What does Multichannel Software do for me?
Technology is great! …Until it isn’t. One for email. One for texting. Another for your web chat. Maybe another vendor for SEO?
More Software, More Problems
For as many problems as technology solves, another problem is always created, or so it would seem at times. Confusing interfaces, annoying work arounds, and high learning curves are all part of the equation. Additionally, you must deal with the issue of integration. Do the software programs communicate with each other? What type of gymnastics do I have to do to simply get these two programs to co-exist with one another? Looking at your tech stack may just cause your brain to hurt.
Also, won’t these Account Managers stop calling me? Dealing with one point of contact is fine, but 3 or 4 from different companies all trying to upsell you on more features is quite the trying experience. Not to mention, when you have an actual problem with the software, some aren’t as responsive as others.
Lastly, we can’t forget about the cost. Multiple vendor portals all with different payments hike up your operational and market spend, while decreasing your ROI.
That’s why a shift is trending towards the all-in-one platform experience, especially towards the marketing communications side of things. For example, let’s look at some crucial aspects of a marketing communications strategy and consider the time and money efficiencies created by having them all housed in one, user -friendly software.
Text Messaging/SMS:
Although it has been around for several years, due to the pandemic, SMS/MMS marketing has taken over as a mainstream method of communication between businesses and their customers. It’s a great way to ensure that, at the very least, the message gets in front of the readers eyes, instead of lost in junk or the inbox clutter.
It’s common for retailers to send promotions, or for property management to ping their residents with important updates, or even have appointments with doctors and gyms get scheduled through text.
HTML/Rich Text Email:
For a one sentence explanation: think of some of your favorite brands that you follow, such as a clothing line, and then think of the emails you get from them when they offer you a sales promotion – lots of pretty pictures, clickable links, buttons, and headlines. That’s a rich text email. It would be hard to get people to engage in marketing emails with just plain text emails, and that’s why rich text is essential, at least for the marketing department.
Automation, Analytics and Data Management:
Simply having the ability to send messages isn’t enough. Can I send multiple messages to multiple people, multiple times, at intervals I set? What if they open or click, can I program different messages to go out for different actions? And what about through different mediums? Could I send an email one day and then a text another day? How do the analytics work? Is there an easy way to track conversion rates by monitoring campaigns and messages?
The data must also be managed in an easy-to-understand way. Can contacts be organized and sorted with little to no effort? Do I get a head ache by sifting through the system?
Bottom Line:
Features like these are important and have previously demanded that several different software programs be used to strap all the moving pieces together. That’s why the “all-in-one” software programs are on the rise. If done correctly, they save you time, money, and provide you with ROI you didn’t realize you were missing.
If you are looking for a solid software to bring various channels together and blend them with harmony, you should check out IRIO’s new software Indigo. It was designed with every piece of aforementioned utility in mind. It blends robust SMS/MMS, Rich Text email, CRM “lite” data management features, surveys and more.