Business messaging is core to any organization’s communication suite as it allows them to interact with customers instantly. Although SMS has long been a popular option that allows businesses to instantly reach out to customers, for sustained business growth, engaging customers via voice and A2P messaging has become extremely important. With a read rate of 97% within 15 minutes of being delivered, A2P messaging has become one of the most preferred mediums for business communication.
It not only allows businesses to deliver order information, marketing campaigns, or other customer services quickly and effectively; it also allows for automation of text messaging for appointment reminders, two-factor authentication, bank alerts, one-time passwords, and more. And it does all that while supporting multi-channel conversations and personalization of marketing outreach campaigns.
A peek into the voice and A2P messaging business
The constant evolution of the business to customer messaging ecosystem and the need for automation has spurred significant innovation in the voice and A2P messaging sectors. The global A2P messaging market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.2% from $62.1 billion in 2020 to $72.8 billion by 2025, exhibiting profitable growth in the next five years.
If we talk about Africa, the pandemic led to millions of citizens relying on mobile services for day-to-day living: right from audio and video conferencing to meal delivery, mobile payments, e-commerce transactions, and more. As more and more money and efforts are put towards modernizing telecom networks, establishing broadband connections, and improving cloud penetration, several world-class telecom providers are now engaging with voice and A2P messaging to optimize their communication with customers while assuring speed and accuracy of message delivery with direct routing.
The unmatched benefits of A2P messaging for businesses
As traditional SMS remains the default mobile-specific service that companies use to communicate with customers, A2P messaging has been gaining immense popularity. As customers have more choice than ever to engage with the business of their choice, A2P messaging allows businesses to:
- Keep up with the increasingly digital outlook of modern customers
- Automate the customer communication process and achieve faster turnaround
- Reach out to customers for a variety of purposes including authorization, authentication, product updates as well as order notifications, reminders, coupons, vouchers, and loyalty programs
- Provide unmatched marketing information as well as 24×7 customer service
- Meet consumer expectations around enterprise responsiveness
- Ensure fast delivery of critical messages via low latency and high throughput rates
- Achieve high levels of customer engagement in a time- and cost-effective manner
- Personalize communication and deliver tailored customer experiences
Factors that will define the A2P market in the coming years
With so many benefits, companies in Africa are increasing their adoption of A2P messaging to reach out to their target audience and engage with them in a reliable, fast, and secure way. Here’s looking at how the A2P messaging market will move in the African subcontinent and the changes that are expected in the coming years:
- The segment will continue to balloon: The coming 5 years will see an increase in A2P messaging traffic, driven by the need to offer critical and timely information to customers including banking and transaction-related details, product and service-related information, alerts, and reminders, and more. Although a lot of businesses are already relying on A2P messaging, the ability of organizations to promote and market their products and services to attract and engage with new customers will see these adoption numbers increase.
- SPAM checks will be common: The constant inflow of business messages also brings it with the challenge of SPAM. To keep this under control, organizations would need to have a common set of procedures that will allow them to manage unwanted, unexpected junk messages. Since scammers are increasingly sending fake messages to trick customers into sending personal information, businesses would need to invest in the right tools to curb the growing instances of phishing, malware, hacking, and fraud.
- Identifying unauthorized gray routes will become critical: Businesses will also have to be adept at identifying unauthorized gray routes that are increasingly being used to deliver international A2P traffic into mobile networks. Although the routes themselves might be legal, the parties using them or the traffic on these routes might not be authorized. To control loss of revenue through these unauthorized gray routes, organizations will have to rely on technologies like SS7 and IP filtering to analyze the authenticity of messages in real-time and take appropriate action, if required.
- Cloud and on-premise deployments will witness equal traction: Although cloud-based models will gain immense popularity in the coming years, on-premise deployments will continue to record high growth too. This will be done by organizations who want to install the platform on their own – without depending on the service provided by a cloud provider – and enjoy additional control and flexibility with their deployments.
- New technology initiatives will continue to penetrate the industry: New technology initiatives like 5G will radically change how businesses communicate and engage with customers. From improved voice quality to faster communication speed, reduced drop rates to better SPAM management – 5G will allow organizations users to rely on faster and more secure connections. At the same time, technologies like AI and ML will allow for enhanced personalization of communications, enabling businesses to rely on smart bots and assistants to help with scheduling messages and sending reminders and pave the way for intelligent routing options.
As the need to connect with customers increases, voice and A2P adoption is growing across the world. If you are looking to set up A2P messaging for your business, we can help! Using our SMS Gateway & SMSC that has been deployed in the US, we can provide the required APIs for A2P transactional or bulk SMS campaigns. We have a very strong focus on Africa, with prestigious exclusive contracts with some of the fastest-growing nations in the region. What’s more, our direct interconnection with more than 100+ carriers and leading operators enables us to rely on high-quality routes based on various requirements of the market, so you can deliver seamless experiences to your customers anytime, anywhere.