Did you know that Bulk SMS Marketing is one of the most prolific forms of communication in the 21st century? In today’s mobile-first, always-online world, SMS is still one of the reigning forms of communication.
Form critical transactional messages – such as a credit card charge, to promoting discount offers – SMS marketing is a significant component in the modern marketer’s stack.
In this article, we’ll explore everything about bulk SMS marketing – from its definition to its capacity to add value to business communication. Along the way, we’ll debate a debunk a couple of myths, and show you how to get started using the Konnect CPaaS portal.
Let’s get started.
What is Bulk SMS Marketing?
Wikipedia describes Bulk SMS marketing as the mass dissemination of text messages to mobile phone terminals. Simply put, bulk SMS is a form of push marketing, where brands send outbound SMS messages to a large group of people in a very short period of time.
A large number of companies, enterprises, marketers, government and financial institutions, among others use this method to reach out to their audience.
The purpose of generating a bulk SMS can vary from policy announcements, transaction alerts, and special promotions to fraud control.
Primarily, its two main constituents are transactional SMS and promotional SMS. Transactional SMS messages are used to send updates after a transaction, such as bank or credit card charges, feedback, order confirmation, and delivery updates. Promotional SMS are used for SMS advertising like offers, discounts, product announcements, lead generation, etc.
Bulk SMS Marketing as a Valuable Tool in Business
Reports also suggest that 90 percent of the world would have a mobile subscription by 2020. Owing to the growing ubiquity of mobile as a medium of communication, we can easily understand as to why bulk SMS marketing has become an essential component of outbound marketing.
As a cost-effective push marketing medium, Bulk SMS marketing reaches out to maximum users over the most personal platform – the mobile phone – f leaving room for personalization and emotive value.
Unlike internet powered communication platforms, SMS is universal and accessible to everyone. One does not have to own a smartphone to send or receive SMS. Users are also more likely to check their mobile phones more than any other device.
Therefore, compared to emails or any form of digital communication, SMS obtains a higher chance of getting noticed, which in turn enables enterprises to generate real-time updates.
Debunking Common SMS Marketing Myths
Just like any other practice in the domain of marketing, SMS marketing is subjected to all sorts of scrutiny and distrust. Following are the few:
SMS Marketing is Redundant
While SMS has become less significant for P2P messaging, there is no way that SMS marketing would lose its charm too soon, especially in the context of emerging economies.
With more than 80 percent of the population in developing countries (India) having a mobile subscription (Source: Dazeinfo) and feature phones still dominating usage, marketers have been successfully sending bulk SMS and broadcast messages to their audience.
Apart from that, users instantly read their SMS the moment they check their phones. Reports suggest that 90 percent of all SMS messages are read within 3 minutes of receiving them (Source: Way2Online).
Insufficient Whitespace
Some argue that users find it irksome because you cannot impress with the limited characters SMS marketing offers.
Not even close!
Any piece of information (or message) that fails to deliver value becomes irksome. It is a matter of how marketers and enterprises choose to appeal to their audience, by creating content that is engaging.
A large number of consumers do sign up for alerts and offers because they like to be updated. Transactional SMS messages are essential in this regard because they tend to have a higher impression rate – making it a valuable component of enterprise messaging.
SMS Tagging from the Konnect CPaaS suite is a novel product that enables enterprises to boost engagement by leveraging higher impression and mindshare of transactional SMS and use them for promotional SMS marketing.
Low Conversion Rates
Conversion rates are less satisfactory in cases where the customers receive SMS from an enterprise they have never engaged with. Before marketing through SMS, brands should engage with their customers via different communication channels and enable an experience for them which can be recalled.
Utilizing Bulk SMS Platform
Having deconstructed some common misconceptions that surround SMS marketing, we can look towards innovative means to leverage bulk SMS marketing.
Enterprises can primarily benefit from bulk SMS services that can assist marketing campaigns. Bulk SMS platforms are cost-effective tools that enable marketers to send hundreds of messages with the click of a button.
Typically, a business needs to keep a few things ready before availing any such platform:
Target Audience: The list of numbers to which the SMS is to be sent. The list can be of existing customers, or new leads can be gathered via missed call marketing and other advertising mediums.
The Bulk SMS Delivery Partner: This is a crucial factor. A lower cost per SMS delivery might lead to reliability issues, leading your messages not to be delivered. It is essential that the delivery partner (also known as the bulk SMS provider), has the necessary permissions to send SMS messages using the concerned network operator’s infrastructure.
Do-Not-Disturb DND Lists: Brand marketers must also adhere to DND (Do-Not-Disturb) lists or users who have explicitly chosen not to receive promotional messages. One must follow the rules and regulations of a specific market and their telecom authority.
For instance, in India, it is against the telecom authority regulations to send unsolicited promotional SMS messages to people who have explicitly opted out of promotional messaging lists.
A bulk SMS delivery platform should have the ability to filter out numbers present in DND lists and prevent any promotional messages from being sent to them.
Kirusa Konnect’s Bulk SMS Marketing Service
Brand marketers can supercharge their SMS marketing efforts by using a robust bulk SMS marketing platform.
Kirusa Konnect’s CPaaS portal offers a reliable and scalable platform for bulk SMS messaging, enabling marketers to send bulk SMS messages with just a few clicks.
Here’s how to get started with the Konnect CPaaS portal:
- The Konnect CPaaS portal offers a 30-day free trial, for users to register and activate a new account.
- Upon successful account activation, users are asked to select a Sender Mask. The Sender Mask is the identity of the SMS sender. Brands can use a custom name or number as the preferred Sender Mask.
- Subsequently, they upload a list of those to whom the messages are to be sent. The option of a DND filter is provided to prevent enterprises from sending promotional SMS to people who have opted out officially.
- This is followed by users uploading their content or message on the platform and scheduling a preferred shoot-off time. They can also choose to send the messages immediately.
- After that, the service provides a comprehensive metric of the messages that have been successfully delivered. The user can also track the number of click on any link that may have been included.
- Apart from boosting SMS marketing and keeping track of success metrics, the Konnect CPaaS portal also offers tools to evaluate the ROI of the bulk SMS messaging campaign.
Wrapping Up
In an era of aggressive marketing where no communication channel is to be belittled, Kirusa Konnect’s bulk SMS portal offers a comprehensive solution to leverage SMS marketing.
Enterprises who believe in the value of mobile and its versatility as a digital medium can hope to make the most out of it.
Sign up for a 30-day free trial of the Konnect CPaaS portal today to get started with the bulk SMS marketing.