What is SMS?
SMS means Short Message Service and tend to be 160 character texts sent between cell phones. SMS uses a unique network that alerts the recipient the next the message arrives. SMS is a very fast and personal communication method on par with a phone call in perceived trust.
What is bulk sms Marketing?
SMS marketing is the practice of building lists of mobile numbers than sending SMS advertising messages to those lists. Lists could be built in many ways but there are compliance rules set by the ACMA on what people consent to be opted into your lists. Unsolicited commercial messages sent to a person is called spam and is illegal beneath the Australian Spam Act 2003.
Mobile marketers usually use an online SMS system to control the SMS sending process. These bulk SMS systems range in cost and functionality. The very best SMS marketing platforms have a good mix of cheap SMS and web SMS features. Make sure you only deal with a reputable SMS gateway as delivery reliability may differ a lot.
Several types of SMS delivery
There are two main types of online SMS delivery. Direct connection where the SMS gateway is plugged directly into the telco’s in your country, and International routing. International routes are operated by SMS aggregators which a gateway can utilise to provide more cost effective SMS marketing than direct connection.
Some international routes can be extremely unreliable and some providers will offer extremely cheap prices however you may end up paying the same as a more reliable connection as you still pay for messages not delivered.
The best bulk SMS service could have a combination of top quality international routing and cheap sms prices. Assuming you have a service that will require guaranteed delivery such as a crisis or alert service then you should work with a direct local connection, even though that is still not 100% guaranteed to provide it will provide you with the highest percentage of success.
It will generally cost double though.They are just the basics but building on these basics you can develop sophisticated mobile marketing campaigns that can quickly build great lists of loyal customers. As long as you keep your lists clean and respect your recipients wishes to stop receiving text messages from you then you should have great success.