What is bulk SMS marketing?
Communication is the key to customer satisfaction. But with so many communication channels to choose from, it gets daunting for businesses to pick the most effective one.
There are various ways to connect with customers such as via email, social media, SMS, and traditional ways like billboards and banners. All these communication channels come with their lists of pros and cons.
However, when it comes to startups, mid-sized, or large enterprises, one method stands out above the rest – bulk SMS marketing. Wondering why?
Let us explain in detail what bulk SMS marketing is, its benefits, and how using bulk text message services can improve your business.
The bulk SMS marketing method enables you to reach all of your consenting customers at once via an online SMS platform.
The simplicity and efficiency of bulk SMSes make them useful for businesses and customers alike. You can send bulk text messages for alerts and reminders, confirmations, one-time passwords, or two-factor authentication.
The process of bulk SMS marketing requires users to pre-craft text messages. Sent to a database of mobile numbers, these SMS contain marketing material (often a promotional offer or a timely offer).
Need some inspiration to write the best SMS copy? Check out our elaborate SMS templates library.
Benefits of bulk SMS marketing for businesses
SMS marketing messages let you reach more people quickly, easily, and at a low cost. Here are some of the benefits of incorporating bulk SMS marketing in your business:
- Highest open rates and click-through rates (CTR): SMS marketing dominates email marketing in terms of open rate. While the average open rate for email campaigns is only 20%, the average open rate for text message marketing campaigns is a massive 98%.
- Communicate instantly: Whether you want to send an alert about upcoming events or inform/update your customers, you can connect with your customers instantly through an SMS.
- Easy-to-use: SMS marketing makes your campaigns easier since you do not have to deal with ad agencies or edit/re-design banners and posters like you would with other marketing techniques. With SMS marketing, you just need to come up with a catchy message, choose receptions to deliver bulk SMS, and hit ‘send’.
- Personalised experience: You can easily personalise your message every time you connect with your customers via text messages. SMS marketing is a great way to grab your customers’ attention, reduce opt-out rates, and boost loyalty.
- Cost-effective: Bulk SMS services often provide you with a pay-as-you-go pricing model where you just have to pay for what you use. This is unlike the traditional methods of marketing, such as outdoor marketing, TV ads, etc where you pay a hefty amount.
How can Bulk SMS Service help improve a business?
Bulk SMS services help businesses reach their target audience via cloud-based SMS platforms. It is used by many companies to increase their lead generation and create a presence in the market. Moreover, it is a cost-effective way to increase marketing ROI.
A bulk SMS service helps your business in the following ways:
- Send alerts/notifications to your customers: You can notify your customers about promotional offers as well as important information in real time.
- Maximum audience reach: Bulk SMS services help you reach customers in greater numbers as receiving text messages doesn’t require an internet connection.
- Monitoring campaigns: Bulk SMS service providers offer detailed analytics and real-time data of the campaign along with much more, which helps you understand your audience better.
If you plan and execute an SMS marketing campaign properly, you can engage with them more effectively. Bulk SMS service also helps you gain customer loyalty.
Types of Bulk SMS messages
Bulk SMS messages are part of our daily lives more than we realise. Here are the various use cases:
- Service: When you sign up on a website and receive an OTP (One-time password), that is a service type of bulk SMS messaging. OTPs are used by a variety of enterprises to provide an extra layer of security for online users. They do this to verify that you are a real person and to provide an alternative if you forget your password. Birthday messages are also another type of service.
- Promotional: A text message telling you about a product or service is promotional. Businesses and individuals use this to get more customers or buyers.
- Transactional: This is the message you receive when you deposit or withdraw from your bank account. It is a transactional SMS preprogrammed by your bank to its customers. Banks and financial institutions use this.
These three uses mentioned above involve sending a large number of SMS messages to the mobile phones of a predetermined group of recipients.
But how does it work?
How does bulk SMS messaging work?
Bulk SMS messaging is possible because of a series of factors:
A mobile phone application, a desktop software program, an SMS API, or a website.
You can send and receive bulk texts as long as you have any of these factors. These text message interfaces will first connect with an SMS service provider’s gateway. Then the SMS gateway will deliver the messages to mobile phone numbers anywhere in the world.
So you can say that the SMS gateway is the hub between the mobile network operators and the user/sender.
Please note that no matter how you send the bulk SMS messages, they have to go through an SMS provider’s gateway before getting to the recipients.
Who needs bulk SMS?
- Businesses: They have a large base of users and clients that need to be reached at once with certain information. This may be information about future events, new products, or transactional information.
- Enterprises: They send and receive bulk SMS to provide information to their customers. They also use bulk text messages to get feedback and notify their product users of transactions.
- Schools: Schools can use bulk SMS to inform parents of upcoming events or activities in the school. It can also be used to remind parents of fees and give updates to the staff.
- Individuals: Individuals use bulk text messaging for various things, like inviting guests to their events or marketing their products and services.
- Marketers: Marketers use text messages to spread the word about their client’s products and services.
Bulk SMS messaging is also used by consumer brands, banks, media outlets, major airlines, travel agencies, healthcare providers, large consumer websites, retailers etc
This is not surprising because the benefits are endless. And anyone who has ever sent a bulk text message can testify to its effectiveness.
Ready to start your bulk SMS marketing campaign?
So there you have it – a brief idea of what bulk SMS marketing is, how it is beneficial for your business, and how bulk SMS services help improve business.
Now that you know about bulk SMS marketing, you might be interested in reading the top 10 bulk SMS service providers in the market.
We would like to recommend SMSCountry, which provides businesses with an effective and simple SMS communication system. SMSCountry’s API integration will allow you to build a communication system for your website or application. It also allows you to schedule and send bulk SMS without the need for programming.
Just contact us or sign up to create a free account.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I send bulk SMS with my phone?
You can send bulk SMS with your phone using a bulk SMS service provider’s mobile phone application. A good SMS provider’s mobile app is as good as their web and desktop platforms.
What is SMS called now?
SMS stands for Short Messaging Service, but people also refer to it as “texting’.
What is the new type of SMS?
The new type of SMS is actually called Rich Communication Service (RCS). This new type of SMS ( or RCS) is capable of not just delivering texts but also high-resolution photos and files.
What are the four SMS?
The four most common types of bulk SMS are promotional, transactional, OTP and 2-way SMS. The most common type of SMS used is OTP, then the transactional and promotional SMS. 2-way SMS is mostly used by businesses for customer feedback.
How can I send cheap SMS in bulk?
You need a bulk SMS service or an SMS marketing platform to send cheap bulk SMS. Start by shortlisting the providers in your vicinity. Look for competitive pricing and reliable delivery. You can also have long-term contracts in place, which will give you a volume discount.
How many SMS can be sent at once?
There is no limit to the number of SMS you can send at once. However, consult local regulations before sending bulk promotional SMS. You may get blocked if you cross a threshold limit.