Business SMS vs WhatsApp Business

The advancement of new technologies, added to the distancing imposed by the pandemic, has rapidly increased the use of corporate communication services such as SMS and WhatsApp among companies or brands and their customers.

Undoubtedly, both mean a positive investment for any company that is developing communication campaigns, but what is the best option for your company, product or service? Let’s analyze these two channels: WhatsApp Business and SMS and find out what each of them can offer you.

WhatsApp vs  SMS,  what does each one offer?

As in any comparison, both WhatsApp Business and SMS messages have advantages and limitations. This is what you need to keep in mind when choosing the appropriate communication channel to approach your customers:

1 Their reach

An undeniable advantage of SMS is their reach since absolutely any device can receive them. In contrast, only a limited range of mobile devices have a platform for WhatsApp Business.

The percentage of reach or penetration is determined by the country and target audience segment. It must be taken into account that there are geographical areas without a great penetration of WhatsApp as well as a percentage of the population that either does not have the application installed or does not know how to use it.

2 Accessibility  

SMS are highly accessible, since no type of special platform, internet connection or data package is required for people to receive and read your company’s messages.

With WhatsApp Business, on the other hand, they must download the application, keep it updated and have an Internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data), although it is quite simple to use and the messages arrive quickly.

3 Multimedia Content 

This is, without a doubt, the great star for corporate WhatsApp, since it allows you to send a large number of formats and resources such as videos, documents, large files, audio files, photo folders, and GIFs at no additional cost.

Although this can limit the content sent in SMS advertising campaigns, through links, it is possible to include any attachments or SMS Landings that take your customers to web pages where they can access extended content or multimedia without problems.

4 Text length

It is true that SMS have a limited length, but a greater number of characters does not necessarily mean a greater impact, and in this, SMS also have their advantages. Today, the vast majority of mobile users read or are impacted by a multitude of messages. Therefore, the brevity of an SMS often benefits its reading and communication success.

Instead of sending a long WhatsApp message overloaded with information, which confuses and discourages the user’s interest, you can send a concise and strategically designed message to arouse the customer’s curiosity, urging them to enter an SMS Landing, for example.

5 Bidirectionality

In this sense, WhatsApp is created to start conversations and therefore it is a channel that was born and has been created for two-way communications. In contrast, SMS has many limitations in this regard and although it is feasible in some countries, it does not have an intuitive or easy two-way communication feature for many of today’s needs.

6 Usage policy

The WhatsApp channel focuses on Facebook’s policy, which determines what type of communications you can send and other aspects such as theme, use cases, criteria for disabling or cancelling a sending account.

In contrast, SMS in this sense is much freer and does not have a single regulator. Although it is true that both integrators and operators implement security systems and filters (to avoid any case of fraud or misuse), there is no such strict limitation as regards content, use or application.

However, any corporate communication must be subjected to the Personal Data Protection Policy and regulations for sending communications (commercial or not) of each country or region.

7 Massive sendings 

Mass mailings through WhatsApp have content limitations, since they must be previously approved by Facebook and comply with one of the permitted use cases. Also, if you want to schedule messages (send them at a certain time), you need to hire the payment service from a WhatsApp Business API integrator. This type of service may include:

• Schedule messages for a specific day and time.
• Knowing when to send and not send messages
• Duplicate filters
• Eliminating numbers that are not formatted correctly.

In turn, any SMS platform (such as LabsMobile) has this type of service for sending SMS massively, as this has always been one of the main features for this type of channel.

8 A business channel

For many years now, SMS has been one of the main communication channels for organizations/companies/brands to their customers or recipients. Many of us have internalized that SMS is the method to receive eCommerce transactional communications, OTP codes, logistics tracking, medical reminders and many others.

In this sense, WhatsApp is a new channel that has recently been opened to companies or brands. This has generated a type of corporate communication in an inbox where the recipients have their family, friends and personal life contacts. Some users see WhatsApp as a personal channel, and in some cases, they reject corporate communications.

Business SMS vs WhatsApp Business: Some conclusions

There is no doubt that both corporate SMS and WhatsApp Business offer different options that adapt to various needs. It is up to you to decide which one best suits your business and start exploring different options.

And if you decide on SMS for your business, our LabsMobile platform is here to help you. Contact us and we will be happy to advise you to choose the best service for your company.