Bulk SMS Marketing – Benefits & Strategies

April 13, 2021

Text messaging, also known as short message service (SMS), is a powerful channel for engaging with and communicating valuable information to customers and other audiences on their mobile phones. Bulk SMS marketing involves sending SMS or Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages to large audiences and audience segments.

SMS is an attractive, impactful and cost-effective channel for marketers and organizations to engage with customers. Why is SMS so effective? Because consumers don’t let text messages go unread. Texts don’t get buried in an inbox or blocked by spam filters, and they reach people quickly and conveniently on the devices at the center of their digital lives — their mobile phones. Plus, just about every phone in the world can receive text messages.

Benefits

Massive engagement: SMS is considered one of the most effective channels for engaging with customers. 98% of SMS messages are opened, and 90% are read within three minutes. 68% of consumers say they check their messages regularly throughout the day.

Immediacy: SMS marketing solutions empower organizations to send time-sensitive notifications quickly and easily to an audience’s mobile device, without any app or development work.

Reach: SMS makes it possible to contact customers who don’t have your mobile app, or re-engage customers who are inactive on other channels or at-risk of churn.
Personalization: Today’s mobile consumers expect personalization. Bulk text marketing allows organizations to send personalized and timely messages at scale.
Mobile wallet integration: Pairing SMS’ wide reach with the convenience of mobile wallet creates seamless mobile-first user experiences for using loyalty cards, tickets, boarding passes, coupons and more.
No app required: SMS is one of only two mobile channels (the other one is mobile wallet) that allow you to message users directly without an app.

Strategies & Use Cases

Transactional Messages: Delivering transactional details via SMS helps brands make those messages more useful and visible for customers. Examples include order confirmations or alerts about account activities, appointments, flight changes, reservations, shipping and payments due.

Promotions & Campaigns: SMS marketing helps spark action and results with personalized promotional messages such as sale alerts, upsell opportunities, partner promotions and more.

Multimedia Messages: Adding a visual touch to text messages can make a big difference and SMS’ media rich counterpart MMS allows brands to add images or animated GIFs, as well as longer text. Industry stats indicate an increased click-through rate of 15% when using an MMS message.

Multi-Channel Engagement Strategies: Coordinating SMS with email, push notifications, and mobile wallet passes can increase the reach and effectiveness of any campaign or promotion. Our revolutionary solution Airship Journeys make it easier than ever to orchestrate seamless customer journeys that drive deeper engagement — and exponential growth.

Transforming Brick-and-Mortar Visitors into Digital Customers: Leverage in store experiences to motivate customers to opt-in to SMS so you can create more opportunities to get to know them, spark loyalty and encourage additional sales — both digital and in-person.

About Airship’s SMS Solution

SMS campaigns offer incredible potential to drive action, adoption and loyalty. Given its massive engagement and reach, it’s no wonder so many leading brands leverage SMS to create deeper connections with customers.

Airship’s customer engagement platform provides everything you need to connect with your audience via SMS. Orchestrate your text campaigns as part of a multi-channel engagement strategy, segment your audiences, manage opt-ins/outs, schedule personalized messages, monitor performance, and more—all in one convenient package.

To learn more about can Airship can help power your SMS strategy, get in touch! And be sure to check out some of these great SMS resources: