There's a lot of options out there for SMS but I wanted to quickly tell you the difference between us and using ActiveCampaign native SMS.
(And honestly there's a lot of competitors out there that these also apply to).
Really, I wouldn't really call them competitors because we're not trying to do the same thing we are really.
But until you get "into" SMS you might consider them as options.
I don't like to bash anyone, unless they are complete trash, so I'm not writing this to dump on them, I'm writing this to dunk on them. haha.
More importantly, I'm writing to clarify and help you have the power to make the right decision whatever you decide. Some of these points aren't obvious off first glance.
Important Preface
Look, I love ActiveCampaign - in fact we use it @ Roezan and also in our other businesses. And I have used it in many businesses over the years.
A LOT of our users use ActiveCampaign. So it's great. Simple enough. Good pricing. Good deliverability.
Does what it needs to, for email at least.
But for SMS it's got some shortcomings... And in fact it's one of the reasons we built Roezan.
To be clear, we built a NATIVE ActiveCampaign integration, which means in addition to our software, you can use Roezan right inside ActiveCampaign along side your current automations.
So it's a totally seamless integration.
We built this because of the shortcomings of all the other options out there (including ActiveCampaign's native SMS solution).
Many of these things you might not realize from the outset as they are finer details that end up making a big difference in the end.
So here's what you need to know about AC SMS vs. Roezan:
1. No 2-Way Texting
With ActiveCampaign's SMS, you get only 1-way texts, so one can ever receive any replies to your messages.
But honestly it’s worse than that, because people DO respond to your messages and then they think you’re ignoring them which causes great harm to your brand and CLTV.
Roezan is built for 2-way and has a whole conversations pane:
This is perfect for getting prospects to raise their hands, having a "pre-sell" convo and getting people to book calls.
Most of our clients are selling high-ticket, and getting those close-to-the-edge prospects over the fence means thousands in revenue.
This ONLY happens when you can respond.
And if you don't?
These high value customers think you're ignoring them. Not good.
2. No Broadcasts
What? Really? You can't send a broadcast SMS in ActiveCampaign?
Yep.
In AC, you can't easily send SMS to your lists in a broadcast format.
Instead, everything is done through the automations tab. It's possible to do this, but it's kind of a wacky setup.
You really want to have the ability to EASILY write a broadcast, segment it, and schedule it for when you want.
Roezan makes this easy. ActiveCampaign makes you jump through hoops.
3. No Reporting
This is big - With AC's SMS you have no idea if messages are going out or getting delivered.
And here's the thing, most people don't know this, but SMS has it's own version of the "spam box" called "carrier filtering."
This happens WAY more than you think, especially if you're doing any selling via SMS.
What happens is that you send the messages, and they literally just don't get delivered. They get filtered at the carrier level. We see this because we track response codes for every message sent.
In fact, we wrote our own underground playbook of how to avoid this.
In Roezan you get stats on deliverability, plus we monitor it for all our clients, and you can always hit us up for extra help. With AC, you're kinda left in the dark.
4. 10DLC Numbers vs. Toll-Free (Compliance Is Harder)
AC gives you a 10 digit long codes as your phone number which is essentially a normal phone number. However 10DLC comes with some disadvantages.
The first one is that compliance is pretty big pain, you have to register all your messages and register the types of campaigns you'll be sending. All messages must be categorized in campaigns.
Now look, I can't knock on registration too much, you still have to do registration and verification for toll-free numbers (which we currently use at Roezan), but it IS easier, and more importantly you get us to help you through the confusion.
Before I got into SMS, I had no idea you needed to register or anything. I knew there was some compliance but it was too much of a pain in the ass to understand.
So that's why we @ Roezan help all our clients navigate these muddy waters and help get it set up easily for them.
Hell yeah.
5. Throughput On 10DLC Is Weak
This is a BIG DEAL for time-sensitive stuff like webinar reminders.
Most people don't think about this, but message throughput is actually a big deal for time sensitive stuff.
You know how on email you gotta schedule it a little in advance so that it goes out on time?
Well, same thing for SMS, but different number types have different rate limits called "MPS" or message per second.
MOST (not all) 10 digit long codes (the type of phone number used in ActiveCampaign), are limited to 1 message per second.
Roezan, by default sends at 3MPS which is 3 times as fast.
So let's say you want to send a webinar reminder, with Roezan if it takes 10 min to send out, with AC it would take 30 minutes.
So much for "we're starting now!"
With 10DLC your sending throughput is also limited by your brand trust score, so there is not a direct way to improve this.
With Roezan (and toll free) you know exactly what you get. And if you want to get even faster speeds (if you have an SMS list of 5-10k+) we can hook that up for you as well.
6. Missing Important Features: Events
Now kinda switching gears to why Roezan is better.
Essentially ActiveCampaign is built for a general use cases.
Roezan is built for marketers, especially for those selling via Webinar or booked calls.
So one of the biggest use cases is running webinars or live events.
SMS is perfect for this because you hit people on their device they are checking every 2 seconds and say "Hey! We're going live now"
This simple message (and the reminders leading up to it) instantly boost your traditional show up rates 10%-50%. What I mean by that is most people are getting 10%-20% of their registrants to show up normally. But with SMS from Roezan, using our events feature to automatically send the messages, you can instantly get 30-50%+ show ups... WITHOUT changing anything else.
But look, once you build an SMS list you not only boost current attendance, you can also boost future registrations as well (because you can hit your sms list when you're launching a new webinar signup).
And by following our blog and advice (cause we run webinars for our other businesses too)... we can help you crush it.
We built this feature right into Roezan with automated event reminders:
AND we also created a Zoom integration for webinars as well, which will automatically pull in all your registrants and send them reminders automatically based on what you specify. Neato right?
Now you could probably set this up in ActiveCampaign, just kind of a pain in the ass. Not really built for it.
7. Missing Important Features: Link Tracking
In order to get stats on link clicks, you have to have integrated link tracking - which we built in Roezan.
We created our own link shortener which automatically creates unique short links, which is VITAL for tracking (and segmenting).
ActiveCampaign doesn't have this, so you're left in the dark if anyone is even clicking.
With Roezan and our native Automations feature, you can even take actions of link clicks. Add to tags, automation sequences, specific lists, send messages based on if they clicked or not, etc.
Pretty baller.
8. Missing SMS Strategy
This is the most important of them all.
Look, sending messages is one thing, but the STRATEGY you use makes all the difference in the world.
This is the difference between SMS being a "meh, I think it helps" vs. "SMS doubled my stats instantly".
We are honed-in, specific, working with just this industry of online businesses.
Since we are a startup, (and because we have our own coaching business as well), we are in the trenches REALLY seeing what's working.
We're testing and creating new strategies that are working right now.
We have an entire playbook for SMS implementation, mapped out specifically for each business model.
We have playbooks & case studies of campaigns that will reignite your list, campaigns to book more calls, how to ascend low ticket buyers to high ticket, conversational campaigns to snipe buyers, advanced webinar SMS campaigns, etc etc.
AC will give you none of this. With Roezan you have 2 co-founder marketers that have sold $70 million bucks online ready to help you.
And that's what we do every day for clients.
What we're offering isn't SMS, you can actually get SMS a lot of places.
Instead, we're offering our Client-Getting, Conversion-Crushing System.
After seeing millions of messages get sent, we have a honed in system for getting SMS installed in a business, automated, and all the strategies to get amazing ROI.
We expect a 5-15X ROI in a short conversion window, and higher over time. AND we have some campaigns that deliver 133X ROI that we can show you as well.
This is only possible if you have been in the trenches, in this market, spending your own money on this, for as long as we have.
If you want us to help you install our system in YOUR business, book a call with us here.
We guarantee double your money back in 90 days, and often crush this goal within the first few weeks.
