What is SMS Blasting?

Blog / What is SMS Blasting?

During these pandemic years, we’re more digital than ever. Our screen time has immensely increased as we’re not only addictively consuming digital content but also using these digital means like video calls and texting to stay in touch with our relatives and friends.

There is a huge shift in our online shopping behavior. Consumers now more frequently prefer doing online shopping. When compared to all digital channels, SMS marketing experienced unimaginable engagement numbers and propelling conversion rates.

According to Forbes SMS is the Marketing Tool of Future. Brands got more active online, and many businesses achieved exceptional growth by using SMS blasting, considering shoppers’ increased smartphone screen time and instant SMS response rate.

Now, let’s delve into the nitty-gritty of SMS Blasting:

What is SMS Blasting?

When a text message is sent to a large group of people or masses, all at the same time with a single click via an automated text messaging system is called SMS blasting.

There is generally no limit on the maximum number of messages that can be sent when it comes to SMS blasting or mass texting, it can be a few thousand or millions.

Doing communication by sending promotional mass SMS is an effective and reliable way to keep customers informed of discounts, sales promotions, and offers, which help businesses increase sales and maintain customer interaction.

6 points to consider before choosing the best text blast service provider

While in the hunt for an SMS blast (or Mass texting or Bulk SMS) marketing service provider you will come in contact with various small and big firms.

Be sure to dig into the features and the benefits they are providing to you before finalizing one, below are the important points that shall be considered and will help you make your decision.

• Ease of use

  First and foremost software or service you are going to use must be easy to use, easy to migrate, and easy to operate.

  The user interface should be user-friendly, there should be options to personalize the dashboard and overall UI must not scare or confuse the user. Even for the person with no previous experience in handling the SMS based software or services engagement shall be natural and effortless.

• Segmentation

  CRM Segmentation is organizing your database by creating different groups of homogeneous customers and categorizing your customers according to different criteria like demographics, geographies, interests, behaviors, and more.

  With the help of a segmentation option with your SMS service provider, you can better target your customers or markets of interest.

• Text Scheduling

  Create a marketing calendar for important dates or events for your business/organization and planning your activities beforehand helps you drop the SMS blast right on time by time scheduling or trigger-based scheduling.

  With the automation, it is possible to preplan future dates and times for sending your next SMS campaigns.

  

• Multimedia messaging

  Multimedia messaging is no longer limited to simple SMS (short text messaging) or MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) messaging. By shifting towards Rich SMS or SMS 2.0 you can achieve better engagement & higher conversions with minimal cost investment.

  Rich SMS or SMS 2.0 is a type of text message that you can send along with your high converting landing page links. These linked landing pages allow you to uplift your offering by adding engaging related videos and visuals.

  The interested audience will click on these links and perform your desired conversion actions within your attached landing pages.

• Reporting suite

  Check for the basic and advanced analytics or reporting the SMS service firms are providing. With the SMS delivery reports, you can measure campaign outreach and effectiveness in real-time.

  Look for advanced analytics services like open rate, response rate, conversion rates, opt-outs, etc. that will help you to measure your SMS campaign performance and facilitate informed smart future decisions.

• Pricing options

  Though pricing depends on your messaging volume, how often you’ll be sending, and your target country, bulk rates are always less when compared to low volumes buy.

  Do notice & compare how the different country operators and local vendors will charge you for country-specific targeting.

  Go for the service with fair pricing, flexible pricing options help you not spend a big amount if you are in a dilemma of promotion continuation.

  Pricing options like pay as you grow, free trial helps the marketers save them spending an unreasonable amount of money. Consider looking into local SMS targeting pricing structure and compare international pricing when need to expand globally.

Why Text Blast?

SMS is still the most personal marketing channel if you want instant reach, higher open-rate, and immediate actions SMS marketing is the answer.

Have a look at these top industries using SMS as a core component in their marketing strategy.

SMS blasting is a great way to actively engage your customers with real-time personalized communication.

Businesses leverage the ability to send mass delivery of product updates, discounts, time-sensitive deals, personalized messages, and other important information directly to the consumers’ devices through SMS blasting.

Below mentioned stats are great enough to self-explain why to SMS blast.

• As per Ericsson, there are around 8.1 billion mobile subscriptions. It is estimated that this figure will increase to 8.9 billion by the end of 2027.
• According to a survey by Retail Me Not Inc, 69 percent of people say receiving a personalized offer on their phone that they can use in-store, would make them more likely to visit a physical retail location.
• Text messages have a 209% higher response rate than a phone, email, or Facebook.
• Consumers redeem SMS-delivered coupons 10 times more than other types of coupons. As of 2021, 67 million Americans redeem coupons via mobile phones.
• SMS has a 98% open rate and is read within 5 minutes of delivery.
• 75% of all customers are happy to receive updates, offers, and promotional messages or text messages from brands after they opt-in.
• 91% of mobile device owners keep their mobile devices within reach at all times.

Text message marketing best practices – Why take consent?

It’s important that you aren’t breaking laws; understand the compliance issues in text marketing and ensure explicit Consent of the customer to be contacted is taken before blasting any text on his number.

You need permission from the people to send them commercial marketing messages and can only send blasts to people that have explicitly opted-in to receive them.

Messages received on the phone which people have not opted for, do not engage them, can be the cause of irritation and on worse businesses or brands may lose their credibility too. Not to mention when sued could cause huge penalties, in extreme cases, you could end up losing your business license.

Opt-outs let customers choose if they want to connect with your service or not, it’s their personal choice. Avoid pushing your marketing strategies on them and unreasonably disturb their peace of mind.

Give them an option that they can remove themselves off from any list by simply replying with the opt-out text like STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE or NO. Or simply add an unsubscribe link leading users to an opt-out landing page where they can confirm their choice.

Growing your SMS marketing list

SMS blasting can help you achieve high customer engagement rates and can also hike your sales to new levels but that can only be possible if the number database you are having is genuine and authentically gathered with the customer consent involved.

Buying a database through the internet is illegal and does not guarantee the numbers in the list are valid or not. Moreover sending text randomly to any customer without knowing his interest will not deliver any benefit for you.

Creating your phone number database can be a long way but with honest efforts and creative marketing you can certainly create a legitimate list of real buyers who have opt-in for your services and are really passionate to connect with you.

Below are the points that can help you grow your number list fast and accurately. But before that, you need to understand the main two concepts in SMS list building - Mobile Keyword and Shortcodes.

What is a mobile Keyword and Shortcode?

Consumers can opt-in to marketing campaigns like sweepstakes, freebies, coupons and discount offers, and more by texting a keyword to a company’s shortcode.

A mobile keyword is a single word that contains letters and is used by businesses for opt-in or opt-out of the customers to any SMS campaign.

A shortcode is a special 5 or 6 digit telephone number that is significantly shorter than a telephone number that companies use to invite consumers to participate in mobile marketing campaigns. Shortcodes are used to send and receive SMS to and from mobile phones.

Now you’re ready to find out the best ways to recruit SMS subscribers consisting of the interested leads & customer groups.

9 Effective ways to grow your SMS subscribers list

• Opt-In Incentives

  Most SMS marketing campaigns will encourage customers to opt-in to receive future SMS coupons and promotions.

  An opt-in offer is an incentive that you provide in exchange for a subscriber’s phone number.

  Create SMS campaigns to persuade customers to text an opt-in keyword to a short code, for example, “Text “SAVINGS” to 77852 to receive monthly coupons or Text “YES” to 579888 to receive 20% discounts on next purchase.

  

• VIP club loyalty programs

  Run loyalty programs on your website or in-store.

  Let's say for example - VIP clubs, those who will join the company VIP club by opt-in they will get exclusive SMS-only offers like early access to new collections, special events pass or enhanced customer service.

  Experiential rewards and VIP benefits boost customer willingness to associate with the brand and encourage customers to share with friends and family too, helping you with improvised conversions, new customers, and improvised sales.

  Loyal customers often convert and spend more money with brands they like, with 81% of loyal customers willing to spread the word to their friends and family.

  You can use Net Promoter Score (NPS) to analyze your customers' feedback and relationship favoritism towards your brand.

• Run a contest or competition

  A fast way to build your SMS list is to run a contest, people enter a text to win contests by texting a special keyword to a shortcode.

  There can be the possibility that people may not be interested in your brand but just for the sake of joining the contest they may opt-in and will opt-out after the contest is over, businesses need to engage them with more valuable offers and energize them to stick with the brand.

  For example, “Reply WIN to 578598 and get a chance to win a free buffet in our restaurant.

• In-Store

  While doing the billing store managers can encourage customers to opt-in by giving instant offers.

  Ask them to text the word ‘SAVE20’ to a dedicated business number to get a 20% discount, and as a customer will send the message through his mobile number he will be rewarded with a unique discount code that can be redeemed right away or in the future purchase.
  

• Email

  Convert email subscribers to SMS subscribers.

  Target the existing database of email subscribers, send the entire database an email message that lets them know about your new SMS program and invite them to join.

• Social media

  Promote SMS opt-in across social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.

  Your social media followers are already involved with your business and would also be interested in opting for your SMS campaign.
  

• Website

  Use a website pop-up to invite SMS opt-ins and to collect your site visitors’ phone numbers.

  When someone opts-in to your website lead magnet, capture their mobile number so you can make a thoughtful follow-up.
  

• Traditional marketing

  Promote SMS opt-in keywords like “WINBIG” “SAVE50” “ENTER” on signboards, posters, business cards, magazine posts, newspaper ads, and even on television ad campaigns.

• Webchat

  While doing web chat and solving the queries of the real customers, it’s always a great time to promote campaigns and converting webchat leads to SMS subscribers.

7 Reasons why consumers opt-in to a brand’s text messages

Customers subscribe to a brand’s SMS marketing campaign to receive benefits and important information.

Mobile messaging is the most popular way to perform one-way or two-way communication. Customers use messaging to communicate with their favorite brands and businesses do SMS marketing for customer acquisition and retention.

• For Coupons or deals

  Offering discount coupons to your SMS subscribers is a great way to encourage them to make a purchase. Deliver special offers, hot deals, discounts, and coupons to the customer’s smartphones via SMS.

  Studies show that customers spend 24% more money with a coupon than without one. Coupons offer a way to reach existing and new customers. They influence everything from a consumer’s purchase journey to their brand loyalty.

• For personalized alerts

  People love to have personalized valuable offers and updates at the right time when they need them.

  Value added by personalized marketing campaigns leads to smooth experiences, hence resulting in higher open rates.

• Being in the loop

  SMS helps customers to stay in the loop with the latest business developments and critical updates.

• To get reminded

  Businesses send reminders to their customers for payment, document collections, or legal proceedings that are critical and need to be reminded urgently.

• To participate in contests

  Everyone likes to participate in the contests and get a chance to win something valuable, contest SMS from the businesses have high response rates.

• To get Event notifications

  Reminders and notifications of events help the customers to save the date and schedule to reach on time.

  According to Digital Marketing Magazine, 75% of people wouldn’t mind receiving an SMS text message from a brand (after opt-in).

• Contacting support

  SMS is an easy and quick way to connect with customer care to solve fast queries and get immediate results.

  No one likes to call customer care as it is time-consuming and the process for reaching the executive is frustrating.

  More than 50% of customers prefer contacting support through text messaging compared to other channels.

  SMS is powerful, business owners, managers, customer relationship experts have an effective way to take their customer service to the next level by quick resolutions and providing instant customer service.

Stay connected with SMS blasting - 7 Usages

Whether you are a small or a big organization it’s very necessary to be in touch with your customers every day. Text message blasts are one of the most effective ways for businesses to immediately inform their customers and account holders about the latest offers, updates, or alerts.

• Service & Support

  Proactive service and support right on time when it is needed that’s what SMS can do, having a call with customer care or incoming call to some issue I a lengthy process and sometimes ignored by the customers.

  But with the SMS customer issues can be resolved with ease and productivity can be increased with lower call volumes and faster daily operations.

  SMS is a fantastic and contact-free channel that lets businesses engage in two-way conversations with customers. Let your customers get the best support experience with the convenience of SMS customer service, quick answers, and easy updates.

  66% of people prefer texting over the phone and email.

• Alerts & Reminders

  You can considerably increase customer engagement with a simple text message reminder. Send alerts or reminders to multiple people at a time with Group Messages.

  For example - Reminders to renew your policy or alert for fraud calls. Improve your user experience with automated alerts and reminders by setting up useful text notifications to keep customers informed and connected.

• Marketing & Promotions

  SMS blast to promote the latest offers, contests, events, or political campaigns.

  Marketers are successfully realized how to use SMS for their sales and promotional offers to boost their engagement rate and ROI.

  By sending personalized messages while taking into account the demographics of their audience like age, gender, occupation, and so forth, marketers can easily send targeted messages that appeal to the recipients.

• Sales

  Sales is a technique that enables businesses to contact and sell to prospects and customers via text to prevent leads from going cold by integrating texting into your CRM.

  Consistent creative contact through SMS helps in warming up leads and convincing them to get mature.

  With easy two-way communication texting, customer sales queries and common problems can be resolved comfortably. The main goal is to move the prospects through the sales funnel until they get converted to revenue-generating customers.

• Payment & Collections

  Late payments can affect cash flow so use SMS blasting to prevent late payments in the future by reminding your customers of upcoming payment deadlines.

  Batch-notify offending clients who have overdue or late payments, set keyword and time triggers to send automated messages.

  SMS can be a useful tool for sending regular reminders of billing, payment, and collection-related matters. Notify your client of how many days their payment is past due, late fee charges, payment terms and conditions, non-payment legalities, and much more.

• Office Communications

  SMS is a great way to share important company news, updates and stay connected with the employees and stakeholders.

  SMS help in Boosting employee engagement, connecting with remote workers, and enhancing inter-office communication.

  For example, SMS helps HR departments build effective business communication and marketing/sales departments to communicate with the team on the go. Studies have shown that 70 percent of employees think texting should be used for interoffice communication

  Businesses can reach all employees equally at the same time for internal or external announcements by doing one-way communication via SMS.

• Recruiting

  SMS help recruiters and hiring managers to save time by Connecting with candidates and streamlining the job interview/recruiting process.

  Send interview invitations, scheduling time slots, send interview reminders and request availability all can be done easily with the simple text SMS that’s too through automation.

  With two-way communication, both recruiters and candidates can reach each other quickly and smoothly.

Conclusion

SMS is becoming an increasingly essential part of effective multi-channel marketing and text blasting is a way to go to address the mass instantly. SMS Blasting is a must-have component in every industry's marketing mix for being future-ready and business growth.

• Both commercial and non-commercial messages can be sent easily with automated SMS blasting.
• Real estate text message marketing can help you promote listings via an SMS blast.
• Insurance companies can send SMS for spreading new policy schemes and payment collection.
• Ecommerce sites can send SMS blasts for upcoming sales or discount offers and,
• The political candidate can blast their campaigns and appeal for a vote using a text blasting service.

Understand your target audience, build the subscribers list legally, choose the best bulk SMS solution provider and start leveraging the true power and potential of SMS Blasting for your business growth.

Share