At one time, SMS mailings were a gold mine thanks to special software solutions that allowed sending SMS to literally anyone and without any consequences. At some point, the dominance of SMS spam attracted the attention of the authorities, and the sphere was strictly regulated. Now the SMS channel is still suitable for sending advertising and service messages, but for attempting to send spam you can get into large fines. Anonymity in this type of communication is now completely absent.
Below we will talk about the features of SMS mailings and how to work with your target audience via the SMS channel now. We will tell you how to save money and what tools are available to increase efficiency.
Features of the SMS channel
If there is a channel of communication with clients, it means that it can be used for conducting business and for communicating with the audience. At a certain time, SMS messages were extremely popular, although now they are trying to minimize their use, primarily due to the high cost and obsolescence of the protocol. Based on the SMS channel, as well as on many other publicly jordan phone number data available communication channels, there was and still is a separate subtype of distance marketing.
SMS marketing is the promotion of goods and services by sending SMS messages. Due to technical limitations, SMS marketing has a number of its own features:
Unlike more modern communication channels, only text content can be used within SMS (no pictures or animations);
each message is limited to a small amount of characters – up to 70-160 characters (depending on the encoding used);
SMS are delivered even in cases where the mobile subscriber does not have access to high-speed Internet (3G/4G/5G). Even a weak and unstable GSM signal is enough. At the same time, these limitations become insignificant when you understand the audience coverage - all mobile phone owners. And sometimes one user can have several numbers at once.
Certain conveniences in messaging have been provided by modern software solutions that are responsible for SMS correspondence on smartphones. Thus, series of several SMS can be combined into one large message, automatic conversion of emoticons (as an analogue of pseudo-graphics) can be used inside, and conversations are conveniently combined into expanded dialogues, as in many popular messengers.
As a result, SMS have maximum deliverability and work even in cases where the subscriber has run out of or no Internet traffic at all, so they are suitable for delivering the most important technical notifications (for example, order statuses), for two-factor authentication, and for other tasks:
to engage the audience;
for advertising goods and services;
to inform about various events, including marketing promotions, sales, new arrivals, etc.
At the same time, due to its high cost, SMS is not suitable for large-scale mass mailings in small businesses. It is rather an additional channel that should be used when other channels are not available: instant messengers and social networks , push and email mailings.
Below we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of SMS messages when conducting mass mailings.