Some use only WhatsApp, some Skype, Viber or the built-in instant messengers of social networking sites. Having received a client’s phone number, you will not know which messenger to use to write to them.
Most people turn off sound notifications from messengers and the ‘receive messages only from contacts’ setting is often turned on. So, even if your marketing messages are delivered, there’s no guarantee that they will be read on time or, for that matter, at all.
However, sound notifications from SMS are usually turned on. Today, this channel is used mainly for various important notifications such as banking operations, online purchase notifications, flight statuses, etc. Receipt of SMS messages is guaranteed as long as the phone is turned on and within the area of network coverage, whether at home or even during roaming, when many turn off the Internet.
As a result, we can achieve a delivery rate of close to 100% and a high opening rate immediately after receipt, meaning the information is being read while it’s information still relevant.
SMS marketing is suitable for most businesses in the b2c sector. These include offline business; from car repair shops, and pizza delivery services to clinics or banks. They may also be used by online business; from multiplayer games and information services to online stores and car-sharing.
The most common way in which SMS is used is to authorise an online order, appointment or registration for a service. As they need to receive a message, the user indicates their real phone number, which they use every day. For comparison, if you take email, many people, fearing spam create a separate address for registration and never read what comes into it. Apple, in its fight for privacy, has even implemented “one-off” registration addresses in its operating systems, that don’t require the user to disclose their real email address.
A phone number is also useful because as well as being able to write to it, you can call it as well. The user will call from the same number which has already been saved in your CRM system.
Also, in many countries, it is impossible to get a new mobile number without a passport. In cases of fraud, having a personal mobile number makes it easier to stop abusers opening new accounts to continue their activity, and ultimately is also easier for the authorities to find them.
More advanced uses of SMS include sending order dispatch notifications, dental appointment reminders, credit card purchase notifications or low balance reminders for subscription services.
SMS are great for collecting feedback. Clients who leave a hairdresser may receive messages asking them to evaluate their new haircuts and the service they received. This could be a great addition to a loyalty programme!
The dream of any marketer is the ability to send SMS with information about discounts, promotions, new arrivals, event announcements and other news.
To avoid any accusations of spamming, during registration it is important to ask customers for consent to receive these messages, and to make it clear that they have the opportunity to opt-out of receiving them at any time.
Despite the simplicity of SMS technology, each user can be sent unique short links with UTM tags to the mobile versions of your websites, allowing you to monitor their further actions.
This will help you to understand your clients much better. Using SMS to send links in this way combines web-based functionality with the high deliverability and reliable opening rates of a tried technology
Message for message, email is really cheap. Now find the Spam folder in your inbox and see how many messages there are from those who decided to cut costs. In various services, for example, Gmail, these letters end up in the “Promotions” folder
Take an average database with 4,000 clients. The average cost of delivering SMS is 0.04 $. For 160 $ we cover the entire base, almost everyone receives and reads a message. In legal email marketing services, mailing to such a base costs 40 $ – 80 $, depending on the tariff. However, no one knows how many emails will end up in spam, and when the rest will be read.
People don’t receive SMS often, so they pay attention to every message. Conversion rates for SMS mail-outs is about 15 – 30%, and for email marketing is 0 – 15%. As a result, you spend 3 times less money on email, but the resulting effect is 5 times worse. Checkmate, email!.
We have been working in this market for over 10 years and we support more than 200 operators and aggregators around the world. We have direct contracts with 80 of them, we also get good discounts for wholesale; as a result, it is usually cheaper and easier to send via us than to negotiate agreements with each operator individually.
We use only fast and reliable communication channels and SMS gateways for our work with mobile operators. We don’t save personal data on server locations. They are stored on the best data centres and use reliable broadband communication channels to access operator gateways.
To improve delivery and make even greater savings, we recommend updating databases using our HLR request service or using the delivery statistics of previous SMS mail-outs in your personal account.
We appreciate the importance of personal data security, which is why we support working via SSL or VPN with 256-bit encryption. To strengthen protection, we only support work with certain approved IP addresses.
We also understand that you may well already use your own software, and therefore we offer quick and simple integration of our service via REST API. For many programming languages, such as php, C #, Perl, Rubi, Delphi, Java, Visual Basic and Python, there is an SDK available that speeds up the process even more.
Business processes in the company are automated as much as possible, which makes it possible to have only the most essential employees on your staff. You won’t need to pay for a bloated payroll or a luxury office.
If necessary, our 24-hour technical support can come to the rescue.
