SMS Marketing Misc.

Text Message Marketing in 2020

Two hands above a crystal ball that shows messaging related icons and words. The image title is Text Message Marketing 2020.
Now that we are already in the latter half of 2019, it is time to give you an insight on what our Tatango team thinks will happen with text message marketing in 2020. In this blog post, we talk about mobile industry changes we are likely going to see in the new decade.

If you’re currently doing text message marketing, or if you’re thinking about doing it in the year 2020 and beyond, then this blog post can be of great help to your future mobile messaging endeavors. Read on to learn about the four mobile messaging changes that we think will take place in 2020.

 

1. Knowledge About the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

In short, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (also referred to as the TCPA) is a federal law that forbids companies to send text messages to consumers who have not given their consent. There are, of course, a lot more nuts and bolts to this law, but that is basically what it means.

We have talked a lot about the TCPA at our text message marketing YouTube channel, so if you want to learn more details about the basics of this federal law and how to comply with it, then we highly recommend you check out the following video playlists.

In recent years, it has come to our attention that more and more brands start to be aware of their TCPA compliance responsibilities. Knowing these responsibilities is absolutely essential for every brand that is doing SMS marketing, because many TCPA violations turn into lawsuit outcomes where brands end up paying $500 to $1500 per unlawfully send text message.

Luckily, nowadays, brand knowledge about the TCPA starts to compound due to a variety of reasons. First off, dedicated educational efforts from software providers like Tatango have made a difference. Then there is the fact that attorneys have become more knowledgeable about this important topic, which gives them the ability to better inform and advise clients.

Besides attorneys and text message software providers, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) also makes an effort to clarify the TCPA. Lastly, brands learn from court cases in which decisions are made about what does and does not apply to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

All of these factors combined, together with more and more brands that are eager to follow the federal law, will cause a reduction in the total number of TCPA related lawsuits for the year 2020. This is, of course, a great development for mobile marketers and their companies.

 

2. Rise of the Text Message Chatbots

The second mobile messaging development that we see here at Tatango is the rise of text message chatbots. With chatbots, we do not mean that you will soon be having meaningful conversations with your Roomba, but rather that, when you’re using Facebook Messenger or any other chat service, you might end up talking to a robot instead of a real person.

The robot on the other end of your chat conversation will not be a machine that comes right out of a Jetsons cartoon though. It is essentially a resourceful computer that will gradually become smarter and smarter due to the current AI (Artificial Intelligence) revolution.

Eventually, chatrobots will be so sophisticated and smart that you never actually know if you are talking, or, in this case, chatting to a human or a computer. For some, this might feel like a creepy development, and for others, chatbots will be a great help when it comes to solving their problems and answering their questions. We leave it up to you to decide what you think of this development.

Here at Tatango, we believe there are two important reasons why messaging chatrobots are going to be very popular marketing tools for brands. First of all, like we mentioned above, AI bots become smarter and smarter. They will start to act and respond like real humans, and as soon as they perfect that trait, then there really is no reason for brands not to choose a smart computer over a human.

An important factor for choosing robotic solutions over human operators will be the cost-effectiveness of that decision. On top of that, chatbots are also going to be faster when it comes to learning and gathering knowledge.

So, when you combine the rise of smart, humanlike computers with the continuous popularity of text message application solutions, deciding to utilize SMS marketing chatbots that talk with customers will be an absolute no-brainer for brands. That is why we think chatbots, and especially mobile messaging chatbots, will become a huge thing in 2020.

 

3. SMS Links That Lead Consumers to Unique Mobile Experiences

Let’s face it, a plain, 160 characters text message can be pretty boring, especially in this modern age of high definition images, GIFs and animations. However, they don’t have to be boring if you know how to utilize them better for your mobile marketing efforts.

One way to spice up your user’s mobile messaging experience is by putting links in your messages. These links can then funnel consumers to any kind of mobile phone experience. This is especially interesting in our modern days, because, just as AI becomes more sophisticated and intelligent, so are the smartphones that we are currently using.

Back in 2007, when Tatango had its start, we were just about to experience the launch of the very first iPhone. Before the iPhone, you couldn’t do much with a mobile phone. Fast-forward to the year 2019, and we know use text message links to open apps, videos, and even full-length films, and we do all of that from within our mobile phones.

So as the number of interesting things you can do with a mobile phone increases, we will likely also see an increase in the interest and use of text message marketing. This is all because marketers can now funnel consumers, from who they already have their mobile phone numbers, to that increasing number of new experiences. In the future, we might even see the amazing new concept of virtual reality being added to the list of things you can do on a mobile.

Combine it with the fact that SMS marketing has a 99% open rate, and that consumers read 90% of those opened messages within 3 minutes, and it becomes easy to understand how powerful it is to send text messages with links that lead to unique mobile experiences.

 

4. The Coming Rollout of RCS Business Messaging

The fourth and last mobile messaging development that we want to talk about is RCS business messaging. RCS (Rich Communication Services) gives marketers the opportunity to offer a rich mobile messaging experience to their customers.

As we mentioned above, a 160 characters text message with plain text is kind of boring. Things became a lot better with the introduction MMS, which allowed marketers to add videos and pictures to their messages. And now there is RCS, which really takes the mobile messaging experience to another level thanks to its innovative marketing features.

The Tatango team is very excited about RCS, but this new mobile messaging protocol still needs to find its way to more phones and operating systems. We think that a lot of the current RCS issues are finally going to be resolved in 2020. This will hopefully lead us to a situation where RCS is better understood, and where its adaption rate will grow so that it will have a bright future.

 

The Future of Text Message Marketing Looks Bright

So the growing knowledge on how to be TCPA compliant, the rise of intelligent chatbots, the increased number of mobile experiences that links can funnel consumers to, and the (adaption) developments of RCS are the four mobile messaging developments that we look forward to in 2020. We believe that they will all greatly increase the demand for text message marketing.

Make sure you follow the Tatango blog and our YouTube video channel so that you stay up-to-date about continues developments surrounding the discussed topics.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the TCPA, text message chatbots, RCS business messaging, and/or text message links, then also watch the following Tatango videos below.

If you like to talk with Tatango about your future text message marketing plans, then you can send our team a message via this contact form.

Jump to Content