The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) created rules that must be followed if you want to use SMS marketing:

• You must state the frequency of your SMS messages. In other words, how often you’ll be sending these messages to people who have signed up for them.
• You must provide a way to reach customer support, e.g. “Text HELP”
• You must include a message about cellular providers, e.g. “Msg & Data rates may apply”
• You must include a link to your Terms and Conditions
• You must always let your subscribers know they can opt out of messages and provide a way to do so, e.g. “Text STOP to unsubscribe.”

The TRA incites harsh punishments for those who don’t follow the standards it’s set out for SMS marketing. We’re not talking a slap on the wrist – more like a slap with heavy fines.

The sender-id is the originating number (or alpha string) that appears on the recipient’s phone. A sender-id is a string of up to 11 characters. First 2 characters represents “AD” means Promotion, which followed by an hyphen(-). You can use remaining 8 characters of the sender-id. It could be your company name or brand name. For example, if your company name is BulkSMS then the sender-id can be like AD-BulkSM

Yes, technical support is available through email and phone. We have technical staff available 24 Hours a day. You can raise a support ticket to notify a problem with our tech support team.

It’s important to regularly maintain your contact list to ensure that you are not sending messages to invalid numbers. We provide you with real time delivery reports with details of message sent and their delivery status.

No, it is recommended to have the recipient’s consent to send messages to them. They should identify who is sending the message. You should provide a functional unsubscribe facility for the target recipients.

There can be various reasons for this.
• You might be sending the messages to a number listed in TRA registry.
• The mobile is in a not reachable place with low or no network signal.
• There may be a handset problem. Put your mobile SIM card in another handset and try.

Developer API (Application Programming Interface) is a medium which provides the options to request and execute the SMS functionalities. Our HTTP based API extends our sms functionalities by allowing you to integrate the sms features with your Web and Desktop applications

Frequency of messages should be no more than two to three times a month, especially as you’re building your list and nurturing trust with your subscribers on this channel. Don’t send the same message over and over again. If it’s the same offer, say it a different way.

Set your SMS marketing campaigns to send only during business hours of business days. This channel is still personal. Even though subscribers have explicitly opted in to receiving messages to you, they’re still going to be wary of this marketing channel. Don’t wear out your welcome; be respectful of subscribers’ time and attention.

The best topics to promote with your SMS messages include:

• promotional – giveaways, discounts, special sales
• surveys – ask your prospects or customer what they think
• customer service – follow up with your customers with appointment times or to get feedback on service interactions
• transactional – send receipts and reminders
• event invitations – invite guests to your events with a short message

That’s a big no. At least at this point in the lifetime of SMS marketing, there’s no way to include images in your SMS messages. Less work for your creative team, but a little more work on the creative side for you.

Not many. This is no time to be verbose. Network providers limit SMS marketing messages to 160 characters in English and 70 Characters in Arabic message. You’ll have to get to the point while enticing your SMS subscriber to take action. We won’t lie – this is no easy feat. SMS marketing is a new channel, and as such, comes with new challenges. No doubt learning to write concisely AND persuasively will be a learning curve, but it’s a must if you want your SMS marketing to be a success.

SMS is a casual communication channel in our personal lives, so striking a more casual tone in your SMS marketing messages is appropriate. Striking too professional of a tone with SMS can come off sounding cold or standoffish. However, avoid swinging too far to the other side of the fence in being overly casual. Don’t use abbreviations or slang unless it’s a typical part of your already established branding.

You can ask existing subscribers to opt in for SMS marketing campaigns. Remember, you must gain explicit consent from them and record exactly how and when you received that consent. You can also gain new SMS subscribers along with new email subscribers by updating any website forms to include an option for SMS marketing. Again, make sure it is 100% clear what people are opting in to receive.

SMS isn’t just a powerful channel on its own. It increases the potency of an entire lifecycle marketing strategy when combined with other channels such a website and email marketing. Integrate your SMS messaging through marketing automation campaigns. When someone takes an action (or doesn’t take an action), you can set up a personalized SMS message to send to them to increase the likelihood of conversion.

You can choose to set up your SMS marketing through software services dedicated to this one channel. You can also set up your SMS marketing through many marketing automation services and email service providers who have now built SMS capabilities into their systems. We recommend the latter approach, as it supports an integrated lifecycle marketing approach that will ultimately make your entire marketing program a success.

When it’s all said and done, SMS isn’t a solution for every marketing challenge out there. SMS does have its advantages and definite downsides. These should probably be considered, depending on your use case, before settling on it.