Your Business’ Guide to Bulk SMS

 
Bulk SMS helps you reach your customers directly and instantly through their mobile phones. This cost-effective, personalized and engaging communication method will help you enhance your customer experience and increase sales. All it takes is one easy-to-implement, user-friendly platform from CSG to send texts to thousands or millions of your users fast.

What Is Bulk SMS?

SMS, also called simple message service, enables users to send short, text-based messages to mobile devices. Bulk SMS accomplishes the same goal but at scale, letting you connect with many customers at once. These text-only blasts are among the oldest and most popular texting technologies worldwide. You can use them to send your customers promotions, product or service updates, contests, alerts and other time-sensitive notifications with a click of a button.

Mass SMS is a fast, easy and effortless way to communicate with customers without being intrusive. SMS messages are less disruptive than phone calls and more effective than email blasts.

Mass MMS, or multimedia messaging service, is another variation that lets you attach images, GIFs and other files to your text for an even richer experience. While SMS has a 160-character limit, MMS can accommodate up to 1,600 characters.
 

Cut Through the Clutter and Reach Your Customers

With the world being a digital and mobile-first economy, you need a virtual yet individualized way to communicate with your customers. SMS is the answer. Bulk SMS helps you connect with your audience in an engaging, personal way. Bulk messaging is effective due to these factors:

• Frequency of smartphone use: People in the U.S. check their cellphones 144 times a day, or once every 10 minutes. The average Australian spends over 5.5 hours a day on their phone. That level of use means a high chance of your customers seeing your communication.
• High open rates: Text blasts have a 42-55% average open rate — that’s 10-20% higher than the average email open rate.
• Return on investment: Bulk SMS messaging is highly cost-effective, and SMS marketing campaigns see an ROI of 102%. Email sits at an ROI of 93% and social media at 81%.

How Can Your Business Use SMS in Bulk?

There are multiple ways your business can leverage bulk SMS messaging:

• Send promotions: Instantly notify your customers of promotions and marketing campaigns with a few clicks.
• Receive feedback: Get valuable insights from bulk surveys, improving your product and service offerings and pleasing your clients.
• Communicate with your workforce: Connect with your employees at scale with text blasts and provide instant support with two-way SMS chat capabilities.
• Text mass alerts: Notify your customers and staff of security or emergency alerts, giving them real-time information and instructions.
• Share discount vouchers: Reward your loyal supporters with personalized coupons or discount vouchers, sending codes directly to their mobile phones.
• Automate notifications: Engage with your customers by automating appointment reminders, renewals or company news.
• Send attachments: Send brochures, how-to guides, and other files using MMS bulk sender capabilities.
• Promote your campaigns: Spotlight your marketing campaigns and drive traffic to your website or dedicated landing pages.

How Can Your Business Benefit From Bulk Text Messaging?

Your business can use text blasting to enhance communication with your customer base, improve engagement rates and offer valuable support. The main business benefits of bulk texting include:

• Efficient distribution: With a bulk SMS sender platform, you can send messages to hundreds, thousands and even millions of customers from your PC or mobile application.
• Low-cost communication: Bulk messaging has low setup and operational costs, making it accessible to many businesses. Text blasts also have a high return on investment.
• Quick deliverability: Text messages are instant, enabling you to send real-time updates to your subscribers’ phones quickly.
• Easy connection: Bulk SMS capabilities simplify delivering important information to your clients. You can remind them of appointments, send promotional offers and give them order updates with minimal effort and resources.
• Custom messaging: You can easily personalize and segment SMS variations to target specific customer groups.

CSG’s Bulk SMS Capabilities in Action

Proactive communication enhances your level of service and customers’ interactions with your business. In one case study, CSG helped a large national bank communicate with millions of clients:

• The challenge: A leading U.S. bank wanted to inform customers about alternative ways of banking. Many bank employees had started working off-site, which had the potential to cause delays in service at the branches.
• The solution: The bank proactively sent SMS messages to traditional banking customers, informing them about the banking app, ATM services and drive-thru offerings.
• The result: The bank used CSG’s SMS platform to send bulk text messages to customers. CSG helped send over six million messages within 10 hours.

5-Step Guide to Sending Bulk SMS

You can send bulk text messages to customers using these five steps.

1. Grow your opt-in audience

You need a recipient list with subscribers who have given you explicit permission to message them. The best place to start is organically growing your subscriber list through opt-in forms on your website.

Create dedicated campaigns to ask existing customers if they want to receive text offers and communication from your business. Consider encouraging prospects to subscribe with a keyword, like “Join.”

2. Choose a reputable SMS service provider

The next step is finding an established SMS service provider to equip you to send text blasts. CSG’s easy-to-implement SMS platform will make bulk sends simple. Our award-winning customer communication solutions provide engaging, automated messaging programs that give users self-service capabilities and seamlessly integrate text messaging with your other channels.

The experts at CSG will help you comply with SMS regulations and industry standards, giving you more time to focus on your messaging.

3. Get a short code

Short codes are five to six-digit codes provided to you by carriers and capable of achieving higher throughput. If you send bulk messages using your traditional 10-digit phone number, called a long code, your messages may be flagged as spam.

4. Write your message

Once you have your short code and service provider, you will be ready to craft your first message. It’s important to consider what you want to say to verify its relevance and purpose. Be strategic in your segmentation and only send messages to people who will value the content. You want to ensure your messaging makes a difference to your customers and cultivates trust and loyalty.

5. Send your bulk texts

The final step is sending your bulk MMS or SMS. Using CSG’s user-friendly interface, you will select the recipients of your messages and any content parameters. Your company and short code will be the sender, while the recipients are the members of your audience you want to engage with.

SMS content is restricted to 160 characters and text only. MMS has multimedia functionality — you can send 1,600 characters or 500 KB of data and 30 seconds of audio or video. Once satisfied, you hit send and sit back while your SMS solution does the rest.

Creating Bulk SMS and MMS Messages

Bulk messaging may take some thought, but the process is relatively straightforward. Here are a few guidelines to help you create text blasts that are engaging and valuable:

• Consider your audience: Narrow your audience to members who will benefit from your offer. Segmentation will increase your chances of a strong return.
• Keep it simple: Your customers are busy and often multitasking. Keep communication short, simple and easy for your audience to digest.
• Include a CTA: Always include a clear call to action (CTA), and stick to one target action per message.
• Identify your brand: Users are hesitant to click on links from unknown numbers. Identify your business using a consistent tone, style and name. If you’re using MMS, visuals and GIFs are superb for brand recognition.
• Track your success: Measure your success and track performance to help identify what resonates with your customers. You can tell what offers customers appreciate and replicate those efforts.

CSG’s SMS and MMS Platform Capabilities

CSG’s SMS and MMS solutions offer simpler, better, faster ways to connect with your customers. We leverage our four decades of experience to provide you with solutions that help you:

• Engage proactively: Customers expect up-to-the-minute information with minimal disruption. We empower you to engage with your customers in real time, giving them confidence in your business.
• Communicate two ways: Our platform goes beyond sending simple notifications. The system facilitates two-way engagement, where customers can instantly respond to your text and get support.
• Send at high volumes: We simplify sending SMS and MMS messages in bulk. Our solution isn’t labor intensive, costly or challenging, making mass messaging easy.
• Streamline your CX: Your customers expect timely support and care from your business. SMS communication is immediate and frictionless, enhancing your customers’ experience.

Powerful, Cloud-Based Communication Suite

We support an array of use cases:

• Click-and-collect order notifications
• Payment reminders, processing and confirmations
• Logistics
• Fraud alerts
• Appointment scheduling and notifications
• Collections
• Surveys
• Public health alerts
• Patient adherence alerts

Trusted Mass SMS Sender and Business Partner

CSG is an award-winning software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider with over 40 years of experience and thousands of clients. We provide:

• Measurable results: With one button click, you can view message deliverability and results, tailoring your content to enhance the customer experience.
• Optimized communications: Easily adapt your communications to align with customer engagement goals. One platform does it all.
• Authentic omnichannel experience: Our solution seamlessly integrates SMS communications into your website, mobile or IVR channels.

Enhance Your Customer Experience With an SMS Bulk Sender

You go to great lengths to ensure your customers get the necessary support and respect. CSG can empower you to go even further. We’ll help you send SMS messages in bulk and create memorable customer experiences through our communication innovations.

Our solutions are easy to implement and operate. Speak to our experts today to learn more!