What Is Mass Texting & How Does It Work?

Mass texts are quickly becoming one of the most prevalent avenues for marketing strategies. As companies invest in more targeted communication and look to connect with an increasing number of customers, mass texting presents a simple, cost-effective solution with proven results.

Sending mass texts to customers is a simple process. It involves identifying your company’s needs, signing up with a mass text service, and sending SMS or MMS campaigns to a pre-determined list of subscribers. While this process involves three core components, it actually breaks down into five steps.

Keep reading to learn how to send a mass text and create effective (and successful) campaigns.

How To Send Mass Texts

If you want to know how to send mass texts to customers, then you’re in luck! Though it may seem daunting or time-consuming to send out hundreds or even thousands of SMS or MMS messages, it actually only involves five simple steps.

Below, we’ve outlined these steps and how easy it is to get started. (Click here to learn more about what is mass texting.)

Step 1: Define Your Goals And Needs

Before you start sending campaigns, think about your marketing goals and needs:

• Identify your primary customer base and the targeted demographics therein; decide whether you want to grow or strength each audience (or both)
• Analyze your current marketing techniques and pinpoint how mass texting fits into and can bolster these strategies
• Set quantifiable metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you’ll use to measure your campaign’s success

Sending mass texts isn’t a magic fix-all; when incorrectly used, it’s ineffective at best and detrimental at worst. That is to say, don’t just sign up for a mass text service and start sending out random texts to your subscribers.

Instead, think about who you want to send texts to, how it can help your business, and the type of results you want to see.

Step 2: Sign Up With A Service

If and when you decide that sending mass texts is the right step for your company, you’ll need to start researching different providers. Critically analyze your company’s needs, taking into consideration both your current circumstances and projected future standing.

Here are just a few aspects to consider:

• The size of your customer base and how geographically dispersed they are, both domestically and internationally
• Your company’s budget and how many resources it can allocate to a mass texting service on a monthly and yearly basis
• The specific features needed for your campaigns, such as MMS capabilities, mobile keywords, auto responses, and text scheduling

It’s also wise to consider the amount of programming you want to do. Some software services are out-of-the-box and require no programming, while other text APIs require integration into your application.

Do your research and find the service that meets all of your needs. Don’t hesitate to ask for demos or take advantage of free trials.

Step 3: Upload Subscriber Contact Lists

Once you’ve chosen the right provider for your company, you can begin uploading your subscriber contact lists.

Check your service to see if you need to upload individual lists (such as separating your subscribers by demographics) or if you can filter lists after uploading them. The latter is preferable, since it only requires you to upload and maintain one master list.

Before you upload your list, make sure to run through the checklist below:

• Are the numbers valid? (i.e., are they correct?)
• If valid, are the numbers still active?
• Are the numbers in a standardized format?

To make this easier, you can invest in a phone validator. These applications work in tandem with your mass texting software to scrub, clean, and standardize your contact lists.

This adds immediate value to your campaigns since it ensures all of your texts are received, but also cuts down on long-term manual maintenance and continues to preserve data integrity.

Step 4: Create Impactful Campaigns

Once you ensure your contact lists are correct and active, it’s time to craft your text campaign. Features like campaign templates make this easier, but no one knows your customers better than you.

As such, only you can decide the ‘how,’ ‘when,’ and ‘to whom’:

• How – Decide whether you’re going to send your campaigns via a long code or short code, what keywords you’re going to use, and if the texts will be SMS or MMS messages
• When – Identify the best time to send out your campaigns so that they have the most impact; schedule your campaigns to automatically send at that time and day
• To Whom – Choose which customers should receive which campaigns and filter the contact lists accordingly

Above all, campaigns should provide tangible value to customers and include a clear call-to-action (CTA). If subscribers take the time to read your text and follow the CTA (click a link, use a code, etc.), then they’ll want to see proof that their investment was worthwhile.

Depending on your customer base and their specific accessibility needs, you can also consider supplementing your campaigns with a voice broadcaster.

Step 5: Send Mass Texts To Users

Now that you know who your audience is and what the campaign content and goals are, the only step left to take is to send your mass texts.

You can do this as soon as you finish the campaign or schedule it to send at a later date and time. Make sure to take timezones and geographic location into account. After all, no one appreciates being woken up by a marketing text at 4:00 AM.

Using real-time reports and the KPIs and metrics you set earlier, you’ll be able to analyze how well your campaigns perform over time. This insight will also provide information on which customer bases are the most receptive/ responsive and what features are most effective.

How To Get Started Sending Mass Texts To Customers

Esendex’s Dash Notify is a simple, out-of-the-box text message marketing service created for all types of companies, no matter the size or industry. Our easy-to-use platform involves no programming and is completely scalable to meet your unique communication needs, both now and in the future.

Our feature-packed mass texting solution connects you with customers in more than 190 countries, while our 99.9% uptime SLA ensures your messages are always delivered on time. It only takes a few hours to send your first campaign, from the time you sign up to the text notification your subscribers will receive.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to send mass text messages quickly and easily, talk with our experts or start a free trial. Our platform offers superior performance, volume-based pricing, and online tutorials to help get you started.