So what can bulk SMS do for you?
Well, in order to recognize the advantages of bulk SMS you first need to recognize
the advantages of plain SMS over any other kind of marketing medium. SMS messages
can be received anywhere that a cell phone can receive a signal, and unlike a telephone
call they don’t have to interrupt the receiver in order to be received. They will
just wait on the cell unit until the owner picks them up. Likewise, the unit doesn’t
even have to be switched on in order to receive the message. The SMS will wait in
storage for up to several days in some cases so that as soon as the unit is switched
on the message will be forwarded to the unit where it can then be picked up and
read. SMS limits marketing messages to one hundred and sixty characters, which means
that the message has to be short and to the point, making it more likely to be read
by the receiver.
Now look at these advantages in the light of your marketing aims. You want to reach
as many people as possible in the shortest possible amount of time, do you not?
Well, bulk SMS allows you to send out the same message to an almost unlimited number
of people at exactly the same time. This means that bulk SMS allows you to run very
short term promotions that will expire even in one hour’s time, and you will still
be assured that a large number, by far the majority, of the people to whom you sent
the message, will have received it. A short deadline often encourages people to
act faster, so bulk SMS could actually produce more results even than email.
In addition to this, more cell phone users have their cell phones with them all
the time than computer users have their computers with them all the time, so bulk
SMS is again more likely to reach its target faster than bulk emails. Due to the
generally low level of spam SMS, bulk SMS messages are more likely to be forwarded
on by the receiver, which allows you to benefit from bulk SMS far beyond the original
parameters. When a receiver forwards on one of your bulk SMS messages, you don’t
pay for that, but you do benefit from the marketing.
Spam SMS isn’t as widespread as spam email, so if you send out bulk SMS messages,
they will be more likely to be read than bulk emails, which are often deleted without
reading. Cell phone users are more likely to read their SMS messages before deleting
them than they are to read all their emails, so bulk SMS is actually more likely
to reach its target than bulk email, which can often end up in a junk mail folder.
Bulk SMS is simply more likely to reach its target audience in a way that is not
irritating than email or telephone calls. A telephone call can be a highly annoying
irritation and an email can just be one more for the junk folder, but an SMS message
will always go to the inbox and nearly always be read before deletion, making bulk
SMS the most efficient marketing medium of the three.
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