In the article, we’ve collected the basic information about the main aspects to be considered while launching a marketing SMS campaign.

In the article, we’ll cover the basic information about sending marketing SMS.

1. The fields to apply bulk SMS marketing
2. Law on sending bulk SMS
3. SMS content
4. Phone numbers for mass SMS distribution
5. Recommendations for collecting a database for SMS mailing
6. Software for sending SMS
7. Marketing SMS web platforms
8. SMS Text length
9. Number replacement in bulk SMS campaign
10. Sender ID limit

The Fields to Apply Bulk SMS Marketing

Bulk SMS is the delivery of SMS with the same text to several numbers at the same time. The scope of its usage is extensive, from small and medium-sized businesses to huge businesses, and municipal institutions. Many companies, schools, and hospitals build their customer communications based on SMS mailing. Just an everyday example, a patient came to the hospital and passed his examinations. The results will be sent to him in the form of an SMS message. On the other hand, suppose an order is made in an online store, the order status is received by SMS: “order accepted”, “product in stock”, “Order will be delivered on Monday”.

Among the other industries that use SMS are:

• Promotional SMS – tourist agencies to send vouchers; retail shops about the arrival of a new product or a sale in the store, any business notifications about the changes in the company’s contacts.
• Automation of business processes via bulk SMS in the corporate field. For example, to announce new plans or bonuses to company employees.
• Greeting SMS. You can send automatic SMS messages with greetings to employees, customers, and partners.

Law on Sending Bulk SMS

In each country, there is a set of laws that regulate the distribution of mass SMS. When you are planning to send bulk SMS, we advise you to refer to the official websites or offline authorities regarding your SMS campaigns.

SMS Content

Each industry includes its message to the SMS text, according to its business needs. For example, in small and medium-sized businesses, there is a copywriter who composes text for SMS sending. In municipal institutions, the sender himself types the text. In schools and hospitals, texts are written based on circumstances.

There are certain rules. The SMS message should not be too long. The text should contain the most important thing and be written in the local language, otherwise, it will be encoded according to the general rules of encoding.

There is a special type of SMS promotion requiring feedback from the SMS recipient. This type of SMS is used for customer surveys. For example, the text: “You’ve received this SMS you’ve used our services recently. Please rate our service from 1 to 5, where 1 is the lowest mark.”

First of all, for such mass SMS campaigns, one needs to pay special attention to the creativity of the text. Also, use an individual appeal to the recipient. Specify the business phone number in the SMS text, which can be used to contact.

Phone numbers for SMS Marketing Campaign

The SMS marketing campaign is considered to be legal and will give the maximum effect when it is done by the numbers of your business subscribers. In municipal institutions, the numbers of the visitors, patients, and parents of students who knowingly gave their consent to receive such SMS.

Sending marketing SMS to the people’s numbers, who haven’t given their consent to receive SMS is inefficient and illegal. Usually, this type of SMS campaigns are regarded as spam and gives a reverse, repulsive effect for a business using it. It may cause a negative attitude toward the brand and abuse with the sender.

Recommendations for Collecting a Database for SMS Campaign 

A popular way to build a database for bulk SMS sending is to make a questionnaire. For example, at the step of the purchase, the visitor is asked to fill out a customer profile, and he gets a discount for completing it. You can also make a small brand gift, which will be pleasant for the visitor, and the company will get a subscriber.

Software for SMS Sending

There is a desktop software for sending SMS, which requires a connection to the SMS gateway. This option may be implemented by connection to a regular SIM card with a special package rate. In this case, the average speed of SMS sending is 1 SMS message in 10 seconds. The SMS delivery report usually comes to the first 500 messages, but no reports are received after that. Also, the drawback of this option is that you cannot use a fixed name or number as a sender for your SMS campaign, all the senders you will use will be replaced by a random 11-character number.

The second option is to connect via the API using the HTTP GET, JSON-over-HTTP, and XML-over-HTTP protocols. This connection provides the speed of sending 50 SMS per second. All delivery reports within 5-15 minutes. You can use your corporate number as a fixed sender for your SMS campaign. Stable sending of SMS messages.

Web Platforms for Sending mass SMS

Web platforms are represented by the full-featured web sites for setting up SMS campaigns, some of them even integrate othe marketing channels like email, the others concentrate on SMS sending functionality only. SMS-Smart is an example of a specialized SMS web service, allowing only sending SMS, which allows the service to significantly reduce the price of SMS.

SMS platforms are located on powerful servers with high protection of user data, timely updates of the program, which are not visible to the user. All these allow getting the necessary functionality and convenience for working in the program for small and large business clients. 

The data that the user sends via the Internet to the program is protected by an SSL security certificate (the data is encrypted). The speed of SMS sending up to 10,000 SMS per second. The SMS delivery reports arrival takes from 5 to 15 minutes. High 99.9% stability of sending SMS messages regardless of the amount of traffic.

SMS Text Length

SMS text can be written by any character, any language. The only limitation is the length of a single SMS. There are international standards for cellular communications. Below is a table of the number of characters allowed for one SMS message:

1 SMS = 70 characters of non-Latin characters (Cyclic and other non-Latin languages) and 160 symbols Latin-based alphabet (i.e. English).

2 SMS = 134 characters of non-Latin characters and 306 of Latin characters

3 SMS = 201 of non-Latin characters 459 of Latin characters

4 SMS = 268 of non-Latin characters 612 of Latin characters

Number Replacement in Bulk SMS Campaign

Using a predefined sender ID, the sender’s name allows you to make branded SMS campaigns. Your SMS recipient will see the name or a number in the field “from” whom the SMS arrived. When sending standard SMS messages via a SIM card, by default, the sender field contains the sender’s SIM card number. Sender ID replacement feature allows the business uses its corporate phone number, name as a sender name.

Sender ID Limit

The limitation for the sender ID is up to 11 Latin-based letters or numbers.

Pay attention, it is forbidden to use the name of third-party companies and institutions as a sender ID, which is protected by copyright and the anti-fraud law.