How to Send Bulk SMS Without Risks to Reputation and Wallet

Mass SMS marketing is a tool that stimulates sales. People receive SMS messages everywhere and all the time; this function is available on every mobile device. Moreover, the open rate within 3 minutes of receipt exceeds 90%, which is a significant figure. It is unobtrusive advertising that, when combined with other marketing mechanisms, always pays off.

How to invest a conditional $100 in the mass SMS and receive over $2000 in return — and how to send SMS to multiple numbers at once — read on.

What Are Bulk Campaigns For?

There are four areas where SMS notifications have proven effective. These are:

1. Marketing, when it’s necessary to inform about promotions, product range updates, new services, or discounts;
2. Organizational, when a business notifies customers about important events — moving to a new location, changes in working hours or service conditions, etc.;
3. Operational — reminders about bookings, payment confirmations, or any banking operations, and informing about order status;
4. Emergency: city and government services regularly warn citizens about situations that require increased attention to preserving life or health.

Who Needs Mass Campaigns?

Businesses that operate in the B2C format often need to send many SMS messages simultaneously. This includes those that sell their goods or services directly to customers — individuals. Additionally, they maintain their own customer database — with names, phone numbers, and interaction history.

This includes:

• online and offline stores,
• sports clubs,
• taxi services,
• delivery services,
• cafes and restaurants,
• travel agencies,
• hair salons,
• beauty salons,
• auto repair shops,
• banks,
• educational projects,
• medical laboratories.

Cautious Sendings: B2B and Exclusions from B2C   

In general, there are many exceptions. For example, mass messages from an organization providing funeral services can be sent, but the effect will be the opposite, even though this is also a B2C business.

Caution should be exercised when conducting advertising SMS campaigns for narrow-profile companies that deal with personal information. Here, the message can offend a person just as much as an invitation to “place bets.” This includes:

• gynecological clinics,
• law or notary offices,
• employment or marriage agencies.

Organizations that sell products that people rarely buy (windows, doors, apartments, cars) usually also focus on a different promotion strategy.

As for B2B projects, where one business sells its goods to another business, it’s worth finding out how to send multiple SMS messages at once. This will not be about advertising, but about organizational messages.

It sometimes happens that reminders need to be sent to employees and partners about scheduled meetings (selector meetings, conferences, or webinars), operational changes in the schedule, current payment deadlines, etc.

If people work in offices and have stable internet, emails are sufficient for such notifications. However, if work occurs in the field or involves constant movement, SMS is a much more reliable means of communication.

Technical Advantages of Mass Sending

If your client database currently has up to 100 numbers — you can send promotional messages from a personal number. The main risk is getting on the “blacklist” of recipients: SMS without an alpha name — the sender identifier — is now perceived as spam.

The second way to send SMS to multiple numbers at once is to contact a specialized service. Here, they will help not only create an alpha name, and even more than one (by the way, this is a serious procedure that takes several days), but also set the optimal time for sending messages, use templates, and adjust sender lists, breaking the mailing into stages for easier management of large marketing campaigns. Let’s take a closer look at some of the service’s tools and their capabilities:

1. Segmentation of the Database for Your Tasks

It’s simple here: the desired result comes from competent targeting. The more nuances about the target audience profile are taken into account, the easier it is to “play” with the database and configure the campaign. After all, its main task is not how to send many SMS at the same time, but how to increase sales and recoup your investments.

For example, for an ordinary pre-holiday sale, it is worth making different texts, taking into account the values of your customers. There are people for whom the priority is savings, those who are attracted by fashion, and those who focus on reliability and durability.

For instance, the SMS sending of one sports club was targeted at visitors who had not yet purchased a membership but were interested in classes. Several promotional campaigns with different message options yielded the desired result. Although this company did not share specific figures with SMS Club, it continues to use bulk SMS in its marketing campaigns, which speaks louder than statistics.

2. Access to the SMS Gateway and What It Provides

Many companies’ systems operate on different communication protocols. The gateway helps these protocols communicate quickly and avoid technical failures. You can read more about this technology in the article “What is API Integration”.

Thanks to the gateway, you can:

• send messages seamlessly directly from your system’s working interface;
• personalize messages;
• establish two-way communication — receive responses from customers and even conduct SMS surveys;
• set up automated scenarios (automatic sending of messages upon certain events: orders, registration confirmations, reminders, welcome SMS for holidays or customers’ birthdays, etc.).

3. Scalability and Absence of Legal Risks

Using the online service, you can both send SMS to several numbers and send SMS to thousands of subscribers simultaneously — without the risk of ending up in spam or being blocked by a mobile operator.

You can also send messages worldwide, regardless of where your clients or partners are located. Additionally, you can set up cascading sendings, where information not delivered on Viber is automatically sent as the same text in SMS.

Be sure to consult with specialists before your first mass messaging — there are many legal and technical nuances that beginners may not even be aware of. Specialists will help you navigate this ocean for free and at any time convenient for you, even if that time is New Year’s Eve.

4. Ability to Analyze Campaign Results

Collecting reports and analyzing results is catechism for a marketer. How many messages were delivered, how many were read immediately, how many after an hour, how many people visited the website? Answers to these questions allow for the adjustment of the next campaigning and minimize unnecessary expenses.

Instead of Conclusions 

SMS should not be viewed as a “magic wand” — the story that immediately after the sending, half of the recipients will purchase the advertised product is unlikely. However, this type of promotion evokes the least negative emotions in people, as SMS are concise, do not distract a person at an inconvenient moment, and do not take much attention. Therefore, if you want to have a good reputation and achieve a prolonged effect from a specific campaign, it is worth including messages in your overall marketing strategy.