Innovative Uses of Bulk SMS Messaging

Having the capacity to reach consumers , employees and suppliers with a single message at the same time, regardless of their location is a powerful business tool. Bulk SMS is used across a wide range of industries and new uses for this versatile medium are being implemented all of the time.

Mobile Marketing

One of the most popular uses for bulk SMS is in the field of mobile marketing. Bulk SMS allows businesses to reach consumers with timely and informative content and effectively increase their reach at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

Bulk SMS is a great addition to a marketing plan, complementary to many other marketing initiatives including web, television and print promotions.

Used to great effect to reinforce brand image and create awareness around a brand, bulk SMS is a strong customer retention and acquisition tool. Existing customers are given better service through appointment reminders, special offers and personalised birthday greetings, Bulk SMS is also used to cross-and up-sell to these consumers .

New target markets are easily acquired by encouraging consumers to opt-in for SMS sales alerts and news that would be of interest to them. Bulk SMS is the cornerstone of viral marketing campaigns as SMS messages can easily be sent on to friends and family - quickly spreading the marketing message, for free! Visit our mobile marketing section to see how to implement bulk SMS in your marketing campaign.

Mobile Competitions and Mobile Voting:

Bulk SMS is the tool of choice for effective campaign management. The most common use for bulk SMS in mobile competitions is 'text-to-win' contests whereby consumers enter the competition via an SMS sent to a premium-rated SMS number.

Bulk SMS supports two-way SMS and can handle thousands of incoming or outgoing messages at a time. Mobile voting has become extremely popular with shows like Idols and Big Brother utilising the affordable and effective nature of bulk SMS to interact with their audiences. Automated responses to competition entries are also facilitated by high-volume messaging.

Financial institutions, both in South Africa and abroad, have embraced bulk SMS messaging in order to send fraud alerts, ‘point of sale’ SMS receipts and account balance notifications. Bulk SMS is used to interact in real-time with customers and is highly effective in reducing fraud, cutting call centre costs and other communication expenses.

Emergency Notification Systems

Governments and emergency response teams are turning to bulk SMS to facilitate communication between different departments (such as ambulance services, fire departments, hospitals and the police) when faced with critical situations. Time is of the essence in emergencies and the almost instantaneous nature of bulk SMS delivery facilitates speedy responses and transparent communications. Automated bulk SMS systems are also used to notify employees of server downtime or any other crucial information.

Mobile Sales

Bulk SMS messaging can be used to provide subscription driven information services such as breaking news headlines or weather alerts. These bulk SMS services send premium content to the recipients’ cellphone; he/she is then billed for receiving it and the content provider and network operator normally split the profit. These are mobile terminated bulk SMS messages.

When a cellphone user sends a message to a premium rated number, for example when entering a competition, it is known as mobile originated SMS. Businesses can also directly sell mobile content such as logos, wallpapers and ringtones as bulk SMS supports binary message sending, i.e. it can transmit sound and pictures.

Mobile Business Communication

Communication between management and employees that are out of office, such as sales people, is made simple with bulk SMS meeting reminders or SMS stock exchange updates for financial brokers. It is also a useful tool for liaising with suppliers and keeping track of orders and deliveries. 

The benefits of using bulk SMS for all these applications and more are immediate; generating time and cost savings as well as creating additional revenue streams for any business. Sign up today for a trial run of Clickatell’s bulk SMS Gateway – there is no risk or obligation.