A Complete Guide to Using Zixflow for Cross Channel Outreach

When you are running a business, you have to constantly interact with customers. It can be either for helping them resolve an issue or nurture them across the stages of the sales funnel, allowing them to make informed purchasing decisions. 

For this reason, having multiple channels available to engage with customers without having them download any apps or sign up for a platform is crucial for a streamlined customer experience. 

However, having to manage multiple channels can be time-consuming and hectic for your team members. That’s why investing in a unified solution that lets you handle conversations across various channels can be a good strategy to increase sales efficiency.

Zixflow is a centralized business suite and marketing platform that allows you to incorporate numerous traditional and modern channels into your outreach. It simplifies message management to enhance responses and cut down wait times for your customers. 

That being said, in this blog post, I’ll explain to you why Zixflow is a great pick for cross-channel customer engagement, along with its automation features to interact with your audience seamlessly. So, let’s get started by understanding what cross-channel outreach means, and a platform like Zixflow can significantly boost your engagement. 

What is cross-channel outreach?

Cross-channel outreach, also referred to as cross-channel marketing, is an approach where you utilize different channels or tools to interact with customers in a coordinated manner. 

How it differs from traditional communication is that it allows you to deliver meaningful content through numerous channels to ensure a consistent shopping experience throughout the entire customer journey. 

Although similar to multichannel communication, cross-channel marketing is about switching channels during customer journeys, enabling you to leverage channel-specific capabilities to convert prospects more effectively.

What are the advantages of using Zixflow for cross-channel outreach?

As I said before, modern businesses need to stay connected with customers all the time. If you are active only on a singular channel, you risk losing leads that are not using the said channel. Zixflow eliminates this issue by allowing you to incorporate other channels into your marketing strategy and letting you manage incoming messages from a unified suite. 

With that said, let’s take a look at some of the benefits Zixflow offers for streamlined cross-channel customer engagement:

Centralized dashboard

The biggest concern with using multiple channels is the fact that you need to use separate platforms to manage communication across each channel. This process increases workload for your team and makes it difficult to stay on top of incoming conversations. 

That’s why Zixflow gives you a single clean dashboard to execute and monitor your campaigns across channels like WhatsApp, RCS, email, and SMS, thereby reducing the need to switch tools and saving time for your team. The channels have their separate section within the tool, with all their settings nested neatly.

Automated messages

On top of its multichannel support, Zixflow comes with automation functionality so you can time your messages at the right moment. The visual workflow builder of Zixflow lets you set up custom automated flows with tailored triggers that can be activated based on users’ actions.

For example, whenever a new user signs up to your business, you can send a welcome WhatsApp message to tell them about the next steps. Later, if you didn’t receive a response, you can send a follow-up email with a video tutorial on how to make the most of your offerings automatically. 

Consistent brand experience

When you are using multiple channels for communicating with your target audience, you have to make sure that every channel reflects the same brand voice. Fortunately, Zixflow lets you maintain uniformity with tailored messaging templates and standardized flows.

Outreach reports

Monitoring your outreach campaigns is crucial to figuring out weak points in your communication strategy. In addition to that, you can keep track of engagement rates of your messages, like open, CTRs, and response rates. 

The visual nature of the engagement reports makes it super easy to understand, allowing you to quickly understand these insights and implement them into your future campaigns. 

How to get started with Zixflow?

By now, you would have gotten a good understanding of why Zixflow is a great solution for running cross-channel campaigns efficiently. So, it is time to see how you can get started with the platform without requiring external assistance:

Creating your account

First things first, before you begin using Zixflow for running outreach and marketing campaigns, you need to create a free account. The process of creating a Zixflow account takes no more than 5 minutes. All you have to do is provide some basic details like your email address, name, and phone number. 

Next, follow the on-screen instructions until you reach the homescreen. Once you are here, you need to set up the channels you want to use for your cross-channel, and there comes the next step.

Setting up your outreach channels

Zixflow supports up to 4 outreach channels: WhatsApp, RCS, SMS, and email. Depending on which channels you wish to use, you need to set these channels up to make them communication-ready. Here’s the channel-specific guide for each channel:

WhatsApp

Zixflow is an official WhatsApp Business API Provider and lets you access the API directly from the platform. The process of integrating the WhatsApp Business API with Zixflow is straightforward. Head to the WhatsApp section, go to the Settings tab, and click the Add Number button. After that, all you had to do was follow the instructions. 

You can check out the following video to see this entire process in action:

RCS

Unlike WhatsApp, RCS (Rich Messaging Service) is a relatively newer channel and still under development by Google. With that said, if you want to onboard this futuristic channel, you need to reach out to our support team. You can click the Contact Us button within the platform and provide basic information on how you want to utilize RCS.

SMS

For using SMS as an outreach channel, you just need to provide your unique Sender ID, the route you want to use (Promotional, Transactions, or OTP), and the country you want to send the messages to. 

Email

Similar to SMS, email is relatively easy to set up. Navigate to the email section and click the Settings tab. Here, enter the footer details for your business, which are required for sending business emails. Also, if you want to use a custom domain for your emails, you can add and validate the DNS configuration. After it’s over, you can begin designing and sending your marketing emails. 

Adding & segmenting contacts

Now that your channels are ready, all you need is contact information. Although you can send messages across these channels without importing contacts to the platform, to manage your conversations more effectively, it’s better to add them to the platform. 

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With Zixflow’s CRM, you can easily segment contacts into highly tailored lists and organize them using custom filters & sorting options. You can bulk import contacts using an Excel spreadsheet efficiently. 

How to automate your outreach campaigns with Zixflow?

Once you have all the channels ready and have imported your contacts within the CRM, you can start running your cross-channel campaigns. Zixflow is a visual-first platform, and the entire process of sending bulk messages is pretty straightforward. 

However, to make sure you maximize the ROI of your campaigns, you have to leverage the automation capabilities of Zixflow for around-the-clock customer engagement. Having said that, let’s take a look at some of the ways to automate your customer interactions across numerous channels:

Using Zixflow’s automation builder to create messaging flows

Being an innovative suite, Zixflow allows you to leverage a drag-and-drop flow builder to design your messaging flows. You can choose custom entry points depending on how your customers reach out to you. 

For example, if a customer messages you through WhatsApp, then you can build a flow revolving around WhatsApp and incorporate other channels within it for a well-rounded customer experience. On top of that, you can set up customer triggers to send predetermined messages to best match the conversational needs of your customers. 

Drip campaigns across channels

Instead of sending one-off messages to users that might not drive the required results, having continuous conversations can help you better achieve your goals. According to research, it takes over 5 follow-ups before users come to a purchasing decision. 

This goes to show that having a planned outreach seems to perform better than just sending replies or infrequent messages. We at Zixflow understand this, and for this reason, we let you set up drip campaigns to slowly introduce your business or product to new customers in a way that doesn’t overwhelm them. 

For instance, you can send an introductory email to a new signup, followed by a WhatsApp reminder on various ways to use your platform, leading into an RCS offer that showcases the benefits of your solutions.

Streamline support with chatbots

Apart from the workflows and drip campaigns, Zixflow also supports chatbot functionality for you to send prompt responses to customers without making them wait for you to come online. 

Modern communication channels like WhatsApp and RCS come with chatbot capabilities to let businesses automate their conversations effectively. Using Zixflow’s automation editor, you can design and manage chatbots across both of these channels effortlessly.

Some best practices for using Zixflow for cross-channel communication

Before you start using Zixflow for multichannel, below are some of the best practices for you to make the most of the platform:

Personalize your messages

With Zixflow, you can not only craft and save messaging templates, but you can also tailor your content with the help of custom variables. Using these variables, you can automatically autofill customer information such as names, preferences, or order IDs.

Decide on a messaging frequency

Just because you can send bulk outreach messages, it doesn’t mean you should keep sending them randomly. To make sure you don’t end up bombarding messages with, space out your messages by staggering your campaigns to maintain a natural flow. In both Zixflow’s automation builder and sales cadences, you can pre-decide when the message will be sent. 

Compliance with regulations

Zixflow is compliant with international data regulations, including GDPR, setting high standards for data privacy and protection. On top of that, Zixflow is a secure platform with its servers hosted in top-notch data centres, which are under constant surveillance. 

Why does Zixflow stand out from other tools?

Although there are numerous tools out there that support multiple communication channels, Zixflow offers several advantages to stand out from the rest. For example, some tools that come with cross-channel outreach lack a native Customer Data Platform for effective contact management.

On the other hand, if a tool comes with an in-built CRM, it might not include the channels that you might need. Also, platforms offering this kind of capabilities are more developed for a particular industry rather than a custom tool that can be used by everyone. 

In addition to that, the strongest differentiators are its native support for WhatsApp and RCS, which most competitors lack. This makes it the go-to choice for businesses looking to move beyond traditional email marketing.

Lastly, these types of tools have a very high starting price, making them out of budget for many upcoming businesses or startups. In comparison to that, Zixflow offers a Free Plan with access to all the messaging APIs, so you can use the solution without having to pay a subscription fee. 

Furthermore, to access the advanced capabilities of Zixflow, you can simply upgrade to a paid Marketing Stack plan that costs $39/month or the Business Stack priced at $69/month for 3 users.

Take your cross-channel marketing to the next level with Zixflow

Zixflow simplifies multi-channel communication by unifying WhatsApp, SMS, RCS, and email in a single platform. From its automation to personalization to compliance, it gives you all the necessary tools to maximize outreach impact.

Moreover, Zixflow offers a pay-as-you-use payment model, making it a perfect fit for businesses of all shapes and sizes. 

So, are you ready to enhance your customer communication with several channels? Start your 7-day free trial with Zixflow today or book a personalized demo to see it in action.