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You can't convert who you can't reach.
It truly is as simple as that. Whether you want to market your products or offer support, doing so on channels that will reach your customers will significantly increase your success. But reaching your target audience can be a challenge. You have to consider the availability and popularity of apps, and technical coverage of your target audience.
Reach Is Important
Should you just pick the channel with the best reach worldwide? SMS has an extensive global reach, with over 5 billion users globally, providing access to about 65-67% of the world's population.
Even highly-popular messaging channels like WhatsApp still cannot truly compete with this old messaging giant - mainly because their use depends on the popularity of their app in different regions or countries. If your customers do not use WhatsApp, then trying to reach them there is futile.
SMS is a built-in feature on nearly every mobile phone and device, making it a powerful and reliable tool for communication and marketing across borders, because it doesn't rely on app installations or internet connectivity. On top of that, SMS services are enabled by telecom operators, allowing messages to be sent and received across a vast global network of mobile operators and carriers.
But - and this might be a big BUT - SMS messaging is quite old-school. Plain, text-based messages with small character limits don't leave much room for customization or personalization.
Customization Converts
RCS for business is basically SMS 2.0. It has the same ease of use without the need for third-party apps, but with the features of any other popular modern messaging app. It offers images, videos, carousels, suggested replies, buttons, media sharing, branded profiles, read receipts, and many more engaging features.
Friction kills intent. Messages that open natively, load fast, and support rich components drastically reduce drop-off. Which is exactly why RCS outperforms SMS on important benchmarks such as conversion rates and click-through-rates (CTR).
Customer communication relies on trust. RCS also has verified sender profiles, which are great for gaining customer trust. The verified badge (checkmark), alongside company information and brand colors will prove that your business profile is legit - and when customers know the messages can be trusted, they'll be more inclined to engage.
RCS Coverage and Reach
For a long time though, RCS had a limited reach. But the channel is gaining traction in the market fast - especially after the adoption by iOS 18 in 2024. To make sure you reach your audience via RCS, two things are needed: the availability of RCS on the devices of your customers, and coverage or connections with local telecom operators. The first one is hard to control, but for the latter, a partner like CM.com can handle the operator connections to supply coverage.
RCS for Business Via CM.com:
When using RCS for Business via CM.com, you can choose to pay per message, or per monthly active users (ideal for businesses that send recurring messages within a month). So you'll be able to choose the best subscription for your business use case.
Let's take a look at the operator reach and coverage CM.com currently offers, and in what markets RCS can really make a difference for your business. Please note, these percentages reflect the operator coverage that allows RCS usage - it doesn't include whether or not the potential audience has RCS enabled on their mobile device.
80% - 100% RCS Coverage:
Germany, Spain, UK, France, USA and Sweden
With these high RCS coverage percentages, Germany (92,6%), Spain (86,6%), the UK (85,6%), France (85%), the US (83,9) and Sweden (83%) are great markets for RCS. There's a strong enterprise adoption of RCS, especially in the financial sector, retail, travel, transport, and healthcare. In these sectors, the verified sender IDs and secure messaging flows matter most - becoming valuable selling points for RCS business messaging.
One of the RCS for Business success stories is the UK charity partner Cymba:
Cymba, part of Clearcourse, is a trusted party for UK charities. They saw a 50% uplift in response rates when they switched from SMS to RCS. This way, they were able to boost engagement for their charity partners. Read their success story.
Are you operating in one of the above countries? Or are you perhaps already sending SMS messages in those countries? Then start taking advantage of the richer and safer experience RCS has to offer!
50-80% RCS Coverage:
Mexico, Czech, Nigeria, Norway, Singapore, Italy, and Austria
Mexico (78,3), Czech (72,9%), Nigeria (72,1%), Norway (69,3%), Singapore (64,3%), Italy (59,1%), and Austria (55,2%) show a strong growth towards RCS - with growing operator support and an increasing number of RCS-ready devices. This makes them high-potential markets for RCS for Business, meaning that as an early RCS-adopter in these markets, you can benefit from less competition while the market grows.
<50% RCS Coverage:
The Netherlands and Denmark
In markets where RCS coverage is still below 50%, adoption is in its early stages. In the Netherlands (48,4%) and Denmark (44,1%) the groundwork is being laid for rapid RCS growth.
Does that mean RCS will be less effective in these markets? No, not at all! But it does mean that RCS is best used in a mix of different channels, or with a fallback. With SMS as a fallback channel, you'll still be able to offer rich messages to the part of your customers that can receive the RCS messages, boosting your results with the rich media features, and taking advantage of the added safety that the verified sender profiles offer.
One the success stories is the Amphia Hospital in the Netherlands:
Amphia Hospital is the first European hospital to employ RCS for optimized patient communication. They choose RCS for its ease-of-use and the safety of the verified sender profiles. Read their success story.
RCS Going Forward
The benefits or RCS, the SMS of the future, are clear - rich media and engaging features rivaling third-party modern messaging apps, verified sender profiles for enhances security, and an ever expanding reach. Yes, the reach of RCS is still growing steadily.
Apple' adoption of RCS with iOS 18 has been a big accelerator, which also simultaneously tackled the 'SMS-only for iPhones' issue and opened the door for cross-platform messaging. In 2024, RCS business messaging traffic increased fivefold - and it keeps growing!
It's fair to assume that RCS will become the next default messaging channel going forward, so make sure your business will also benefit from this fast-rising star in business messaging!
