Cut Through The Noise: How to Engage Customers In An Always-On World

Speakers:

• Haley: Host
• Nathan Loveless: VP of Sales in the Americas, Blueshift
• Tony Bryant: Senior Director, Ecosystems & Strategic Partnerships, Sinch

Welcome and Introduction

Haley: Hello everyone and welcome to today's webinar. Please take these first few moments to get settled. We will start in just a moment here. All right, we'll go ahead and get started. So hello everyone and good morning or good afternoon. My name is Haley, and I will be your host as we discuss today's topic, "Cut Through The Noise: How to Engage Customers in an Always-On World." This webinar is brought to you by Blueshift and hosted by VIB. Today's webinar will be about 40 minutes long, and we'll save the last 20 minutes or so for Q&A. Please use that Q&A button in your window to ask any and all questions. We'll do our best to answer all of those questions for you, but for those we don't get to, we'll follow up. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce our speaker, Nathan.

Nathan Loveless: Hi there, everybody. Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, depending on where you're joining us from. My name is Nathan Loveless. I'm the VP of Sales in the Americas for Blueshift. We're really excited to have a conversation today between myself and Tony Bryant, Senior Director of Ecosystems and Strategic Partnerships at Sinch. Sinch and Blueshift are really great partners. We come at this notion of cutting through a noisy environment, especially in a world in which customers are always on, from two different areas of the market. We're excited to bring both of those perspectives today in a conversation that we hope is dynamic between the two of us, but also produces some really great questions across the entire team. If you have any questions, please go ahead and use the Q&A button down at the bottom. We're going to be coming to those at the end. But Tony, thanks for taking the time to join us. We're excited for a conversation today.

Tony Bryant: Thanks for having me. Looking forward to this conversation.

The Modern Marketer's World

Nathan Loveless: So listen, when Tony and I were chatting about this, one of the things that we really wanted to start off with was an understanding of, well, when we think about engaging customers in an always-on world, what does that world actually look like for the modern marketer? So we're going to spend a couple of minutes there and then talk about three different lessons that we've noticed as we think about the ways those customers are engaging with brands like the folks that are joining us today in a really important and impactful way based on those changes that we're seeing in the market.

So with that, what we're seeing is that, you know, the goal of us as marketers hasn't changed. At the end of the day, everybody in this entire environment is looking to tell stories in a really impactful way. The challenge is that as technology has evolved, the ability to do that is no longer just creating a great television ad. It's about how to have those conversations, those moments of impact or moments of "wow," with customers in a way that has to scale to millions of options. This balance means marketers are now tasked with having both a creative story-selling brain and an analytical brain constantly engaged.

What we're seeing, in our conversations with organizations and marketing teams at Blueshift (and Tony, I know you mentioned this when we were preparing), is that the world of the modern marketer hasn't gotten easier. Consider some of the key shifts in digital over the last five years:

• Explosion of Channels: Marketers are managing an ever-increasing number of channels.
• Explosion of Data: A massive amount of data is created from all these conversations.
• Evolving Customer Expectations: This is incredibly important for cutting through noise.
  • Email click-through rates have gone down.
  • Conversion rates for unpersonalized promotional messages have also gone down.
  • The cost of acquiring a new customer has gone up, and continues to be expensive.

Before we continue, I'd love to do a quick poll of the audience here. Given this explosion of channels, I'd love to know: Which of these marketing channels do you rely on most for your campaigns in your current digital mix?

Tony Bryant: Absolutely. I would say email is definitely at the top of that list, in addition to, of course, SEO, SEM, and paid ads. But I'm thinking of these mobile channels, and certainly email. It's amazing, and I think we spoke about this once before, Nathan, how many brands out there are still just focused on email and don't have a mobile component to that. We'll get further into that discussion of why that's important as we progress.

Haley: Do we have some early results from the poll? Yes, we do. I will go ahead and share those results with everyone.

Poll Results:

• A large balance between email and paid/social components.
• SEO/SEM is number two.
• Less reliance on SMS and mobile.
• Some usage of partnerships and referrals.

Nathan Loveless: That's really, I think, what we expected to see, right, Tony?

Tony Bryant: It is. And it's great to see this. It just reinforces the topic.

Nathan Loveless: So what we talked about is, listen, the number of places we can interact has gone up. The quality of some of those pieces – I think social media, that's where we've seen incredible increases in acquisition costs. So one of the questions now is: How do I engage the customers that I already have in a more cost-effective and meaningful way, while also continuing to think about acquisitions?

Tony, as you've been working with Sinch, so close to things like SMS and mobile, I'm wondering what you're seeing in the market in terms of that mobile increase or increase. Let's talk about some of that growth that you've been seeing.

The Rise of Mobile-Centricity and Conversational Channels

Tony Bryant: Absolutely. I'm glad to see partnerships and referrals on here as well; it's very dear to my heart. Specifically, what we're seeing, and by the way, here at Sinch, we're what's referred to as a Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS). This means we offer various APIs and communication layers, including mobile messaging and email. We understand how the landscape is changing, and it's truly about mobile-centricity. Mobile just continues to be more and more relevant.

Here are a few interesting statistics:

• Over half of all internet traffic is generated via smartphones.
• For the first time ever, mobile ad spend is going to surpass traditional desktop ad spend this year.
• Mobile accounts for more than two-thirds of all e-commerce traffic. Consumers are much more likely to shop on mobile than in stores, especially evident in the past two years due to COVID.

Other interesting data points:

• 90% of SMS messages are read in the first three minutes. This speaks for itself.
• Over 70% of customers say SMS is a good way for businesses to get their attention. They prefer communication through their favorite channels.
• 45% is the average response rate for SMS.
• 59% of users want their communication function to be built into their phone. People don't want to download separate applications just to converse with a brand; they prefer native messaging channels.
• Over 82% of people say they open every text message they receive. That's great news for all of us in business. (And good news for hackers, too!)

It's all about mobile-centricity. Mobile is the centerpiece for the customer experience, and consumers expect personalized, data-driven, contextualized communication at every touchpoint. It's crucial that all these different touchpoints and teams (email, in-app push, digital wallet notifications) work together, not in silos, to achieve a consistent, personalized approach. You need to leverage the intrinsic capabilities of each medium.

Additional stats reinforcing this:

• Over half of all email opens happen on mobile phones.
• 63% of organic search is done through a mobile phone. This reflects how people use their personal devices at the end of the day.
• Almost 98% of Facebook's traffic is generated through mobile devices.
• A whopping 80% of video views happen on mobile.

You're seeing this explosion of the engagement screen being mobile, even for traditionally digital channels. But it's not just traditional channels; other platforms are developing within the mobile environment.

Nathan Loveless: So, tell us a little bit more about where these customers are being found.

Tony Bryant: This is really interesting because, while large marketing clouds (Salesforce, Adobe, Oracle) emphasize mobile and customer experience, they often don't highlight where these customers actually are.

• There are around 5 billion monthly active smartphone users worldwide.
• 3.3 billion of those global smartphone users use specific meta channels like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram – this is natural for them.
• 1.1 billion users are on Viber, a widely adopted messaging application in Eastern Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and Latin America.
• 81% of mobile users can be reached today over native applications on their phone, such as RCS (the evolution of SMS, specific to Android) and iMessage (Apple devices). These channels are built into the phone, allowing you to reach users without them downloading a specific app.

The market has become more complex, not less. But there are really great opportunities for marketers to engage with these customers in a truly impactful way, telling stories that were difficult to convey through other channels.

Three Key Steps to Cut Through the Noise

Nathan Loveless: Now, for the next 15 minutes, we want to discuss the three key steps to enabling folks to cut through the noise:

1. Knowing Who, When, What, and Where: Understanding your customers deeply (who you're talking to, when to chat, what to say, and where to engage them). This requires a new way of thinking about data, organization, and orchestration.
2. Coordinating All Channels: Easily coordinating all channels is crucial. Even if your email is fantastic or your SMS has a 90% open rate, it won't be effective if it's unrelated to other ongoing channel activities.
3. Leveraging High-Engagement Channels: Start taking advantage of high-touch, high-communication channels that enable great feedback, create excellent experiences, and operate where customers truly are.

Let's begin with "Who, When, What, and Where."

1. Knowing Your Customer: Who, When, What, and Where

Nathan Loveless: The foundation of this lies in a shift that's happened in marketing in response to the explosion of channels and opportunities. Historically, organizations were organized by channel – you had an email team, a print team, a social team, each owning their tools. One person was responsible for in-store experiences (inventory, merchandising, clienteling). Another team managed contact centers or mobile apps.

As the number of channels increases, we're seeing a corresponding increased importance in putting the customer at the center of every engagement. When the customer is at the center, you think differently. Instead of "What will this channel do?", it becomes "How do I optimize this experience for this individual?" This often involves multiple channels and requires understanding trigger moments – instances where the individual makes an obvious request.

When you set this up, you start thinking about flywheels, not funnels. It's not just about converting people from the top of a funnel to a purchase. It's about:

• Collecting data.
• Using that data to delight the customer in a significant way.
• This delight leads to additional data capture, enabling further delight, creating a continuous flywheel effect.

One common challenge is knowing how to find these insights from the explosion of data. What's the secret to taking this vast amount of data and uncovering actionable insights? What we're seeing at Blueshift is that you've got to have AI at the core or center of that marketing engine. By using AI, you can unlock insights that enable you to answer questions like:

• Who should I be reaching out to right now?
• What should I be telling them based on recommendations or products they've engaged with?
• When should I be sending messages based on their preferred channel?
• Ultimately, sending that at the appropriate time.

What we've seen is that when our customers utilize AI at the core of this data structure, we see revenue goals go up by 30%. In today's marketing environment, a revenue increase is a truly meaningful impact. When you put all this together, you end up with an incredibly rich understanding of your customer that is deep, actionable, and near real-time. Once you've got that, then you can start asking questions about how to coordinate those channels.

2. Coordinating All Channels

Nathan Loveless: Tony, one thing you brought up at the beginning of this conversation was that when we think about channel coordination, one of the first things we should be asking is: how are we using the channels we currently have, and what are the expectations there? You have some great ideas about this notion of how we use channels today.

Tony Bryant: Yeah, that old adage, the old strategy of batch and blast, is just problematic. It doesn't fly today with consumers.

• First of all, it's one-way. There's no easy way for users to ask questions.
• It's often impersonal, leaving the consumer feeling like they've reached a dead end.
• It's business-centric, focused on what's convenient for the business rather than the consumer's optimal time or moment.
• Traditionally, it's uninspiring (plain text, lack of rich media).
• It's very transactional, and ultimately, not an effective way to break through the noise anymore.

Batch and blast used to be an effective strategy, but customers are demanding a whole lot more.

Nathan Loveless: With that, I'd love to use that as a jumping-off point. We've talked about the challenge of getting personalization done well, and how often folks are using one-way communication without the ability to listen back. So, I'd love to know from the audience: When you look at your marketing (not the channel mix, but the messages themselves), what percentage do you roughly estimate are one-way (putting the message out without listening back) versus real invitations for a two-way conversation?

Tony Bryant: Should we take a wager here, Nathan?

Nathan Loveless: Yeah, I think we can do that. I'm going to give folks credit, and I'm going to say that it's in that 25-50% range for one-way. That means 50-75% is conversational. I think folks are doing more conversational now.

Tony Bryant: I'm guessing that more than 75% is one-way.

Haley: Here are the results!

Poll Results:

• More than 75% is one-way messaging.
• A broader distribution for other options, indicating some movement towards two-way.

Nathan Loveless: So there's your answer, Tony! It's a broader distribution, which is great to see how that conversation goes back and forth. That's fantastic, because I think what we're seeing is, to your point here, Tony, that when we think about the customer's wants, those are core to them, but there are some other components as well.

Tony Bryant: Yeah, no, this is great. It's great to see people already moving towards that conversational paradigm.

When you look at what customers want, Tony, what are some of those pieces beyond just the message and communication that are really important when thinking about the architecture of a customer-centric organization?

Tony Bryant: Sure. I'd really start with that first one: real-time. People expect immediacy and support. This support doesn't necessarily have to be a live human; it could be a very smart, well-integrated AI chatbot providing instant answers. They certainly won't be placed on hold; that's unacceptable.

It also needs to be personalized. Over 75% of users want to be communicated with by their favorite brand in the same way they communicate with friends and family. For example, I'm a heavy WhatsApp user. My friends and family know this. I'm much more likely to respond via WhatsApp than a traditional SMS. Brands should have this intelligence; they should understand which channels are preferred by their users. This builds trust, because if I'm communicated with in a relevant, personal way, I feel trust with that brand. If not, it simply doesn't inspire trust.

And then, of course, accessibility.

Nathan Loveless: It's funny. I love the comment on real-time because oftentimes we think about real-time in terms of availability, but the sort of old digital adage we've all experienced is getting an email for something I just bought. That's when real-time falls down, too, right? The email team didn't have access to the really important data. Or I send a message, trying to figure something out, and they have no idea I was just in a store. So when we talk about real-time communication, there's as much a real-time contextual understanding of me as a consumer as there is availability, which I think is a good core of that accessibility point you were just going to speak to.

Tony Bryant: Sure. No, you're absolutely right. There's nothing worse than making a purchase and then immediately receiving an email with that 15% coupon you could have used. But in terms of accessibility, more than half of consumers are more likely to make a repeat purchase if the brand offers some kind of live chat support. And people may also want the option to speak to a human on the phone or have live chat via a chatbot.

Nathan Loveless: I love that you mentioned that because oftentimes when we think about expansion of channels, we don't think about the integration of those experiences into the whole. That's really core to what we've seen at Blueshift. If you want to do real-time, the idea of data being in one place, insights in another, and the ability to execute across channels just doesn't work.

What we're seeing is that if you want to easily coordinate the channels and experiences your customers expect, you really need a platform that:

• Combines imperative data: To understand whether to send an email (or not), or to adapt to a customer's preference for mobile.
• Connects to any channel: Including the call center, ensuring context is available to human agents.

When you start to build this, it looks like executing off a rich data profile that's all about finding the right moments, focusing on personalization, and building intelligent one-to-one journeys.

Let's consider Eric. We have all his event data, catalog information, and transaction history. We know who Eric is and what he's purchased. But we also want to understand:

• Likelihood of next purchase: Based on insights from our entire customer base.
• Recommendations: What products should we put in front of him, based on real-time behaviors and look-alikes across the customer base?
• Optimal Send Time: When should we send that message? This isn't just about email open times, but when they're likely to engage on the website, or open WhatsApp to chat. How do all these insights influence brand communication?
• Preferred Channels: What channels do we want to engage with them on?

When you combine all these insights (who, what, when, and where), you ultimately create what feels like a one-to-one personalized campaign – it's about the things I am interested in, sent in the ways I want to engage, with the information I want to learn about.

What's cool is that the explosion of this mobile channel, particularly in conversational experiences, elevates all these ideas about real-time data access and engagement to an "11." Chat is real-time and engaging, and we carry our devices in our pockets at all times. So, how do you take advantage of these high-engagement channels with the underlying data understanding, timing, and insights that are required to do them exceptionally well (otherwise they come off as inauthentic)?

Tony, I think this is one of your phrases, but we're in a different time now.

3. Leveraging High-Engagement Conversational Channels

Tony Bryant: We are. We are officially in the conversational era. I'm sure you've heard "conversational" applied to many industries: conversational banking, conversational marketing, conversational commerce, conversational recruiting. But we are definitely in the era of conversational commerce. I like to call it Messaging 2.0. (And by the way, Nathan, that previous slide you showed with the four Ws, that's an excellent slide; it's really difficult to illustrate that graphically, and it nails it.)

So, Messaging 2.0 is the evolution beyond traditional one-way messaging. Two-way messaging is conversational in nature. You need to leverage Natural Language Understanding (NLU) AI. This AI isn't just for leveraging data sets, as Nathan described; it's also for the front-end consumer experience (chatbot, digital assistant) and providing the option to hand over to a human (live chat or phone call). For instance, when I made a big purchase like my first smoker, I wanted to speak to a human to ask specific product questions.

It also involves personalized rich media (video, images). With new "over-the-top" (OTT) messaging channels, many are moving towards an app-like experience.

This is why, according to Gartner, conversational messaging is the single biggest paradigm shift taking place in communication between brands and consumers. Going forward, more than half of all businesses will spend more money on conversational applications than on their own mobile apps. Developing mobile apps is very expensive (two operating systems, user acquisition, activation), and much of what people aim to achieve with apps can now be done with messaging channels.

Consider these changes:

• From 2019 to 2020, 110% more customers reported using rich channels like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to reach a business.
• The "A2P" (Application-to-Peer, industry term for one-way SMS) graph shows continued growth, but it's tapering off.
• The "green" line shows the robust growth of rich messaging channels – that's where you need to be.

Nathan Loveless: What I find fascinating is that we've seen this continued expansion, and now we have this paradigm shift that Gartner describes – an area that increases the expectation of real-time interaction, the expectation of "know me as a customer" (as I'm the center of this interaction), and the real-timeness and personal nature of that channel. And it's growing tremendously. So, what does this look like?

Tony, we put together this little back-and-forth example that's seemingly simple, yet delightful, a "moment of wow" for a customer. But to achieve it requires an incredibly intelligent application of customer data, access to that data, plus an understanding of the channel. So, when we think about this, what we put together here was, "What does it look like to have a conversation when you actually know your customer?"

Conversational Engagement Example: The Shoe Company

This example is an interaction with a shoe company and a customer named Josh. Josh had been looking at some shoes online (mobile or e-commerce site), saw they were out of stock, and hit the "remind me when this is back" button.

On the back end, this involves:

• E-commerce information.
• Data indicating Josh prefers to interact conversationally, not via email.

Combining all this, we send a dynamic chat conversation to Josh: "Hey, remember those shoes you were looking for? They're finally back in stock!"

From there, Josh can have the kind of conversation Tony mentioned (like with his smoker, but for runners). Josh might respond: "Great. Finally, now I've got that. But do you have my size?"

Now, we're in a different environment where we need to understand inventory availability. Not only is it in stock, but we can also capture that "this is Josh's size." This data element can be pulled back into his profile, making it richer and creating the flywheel effect we discussed earlier.

At this point, Tony, this can be a dynamic bot, not a person, getting this information. Could you elaborate on that, as you've addressed it before, but this example makes it very real.

Tony Bryant: Yeah, no. Even from that first message to Josh, this could be an AI chatbot-powered conversation. This is what enables it to scale. Of course, it requires integrations with data sets; you need to access that data to understand and appreciate that Josh has already expressed interest in that particular shoe model and wanted to be notified.

Certainly, all this can be powered by that chatbot. It can be done in hundreds of languages with little or no effort. And if the bot's AI has Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) capabilities, combined with the data behind it, it makes for a rich, intriguing conversation.

Nathan Loveless: Exactly. Then, we all want to know the price. Now, we need to understand pricing, which could vary. There's a dynamism that has to be there. In this case: "Yep, we've got them. They're $175. We can deliver them by Thursday" (which implies an understanding of Josh's location based on our data), "or you can pick them up at your nearby store" (which also has a localization component).

This is an incredibly dynamic and rich engagement with a level of understanding or customer-centricity akin to talking with a friend. Then, "Go ahead and order them live! Just click the link. It's already done." In this scenario, he also won't receive a follow-up email saying, "Hey, they're back in stock." This, I think, is truly a moment of delight, a "moment of wow," allowing a customer to quickly achieve their goal through their preferred engagement method.

Key Takeaways

Nathan Loveless: When we wrap this up, there are two main points when thinking about cutting through the noise:

1. Less Noise, More Intentionality: A lot of one-way messaging actually creates more noise. Being less noisy means being more intentional and customer-centric with the messages you send. This requires a deeper understanding of data and the consumer than most organizations currently possess, especially if you're thinking in terms of flywheels, not funnels.
2. Leverage Conversational Channels: Conversational channels are exploding in utilization and impact on customer experience. You must utilize these effectively, built on a customer-centric data backbone, to delight consumers where they are and where they will continue to be.

Tony, any final points on either of these before we open up for questions?

Tony Bryant: You know, I was just going to say, it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. While you're being less noisy, leveraging intelligence and these channels, you're constantly learning and refining that conversation. You're learning what channels people prefer. All that data and insight gleaned from those conversations can also feed that intelligent engine for continuous improvement.

Nathan Loveless: That's a great point. If the interaction doesn't come back to make the next one better, it's like listening to a friend but not remembering their story – and no one likes that.

Q&A Session

Nathan Loveless: Well, listen, Haley, I know we're just about at that 40-minute mark. I would love it if there were a couple of questions we could get through. I see some coming through the chat. Tony, I've got one here, and Haley, I know you're collecting some in the background as well.

Tony, the question here is: What percentage of customers use Messenger to reach a business the other way? So, when you start seeing a lot of those users engaging, what consumers are choosing to engage in that other direction? Do you have data on that?

Tony Bryant: You know, I don't have exact data on that, other than what I referenced before, where we saw that 110% year-over-year growth of consumers choosing those channels. Unfortunately, I can't share exact numbers on how many users are doing that.

Haley: We got another one through the Q&A: "Intelligent marketing will increase customer satisfaction too. How can we encourage companies to adopt this?"

Nathan Loveless: That's a great question. Can you actually say that one more time? So, was it the conversation or the intelligent point? I want to make sure I'm answering on the right piece. Do you mind repeating the question?

Haley: Sure. So, it says "Intelligent marketing will increase customer satisfaction too. How can we encourage companies to adopt this?"

Nathan Loveless: I think "intelligent marketing" is an interesting phrase. As a marketer (I was one for over a decade), the thought is that you never do anything unintelligently; there's always a reason. But sometimes that reason, or the "intelligence" of our decision, is simply due to capacity constraints, knowing that email executes well, and sending more will yield more results.

What we're starting to see is that intelligent marketing used to mean resource allocation or repetitive tasks. Now, it increasingly means interacting with customers the way they want to be interacted with, in a customer-centric way.

So, within most organizations, it's about working with partners to understand:

• What processes or actions can we take to start coordinating our channels?
• How can we start by focusing on impactful data (not all data) and building use cases or flows that truly drive revenue and impact?

What we've seen at Blueshift is that even small things like coordinating more than one channel in a single campaign have dramatic effects on campaign outputs with minimal data. To me, that feels like intelligent marketing – doing smarter things with your data, with insight, and with coordination in a way that drives real business results. Especially given the broader marketing ecosystem we're all in, driving those kinds of outputs should be at the core of every plan.

Tony Bryant: No, I think you covered it well.

Haley: Any other questions from the audience? Yes. "How easy is it to get started? We've always wanted a proper two-way conversation, but don't know where to get started."

Nathan Loveless: Oh, that's great. If you're using our systems together, it's really, really easy. We've got plug-and-play adaptations that allow all of that stuff we just showed (in terms of an interaction) to get started very quickly.

So, the first thing I would say is ensure you have an architecture or an ecosystem within your organization that enables that flow of: "I know my customer, I can segment my customer with insights, I can then actually engage with them across a personalization channel." Having that all put together is going to be imperative to the amount of time and effort it takes to get going. And when you have everything together, it's cheaper and faster than if you try and put it all together on your own.

I also know that Sinch has done an amazing job of understanding the kinds of AI conversation playbooks and conversational components, giving you the right person at the front door to make those flows incredibly easy as well. Tony, could you talk about a couple of examples of that or how that structure has worked for some of your clients?

Tony Bryant: Sure. What I would say is, first of all, to enable that conversation, you need to be using a channel that is effectively two-way. Secondly, there's no need (or it's ill-advised) to do point integrations into these different channels. Ideally, you want to work with someone like ourselves, like Sinch, that has a single API which you integrate once, and then you have access to all of these different channels globally. This is important because while one channel might work in a specific geography or for a specific use case, other channels may be ideal elsewhere.

And the API itself, the underlying technology, should also do what's called transcoding. Each channel has its own intrinsic strengths and features (e.g., some support video easily). You want to ensure all content is optimized for the channel, and there's analytics feedback to understand which channels are being more adopted by users. In terms of our customer base, it really depends on the use case, Nathan. This conversational paradigm can be applied to almost any vertical, and all these verticals are experiencing digital transformation, specifically in mobile customer experience.

Haley: That's great, Tony. That makes a ton of sense. You have another question.

Haley: "I'd love to be able to better use SMS marketing. How do I answer the challenges around privacy and the whole issue of spam and phishing?"

Nathan Loveless: Oh, that's a great question. Tony, you want to go first?

Tony Bryant: Yeah, I was going to say, you go first and I'll go after that.

Nathan Loveless: So, first of all, you know, I'm going to give you an example here in the United States. The wireless service providers have regulations. You need to be compliant. You need to make sure that what you're trying to do, the message you're sending out, is approved and compliant according to this trade group. We provide that service; that's part of our day-to-day business. But it's something you need to consider first: what type of messaging, what you're sending out. And the second thing is, first of all, you need to have people opt-in. You need to have them opt-in. Of course, they need legally to have the option to opt-out.

We come across a lot of large brands that have these large email databases, and they're very effective with email. However, they realize they need to break into SMS. The first step is organizing a campaign. You need a call to action. You need to give the user a reason to opt into a program; they need to get something out of it. And you need to be able to do that through different touch points, whether via the web or via an email, clicking on a button in email to then join an opt-in program.

Nathan Loveless: Actually there are two points. One of them was one I was thinking about, which was the first one: you've got to have partners who understand the legal landscape and the capabilities. Sinch is a great partner in making sure the pipes that deliver the message are compliant and effective, so you don't have to worry about that.

The second layer is how to ensure the messages we're sending are coordinated with our other activities. One place where SMS programs often fall short is when they're thought of in isolation – as a one-off message, or at most, coordinated only with email, but not with other channels. As marketers, we often fail to realize that all these engagement points need to be coordinated. To do that, you really want to understand them from a common understanding of who that customer is, based on their profile.

You're absolutely right about compliance. You need all those things. And ultimately, you want all those profile-centric preference center items to be accessible and understandable across all different channels. If there's an SMS component, how do you use your email opt-in base, as Tony said, with a campaign to then drive your SMS utilization with a clear understanding of how and when that's going to be used for your customers? At Blueshift, we see folks using that kind of expansion strategy across channels very effectively, and it's made a lot easier by having so much rich data at their fingertips with the platform.

Haley: Any last questions or anything else we've got going on here? I believe that's all the questions we have for today. Unless anyone wants to use that Q&A button to ask any last-minute questions, but I believe we've answered all that we have.

Nathan Loveless: Well, that's great. Tony, thanks for joining the conversation with me and with Haley and the team here. Again, my name is Nathan. You've been Tony the whole time. If folks do have questions, these are the ways that you can get follow-up. I view every one of these as an invitation for a broader conversation, even if it's just a, "Hey, what about this crazy idea?" So I know Tony and I are more than happy to answer questions offline if that needs be.

Tony Bryant: Absolutely.

Haley: We do have one additional question that just came in a little bit late. "I'd like to know how to effectively use WhatsApp."

Nathan Loveless: See, you just gotta tell people that there's one more and then they'll get that last one in.

Tony Bryant: Yeah, so I can take that. WhatsApp is such a rich and powerful medium. My question would be, what is the use case you're looking to solve for? WhatsApp can be applied in so many different use cases across different types of businesses and verticals. I would suggest the person who asked this question drop me an email. We can set up a short call, and I'll have one of my team members who specializes in each of the different channels give examples of specific use cases. Then I can learn more about your particular use case.

Nathan Loveless: The other thing I would add is, like we saw at the very beginning of this conversation, when you have an explosion of channels, you have an explosion of optionality. So, effectively using WhatsApp is a lot about: what use cases do you actually want to operate within that space? Because there are really great ones. I think you also don't want to make it a science project. You want to be able to have that be integrated into the kinds of marketing engagement, especially right now, that are going to show proven impacts in terms of ROI. If there are questions about how to think about engaging this in a broader marketing communication strategy, or triggering it at the right moment within a particular journey, those are conversations we have all the time. So, definitely, Tony, if you get an email there, we're more than happy to talk through that strategy portion as well.

Haley: There was a follow-up to that for your question. "Use case: I'm looking to understand how to differentiate between personal and business WhatsApp."

Tony Bryant: Okay, I'm sorry. I misunderstood the question. Yes, absolutely. There are two different types of accounts: the WhatsApp Business Account. It's a whole different environment and capabilities for WhatsApp Business accounts, and we can provide those. So yeah, happy to have that discussion.

Haley: Awesome. And then I think that will do everything for today. I believe that is all the questions that we have. So I want to go ahead and wrap up this webinar. Thank you so much for everybody that attended. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you registered through your VIB or through VIB with your business email and you have any questions, please contact GC at VIB.tech. But thank you so much, Tony and Nathan. We really appreciate you having this conversation. Have a great rest of your week, everyone.

Nathan Loveless: Thank you. Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.

Tony Bryant: Bye-bye.