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Transcript

In this video, I’m going to highlight a capability that enables marketers to configure and send rich interactive messaging experiences through Rich Communication Services, or RCS. Before we jump into the demo, let’s take a minute to define RCS messaging and explore why it matters to brands today.

Many brands depend on SMS or Basic Text Messages to send marketing and transactional messages to their customers. However, SMS is limited to 160 characters, no media, no branding, and no real interactivity. It works, but customers want for RCS is the next generation of SMS and MMS messaging that enables rich, interactive experiences like images, carousels, interactive buttons, read receipts, and even two-way messaging capabilities, all within the phone’s native messaging app. On top of this, RCS messages are branded and verified by Google, giving end consumers confidence that they’re legitimate and not spam. That means more engaging, personalized, and trusted conversations without the need for customers to download a separate app. In short, RCS delivers a better end customer experience that often leads to better engagement and conversion results. Here are just a few examples of RCS messages for both iOS and Android devices. Notice the branding and verification, along with rich media and rich interactions.

Now let’s jump into Journey Optimizer, and I’ll show you how to configure and send RCS messages via a custom SMS provider leveraging a third-party RCS endpoint. Before configuring RCS in AJO, you need to do the following in the provider’s UI. Number one, you’ll need to create, register, and validate a branded RCS agent. Number two, you’ll need to create the actual RCS message and content. And number three, you’ll need to be able to reference and copy the payload. Now I’ll show you the steps to complete in AJO.

For this use case, I will use sample configurations for Infobip, a common third-party SMS provider. First, let’s go to Channels in the left navigation.

Under SMS Settings, click API Credentials, then create API Credentials. Now select the custom provider under SMS Vendor. Now let’s add the necessary RCS credentials, such as the provider URL and the API token. You can now configure multiple authentication types, including OAuth, JWT, and MAC authentication. For this demo, I will select API Key and enter the corresponding token. Lastly, we’ll go ahead and add our provider payload.

Once the SMS credentials are completed, go ahead and click Submit. Now we will create an SMS webhook and configure the inbound settings for my custom provider. Under SMS Settings, click SMS Webhooks, then create Webhook. The Webhook feature unlocks critical inbound messaging features, such as opt-in and opt-out reporting. Let’s add a name and select the SMS provider. In this case, we’ll just keep it at custom SMS provider.

Lastly, select the API credential that was created in the previous step to ensure that your custom SMS credentials are associated with your web. I will now go ahead and add a few custom opt-in keywords and replies. If I leave these fields blank, we will listen to the default content keywords to ensure the end users are able to easily opt-in and opt-out of messages. Lastly, I’ll go ahead and add my inbound payload. This defines the data that we will send to the RCS custom provider.

Click Submit.

After creating the API credential, you’ll need to create a channel configuration and reference the previously created API credential. Once completed, you’re now ready to create and publish your RCA message with our custom provider that journeys or campaigns. For this demo, we’ll create a journey. I’ll show you how this is done. Now, within the journey, I’m going to go ahead and drag and drop the SMS action to the canvas. I’ll add a label. Now I need to select the SMS channel configuration that was created previously. Now let’s go ahead and click Edit Content. At this point, you can now leverage the full channel capabilities including message authoring, personalization, link tracking, reporting, and both journeys and campaigns.

Now I’ll go ahead, add my message. This now references all of the media and interactions for my third-party RCS provider. After personalizing and testing your message, you are now ready to publish your journey. Go ahead and click Publish and the RCS campaign is on its way with just a few clicks. We have now easily configured and delivered an RCS message in Agio using a third-party provider. Thank you for watching.