Following Apple's recent announcement at WWDC 2024 that iOS 18 will support Rich Communication Services (RCS), the landscape of business messaging is poised for a significant transformation. This development is crucial for businesses aiming to optimise website traffic and improve conversion rates through effective retargeting of site visitors. In this article, we will explore why Apple's adoption of RCS is a game changer in retargeting strategies via messaging and how it can enhance overall website performance.
Rich Communication Services (RCS) is an advanced messaging protocol that goes beyond traditional SMS. It allows users to send multimedia messages, including images, videos, and audio clips, and supports read receipts, typing indicators, and longer message formats. This enriched communication experience is now being extended to iOS 18, previously limited to Android devices.
Leveraging Existing Databases
RCS uses the same opt-in mechanism as SMS, allowing marketing teams to efficiently utilise their existing databases. This feature ensures compliance and maximises the value of collected data, enhancing retargeting efforts without requiring extensive new data collection processes. By leveraging existing databases, businesses can optimise website traffic and boost conversion rates through effective retargeting.
Before Apple’s adoption, RCS was primarily available on Android, limiting its reach. Now, marketers can effectively target iPhone users, making RCS essential for any comprehensive retargeting strategy aimed at optimising website traffic and improving conversion rates. This expanded reach ensures that retargeting efforts are maximised, as businesses can now engage a more diverse and extensive audience.
RCS enables businesses to send branded, interactive messages directly to customers' native messaging apps. This significantly improves the effectiveness of retargeting campaigns by allowing for high-quality images, videos, and action buttons. Enhanced retargeting capabilities can include:
These features are crucial for improving conversion rates and website traffic performance, as they create more engaging and relevant touchpoints with potential customers.
Salecycle’s interest in RCS is driven by the evolving user behaviour over the years. The primary device for accessing content has shifted to mobile, far outpacing PC usage. This shift necessitates changes in how brands communicate with consumers. On mobile, attention spans are shorter, and users consume a high volume of content, often rich in images and videos. Brands must adapt to this trend, making it logical for messaging to evolve towards a more interactive and visual model to capture users' attention effectively.
Salecycle has closely followed the evolution of RCS and is set to offer this capability to its clients through its platform, MySalecycle. Leveraging the data collected via their Reach module—phone numbers, opt-in consents, and user behaviour on websites—Salecycle clients will be able to create more sophisticated retargeting workflows than ever before.
The goal of Salecycle is to enable their clients to build the most personalised campaigns possible while reaching customers on their preferred channels. These workflows can include:
The rich content capabilities of RCS enhance these messages, making them more engaging and likely to drive conversions. Salecycle's proactive approach ensures that clients can fully exploit the advantages of RCS, taking their marketing strategies to the next level and significantly impacting website traffic and conversion rates.
The Reach module collects valuable user data, including phone numbers and opt-in consents. This data is crucial for creating targeted and compliant marketing campaigns. By understanding user behaviour on websites, businesses can craft more personalised and effective retargeting messages.
The Activate module utilises the data collected through Reach to create highly personalised retargeting workflows. This includes analysing user behaviour to send tailored messages that resonate with individual preferences and actions. By incorporating RCS, these messages can include rich media content, making them more engaging and likely to drive conversions.
Salecycle aims to enable clients to build highly personalised campaigns while reaching customers on their preferred channels. These workflows can include:
The rich content capabilities of RCS enhance these messages, making them more engaging and likely to drive conversions. Salecycle's proactive approach ensures that clients can fully exploit the advantages of RCS, taking their marketing strategies to the next level and significantly impacting website traffic and conversion rates.
With Apple’s adoption of RCS, businesses have a powerful new tool at their disposal. RCS enables companies to send branded, interactive messages directly to their customers' native messaging apps. This is particularly beneficial for marketing campaigns, customer notifications, and service updates, which can now include high-quality images, videos, and even action buttons, enhancing customer engagement and satisfaction.
Apple’s support for RCS in iOS 18 is more than just a technical update; it’s a paradigm shift in how businesses can communicate with their customers. With enhanced messaging capabilities now available across the two dominant mobile platforms, enterprises have a powerful new tool to engage their audience. Salecycle’s modules, Reach and Engage, are perfectly positioned to help businesses leverage this technology, ensuring that they can deliver relevant and compelling messages that drive results. As RCS becomes a central part of enterprise messaging, the future of business communication looks richer and more interactive than ever before.
