaning VoIP options are as seamless and convenient as any traditional mobile texting service.
VoIP SMS Use Cases for Businesses
There are many cases where VoIP SMS can be useful for businesses. Here are just a few of them:
Automate Important Communications
Texting is a very fast, very efficient way to get important messages to your customers. It’s useful for things like informing them of shipment and delivery windows or letting them know about any important system issues that are occurring.
You can set these important texts to go out to the right individual at the right time no matter how many of them your business has to send in a day.
With Vonage Business Communications (VBC), you can also sync your hosted phone system, business texting, and other channels with things like your CRM software1. So, for example, when there’s an important update a customer needs to know, one of your team members could text them immediately from the same platform.
This ensures your customers are always well informed, without it taking as much time out of your employees’ days.
Gain Direct Contact With Customers
If you need a direct, unignorable way to get in touch with your customers, SMS is a great option. As mentioned, SMS and MMS messages outstrip most other communication channels for open and engagement rates.
Someone may let a phone call ring out because they’re too busy (or disinclined) to answer, ignore an app notification, or send an email to spam. They’re typically less likely, however, to leave a text message permanently unread.
Text messages aren’t as time-consuming or intrusive as phone calls, and they’re more direct and personal than emails. This makes them a useful medium to get your customers’ attention and engagement when needed.
The trick is not to abuse this power with pointless marketing. Make sure the SMS messages you send to your customers are always worth opening by including information that’s useful, relevant, and important to them. Then, you’ll reap the rewards of this very direct, very personalized channel.
1VBC customers must register SMS business numbers and pay associated fees. Contact Sales for more information.
Get the data
Improve Your Customer Service
When people complain about customer service, “poor communication” is often cited. With VoIP texting, you can avoid this complaint and boost your service with the kind of fast, direct, and informative communication that customers want.
We’ve spoken above about how a good VoIP phone service will include an option for texting from business numbers, allowing you to send perfectly personalized information to them quickly and efficiently.
The net result of this is a boost in the kind of important, relevant communication that customers want. From delivery updates to meeting reminders, texts are a great way to keep customers, clients, and colleagues in the loop.
Advantages of VoIP Text Messaging Over Traditional Phone-to-Phone SMS
It’s possible to pay for business text messaging services that don’t utilize VoIP and aren’t part of a unified communications platform. Sometimes, this might be a viable option. However, there are good reasons why VoIP text messages can be preferable to the phone-to-phone version.
Here are some reasons why VoIP messaging often has the edge over more traditional alternatives:
Sync Your Digital Communications
A good VoIP-based platform allows you to sync all your digital communications and deploy them from one interface.
And that’s not all. You can also sync other important business tools and platforms, such as your CRM and social media management tools.
This means that, from one interface, you can see the entirety of any given customer’s interactions with your business. You can pull up all the data you need without having to hop platforms, and you can go through every conversation, on every platform, without having to switch devices or even change tabs.
This is a huge benefit. Rather than having to make customers wait while you acquaint yourself with their situation, or struggle to give them the information they need, you have all the information and context required right in front of you. This is fantastic for your customers and saves a lot of time and energy on the part of your staff.
Easily Scale Up and Down
With a traditional business messaging service, scaling can be complicated. Scaling with a VoIP texting service or VoIP text via a unified communications platform is much easier.
You simply add new users to your VoIP account, and they can use the texting service from any internet-enabled device. This could be their workstation computer, a work-issued tablet, or even their own phone.
Ultimately, VoIP texting gives you a lot more flexibility regarding the hardware you use, which in turn makes it a lot easier to scale your operations.
At the same time, unified communications platforms like VBC tend to offer a lot more than just calls and texting. If you want to add extras to your package as your company grows (or remove features you aren’t using), this is much easier to do than with a simple phone-to-phone service.
Text From Virtually Anywhere at Any Time
One of the biggest advantages of a VoIP phone system is the ability to access your account from any internet-enabled device at any time. All you need is an internet connection and a device that can connect to it.
Depending on how you set up a unified communications platform, any authorized user could access the text interface, manage it, monitor it, and send texts whenever needed, no matter where they are. They can also access the other channels and features offered.
This is a big advantage for situations when a cell phone signal may be lacking or you need to cross-reference your texts with extra data.
Does Your Business Need a VoIP Text Messaging App or a Communications Platform With VoIP Texting?
A VoIP texting service can be a game-changer. It gives your business the ability to text customers directly and in bulk, or your employee’s an extra, convenient communication channel. You could even automate messaging for important things like delivery window notifications.
But there’s something even better: a unified communications platform with VoIP texting built right in.
With a communications platform like Vonage Business Communications, you get all the advantages of a VoIP service with texting, plus a lot more. Your SMS channel is fully integrated with your other channels, and you can sync with vital tools and tech for a comprehensive and streamlined solution.
Additionally, you can be assured that your messages are compliant, as VBC offers an easy, built-in 10DLC registration process.
We’ve barely scratched the surface here of what Vonage Business Communications can do for your business. Get in touch with a Vonage expert today to find out more.
Still Have Questions About VoIP Texting?
Yes. A VoIP text number works the same way for the recipient as a “normal” number. This means you can text it from your cell phone the same way as you can text a phone number on the traditional network.
Yes. With a VoIP texting service, it’s easy for VoIP numbers to text non-VoIP numbers. In fact, it’s often simpler than texting from a traditional number, as you can do it from whichever internet-enabled device is most convenient for you.
From the recipient's perspective, a text from a VoIP number arrives in the same way and appears identical to a text from a non-VoIP number.
Whether or not text messaging will benefit your company may depend a little on your business model. Many companies find that text messages are a fast, reliable, efficient, and direct way to get important information to customers.
A lot of customers also prefer the less-intrusive directness of an SMS to things like phone calls or emails. Text messages, therefore, have a high open rate compared to other channels.
This means businesses that use text messages can improve their service, keep their customers informed, and boost engagement via a single channel.
