What is SMS?
SMS means Short Message Service and tend to be 160 character text messages sent between mobile phones. SMS uses a unique network that alerts the recipient the second the message arrives. SMS is an extremely fast and personal communication method on par with a telephone call in perceived trust.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is the practice of creating lists of mobile numbers than sending SMS advertising messages to those lists. Lists can be built-in many ways but you can find compliance rules set by the ACMA on what people consent to be opted into your lists. Unsolicited commercial messages sent to one is called spam and is illegal under 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 combination of cheap SMS and web SMS features. Be sms api to only deal with an established SMS gateway as delivery reliability can vary a lot.
Several types of SMS delivery
There are two main types of online SMS delivery. Direct connection where the SMS gateway is plugged straight into the telco’s in your country, and International routing. International routes are operated by SMS aggregators which a gateway can utilise to deliver more cost effective SMS marketing than direct connection.
Some international routes can be very unreliable and some providers will offer extremely cheap prices however you may end up paying exactly like a far more reliable connection as you still purchase messages not delivered.
The best bulk SMS service could have a combination of good quality international routing and cheap sms prices. Should you have a service that will require guaranteed delivery such as an emergency or alert service you then should work with a direct local connection, despite the fact that this is still not 100% guaranteed to deliver it will give you the highest percentage of success.
It will generally cost double though.They are just the very basics but building on these basics it is possible to develop sophisticated mobile marketing campaigns that may quickly build great lists of loyal customers. So long as you keep your lists clean and respect your recipients wishes to avoid receiving text messages from afterward you you should have great success.