SMS boasts an impressive open rate of 98%, with most messages read within minutes. This makes it a powerful channel for delivering information quickly and effectively. 

Bulk SMS takes this advantage to the next level, allowing businesses to reach thousands of customers simultaneously while maintaining a personal touch.

It lets you connect with thousands of customers at once through highly personalized messages, driving engagement faster than you can say 'check your inbox.' 

In this blog post, we explore bulk SMS campaigns and talk about how sending personalized messages to the masses can help you grow your brand. 

What is mass SMS marketing? 

Mass SMS marketing is the practice of sending promotional or informational text messages to a large group of recipients. It’s a highly efficient and cost-effective way for businesses to communicate directly with their customers on their mobile devices. 

Here’s everything you can do with SMS marketing campaigns:

• Promotional campaigns: Notify customers about discounts, special offers, or flash sales.
• Order updates: Keep customers informed about their purchase status, including shipping confirmations or delivery notifications.
• Appointment reminders: Send reminders to customers about upcoming appointments to reduce no-shows.
• Event alerts: Inform customers of upcoming events or important dates so they don’t miss out.

Bulk SMS messages are especially useful for businesses in retail, hospitality, healthcare, and ecommerce, where personalized, timely communication is super useful to drive engagement and conversions.

Benefits of mass SMS marketing

95% of SMS are opened within 3 minutes of delivery. This makes SMS great for sending time-bound offers or sales information. And that’s just one benefit, here’s how you amplify the benefits of SMS with mass SMS marketing:

High open rates

SMS has 98% open rates. Unlike email marketing, where messages can get stuck in spam filters or cluttered inboxes, SMS is almost guaranteed to reach the recipient’s inbox, resulting in higher visibility.

Immediate reach

Unlike emails or ads, customers don’t need to open another app to check out your messages. Bulk SMS marketing messages reach directly to your customers’ mobile phones so they can access them quickly, even when they’re using mobile for something else like browsing through social media platforms.   

Personalization

Bulk SMS marketing tools let you personalize your messages to the last customer action. Your customers abandoned the cart? You can run an abandoned cart message campaign for it. Is it someone’s birthday? You can run event messaging campaigns for it. 

Cost-effective

SMS pricing depends on how many SMS you send, so bulk SMS campaigns can reduce the overall cost. Once you have a list of subscribers, the only recurring cost is the price of sending the messages. Also, the high engagement and open rate of SMS campaigns results in high ROI, which makes SMS quite cost-effective. 

💡Pro tip: Look for an SMS marketing platform that has it’s own carrier network to get a great deal on SMS costs.

Integration with other platforms

The tools you choose to send bulk SMS campaigns come with integrations that streamline your customer interactions. For example, if you use HubSpot to manage customer relationships, you can also send personalized messages, reminders, or promotions directly from the platform. You can automate SMS campaigns, track customer interactions, and follow up more effectively, all in one place, without needing separate systems.

Types of messages in a bulk SMS campaign

You can send various types of messages in bulk SMS campaigns. Let’s check out some of them here from different brands:

Restock alerts

Polka Dot Print Shop sends an alert about their restocked items. They also provide a code for free shipping so customers are more tempted to buy them. 

Promotional offers and discounts

CROSSNET shares holiday gifting advice with its customers while promoting its niche products for teenagers.

Product launch announcements 

Dr. Brite promotes its newly launched app where customers can get 25% off - a great way to promote a new platform while selling more products.

Order confirmations

St. Botanica shares order confirmations via SMS.

Loyalty program updates

Tentree shares mystery bags with its VIP members.

Steps to get started with mass SMS marketing

Now that you know how beneficial mass SMS marketing is and you’ve also seen examples, it’s time to take action. Follow these steps to create your own mass SMS marketing campaign.

Choose an SMS marketing platform

find an SMS marketing platform that allows you to send targeted messages, automate responses, and track results seamlessly. Consider factors like pricing and scalability to ensure the platform grows with your business. You can optimize your SMS marketing efforts with features like:

• Scheduling
• Automation
• Analytics 
• AI writing assistance
• No-code workflow builders
• Own network
• Low cost
• High deliverability 

You can find all these features in Plivo CX. It’s an SMS marketing automation tool that has features from customer segmentation to writing SMS copy to analytics.

Why choose Plivo CX as your go-to SMS marketing tool?

Plivo CX leverages a premium carrier network from Plivo that lets you create, schedule, and send personalized messages to 220+ countries. With Plivo you can segment your customers with Audiences. You can trigger relevant messages based on customer actions and send them through Journeys. 

This combination makes sure you’re always sending the right message to the right customer at the right time. Since all messages are relevant to customers and drive them towards action, you don’t waste any money and save up to 70% of SMS marketing costs. 

Build your SMS subscriber list

First things first, to build an SMS subscriber list with engaging customers, you must obtain clear consent through opt-ins. This ensures compliance with privacy laws and builds trust with your audience. 

Also, customers are willing to receive SMS messages. On average, customers are opted into 8 SMS programs from brands they follow.  

To grow your SMS list, you can leverage multiple channels such as website pop-ups, social media, and in-store promotions. Here’s how:

• Place opt-in pop-ups on homepages or other places where it captures the attention of visitors. You can also offer them an incentive like a discount in exchange for their phone number. 
• On social media platforms, you can promote exclusive offers for subscribers.
• In physical stores, you can promote opt-in forms using signage or QR codes to encourage customers to sign up on the spot.

Segment your audience

Personalization and segmentation go hand in hand. When you segment your customers into specific groups, you can send messages relevant to each of them. Customer segments include first-time shoppers, cart abandoners, high-spending customers, bargain shoppers etc. 

For example, when a first-time shopper receives a thank you message along with a discount for their next purchase, they feel seen. It shows that you value their purchase. 

You can segment customers based on behaviors, demographics, or past purchases to improve engagement. But, it would be extremely hard to do this manually. You can try Plivo CX’s Audiences. 

Audiences in Plivo CX lets you sync contacts from the Shopify store in real-time. Then, it allows you to segment your customers based on unlimited rules. 

The best part? The segment build is code-free so anybody from your team can create customer segments and start sending personalized messages. 

Craft compelling SMS content

SMS messages have a 160-character limit, so it’s important to make every word count. Avoid jargon or complex words that may confuse the recipient. Write as though you’re having a conversation.

You can add the customer’s name or product information to make the message more relevant to them. Add urgency to nudge customers to make purchases. You can do that by sending time-sensitive offers such as, “code expiring in 20 minutes” or “offer valid till stock lasts”. 

Remember to add a CTA at the end of each message. Use action verbs to direct the recipient towards the desired action.

Here are some messages you can use in your bulk SMS campaign. 

• Example: “Reserve your spot today by replying YES.”
• Example: “Hi Jane, your 20% discount expires tomorrow! Use code JANE20 at checkout to claim your discount now: [link].”

If you don’t have a team of copywriters to help you with SMS copy, you can try Plivo CX’s Copywriter AI. The AI assistant crafts irresistible messages that attract responses. All you have to do is provide your goals, parameters, timing, and urgency and Copywriter AI crafts a message for you. 

Copywriter AI will provide message options so you can select and fine-tune the copy before sending. 

Comply with SMS marketing regulations

While sending bulk SMS campaigns, you must comply with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in the U.S. and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. 

• The TCPA requires you to obtain express written consent from consumers before sending marketing texts. 
• The GDPR focuses on protecting consumers' personal data and privacy. So, you have to be transparent about how you collect, store, and use customer data. 

A crucial element of complying with these regulations is including a clear opt-out option in every SMS message. This ensures that recipients can easily stop receiving messages if they choose to. 

To comply, you can include a line like "Reply STOP to unsubscribe". It satisfies this law requirement. 

Best practices for optimizing SMS campaigns 

It’s important to constantly optimize your SMS campaigns to ensure it reaches maximum customers at the right time. Let’s check out some pointers for which you need to optimize your campaigns for:

Timing

Messaging at the wrong time is a reason why 17% of customers are annoyed by brand messages. Late-night or early-morning messages are inappropriate and can tarnish your brand image.  

To send the right messages at the right time, you can try Plivo CX’s Journeys. This feature uses events from your storefront such as a first-time purchase, abandoned cart, order satisfaction survey, or a first-time purchase, and allows you to send a follow-up message to your customers. 

With Journeys, you are also in control of the timing of a message. For example, whenever a customer returns a product, you can send a feedback survey after 1 day to gauge what they didn’t like about the product. 

Or, whenever a customer abandons a cart, you can send a reminder message after 4-5 hours to nudge them to complete the purchase. 

Frequency

Other than timing, customers also feel annoyed by the frequency of messages. 49% of customers have said that they feel annoyed when brands message them too frequently. 

That’s why you should limit sending messages to 2-3 times a week. It’s a sweet spot that ensures customer interaction without annoying them. 

A/B testing

You never know what customers may like or dislike. Guessing would only take you so far. So, it’s important that you test your messages. A/B test SMS copy, offers, and CTAs to find what resonates best.

Then, you can repeat those messages to increase the ROI of your mass SMS marketing campaigns. 

Monitor performance

Track key metrics such as open rates, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates to refine your strategy. 

Automation

Automation helps you schedule messages, reminders, and follow-ups so you can send messages at the best times, like reminding customers about appointments or sending promotions during busy sales periods. 

Through automation, you can send personalized follow-up messages based on what the customer does. For example, if a customer clicks on a promotional message but doesn’t complete a purchase, you can send an automatic follow-up to remind them or offer a special deal. 

Tools to automate and personalize mass SMS marketing 

To kickstart and manage your mass SMS marketing campaign, you need robust tools that support you through the whole process. We’ve compiled a list of best mass SMS marketing tools in the market for you to choose from. 

Plivo CX

Plivo CX is a bulk SMS marketing automation platform that lets you send targeted messages to your customers.  It leverages Plivo’s premium carrier network to send personalized marketing messages across 220+ countries and low latency. 

Key features of Plivo CX:

• Audiences: With Plivo CX's Audiences feature, you can sync contacts from platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, or Magento to quickly create customer segments and generate segments using an unlimited set of rules.
• Journeys: The Journeys feature allows you to identify crucial customer actions to personalize messages and deliver send time-sensitive messages to the right audience at the perfect moment.
• Campaigns: Campaigns select specific customer segments, and the best communication channel, and schedule your messages for maximum effectiveness. Also, you can use performance metrics to enhance future campaigns based on data.
• Copywriter AI: Copywriter AI helps you craft compelling messages for your customers. Simply provide your objectives and key details like timing and urgency, and the AI- assistant will generate powerful, goal-oriented messages in no time.

Twilio

Twilio is a cloud communications platform that allows businesses to integrate SMS, voice, and messaging into their apps or services. 

Key features of Twilio

• Twilio Studio: Twilio Studio is a visual workflow builder that lets you create and automate SMS flows without needing to write code. You can use this to set up automated SMS responses, reminders, and promotional campaigns. 
• Real-time analytics: The platform also comes with robust real-time analytics to monitor message delivery, and engagement, and troubleshoot any issues. 

Attentive

Attentive offers powerful automation tools to help your businesses streamline your SMS marketing and communication processes. 

Key features of Attentive:

• Magic message & AI-powered content creation: Attentive comes with Magic Message that leverages data from billions of messages to generate optimized SMS copy and visuals tailored to specific audiences. 

• Dynamic audience segmentation: The platform utilizes engagement data to tailor messages and build high-performing audiences, so you can send the right message to reach the right customers at the optimal time​. 

• Automated campaigns: The platform has automation tools that support personalized, behavior-driven SMS campaigns triggered by customer actions, such as browsing or abandoning carts. This ensures messages are timely and relevant, increasing engagement and sales​. 

Kickstart your bulk SMS marketing campaign with Plivo CX

Now that you know what bulk SMS marketing is all about, you can see that handling it manually just won’t cut it. You need a solid platform like Plivo CX to automate the process. 

Plivo CX lets you send personalized messages to your customers using a premium carrier network from Plivo that spans over 220+ countries. 

With Plivo CX, you can:

• create targeted segments with their Audience feature
• automate timely responses with Journeys
• schedule campaigns for maximum impact, Plivo CX has you covered. 

Plus, their Copywriter AI can quickly generate engaging messages, so you don’t need a full content team to stay on track. Sign up to Plivo CX today and get started with your bulk SMS marketing campaign.