What is SMS API and How Can Businesses Leverage it?

SMS APIs are one of the modern practices that are adopted by this rapidly changing business world. It has even become an industry standard for sending messages to customers over the internet. In this article, we are going to explain why this technique has become so popular, and also we will look at some of the best and the most used SMS API. Without further ado, let’s dive into the article.

Why is SMS API Important?

Do you know how many communication channels an average person uses? They can be using social media like WhatsApp, Instagram, or Facebook or they can be using emails. You can’t be particular about these things. But one communication channel that is still most used by people is messages. SMS has one of the highest engagement rates and consumers like to check their messages frequently. Therefore, businesses have invested in the SMS API service so they can notify their customers of login, password changes, transactions, order updates, etc.

Research suggests that the open rate of SMS messages is 98%, far more than the open rate of email campaigns, which stands at 20%. This clearly shows that SMS has a greater success rate as compared to any other communication channel. Undoubtedly, text messaging is the most convenient and fastest way to propagate messages for both businesses and their customers.

How Businesses can make use of SMS?

SMS marketing is a prolific marketing strategy among marketers because of some obvious reasons. It’s one of those rare platforms on which both businesses and consumers have mutually benefited and agreed upon. Let’s have a look at ways in which marketers can utilize the SMS API.

• Lead nurturing campaigns for prospects and other target audiences.
• You can use it for sending some sort of reminders like prescriptions or event notifications.
• Use SMS to send promotional offers to customers because text messages have one of the highest CTR and open rates.
• You can also send seasonal discounts, vouchers, special offers, etc via SMS.
• Virtual gifts are pretty trendy these days like audiobook memberships, online class subscriptions, etc.
• To avoid and detect any malicious activities you can always send confirmation or authentication messages on SMS e.g. OTP or sign-in activities update.

What is an SMS API?

In general, API (Application Programmable Interface) allows two applications to talk to each other. It makes the functionality of one application available to the other applications. In the case of SMS API, you can use it for sending and receiving Short Message Code (SMS) from your own application. The API requests are sent over the HTTP protocol because it is easy, safe, and has become an industry standard.

You can use SMS API for sending messages from your websites or even other applications like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software.

What SMS API does is, connects telecom service providers to the internet so you can utilize the full potential of the SMS service providers.

Best SMS API in 2022

When looking for SMS API service providers you might get overwhelmed by looking at the options. There are a few criteria you need to consider features and quality, compliance, cost, etc. After doing some research, we have found some great options. Let’s have a look at them.

Twilio

Twilio is one of the renowned platforms that provide SMS API services. Many big companies around the world use it for example Stripe, Cocacola, Salesforce, etc. Twilio’s global phone number catalog provides access to the phone numbers from 100 countries. You can build intuitive chatbots or even AI-powered chatbots using Twilio’s API. Developers love Twilio because it is extremely customizable and compatible with all programming languages.

There is a function in Twilio called Studio in which you can create trigger-based workflows for sending notifications. When using Twilio, you are not just limited to the messages, but you can also leverage the WhatsApp API.

Vonage

Vonage is another SMS API that lets you create the customer journey through automated workflows and conversation. Using Vonage, you can attain various goals like booking appointments, ordering something, or some sort of verification.

It offers phone numbers from 76 countries. The API of Vonage allows you to enable two-way messaging and even queue bulk messages so you remain compliant with regulations.

The Bottom Line

It won’t be wrong to say that SMS API is a modern-day marvel. It has unlocked so many opportunities for developers and businesses. API has given an invisible power to the SMS due to which businesses can now engage with customers without completely depending on the SMS carriers and traditional SMS marketing methodologies.

Also, read more: SugarCRM Pricing