In a marketing environment where mobile is becoming more and more important, astute marketers are always searching for the best methods to use mobile technology. However, companies need to come up with new ways to communicate in a crowded market where many customers are ad-blocking.
With a 98% open rate and an average read duration of only 90 seconds, SMS technology is becoming a popular tool for marketers looking to reach their target audience. It’s crucial to learn as much as you can about the SMS gateway you want to send from because there are a lot of possibilities available in the bulk SMS industry.
The Message Xtreme (MXT) online SMS platform from SMSGlobal offers a number of essential features designed to help you save time and money by streamlining your communications. Among the most widely used ones are:
Scheduling SMS
As they say, time is everything. When it comes to developing an effective SMS or text message advertising campaign, this is unquestionably true. Fortunately, SMS scheduling enables you to send messages even when you’re not near your computer at a specified time. See our post on the optimum time to send an SMS for more information on when to send your campaign. Campaign staggering is also supported by our MXT platform. You can use this capability to batch send messages to your database. In order to handle incoming requests more effectively, campaign staggering might be quite beneficial.
Send Merge
A recent study found that 46% of customers think they would be more likely to buy anything from a business that sends them personalized material. That’s a rather strong statistic! Just include a customer’s name in an SMS can significantly increase your return on investment.One of MXT’s features, Merge Send, makes it easier to customize bulk and individual SMS messages. Merge Send lets you quickly include specific information such the customer’s name, local store, amount owed, appointment times, and due dates instead of sending out the same message to every customer.
Management of opt-outs
Although spam filters don’t affect SMS messages, Australia has rules that affect SMS marketing and advertising services. Make sure your SMS marketing comply with the Australian Spam Act to avoid potentially expensive fines and penalties. Giving your recipients explicit opt-outs is one of the main tenets of the Spam Act. Thankfully, this is a quick and easy process with MXT.
In fact, MXT will handle opt-outs automatically if you’re sending from a shared pool or virtual number. This implies that you won’t ever have to be concerned about your database’s compliance. By texting a digital number that will automatically update opt-outs using MXT, you can tell recipients to opt out if you’re sending a one-way message from a bespoke word. As an alternative, you can ask recipients to submit an email to manage opt-outs automatically.
Groups of contacts
One of the most effective ways to send bulk SMS messages to your clients is to create contact groups. Individual numbers and other personal information, including a mobile number, email address, and any other criteria you choose, can be entered to create contact lists. Afterwards, Merge Send can utilize this data to customize messages. To save time, you may also use MXT to import pre-existing spreadsheets with customer data. Custom fields for any personal criteria you may have are still supported by this way.
Models
Time is of the essence if you’re like most business owners or marketers. By enabling you to store frequently used messages as templates for convenient access, MXT templates can help you save time and money. In order to send your most used message templates in a matter of seconds, templates can leverage other MXT features like contact groups and Merge Send.
Options for Sender IDs
The contact number will be the first thing your recipient sees when they read an SMS message. When delivering bulk SMS, MXT provides three alternative Sender ID kinds so you may select the one that works best for your company.
Direct responses within 48 hours are supported by shared numbers, which are free of charge. These mobile numbers are shared among our clients and appear to be typical mobile numbers.
You can use up to 11 characters in your custom words as your Sender ID. Any text, including your company or personal name, can be used. Using a distinctive word makes your messages clearly recognizable, but it prevents two-way communication.
You can acquire a special code that is exclusive to your account, such as a virtual number or dedicated short number. Your clients may learn to recognize this number and add it to their contact list. It is an excellent method for sustaining two-way SMS correspondence at any time. A dedicated number is a reliable Sender ID that can be promoted across different platforms to increase customer engagement and establish your brand.
Reports
To view messaging history, assess campaigns, and export data for additional research, MXT offers a “reports” tool. By organizing all scheduled, incoming, and outgoing SMS messages into categories with distinct labels, reports assist in managing several campaigns. It is simple to view all message answers and opt-outs. Data can be examined within defined timeframes and arranged chronologically. This lets you see how your campaign is performing now, in a month, or even a year from now.