The 6 most known SMS (un)truths: Find out more about the rumors

Some claim that SMS communication is passé, others see it as THE future. There is a lot of speculation and rumour going around that makes entrepreneurs insecure when choosing a valuable communication strategy. Let’s take a closer look at 6 of these SMS myths.

SMS myths

Behind the term SMS lies much more than the first glance might suggest. Not only the simple sending of text messages between mobile phones is part of this service, but a whole range of technologies and innovations are contained in the communication tool SMS. Therefore, for many users, the true meaning and – above all – the numerous possible uses are still being lost in the dark.

If you take a closer look, you will better understand the processes that often control transmissions automatically in the background, and you will definitely discover what potential SMS actually has for your own company.

It is often claimed that text marketing is spamming. In fact, however, many more spam emails find their way to the consumer. SMS, on the other hand, are often used for higher value messages. The reason: In contrast to email, every SMS costs the sender money.

This prevents your SMS from being misjudged as spam:

• Offer the option to deactivate newsletters, for example.
• Use personal salutations and senders. Even mass SMS messages can be easily configured with a personalizable introduction.
• Offer your customers the opportunity for feedback. A return channel via Inbound SMS allows recipients to reply to your message.

Furthermore, the SMS is often assumed to be a pure marketing instrument and only serves to lure consumers’ money out of their pockets. This SMS myth is very controversial, because YES: you can run wonderful marketing campaigns via SMS and successfully establish products and brands. But also NO: because there is much more than that. Mobile messaging can be an excellent service.

If you want to convey added value to your customers, don’t consider SMS as a marketing tool:

• Notifications to customers that their car/glasses/clock has been repaired replace cumbersome pick-up notices or disruptive calls.
• A little welcome at the hotel, in the company’s own WLAN or congratulations on your birthday are a pleasant touch, without any ulterior motives.
• Additional information about products, support but also e.g. changed opening hours, holiday replacements etc. are important information that can be optimally transmitted by SMS to selected contacts.
• Similarly, appointments can be optimally coordinated with customers and business partners and much, much more.

This is rarely the case. Perhaps in the organisation and alerting of emergency forces or in notifications within the framework of server monitoring. Otherwise, SMS with the right strategy are very individual and convey customer orientation.

To give your message a personal touch, you first have to segment your target audience correctly. This allows you to manage dynamic groups in your address book and, for example, send certain information about a new product only to selected customers who are explicitly interested in this genre.

Personalizable salutations can also be defined, visual or physical phone numbers can be integrated as senders, on the basis of which customers can recognize your company and, if desired, reply to the received message.

Furthermore, SMS can be converted flexibly via a professional gateway. For example, into an email but also into a voice message (Text2Speech), which is then read to the recipient personally on the phone.

Internet marketing has one weakness: the recipient needs Internet access and, of course, must be online often enough. In many countries/ generations neither one nor the other applies. In addition, SMS are compatible with almost all mobile phone models and can be received across networks.

With the right SMS products you can successfully place your marketing campaigns without any problems. What is important is a scalable gateway that can be flexibly adapted to your requirements.

This gives you an incredible number of possibilities to spread your messages, be it as Email2SMS, SMS2Email or directly from your application with tools such as seven-cli.

All features can be integrated easily. For example, you can send messages with a time delay, only to selected groups or automatically generated PINs, TANs, OTPs, Public WIFI Codes, etc. This allows you to benefit from the advantages of an Internet gateway without your customers having to activate Internet access themselves.

Another widespread misconception is that mass SMS is always backed by an equally massive company. If smaller and lesser-known organisations were to try their hand at this, they would lack confidence in an established image. This is not entirely true.

Bulk SMS are also excellent for customer retention, provided they have qualitative content that offers customers added value. These can be e.g. newsletters, invitations to events or information on new publications.

Discount campaigns, surveys and competitions can be strategically distributed as well. Here again the aforementioned customer segmentation plays a decisive role in marketing the product or the company without being labelled as a “spammer”.

Here the comparison to the email is drawn frequently. Depending on the individual setting of the recipient’s telephone, however, both email and SMS appear as push notifications in the display.

Nowadays everybody can decide for themselves how far they want to be “disturbed” by their smartphone. Push notifications, mobile data, roaming, sounds – everything can be set individually. Only unpleasant callers have to be blocked individually – via SMS you reach your customers not only much more effectively, but also without being declared a troublemaker.

Here again, the content of your SMS is particularly important, as is the sending time. Depending on the user behaviour of your customers towards your offer, you can define special transmission times. In this way you – or your company – can achieve much more.

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