Elevate Engagement Beyond Just Links
In the competitive landscape of digital communication, capturing and retaining audience attention is paramount. This is why we advocate: don’t just tell them, show them with MMS.
What is MMS? It’s Multimedia Messaging Service, which is the use of pictures, videos, and gifs in your text messages.
By integrating visuals directly into your text messages, you can significantly enhance engagement. As highlighted in our previous blog, people process visuals far more rapidly than text and, increasingly, prefer consuming video content. Leveraging MMS allows you to deliver rich media that immediately captures attention and drives action.
With text messages boasting a 98% open rate, it’s clear audiences are reading them. However, to truly capitalize on this reach, MMS provides a punch to propel your audience towards your desired outcome: the click.
A click is a crucial bridge to your valuable content, be it YouTube videos, landing pages, event registrations, or organizational information. Text messaging is the vehicle to drive your audience to your organization, where you can make an impact in their lives.
Would you rather see a link or a video?
Embedded MMS is the key difference-maker in increasing clicks.
What is embedded MMS? It is a message that includes a real picture or video within the text message thread. This distinguishes it from video link texting, which is SMS messages that include a URL link to a video on another website elsewhere.
An advantage of embedded MMS is that it allows your audience to experience rich content—visual and auditory—directly within the text message thread, keeping their attention on the message thread, which then encourages clicking the link in the message.
Video Link Text
Embedded MMS
See the Power of Embedded MMS vs. Video Link Texting
A recent case study with embedded is a tale of two churches: FBC McKinney and Trinity Church.
Both were sending a weekly message to their churchwide group. However, Trinity Church followed the Powered By Text blueprint by including a video MMS with their message and, when doing so, saw a 300% increase in their clicks.
When FBC McKinney began implementing the same strategy, they saw the same result: 300% increase in clicks.
“As the texting software landscape is shifting, we’re seeing clear ways to increase engagement,” notes David Rogers, Powered By Text Strategist for both churches, “and the main driver was including video with their texts.”
Orlie Roach, Communications Director at Trinity Church, affirms this success “We rarely send a text to the whole church that does not have an MMS video with it. People watch and click more than they read and click. Our open rates for the Community Guide keep growing each week!”
The effectiveness of MMS lies in its ability to grab attention with engaging, creative content, leading to a direct click-through to your desired URL.
Give the People What They Want
Short-form videos are growing in popularity. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels have known about this for years. This strategy is now extending to all areas of mass communication, including text messaging. A client survey by a Powered By Text partner revealed a clear preference for short video messages across all demographics.
“I surveyed our church to find out what their preferred communication method is. From young to old, the overwhelming response was short video text messages. So, that is what we are doing now. Short…video…texts. And they are loving it.”
– Stuart Holland, Edmond’s First Baptist Church, Communications Director
MMS and You: A Great Pairing
You can experience the power of embedded MMS too! Our strategists are experts at helping organizations just like yours use MMS and other great strategies to increase the impact you make. Between our two decades of experience and a proven texting blueprint, our strategists will walk alongside you to help you experience real engagement with your audience. They will share the best texting strategies and help you use features like MMS Compressor, which captures textable videos for you to send.
Even more than that, our strategists offer tailored solutions and guidance for organizations in an array of industries.
Put MMS Into Action
Schedule a consultation with our strategists for a complimentary review of your communication plan, insider texting strategies, and an ROI assessment.
