Digital Marketing Advantages |:: What Are The Benefits?
Are you using SMS bulk marketing?
Are you benefiting from it?
SMS bulk marketing has become a necessary and solid marketing strategy for companies and organizations that understand and appreciate its awesome power.
Many digital and social media marketers, in particular, are loving it.
So if you have considered this marketing strategy before or you're just getting started, this article is written with you in mind.
Even people with over a million connections or followers started with just one connection or follower.
So, if you're considering SMS marketing as part of your holistic social media marketing tactics, you will learn a lot about it here if you read the rest of this article.
You will be pleasantly surprised at how easily it benefits you.
SMS boosts your landing page or website traffic to an impressive level.
The bottom line is that you make an insane amount of money in your digital marketing strategies and impressively on the returns on your social media marketing strategies efforts.
Additionally, you will learn the differences between SMS and MMS.
You get a bonus - the advantages and disadvantages of both.
You already know that wisdom comes from the practical application of knowledge.
Here's your chance.
The point here is that from the knowledge you get from reading this whole article, you'll be thoroughly equipped and eager to add SMS marketing to your already amazing digital and social media marketing strategies.
Are you ready?
Definition Of SMS And MMS
There are very profound differences between SMS and MMS as far as the kind of information or data that they can contain. SMS and MMS are defined as follows:
Please take note!
SMS - is an acronym for “Short Message Service”.
I'll let that marinate.
Tons of people are very familiar with it since it describes the kind of common text messages that they send or receive on their mobile devices.
So, when you send or receive any kind of text-based message on your mobile phone, it is considered an SMS message.
And when you send or receive any message as part of a group, it is called bulk SMS messaging.
MMS - is an acronym for “Multimedia Messaging Service”. MMS goes way beyond SMS. How?
You see, it allows you to include videos, images, audio, etc. in your text message.
Therefore, whenever you send or receive videos, images, audio, etc. on your mobile device, that is what is called an MMS message.
As a marketer, you're already thinking about all the creative ways that you can use both SMS and MMS in your marketing and branding campaigns.
Is that not true?
You're not alone.
Many major corporations and enterprises are using both SMS and MMS as part of their overall marketing and branding strategy.
This mobile messaging business started with SMS, but MMS is getting very common these days.
And speaking of popularity, videos are popular with your audience.
More and more social media platforms are using videos as one of their major features as they try to stay ahead of the curve in an amazingly dynamic and noisy digital marketing landscape.
Globally, people are reading less and watching more videos moving forward.
Differences Between SMS And MMS Messaging
There are quite a few differences between SMS and MMS messaging. Bulk SMS messages are sent through cellular networks.
They originate from a message transferring protocol called a short message service center or SMSC for short.
From there, the SMSC attempts to send the messages to the recipients.
There are mainly two ways to deliver bulk SMS messages. They are Store and Forward or the Forward and Forget.
With Store and Forward, SMSC attempts to deliver the message immediately or if not successful, it attempts to deliver it, or try again at a later time.
As the name implies, Forward and Forget will try to deliver the message and if the message is undeliverable, it will discard the message immediately.
As mentioned above, SMS messages are strictly texts only.
MMS messages are delivered in a completely different way from SMS messages.
Much like SMS, an MMS message is delivered to something called a multimedia message service center, or MMSC for short.
Where MMS differs from SMS is in the delivery of the message.
If the receiving phone is on a different carrier from the sender, the MMS message is sent from the MMSC to the carrier via the Internet.
Once there, the receiving carrier tries to determine if the receiving phone is MMS capable.
If it is, the content is simply accessed.
If it is not, the carrier sends an SMS message to the recipient's phone with a URL that contains the content.
The user can then access the content at a later time from an internet-capable device.
5 Benefits Of Bulk SMS
Let's go on memory lane first before I talk about the benefits or advantages of bulk SMS marketing.
Do you know that the first SMS was sent in 1992? It did not take long before it became widely known and used.
SMS was the most widely used data application, adopted by 80 percent of mobile subscribers by 2010.
That dominance was interrupted by the rise of the smartphone.
Smartphones made it ridiculously easy for consumers to communicate through a variety of apps.
With a smartphone, you can go from email and instant messaging to over-the-top content messaging apps.
Interestingly, irrespective of the growth in other channels of
communication, SMS is still widely in use.
It has remained one of the most used means of communication. Why?
Consider these three reasons:
#1. It Is The Most Effective Way To Reach Users
It commands a 90 percent read rate in minutes.
And when you consider the timeliness of delivery, SMS maintains the highest engagement rate when you compare it to emails and OTT apps.
SMS messages are sent quickly, read almost instantly (within 5 seconds on average), and responded to almost immediately.
One of the beauties about them is that once you send it into a bulk SMS gateway, it takes just a few seconds to be sent out.
Mass SMS is delivered faster than emails, which some consider outdated for marketing.
Therefore, if you want most of the people in your target audience to read your message, then choose bulk SMS text marketing.
It is readily available as long as you have a mobile phone, credit, or service plan.
And it is easy to reach a global audience since no pre-existing connections are required.
We're talking about things like accepting friend requests or requiring two parties to download the same app.
Since it has one of the lowest obstacles that would stop users from receiving messages quickly, SMS makes it ideal for sending short, time-sensitive content.
#2. With SMS, Anybody With A Mobile Number Can Be Reached
Image source
The technology used for sending and receiving SMS does not depend on your internet. That means that you can reach most people in our modern society.
High-end messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Viber, and WeChat function only if your smartphone is connected to the internet.
Additionally, many apps need different hardware and software compatibilities.
Those incompatible hardware and software filter out users with feature phones or smartphones that the OTT app doesn’t support.
For example, it is not every OTT messaging app that is available on Firefox OS, Windows, Blackberry, or legacy versions of iOS and Android.
On the other hand, a user does not need an internet connection or use the same app as the one you're communicating with to receive an SMS.
#3. Bulk SMS Can Be Highly Targeted
Bulk SMS can be delivered to a target audience. Since many companies are keeping a close eye on costs, you can appreciate why your bulk message should be sent o only a targeted audience.
Interestingly, bulk SMS marketing is permission-based.
That means anybody that receives your text will:
- already have a relationship with you.
- and have agreed to receive marketing messages from you.
What these two facts tell us is that these targets are already hot leads for new sales.
And of the best way to stay in touch with your existing customers is through bulk SMS.
Take a look at this report from Havard Business Review.
It highlights why you should say in touch with your existing customers.
Depending on which study you believe, in and what industry you’re in, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.
It makes sense: you don’t have to spend time and resources going out and finding a new client — you just have to keep the one you have happy". (Harvard Business Review)
From that study, you can see that it is 5 to 7 times easier to resell to existing customers than to acquire a new one.
You would agree that a bulk SMS service would make the process seamless.
#3. Popularity Of Two Factor Authentication And Security Via SMS
With the growth of mobile devices, more and more people are transferring their data over the internet than ever known.
Therefore, to add another layer of security in addition to your password, two-factor authentication has become the route companies use to protect their users.
SMS usage has been on the rise because a user almost always has a mobile device on them at any given time.
And the cost of sending an SMS is also very low, while its ease of voice two-factor authentication makes SMS ideal for today’s fast-paced society.
Major companies are using SMS as a step in two-factor authentication when activated.
They include Google, Dropbox, PayPal, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
In today's digital landscape, many people may consider SMS as outdated technology, but the reality is that SMS plays a key role in connecting most modern technologies.
#4. Low Cost and High ROI
Traditional marketing methods like TV commercials, outdoor advertising, and radio are too expensive for most small to medium-sized businesses and organizations.
On the other hand, bulk SMS marketing has negligible setup and running costs.
That makes it easy for you to launch a campaign at a fraction of the costs of a traditional marketing strategy.
You can reach thousands of customers in a matter of seconds without breaking the bank.
As you have seen, bulk SMS is cost-effective. You get high returns on your bulk SMS investments.
Therefore, bulk SMS marketing is an almost essential marketing tool for any modern SME.
#5. With Bulk SMS You Can Personalize Your Message
Image source
Personalizing your message means that you're sending each SMS text message with unique information for each person that receives your text.
The big deal about this is that you can craft a personalized compelling marketing text for all of your contacts and customize the relevant information.
This means that you can add the recipient's first name, last name, account number, and meeting time, to the same message.
And when your customer gets it, only the information relevant to her will show in the message.
You can also personalize bulk SMS texts based on the customer’s previous buying behavior and demographics.
You can also personalize them based on store location, city, state, and zip code.
This form of customization would be costly in any other form of marketing.
Benefits of MMS Messaging
- Easy to use with quick delivery across carriers.
- You can send a simple text with small data size and overhead.
- You get a wide array of mobile and application usage.
Disadvantages Of Bulk SMS Messaging
- SMS delivery is not guaranteed as the messages are delivered on a “best-effort” basis only
- Strictly text without formatting.
- Subject to different vulnerabilities such as spoofing
Benefits Of MMS Messaging
- Rich multimedia is present in the message allowing for more aesthetically pleasing texts.
- It allows for the transfer of data, such as ringtones, over a text message.
- It offers the ability to send text messages longer than 160 characters.
Disadvantages Of MMS Messaging
- MMS created by one brand of the phone may not be compatible with another brand of phone’s capabilities.
- Some phones may be configured poorly leading to the failure of MMS delivery
- Because of the large amount of transferring of MMS to different networks, sending it to a large group of customers can be slow.
- As you can see there are several advantages and disadvantages to both bulk SMS messaging and MMS messaging.
- For most purposes, the SMS will suit your needs and can even apply some similarities to MMS (such as adding a link to an SMS message to access some kind of content).
- MMS has many advantages over SMS, but poses many disadvantages as well, especially with compatibility among carriers and phones.
Depending on what your needs are, determine whether a platform and service offer just SMS messaging are.
Both SMS and MMS messaging capabilities will work for you.
If you're ready to benefit from social media marketing, as we've explained here, to boost your marketing and branding strategies, we are all ears and eager to be of help.
WhatsApp us at: +234 080 331 75396
