What is bulk SMS? How does businesses use bulk SMS?
‘Bulk SMS’ or ‘bulk messaging’ refers to businesses sending SMS to one or more recipients via software platforms such as Mobicel. Bulk SMS can scale up to millions of recipients in the case of informational or promotional broadcasts. Alternatively, bulk SMS can also mean individual SMS sent to customers upon an action e.g. receiving an alert on credit card transaction. Both these activities can be easily carried out from bulk SMS platforms as they allow businesses to create, schedule.
Bulk SMS is used by SMBs, global enterprises, developers, educational institutes, NGOs and government agencies for product promotions, informational communications, transactional alerts, order updates, reminders, feedback and more.
Why should businesses use bulk SMS?
In today’s mobile world, SMS beats all the other channels hands down with 97% open rates (vs 10%-30% open rates for email and social media channels) and ten times the response rate. By embedding actionable links within the message, bulk SMS can even help improve conversion rates across the customer lifecycle - acquisition, engagement and retention.
What is the difference between Promotional SMS and Transactional SMS?
TRAI has notified "The Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2010" classifying text messages as per the intent or nature of content within the text messages. Here is an easy summary:
Promotional SMS and Transactional SMS?
Promotional SMS
- Promotional SMS is used to send offers, discounts or promotions to new and existing customers. The messages may or may not be solicited by the recipients.
- Messages are only delivered to non-DND numbers and opt-in numbers*
- Promotional SMS can be sent only between 9am and 9pm
- DM-022145
Promotional bulk SMS will be delivered with a random 6-digit Sender ID assigned by the telecom operator
Transactional SMS
- Transactional SMS is used to send OTPs, informational messages, booking and order alerts to your registered customers. They should not be intended for marketing.
- Messages are delivered to all recipients, irrespective of their Do-Not-Disturb (DND) status
- Transactional SMS are delivered 24x7 with no time restriction
- IM-MOBICEL
Transactional SMS can be assigned a 6-alpha character Sender ID of your choice. It should correspond with your business or product name.
How much does bulk SMS cost?
Our bulk SMS software and service are free to use, you simply pay for the texts that you send. You can buy Mobicel SMS credits online and use these credits to send both promotional SMS and transactional SMS (1 SMS credit = 1 single-part SMS of 160 characters).
Whatever your business SMS needs, Mobicel helps you maximize returns on investment (ROI) with its multi-award-winning features, direct telecom partnerships and robust technology backend. Please watch out for any bulk SMS service provider offering insanely low prices as they generally come with low-quality delivery and fake delivery reports.
What makes Mobicel India’s No. 1 SMS platform?
Mobicel offers easy, powerful & self–serve messaging platform which makes it extremely convenient to upload & maintain contacts, compose media-rich SMS, and send bulk SMS. Mobicel also provides flexible APIs to integrate with any application/CRM. Our direct integration with multiple telecom operators and smart SMS gateway technology ensure best-in-class delivery for your bulk SMS campaigns.
How to send bulk SMS online?
Follow the below steps to send bulk SMS online using Mobicel:
- Login to Mobicel Panel.
- Check SMS credit balance
- Select Service
- Select Sender ID.
- Compose your SMS in English or popular regional languages.
- Easily enrich your campaigns - personalize with merge fields, insert short links, attach files, send surveys and more!
- Schedule or sent the message.
- Track real-time delivery reports and advanced campaign click reports
How to receive bulk SMS online?
Using an inbound long code (10-digit numbers) or short code (5-9 digit numbers), you can receive SMS from your customers. You can purchase either dedicated long/short codes or keywords on shared long/short codes to setup your own SMS address and receive replies. It’s free for you to receive messages and only costs the customer their standard network cost. All messages will appear in your Mobicel account, so simply log in and view at your leisure. You can also choose to automatically forward all inbound messages to you via email.