How to Send Mass Text Messages to Customers

Wondering how to send mass text messages to customers? You’re not alone. Many organizations are leveraging the power of mass texting to instantly reach and engage with their customers in a cost-effective way. With so many consumers already using texting in their daily lives, there is a greater opportunity to reach your audience on a channel they regularly check. Here are some stats that show why text messages are so effective as marketing solutions: 

• They  have a  98% open rate 
• Texts boast a 45% response rate 

The writing (or text messages, in this scenario) is on the wall. Text is part and parcel of your customers’ lives. In this post, we’ll walk you through how to send mass text messages to customers, the different businesses that would want to send text messages to customers, and how sending mass texts benefits both businesses and customers. 

What Is Mass Text Messaging? 

Also called bulk messaging, mass text messaging refers to the sending of an SMS (short message service) simultaneously to multiple phones using a mass SMS service provider. 

As popular as mass text messaging is, most countries require you to obtain permission from the recipient before you can continue sending messages. Typically, the cost of sending mass text messages is based on volume, with advanced features potentially increasing your costs. 

Mass Texting: How to Send Text Messages to Customers 

As mentioned earlier, mass text messages are sent via a bulk SMS service provider. These services have significant benefits over messaging apps and other forms of mass marketing; they are easy to use, offer a wide variety of features, and have friendly pricing options. 

Sending mass texts is easy. There are no technical optimizations to make or graphics to design. All you have to do is log in to your preferred platform, choose the customers you would like to send text messages to, compose your message, schedule it, and analyze the results later on. To learn more about this process, check out How to Send Out Mass Texts: A Guide for Businesses. 

Effective Strategies for Sending Mass Text Messages 

To understand how best to send mass text messages to customers, you need to understand the limitations of the best mass text services today. 

Short Code Texting 

Most businesses use short code texting to send reminders, shipping notices, notifications, and flight updates. These are usually five- or six-digit codes such as 22992. While short codes are obviously effective in sending mass texts, they can be costly—besides the monthly subscription; you may also have to pay per message fees. Short codes are ideal for mass marketing messages (versus conversational texts where the recipient can respond), as they are sent much faster. With short codes, you can send thousands of messages at one time.

Related: How to Get a Text Short Code for Your Business 

Long Code Texting 

In the U.S, long codes refer to a standard 10-digit number, like a typical phone number with area code. Long codes are readily available and cost less compared to short codes. Carriers typically designate codes for person-to-person (P2P) messaging only. This means that they can’t be used for high-volume business applications such as mass text messaging but are ideal for conversational texting where your recipients can respond to your text messages. 

Long codes often have limits of 50-100 contacts in groups and a daily message limit of no more than 500 texts. The delivery speed of long codes is 100 text messages per hour. As such, if you have urgent messages to send to multiple customers, long codes aren’t the ideal option. Filtering these messages can prove problematic unless you are using a new 10DLC code, ensuring your communication doesn’t end up erroneously blocked as spam.

Toll-free Texting 

Various SMS texting platforms offer services that allow businesses to send mass text messages from toll-free numbers. Some benefits of toll-free texting include the recipient likely not being charged for the text by their carrier, high delivery rates, engagement in 2-way text conversations, and text messages are easier to track and mange than emails.

Other Considerations 

Always ensure that you include your company name in the text messages you send to customers. This will ensure that they know that you’re the one who sent the text. Also, ensure that you don’t bar customers from opting out of your messaging service. Offer them the option to opt out as per the regulations. 

Practical Application of Mass Texting for Various Organizations 

Here’s a look at the ways sending texts to customers can generate results for various businesses and organizations: 

Retailers: Marketers can use retail text messages to send promos, coupons, upcoming event info, or notify customers a product they were looking for is in stock. Text message redemption rates are 8 times higher than in email mass texting. 

Health & Fitness: Fitness centers and gyms often struggle to sell new memberships. What’s more, missed appointments can be pain points for trainers. Health and fitness organizations can send text messages to customers to attract new customers, confirm training session times, and even learn more about what their members expect from them. 

Restaurant and Hospitality: From handling room and dinner reservations to spa reservations and other concierge services, mass texting for restaurants and hospitality enables you to better communicate with your customers and provide excellent service. And with a polling feature, you can learn more about what their interests and expectations are. SMS marketing gives you valuable insights that you can use to remarket to your customers in the future with their preferred events, dishes, and services. 

Real Estate: Mass text messaging campaigns can be beneficial to real estate brokers in finding new deals, helping property managers collect rent, and even help realtors advertise properties that are available in the market. You send text messages to customers and prospects and even organize agents, coordinate open houses, and keep clients up-to-date with marketplace news. 

Schools and Higher Learning Institutions: Students can receive reminders for activities like upcoming examination dates, club meetings, and sports practices. They can also be advised about last-minute changes, closures, deadlines, and financial aid reminders. Mass texting can also be used to parents and alumni informed and engaged.

Related: Higher Education Mass Texting: Reach Students and Staff With Ease 

Religious Organizations: Religious-based organizations can use mass texting in various ways. They can touch base with choir members about practice venues and times, remind young congregants about youth group events, invite religious members to various events, and even send inspirational verses and messages. 

Political Parties and Nonprofits: Nonprofit organizations and political groups can make texting a cornerstone of their outreach efforts. They can use text messages to coordinate events and rallies, learn more about their contacts, issue media responses, solicit donations, or communicate opinions on issues. 

Employers: Employers can use text messages to reach workers. Texting can be an effective communication tool in times of emergency when data networks become overloaded. They can also use it to manage applications and fill job requisitions. 

How Does Mass Texting Benefit Organizations and Customers? 

Here are four reasons why you should consider SMS texting for your organization: 

1. Gather Customer Feedback 

When you send text messages to customers, you can gather more feedback with easy polling and quick “yes” or “no” surveys. Two-way texting means that customers can send their replies to you. This can help you foster a healthy relationship with them and help them feel engaged with your brand. 

2. Encourage Participation and Send Reminders for Events 

Text messages allow you to remind your customers of important dates, times, and milestones. Sending text messages that remind people about various issues can help prevent misunderstandings and minimize the burden of having to reschedule an event or postpone doing a certain task at crucial points. 

3. Reduce Appointment No-Shows 

When you book several appointments for a given period, it can do more than upset your day if an appointment is missed. Even a single missed appointment can cost your organization substantially in wasted effort and planning. Forbes reported that no-shows cost the U.S. health care system more than $150 billion a year and individual physicians an average of $200 per unused time slot. 

Mass texting can prevent this from happening. With appointment texts sent conveniently a few days prior to the appointment and another on the D-day, the number of no-shows will reduce significantly. 

4. Keep Staff and Customers in the Loop 

Finding time to gather all your staff together to discuss various important issues can be challenging. While texting may not replace human connection, it is incredibly convenient, particularly now when people are working remotely or hybrid. Texting is an easy way to stay connected without having to send an email or make a call. 

Similarly, when you send text messages to customers, you can keep them in the loop on various matters, including delivery dates, the existence of new products, product update dates, and so on. 

Reach More Customers With TrueDialog 

Do you want to provide the best possible customer experience and build strong, lasting relationships with your customers with every mass texting marketing campaign? TrueDialog can help. 

TrueDialog is a business SMS texting platform built for businesses and higher education institutions who want a full, enterprise-grade texting platform with more features at half the price of competitors. Our platform integrates with various CRMs such as Salesforce and marketing automation software such as Eloqua so that businesses can optimize their text messaging marketing campaigns. Contact TrueDialog to start your free trial.