RCS Planning Playbook

Providers are eager to help brands jump in and start sending. Brands that are prepared for a long term investment for even longer-term gains can hit the ground running today, and start reaping the ROI of RCS sooner. 

And for all businesses: Now is the time to research the channel, talk to your messaging vendor, and have internal alignment conversations about which of your current messaging (or email, or voice!) use cases are the best match for RCS.

The rich ROI

From notifications to conversations: Why the entire industry is so hyped on RCS

So, just what makes RCS potentially so much better than SMS? Here are the top features that are drawing brands like free donuts to the breakroom.

Rich media

MMS doesn’t even compare with the rich multimedia options brands have with RCS. Senders can create:

Clickable image cards

Carousels

Large files

(goodbye, 160 character limit!)

Videos

In-message maps

In-message hyperlinks

(instead of ugly or shortened URLs, like SMS allows)

Two-way communication

RCS encourages conversation by making it easier for recipients to respond. These rich media features are designed to create user-driven engagement and feedback in real time, without the friction of moving to a user-installed application.

Out There Media’s Netflix use case

Out There Media is a worldwide leader in RCS message delivery, collaborating with brands such as Porsche, McDonald’s, and Unilever to execute RCS campaigns that achieve exceptional ROI on a global scale.

In this use case example, we’re looking at the example of the kind of rich, engaging conversation OTM helped their customer Netflix create. 

With RCS, Netflix can send subscribers rich cards with movie and show images, titles, descriptions, and even videos.

See below how Netflix can give an experience like no other through Out There Media’s demo. Get the popcorn ready.

Watch the full live Netflix demo with Out There Media:

Explore the rich range of possibilities

There are truly too many potential RCS use cases to mention them all in one guide. But here are a few of our favorites: the ones where we see the potential for senders to get the biggest bang for their buck.

Sales engagement

Brick and mortar marketing

Ecommerce promotions

Travel and hospitality

Marketing automation

Forget stale emails and annoying calls. Reach out to qualified leads with rich messages tailored to their interests. From useful infographics, to easy suggested replies, RCS makes sales less painful. In some markets,  RCS even allows for pdf attachments, right in the messaging app!

Don’t sleep on the data

It’s thrilling to imagine the transformational nature of RCS use cases. The visual nature of them. The engagement. The responses… And that’s all fine and good. But how do you turn that customer experience into hard and fast best practices? Well, it turns out that RCS offers the best analytic insights of any messaging channel currently available. 

This level of detail lets senders evaluate and revise their strategies to best serve up messages that meet customer expectations, leading to better ROI.

The trust factor of RCS

43.3% of US consumers report receiving RCS messages from businesses, and of those respondents, 98% say they have more trust in RCS messages than traditional SMS messages.

Trust opens opportunity for notifications 

It’s quite astounding that 98% of consumers who get RCS business messages trust them more than SMS. 

Verified sending
Rather than coming from unknown phone numbers, RCS messages arrive in your inbox labeled with the brand’s registered name.

Verified sending has been a long-awaited feature in the messaging world, with senders from global banks to county school systems looking for a way to prove they are who they say they are when a secure or time-sensitive text message comes through. 

While the rich features of RCS for Business engage end users in incredible new ways with rich media capabilities—we risk burying the lede. Before a rich message is ever sent, verified branding creates immediate value for brands sending simple, but time sensitive, text messages. Imagine the confidence in receiving the following notifications from a verified brand with a blue checkmark:

Creating a truly trustworthy ecosystem

A verified brand is exactly what it sounds like – it’s been verified! And to foster all the trust a blue check mark signifies, carriers have designed a verification process that is as airtight as possible. That means that brands should expect some upfront time investment as they work to rigorously validate their brand with carriers. And while a tighter vetting process isn’t a guarantee of clean traffic, verified sending is a big step in the right direction. RCS vetting most closely aligns to that of short codes, which today models a robust and highly trusted vetting process for brands. 

And no matter how vetted a brand is, as with other messaging channels, RCS brands will still have to be mindful of violating carrier rules with SHAFT content, campaign drift, or even failing to secure opt-ins and respect opt-outs, even as we venture into the highly vetted RCS for Business space. That’s why carriers like T-Mobile have already shared monetary fine lists for brands that fall out of line, just as they do for SMS. Nobody likes a fine, but these measures help keep our messaging ecosystem healthy, and increase consumer trust.

The combination of rigorous upfront vetting and ongoing accountability means brands that commit to excellence will have access to a premium, trusted channel. For platforms and brands alike, this creates an opportunity to demonstrate genuine commitment to user experience and compliance best practices.

The result? A cleaner, more meaningful messaging environment that benefits everyone: brands get better engagement, and consumers get communications they trust.

When RCS is brought into omnichannel customer communication conversations, the promise looks even brighter. A channel strategy that brings together AI voice and rich messaging has the potential to serve up exactly what customers need, perhaps before they even realize they need it. And companies that carefully construct a voice and messaging mix stand to benefit the most over time. 

Challenges to adoption

Price has been a consideration for all forms of business text messaging, beginning with short codes back in the ‘aughts. Compared to email, messaging is comparatively more expensive. Likewise, MMS messages are more expensive than single, plain-text SMS messages. 

But when compared to channels across the marketing spectrum, including direct mail, digital display ads, etc., RCS suddenly becomes an affordable-looking option. Certainly, the trust of verified branding alone may be enough for some large enterprises, government and non-profit organizations, and healthcare providers, to opt for the upgrade. 

The US carrier situation

As of this writing, it’s still early days for US carrier adoption of RCS. But as demand amps up, we have no doubt we’ll see carriers respond with new solutions, or the introduction of third-party vetting, as we see in other business messaging channels, like 10DLC and Short Codes.

Plan your first campaign:
the RCS readiness checklist

We’ve talked through the RCS for Business landscape, but now it’s time to start planning. Early adopters are already realizing the ROI potential of RCS, so this is the time to act. Walk through this checklist to see which brands are the best fit for RCS early adoption.

Take the next step toward RCS revenue

Experiment with rich media features in our message builder tool

Try it out

Check out Bandwidth’s RCS for Business solution

Show me the product

Look at the dev experience for switching to Bandwidth

See dev docs