Bulk SMS Marketing: The Ultimate Guide to Scale Your Business

Did you know that, as of 2023, a whopping 8 in 10 Americans, or roughly 270 million individuals, own a smartphone? On average, these folks check their devices nearly a hundred times daily. That’s once every 10 minutes!

That high usage rate makes mobile phones an excellent medium for branding. Bulk SMS marketing, which involves sending mass text messages to many people in one go, is one way to do that.

A good enough reason to use SMS marketing strategies is that 9 in 10 people open text messages they get. About 4 in 10 consumers also prefer text updates from their favorite brands. That’s nearly twice as many as those who prefer email!

So if your business isn’t using mobile outreach yet, it’s time to consider doing so ASAP.

We’ll teach you how to make the most of bulk SMS campaigns, so read on.

Get Your Customers’ Consent

As effective as SMS marketing is, you can’t just text anyone without their consent. Businesses that wish to send marketing texts must first obtain permission from customers. This is the law; non-compliance can lead to hefty fines or lawsuits.

Online Sign-Up

One way to get your customers’ consent is through an online sign-up form on your website. This can be your site’s account creation form, newsletter sign-up, or checkout page. You can add an SMS opt-in checkbox on these pages that customers can tick to join your SMS program.

While you can do the above manually, you can also use apps that offer bulk SMS service. They automate the storage of numbers you collect online. Some even have features allowing you to set up opt-in web forms and site pop-ups.

To top it off, SMS apps let users send messages to hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of people in one go.

On-Site Sign-Up

You can also get your customers’ consent on-site if your business has a physical location. You can ask them to fill out an opt-in form to join your SMS program. Alternatively, you can use your SMS app, provided it has text-to-join or QR code features.

With text-to-join, customers who’d like to opt in can text keywords to the number you use for your SMS campaign. The SMS app automatically saves their number in your subscriber list.

As for QR codes, customers can scan them with their smartphones and get directed to an online opt-in form. Completing this means they’re permitting you to text them.

You can create eye-catching ads for your text-to-join or scan-to-subscribe campaigns. Place them strategically throughout your store so customers can see them immediately. You can also use the ads’ soft copies to promote your campaign online, such as on social media.

Organize Your Subscriber List

Create subscriber categories based on the questions you ask in your sign-up forms.

For example, if you asked for their birthdays, you can create categories based on birth months. You can send birthday greetings at the start of each month. This can add a touch of personalized messaging to your bulk SMS campaigns.

Even if you send greetings in advance, customers will likely still appreciate them. You can also make them even more appreciative by gifting them a discount voucher or a freebie.

You can also create categories based on the keywords used during the opt-in process. Other factors you can consider are customer preferences and demographics. Doing this can help prevent you from appearing spammy to recipients.

Keep Them Short and Sweet

Even with SMS’s high open rate, recipients may not finish reading your texts if they’re too long. Besides, you may have to pay more if you exceed the allowed character limit.

For your messages to work, they must have irresistible introductions and direct-to-the-point content.

Suppose you want to send promotional sale messages for your restaurant, “Juneau.” In this case, your intro can be something like, “Hungry? Get 10% off your Juneau meal today [insert the date] by showing this text to your server!”

If the promo you’re running has terms and conditions, include them in the body of the text. For example, if it’s a one-day sale, you can say:

“This discount is only for today, so hurry and satisfy your tummy!” You can also add a shortened URL that recipients can visit to read the deal’s full T&C.

If you’re sending birthday greetings, say, for December 2023, you can say something like:

“It’s your birthday month! From all of us here at Juneau, happy birthday! Show this message on your next visit this 12/2023, and we’ll treat you one time to an appetizer of your choice!”

Make Opting Out Easy

While we hope your customers will never opt out, you must tell them how to do so if they want to. This is part of the law, so include the instructions in your SMS marketing messages.

You can add them at the very end of your texts. It could be something like “Reply X to opt out” or “Reply NO to stop receiving messages.”

Proper Timing Is Key

You don’t want to infuriate your customers by texting them every hour, too early in the day, or too late at night. Instead, you should time it based on the data you’ve collected from them.

For example, if they texted a keyword, check the time they did so. You can then send them SMS marketing messages around the same time. Add or subtract one or two hours if they texted you early in the morning or late at night.

If you want to be extra cautious, consider sending texts during typical break times. This can be between 9 AM and 10 AM for coffee breaks and from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM for lunch.

Start Your Bulk SMS Marketing Campaign

A bulk SMS marketing campaign allows you to reach out to customers quickly. It’s a faster way to connect to and stay in touch with them than email and much less intrusive than phone calls.

Just remember that you need the recipients’ consent first before you can send them SMS texts. You must also tell them how to unsubscribe. But if your messages offer value and aren’t spammy or intrusive, they likely won’t want to opt-out.

For more marketing tips and tricks, browse our latest business guides!