A Yorkshire-based mobile messaging specialist recorded its single largest year of growth during 2020 after seeing a 400% rise in sign-ups for its SMS delivery services.
VOODOO, which is headquartered in Huddersfield and counts Amazon, HSBC and Sports Direct amongst its growing client base, has seen turnover grow by 60% over the past twelve months.
Managing director Gareth Davies believes the increase in demand for text messaging has been driven by a combination of changing working practices, and the quest for many businesses to deliver high levels of customer service and engagement.
Mobile messaging is being increasingly viewed by Marketers as offering an alternative way of communicating with customers more effectively due to its high levels of engagement and response times. However, during lockdown, the technology has also been adopted by businesses managing large remote workforces, as well as being used to manage appointments and deliveries.
Despite the success enjoyed by the VOODOO team over the past twelve months, the fast-growing business is not planning to rest on its laurels. Further investments are planned during 2021 to help more companies to embrace the powerful technology, and the company is also playing its part in helping to combat smishing – a technique used by fraudsters to impersonate companies using text messages.
In 2019, VOODOO successfully obtained ISO 27001, which helped the business secure a number of significant contracts within the public sector. As part of its planned investment in the bespoke mobile messaging platform, the company launched a dedicated technical innovation hub which will be used to introduce new functionality to the web-based message platform in a bid to help more businesses harness the technology.
Mobile messaging has risen in popularity within businesses because of its high response rates. Industry research has suggested more than 2.77 billion mobile messages are sent globally each month, with 90% of all messages opened within just five minutes of receipt.
Gareth said: “The challenges posed by Covid-19 forced many businesses to rethink the way they operated. Demand for online sales and deliveries have boomed, but businesses have also invested in keeping customers and staff informed of the way lockdown has impacted upon their business.
“2020 was a record year for VOODOO. We saw the numbers of businesses sign up increase significantly and higher volumes of messages being distributed. Each month our messaging platform has helped companies to communicate with millions of customers and we’re forecasting demand for the service will continue to grow as companies continue to look for alternative ways of engaging with their customers.
“One of the main reasons why more businesses are choosing to adopt mobile messaging is the flexibility it can offer. For example, when businesses were forced to close their doors with relatively little notice, mobile messaging was typically used to help customers make alternative arrangements, as well as advising staff on the steps they needed to take to keep themselves safe.
“Although lockdown has certainly contributed to a surge in interest in the technology, the way in which we all communicate and interact with each other are likely to bring about significant long-term changes in behaviour and we anticipate demand for mobile services will continue to rise because of the flexibility it can offer.
“We’re continuing to target further growth during 2021, we’re not sitting on our laurels and the success we’ve enjoyed to date will has enabled us to invest further in the platform, enabling us to offer more new features and functionality, which are currently in development.”
