What is SMS?
SMS stands for Short Message Service and are generally 160 character text messages sent between mobile phones. SMS uses a unique network that alerts the recipient the second the message arrives. SMS is an extremely fast and personal communication method on par with a phone call in perceived trust.
What is SMS Marketing?
SMS marketing is the practice of building lists of mobile numbers than sending SMS advertising messages to those lists. Lists can be built in many ways but you can find compliance rules set by the ACMA on what people consent to be opted into your lists. Unsolicited commercial messages delivered to one is called spam and is illegal under the Australian Spam Act 2003.
Mobile marketers usually use an online SMS system to control the SMS sending process. These bulk SMS systems range in price and functionality. The best SMS marketing platforms have a good combination of cheap SMS and web SMS features. Ensure you only deal with a reputable SMS gateway as delivery reliability may differ a lot.
Several types of SMS delivery
There are two main types of online SMS delivery. Direct connection where in fact the SMS gateway is plugged directly into the telco’s in your country, and International routing. International routes are operated by SMS aggregators which a gateway can utilise to deliver less expensive SMS marketing than direct connection.
Some international routes can be quite unreliable and some providers will offer extremely cheap prices nevertheless, you may end up paying exactly like a far more reliable connection as you still pay for messages not delivered.
The best bulk SMS service could have a combination of good quality international routing and cheap sms prices. In case you have a service that will require guaranteed delivery such as a crisis or alert service you then should use a direct local connection, even though that is still not 100% guaranteed to provide it will give you the highest percentage of success.
It will generally cost double though.These are just the very basics but building on these basics you can develop sophisticated mobile marketing campaigns that can quickly build great lists of loyal customers. So sms api as you keep your lists clean and respect your recipients wishes to avoid receiving text messages from you then you should have great success.