Author: Akase Ebirigor

SMS (short message service) as we all know is so popular now because its one of the cheapest and fastest ways of pass information, be it for personal use or for business purpose.

SMS billing models are the various methods in which people are charged for sending SMS. Many bulk SMS platforms use SMS billing to regulate their costs, monitor clients’ payment status and enhance profitability rate. Bulk SMS messages are charged according to the following.

1. Text message length
2. Number of recipients
3. Text message destination

One SMS Page contains 160 characters including spaces. So the longer the message, the longer the cost. There are 2 major SMS billing models that SMS providers use, and these are,

SMS Billing using Local currency

In this case, the SMS is charged using the local currency of that country. This means that, each time you fund you bulk SMS account, it will be credited with the same amount as the currency you paid and you would be charged in your currency. For example, a bulk SMS provider could charge N3 per SMS and when funding you could pay N1000, your bulk SMS account will be credited with N1000 and you will be charged N3 for every SMS you send from that account.

SMS Unit Billing

In this case, the SMS is charged using units and not your local currency.  This means that even after making payment to fund you bulk SMS account, once it is credited it will be converted to units and your SMS will be charged from it. For example, if a bulk SMS provider charges N2 per unit for SMS and you make a payment of N1000 to fund your account, you will be credited with 500 units and not N1000 and each SMS you send will be charge per unit.

Bulk SMS units can be a little bit confusing if not well understood. Many SMS providers today claim they offer the cheapest bulk SMS service in Nigeria. Most of these providers may sell their SMS for as low as 0.90 kobo per unit but go ahead and charge 2.7 units per SMS to a single recipient. The implication here is that a customer may be happy buying SMS units for 0.90 kobo unknown to him that he is invariably paying N2.43 for per SMS.

A good SMS provider charges 1 unit per SMS to 1 recipient. That’s why in Ozioma Messaging and Communications Platform, we sell SMS units for as low as N2.50 per unit and charge 1 unit per SMS. The bulk SMS units does not expire on Ozioma, so you can use your remaining units any time until you exhaust it.

SMS has an important part to play in business communications. However, in terms of the character limit, there are some challenges with SMS. Limiting your message to 160 characters can be tricky at times, especially if you have much to say. Some organizations view it as a challenge, others view it not quite so favorably. So what happens if you simply cannot squeeze your message into 160 characters? You use concatenated SMS!!

What does concatenated SMS mean?

Concatenated SMS messages allow a phone to send messages longer than 160 characters. The sender composes a message normally, however, behind the scenes, the phone detects the message length. If the message is less than or equal to 160 characters, the phone sends a one standard SMS message. However, if the message is greater than 160 characters, the phone automatically divides the longer message into multiple, shorter SMS messages which are then transmitted to the recipient separately.

The recipient’s phone takes these multiple, shorter SMS messages and recombines them into the original message which was sent. Because the individual segments of the complete message need to be recombined in this way, this is referred to as ‘concatenated SMS’. The recipient’s phone will collect and reassemble those messages into the same order you sent it to recreate the message.

 In order to achieve this seamless delivery, additional information is added to each individual concatenated SMS message. This additional information, referred to as the user data header (UDH), provides identification and ordering information. For example, the UDH could relate the three individual concatenated SMS messages to each other, and indicate the order for recombination.

Generally, telephone companies count individual concatenated SMS text messages separately even though they are being recombined at the phone into a single message. This means a message containing 180 characters could potentially invoke a charge for two SMS text messages, even if the sender/recipient only sees a single message. Note that if you send a message with more characters than the threshold limit, your message will be cut off. For example, if you send a message with more than 459 characters, but only allow up to 2 concatenated messages, your message will be cut off at 306 characters and the recipient will not receive the entire message.

SMS Concatenation with Ozioma Messaging and Communications Platform

To ensure that your messages are delivered Ozioma supports concatenated SMS with a default setting of 3 message parts. As with every mobile provider, each message part is charged as 1 SMS. To ensure your messages are being delivered as you intended, sign up for a free Ozioma account at https://app.ozioma.net

In this age businesses have to face so many obstacles to survive like competition in the market, new technology, globalization etc. To meet these hurdles Bulk SMS Messaging is an innovative technology/strategy for businesses.

I see small business owners making the same mistakes over and over again when trying to send bulk SMS messages to their customers. These mistakes are obviously hurting their ability to connect with customers and prospects! Yet, they keep making these mistakes over and over again.

Seven Major Mistakes Business Owners Make When Trying to Send Bulk SMS Messages

Mistake #1 – Not using bulk SMS messages for marketing.

It puzzles me how most small business owners only use “word of mouth” for marketing and think that only big companies should use bulk SMS. How do you reach out to new prospects and customers, and get them to engage with your company? How do you get a prospect to buy for the first time? How do you get a current customer to buy again? One of the most effective ways I’ve found is with mobile marketing… specifically by sending bulk SMS messages.

Mistake #2 – Not using a professional SMS texting platform to send text messages

This is a huge mistake many business owners make when first getting started with sending bulk SMS texts. They want to save a little money… so they start collecting phone numbers from customers and prospects. Then they start texting from their own phones! Apart from the fact that it will even cost more, your phone could be stolen and all your contacts will be lost.

If you’re going to send bulk SMS messages, sign up for a professional bulk SMS platform. I’m partial to my company Ozioma Messaging and Communications Platform, we have a great SMS marketing platform.

Mistake #3 – Sending uninteresting and unorganized Bulk SMS messages

When sending Bulk SMS messages please keep in mind that the message should be in an organized manner. The message should be organized according to the information. The objective/idea of the message should be simple and effective. Most people don’t think about the message they are going to send and they end up sending the same messages again and again making it uninteresting.

Mistake #4 – Not including a call to action in every SMS message

This is a huge mistake many business owners make. CTA (call to action) is one of the most effective part in bulk SMS which gives the customer the reason to take action. Customers can know why they received the messages in the first place. The main purpose to sending an SMS is to ask the customer to do or buy something. If that is missing, Bulk SMS will not be very effective. So there should be a proper CTA (Call to action).

Mistake #5– Sending lengthy messages

Due to the changing times, everyone is in hurry to reach somewhere, so everybody expects concise, to the point and informative content. Nobody has time to read 500-word story as an advertisement, few smart words in a line should be enough to influence the customer positively. There is 3Cs technique to create quality content –Clear, Concise and Call to Action. A long message appears to be broken up, confusing and unprofessional in nature.

Mistake #6– Not using professional language

Not everyone can understand business terms or slang terms, therefore you should create content according to customers. The content of the message should be clear, simple and easy to understand in nature. In order to enhance your brand credibility, use professional language (free from acronyms and slangs)

Mistake #7– Lacking personal essence in the SMS

The way you present your advertisement is a salient feature. The quality of the content should be such that it makes the customer feel special, meet their needs and should contain brief information about your product. In order to make them feel special, address them by their name, keep them updated with latest trends in the markets, provide them with special discounts etc.

By sending bulk SMS, you can reach your existing customers along with some new customers. OZIOMA MESSAGING AND COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM is one of the best bulk SMS service platform, helping businesses to reach their customers within the shortest time through various bulk SMS packages.

So, if you have made your mind to start bulk SMS campaign for your business, then here are few tips which you can follow for getting maximum success.

1. Know your target customers:

It is essential for you to differentiate your relevant customers and your random customers or prospects. Bulk SMS campaigns should be targeted as much as possible. It’s likely the audience has already interacted with your business in some way or other – they may be a current customer, a new prospect or previously purchased from your business. Know your targets.

2. Keep it short and simple:

Keep your message below 160 characters. Going above this limit could lead to your messages appearing fragmented on older phones. You’ll also be charged more. Shorter, succinct messages will make more of an impact on recipients anyway so there’s no reason not to keep things simple.

3. Showcase your business name:

You don’t want your texts to appear with an anonymous number shown up top. A text coming from your business name builds trust in your message and lets people know a text isn’t spammy or malicious. It also boosts brand visibility and looks professional. Most bulk SMS services like Ozioma enables you to edit the sender ID.

4. Personalize your messages:

Although bulk SMS campaigns are sent out in large numbers, this doesn’t mean you can’t personalize your messages. Most bulk SMS service providers will allow you to alter messages to suit a specific recipient based on the information in your database. Address people by their names, refer to an account number or mention the date and time of an event.

5. Perfect timing:

Time plays a significant role in every activity. Therefore, for successful bulk SMS campaigning, you should send your SMS at favorable times. Don’t send it too early in the morning or too late at night. Then you can also send SMS embedded with “deals that will expire soon” option for increasing the curiosities among customers.

6. By sending reminder or triggered message:

These triggered messages are sent when some regular customer suddenly lose interest in your business. Then you can send SMS to them with some deals to develop their interest. This is called triggered message that helps in provoking customers

7. Send relevant messages:

Sending bulk SMS to your customer is your privilege not your right. Therefore, don’t make a mistake of bothering your customer with too many irrelevant messages. Your messages should be like if you don’t send, your customer will miss them rather than being irritated with so many messages.

Thus, we can see that for a successful bulk SMS campaigning, we need to send an SMS with excellent content to a relevant customer at the right time.

You can create a free corporate account for your business on Ozioma at https://app.ozioma.net and boost your business with bulk SMS campaigning.

As the name implies, bulk SMS is the sending of large volume of text messages to multiple phone numbers at the same time.

Bulk messaging is the dissemination of large numbers of SMS messages for delivery to mobile phone terminals. It is used by individuals, media companies, enterprises, schools, churches/ religious bodies, banks (for marketing and fraud control)and consumer brands for a variety of purposes including entertainment, enterprise and mobile marketing.

Bulk messaging is commonly used for alerts, reminders, marketing but also for information and communication between both staff and customers.

USES OF BULK SMS- WHO NEEDS BULK SMS?

Everybody needs bulk SMS. Its effectiveness as a communication tool coupled with its low cost makes it as asset for everyone from individuals to organizations and business owners.

Individuals use bulk SMS service for sending personal messages to families and loved ones. It is proven to be cheaper than the use of airtime in mobile phones for personal messages and hence its suitability for this purpose. Additionally, individuals can use bulk SMS for events management, be it wedding invitations, birthday invitations or for political campaigns.

Firms and organizations also uses bulk SMS to send alerts, reminders to clients and for internal communications with their staffs. Other important information are communicated with the public using bulk SMS. Lots of organizations like banks, health sector, government owned and private firms all uses bulk SMS. 

Business owners equally uses bulk SMS for marketing and advertisement purposes. Updates concerning products and services, reminders and other essential things are communicated using bulk SMS.

Churches/ Religious bodies or Associations whether voluntary or professional, also uses bulk SMS as an integral medium of communication with the general public and their members.

The uses of bulk SMS service are endless. It remains a fact then that everyone needs bulk SMS service.

HOW TO USE BULK SMS SERVICE

Bulk SMS is generally sent from software hosted by platforms where people go to and send their bulk SMS. Many top firms like some banks have a personal platform where they send their bulk SMS. For companies, businesses and individuals though who cannot afford to own a personal platform, there are several bulk SMS platforms in Nigeria which can be used to send the bulk messages.

Ozioma Messaging and Communications Platform offers a quality and affordable bulk SMS platform where you can send your bulk SMS conveniently and cheaply. All you have to do is register for free at https://app.ozioma.net and start enjoying the exciting bulk SMS experience.

What is SMS?

SMS (short message service) is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet, and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols to enable mobile devices to exchange short text messages.

 If you’re one of the 91% of adults in the Nigeria who owns a mobile phone, chances are that you use SMS daily. Since the 1980s, SMS has become an important medium for both business and personal communications. In fact, more than 560 billion SMS are sent monthly all over the world! There are so many different ways to send text messages today that regardless of whether you use an iPhone or an Android, you’ve probably used multiple texting applications

How do Whatsapp, Facebook and other OTT applications differ from SMS?

An over-the-top (OTT) application messaging is defined as instant messaging services or online chat provided. Because OTT applications and SMS use completely different protocols to send messages, each has different platform and network requirements. OTT applications require an internet connection while SMS needs a mobile network connection. And while OTT apps need to be downloaded from Android app stores, SMS is supported by all modern mobile phones. As a result, each has its own relative advantages and disadvantages.

SMS is a universal technology supported by every single mobile network and device today. All you need to start texting over SMS is another person’s phone number. This makes SMS a popular channel for businesses to communicate with customers because it is more immediate than email and doesn’t require any additional app downloads. OTT apps, on the other hand, are ‘walled gardens.’ Someone using WhatsApp can’t text someone else using Facebook or WeChat. They both need to be using the same apps.

Commercial applications of SMS

People are spending a significant amount of time on their phones these days: the average Nigerian adult uses a mobile device nearly 3 hours every day. Since much of this time is spent texting, many businesses have correctly surmised that SMS is one of the most effective channels for businesses to reach new and existing customers. The most effective business text messages are timely, informative, compelling, and easy to understand.

People simply prefer to communicate with businesses by text. The higher open and response rates — 90% of all text messages are read within 3 seconds — make SMS marketing even more attractive, especially when used in the context of customer service.

This is one of the reasons we have provided several methods for people in all parts of the country and the world at large to send SMS messages using Ozioma Messaging and Communication Platform https://app.ozioma.net to reach their expected target audience.