Send bulk text

What is bulk text messaging?

I’m sure you’re familiar with the promotional text messages that you receive from different businesses on your phone number. These text messages are not only sent to you but hundreds or even thousands of other opted in users. The process of sending out these texts is referred to as bulk text messaging This article will give you the complete know-how on everything related to send bulj text.

How to send bulk text 

Since bulk texting has become so popular for advertisement purposes, most businesses already have an SMS marketing set up. However, if you’re not aware of how it works, I have good news for you. You don’t need to be a professional or expert to understand how to send bulk texts. A quick read of this section and you’re good to go! First, you’re going to have to choose an SMS platform. Don’t know of any? Go with ExpressText! It’s an overall good platform and very user-friendly. Visit the website or download the application. As with all platforms, you’re going to have to create an account to use the services. With ExpressText, you can choose from its variety of payment plans. They are all budget friendly so you can choose a plan based on the number of text messages that you require. Each plan also comes with a shortcode (unique for every user) and one or more keywords, so make sure you also choose a plan based on the number of keywords that you require.

Why should you choose to send bulk text?

This question has a very simple answer. Bulk texting is rated as the most effective method of communication so far. Be it digital or conventional forms of advertising, statistics support bulk texting to the fastest, preferred and intimate form of marketing. Here’s a comparison between texting and other popular digital methods of marketing:

SMS Marketing vs email marketing

The plus point for both marketing channels is that they earn a very high Return on Investment. Sending out a text or email costs pennies and yet, earns high returns. However, the open rates of SMS are much higher than that of email at 98% as compared to the 20% of email! Similarly, the response rates of SMS display a higher number than that of email. This is because most people open their email app after days, but SMS? It’s one of the first things they check in the morning. And with everything moving so fast within industries, if you can’t get information out instantly, it’s probably going to be worthless later.

SMS Marketing vs social media marketing

Social media is one platform that comes close to bulk texting. If Facebook isn’t the new rage, Instagram is. If that isn’t Snapchat is! My point being, there will always be some social media application that people are addicted to. Even still, social media cannot be as fast as SMS. Why? Because information isn’t directly conveyed to customers. Suppose your favourite brand puts up an offer on their Instagram story ‘Free delivery on all products till midnight!’ However, you’ve had a busy day and you open the app late at night by which it has been too late. On the other hand, if you were sent this same offer via text, you would have seen it the minute you checked your phone – even if you were busy! While social media is a rich platform, it is complex and people do not receive notifications for everything. Since SMS is direct, it is more intimate; thus, giving it an edge over social media.

SMS Marketing vs phone marketing

Phone calls have been around for ages now. But I’m sure (just like me) you all avoid those promotional phone calls. To be brutally honest, who has the time for them anymore? Phone marketing is slowly becoming a thing of the past. With texting apps like SMS around, not only Millennials but the older generation also prefer to send and receive texts over calls. Multiple surveys and research back up this information. That is why many businesses have started to switch to 24-hour customer support, and you should too.  

How to boost your bulk texting campaign

I just told you all about the amazing statistics supporting bulk texting and how customers themselves prefer it as a choice of marketing. So then why would you need to boost your campaign? There is one catch with bulk texting for businesses. It’s permission based and so, companies need the permission of customers before they can send them any promotional text messages. In order to give their consent, customers send in a given keyword to the company’s shortcode. By doing this, they opt into the campaign. This is the hard part: getting customers to make this effort. Luckily, it can be done through the following ways

TV advertisements

TV advertisements are similar to billboards. They cost thousands and even millions of dollars at times, so why not use them to boost bulk texting as well? TV ads are always eye-catching. If you use the right marketing tactics, people will pay attention to it. There are a number of ways in which the promotion of bulk texting can be incorporated into TV ads. Either an endorsed celebrity can promote the campaign within the ad (which would be most effective but also the most costly). Another way to incorporate bulk text would be to give out customers instructions on how to opt in at the end of the ad. Lastly, the shortcode and keyword can be visible throughout the ad in a corner of the screen or at the top or bottom in the form of a bar. If people like the ad, it increases the chances of them opting into the campaign!

Email

While email may be slower than bulk texting, people still do use it on a regular basis. Thus, it can be used to boost text message campaigns. Just send your customers an email with instructions on how to subscribe to the campaign. Those that are loyal customers of the brand will surely opt-in.

Website

Your official company website can also be put to use in improving your SMS campaign. When customers visit your website, they can be asked to fill a form with their basic details. These can be integrated on the company’s account on their SMS platform. Customers can then be contacted on the number that they have provided.

Digital Ads

This is the age of the digital world! Digital ads are perhaps much more effective than conventional TV ads. Everybody uses the internet and Google strategically targets users based on their interests (based on the websites that they visit). Thus, you could pay for an ad on websites that people who may be potential users of your platform visit. Digital ads are thus, much cheaper and more effective than TV ads because they are highly targeted.

New ways to use bulk text

Polling

Ever since the last 5 years, bulk texting has been extensively used for political purposes i.e. elections. It’s cheap and it’s effective, so it cuts down a lot of the cost for political campaigns. It will also get you results faster than you could ever get before. In the 2016 elections, bulk texting had become a very popular way to reach people in the US. Platforms like ExpressText provide campaigns with all the features that they need to operate a campaign with i.e. short links, tracking, graphed reports, etc.

Two-factor authentication

Companies and websites that deal with sensitive information like passwords and personal/business data need to provide maximum security in order to minimize and avoid hacking and data leaks. They do this via two-factor authentication. You may have noticed when you sign up with various social media platforms (such as Facebook) that the app asks you whether you would like to opt for two-factor authentication. This means that to access your account you would need to verify your identity through two ways. The first is usually your password and the second is either your email or SMS. Most people opt for SMS as it is faster and they can access their accounts immediately without compromising on security. ExpressText is one such platform that can be integrated with apps and websites to provide two-factor authentication.

Saving lives

Did you know that bulk text can save lives? Sounds a bit too far fetched? Well, it isn’t! The speed and responsiveness of bulk text is a major factor that contributes to this. Suppose you have a relative who just suffered a life-threatening car accident. He’s in the hospital in dire need of blood but you can’t manage to find a blood donor. What do you do? Spread the word as fast as you can – through bulk text! Just imagine, you could reach thousands of people at once and all you need is one selfless person to come forward. Speaking realistically, most individuals do not have accounts or access to SMS platforms, so in order to save lives, all hospitals can create an account on ExpressText or another platform. This way, in case of a highly time sensitive, a maximum emergency situation they can get the word out to people who have signed up as donors within seconds. This way, they will have a suitable platform to communicate with people instantly and that too with the right kind of people.

Boosting other platforms

Just like other platforms are used to boost SMS, bulk text can also be used to boost other platforms. Take advantage of the statistics that back it. People want to read texts, so encourage them to subscribe to your email list or like your Instagram page, or follow you on Twitter.

To send bulk text is an easy job; the hard part is being different. SMS platforms are so easily accessible to everybody that millions of businesses worldwide have begun to use them. When customers are overwhelmed with so many promotions, they will only notice something that stands out from the crowd. Bulk texting itself may be very useful as a marketing tool, but you need to use it smartly in order to render it effective. So make sure that you come up with innovative and inventive ideas that your customers are blown away each time.