The Ultimate Guide to VoIP Texting:
How It Works, Benefits & Best Practices

VoIP has become one of the best ways to connect businesses with their customers. Meanwhile, SMS campaigns enjoy a 98% open rate. The question is, how effective is VoIP Texting – the combination of the two?

As call center software becomes more sophisticated, it continues to introduce new features users can leverage to meet their organizational needs. In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about VoIP texting, including how it works, its benefits, and best practices.

Key Takeaways

• VoIP texting allows you to send messages via the Internet all over the world from any compatible device for much cheaper rates than traditional SMS.
• VoIP SMS is associated with a virtual number tied to a software profile rather than a SIM card, which lets users maintain efficiency across devices.
• Businesses favor VoIP texting for its affordability, flexibility, additional features, and automation capabilities key in sales, support, and recruitment settings.

What Is VoIP Texting?

VoIP texting, sometimes also called VoIP SMS, does exactly what it says on the tin. The technology allows you to send and receive text messages via your call center software through a text-enabled virtual phone number. 

The feature works similarly to iMessage and other comparable messaging solutions that allow you to send texts between two smart devices (laptop, smartphone, smartwatch) over the Internet without needing a SIM card.

However, the two technologies are completely separate. Unlike VoIP texting, iMessage and its alternatives are designed for personal rather than commercial use and will use the standard network and rates when messaging outside their ecosystem. 

How Does VoIP Texting Work?

VoIP texting works by leveraging the infrastructure of a call center or text messaging software provider to send and receive SMS messages over the Internet. The texts are sent and received on the user’s associated virtual phone number instead of a SIM card.

In practice, this means you can text over IP from any device associated with your profile and virtual number, regardless of what the other person uses. You can also own and use multiple virtual numbers for calling and texting in different parts of the world. 

To make VoIP phone texting work, you need only an active subscription to a suitable solution and a stable internet connection.

VoIP Texting Vs. Traditional SMS

Despite essentially doing the same thing, there are several crucial differences between VoIP texting vs. traditional SMS. These affect everything from price to reliability, additional features, and more. Below, you’ll find a quick overview.

The 7 Benefits of VoIP Texting for Business

The differences between traditional SMS and VoIP messages actually make them far more viable for both personal and commercial use. Below, you’ll find the top 7 reasons why companies use VoIP texting for their outreach and customer support.

1. Save Money:
   By sending texts over the user’s Internet connection, VoIP Texting lets you send more messages for far cheaper. Sometimes, they can even be completely free, allowing for extensive use.
   
2. Message at Mass:
   Since VoIP SMS only requires an internet connection and software platform, it allows users to communicate effectively across devices. This makes it perfect for bulk commercial use.
   
3. Leverage Multimedia:
   VoIP phone texting allows users to easily share multimedia like images, videos, audio files, and documents for even better communication. Thus, companies can engage their customers at a deeper level.
   
4. Automate for Success:
   VoIP with SMS platforms often offer advanced features for additional efficiency, including read receipts, typing indicators, SMS campaigns, etc. This lets businesses further streamline processes.
   
5. Increase Privacy:
   VoIP messages often feature end-to-end encryption to safeguard users’ data and privacy. This ensures that messages can only be read by the intended recipient.
   
6. Message Internationally:
   VoIP texting allows users to exchange messages instantly around the world without extra charges or delays, making it perfect for marketing.
   
7. Target Groups:
   VoIP with SMS often allows users to create and manage custom group chats or send personalized bulk messages, including media and documents. This can be vital both in internal and external business use.

How Businesses Use VoIP Texting

There are multiple ways businesses can leverage VoIP with SMS in their daily activities. Use cases are often differentiated based on the team/department, intended purpose, and target customer/user. These include:

#1: Sales: 

Revenue teams can use VoIP texting in multiple ways. They can leverage it to generate and follow up with leads pulled directly from their web/CRM to expedite the nurturing process.

However, they can equally effectively use it to send out bulk promotions and offers with personalized language based on automated variables to better engage with customers and drive sales.

#2: Customer Support

Many online users prefer to use their mobile rather than an online chat function for their support needs. Using VoIP phone messages, the customer support team can remove this perceived obstacle while still leveraging chatbots for basic inquiries.

However, VoIP texting also allows you to share helpful self-help infographics and instructions. This can be extremely helpful in speeding up and simplifying the troubleshooting process.

#3: Recruitment & Research:

Human Resources can use VoIP texting just as efficiently as their customer-facing counterparts to target, reach out to, schedule appointments, and keep up with potential candidates based on external sources. 

Outside of recruitment, VoIP SMS can also leverage its 98% open rate to guarantee people see your calls to action for various information-gathering and feedback initiatives, which are vital for improving performance.

VoIP Texting Best Practices

Regardless of how you want to leverage VoIP texting, there are several best practices you should incorporate to maximize your performance. These include:

1. Personalize Messages:
   Many VoIP messaging platforms allow you to create templates with custom variables. Use these to insert customers’ names, businesses, and other information to boost engagement.
   
2. Leverage Multimedia:
   Images, video, and audio files not only increase users’ engagement but can also be invaluable in support settings. Implement them in your communication to provide a streamlined and enjoyable experience.
   
3. A/B Test Performance:
   Many VoIP SMS platforms also offer analytic features to measure and optimize your performance. Use these to track the success of different message templates and find the ones that have the best results.
   
4. Take Advantage of Integrations:
   Text-over-IP providers often offer marketplaces for 3rd party tools like CRMs and Business Intelligence. These can help further amplify your efforts with additional information and features.
   
5. Streamline with Automation:
   Manual texting is time-consuming. However, you can streamline it by setting up custom triggers across your websites and apps to send automated texts for maximum efficiency.

How to Set Up VoIP Texting

After theory comes practice. In this section, we’ll show you how to set up and get started with VoIP texting for yourself in just five simple steps. Below, you’ll find CloudTalk’s quick-start guide.

1. Find a VoIP Provider with Texting:
   There are numerous VoIP texting providers on the market, so it’s best to look for one that fits your business needs. Consider pricing, texting limits, additional features, and customer reviews to find suitable candidates.
   
2. Create Your Account:
   After you’ve found a provider you like, you should register an account (potentially for a free trial) and sign up for a subscription. After filling in all the information and confirming your identity, you’ll be able to start setting up your VoIP SMS.
   
3. Configure Your VoIP Texting Number:
   If you choose CloudTalk as the provider, your virtual numbers should already be configured for VoIP texting. To start messaging, download the CloudTalk Phone App and click the chat bubble icon on the bottom line of your screen.
   
4. Set Up Texting Features & Integrations:
   CloudTalk offers 35+ different integrations for the most popular third-party tools. To augment your VoIP SMS, find an integration you like and have a subscription to, add it to your profile, and sign in.
   
5. Train Your Team & Start Texting:
   Onboard the rest of your team and teach them how to send messages and set up custom triggers via the Workflow Automation feature. Once everyone’s ready, you can kick off your messaging operations without any delay.

Conclusion

VoIP texting can be vital to various aspects of business operations. If you’re already using call center software, implementing this feature should be a no-brainer. And if you aren’t, this is the best time to get started. So, what are you waiting for?