Bulk Messaging as a Marketing Tool

Bulk email messaging does have a nice list of favorable features that make it a draw, but then there are some who think that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. However, with the swiftly advancing move of technological advancements, it is always wise to stay ahead of current trends by analyzing what’s available on the market and determining if and how those changes would affect your business.

For small business owners, bulk messaging may not even be a key attraction for their marketing plan efforts, but for larger, more diverse companies, bulk messaging may be the best viable option to consider. This may be mainly because of the large, widespread effect that bulk messaging has for audience with consumers.

With bulk messaging, you are able to use a mobile phone or device to send and receive text messages, or numeric messages. More accurately known as SMS messages which stands for Short Message Service, they are the most commonly sent types of messages. Currently, in a large portion of European countries, there are over 160 billion SMS messages that are sent each month. Business owners look at this number as a prime opportunity to connect with potential and current customers on a frequent basis. And the primary draw about this type of messaging service is that most all SMS messages are transmittable even if the servers or mobile networks are experiencing high, overloaded usages. For business owners, this means that their marketing messages will still get to their customers when they send them out.

But is that feature enough reason use this as a marketing tool? Yes!

Bulk messaging systems like SMS are certainly easier to use and manage than most other methods, which is a large reason why companies use them. There are no setup costs associated with the tool. Simply originating the email message and sending it from a compatible device is all that is needed to make this work.

Businesses can also schedule messages in advance to send out to their customers. This is especially helpful if there are announcements that will be sent to the customer base, or, for companies or small businesses that have a small marketing department and not enough manpower to manage a marketing system on a daily basis. By scheduling messages, more effort and productivity time can be placed into other areas of the business.

Bulk messaging is also a great way to incentivize any business, by using a referral method. Many businesses have gained profitable success this way by requiring the recipient to “reply with a code” in order to receive certain benefits. Also, when they refer friend(s), they may also get other benefits. Companies rarely lose customers with this method, especially if the company is offering the customer something that is truly valuable or what they’re looking for.

Companies can also effectively manage groups and categories to which they send messages. The company can set up different contacts within a subset of groups to notate particular demographics. This could include lists with

•  – parents of school-aged children
•  – senior citizens over 55
•  – college students
•  – housewives with an income of $50,000 or more per year

With this information, the company can customize several different types of campaigns that would address each group, and send them out at the appropriate time and with a relevant product. For instance, the company may do a mass bulk messaging campaign to the parents of school children at the holiday time to advertise a new video game that’s coming out. With a “reply” and entering a particular code, the recipient may receive 50% off the purchase of the video game. The idea is to get people interested in the product (or service), and to stoke their buying interest. If this can be managed solely through virtual methods like bulk messaging, it greatly reduces marketing costs while increasing the company’s bottom line.

The bulk messaging method works for most any tangible product and most (localized) services. The key is to develop a strong marketing plan from beginning to end that will allow the company to capture each demographic from which they can expect buying results. From there, it’s simply a matter of managing and tweaking the information as needed.