Tools and strategies for sending bulk SMS messages
Bulk text mess aging is a marketing practice that involves sending text messages in large numbers to multiple recipients.
The aim? To communicate easily with customers, subscribers or registrants (to promote sales campaigns, for example). To do this, companies generally use SMS sending software.
What actions should you take and what advice should you follow to optimise your SMS communication campaigns? Which technological solution should you choose to support these operations?
We tell you all about it.
What is bulk text messaging?
Mass text messaging involves sending the same message to a large number of recipients simultaneously. This work is carried out via dedicated platforms, specially designed to handle high volumes of messages. The aim? To reach a large audience quickly, whether for a promotion, an alert or important information.
This service is widely used in marketing strategies, as it enables customers or prospects to be reached with direct content that is easy to read on mobile phones.
Why send bulk SMS messages? The advantages
Sending bulk SMS messages is cost-effective
Mass text messaging means sending text messages to a large number of recipients. But using mobile terminals would quickly become very expensive and would be detrimental to the productivity of any company.
For these economic and practical reasons, text messaging systems have been developed with the rise of new technologies: they now meet the expectations of marketing managers.
For example, it is possible to achieve :
- a significant reduction in cost by purchasing a pack of messages ;
- degressive rates depending on the packages offered by the dedicated platforms.
In fact, it all depends on the volume of SMS messages sent and the features offered by your software.
👉 In short, SMS marketing has grown in popularity over the years, because it complements the communication strategy while optimising the budget by means of sliding-scale prices.
Sending SMS marketing is essential to your communication
Mass text messaging is particularly well suited to a marketing strategy. Prospecting using text messaging means exploiting a performance lever that promises higher conversion and transformation rates than email or post.
The SMS channel has a 98% open rate.
Le Journal du Marketing
💡 Good to know: the new uses for SMS go beyond the simple commercial offer. It's now about offering more personalisation to the recipient, in favour of the performance of your mobile digital strategy. In other words, send the right message at the right time to the right person, just like with emailing.
When should bulk SMS be used? Examples of use cases
SMS advertising is the form of advertising most familiar to the general public.
And yet, the uses of this service vary: each use (and each objective) corresponds to a type of SMS campaign.
This table presents a variety of mass SMS campaigns, each associated with its specific objective and strategy. 👉
| Campaign Type | Description |
| Promotional | Sending messages to promote special offers, sales, discounts or events. |
| Confirmation | Messages sent to confirm appointments, bookings or orders. |
| Notification | Sending messages to inform customers about product updates, deadline reminders, etc. |
| Re-engagement | Sending messages to reactivate inactive customers or to encourage the re-use of services. |
| Survey/feedback | Sending messages to gather opinions, feedback or satisfaction ratings. |
| Birthday | Sending messages to celebrate customers' birthdays and offering them exclusive benefits. |
| Event | Send messages to invite customers to special events or product launches. |
How do I send bulk text messages?
Bulk texting is child's play when you use the right tools and adopt an effective method.
Here's how. 👉
- Choose a specialised platform. How do you choose? By opting for an intuitive solution that lets you import your contacts, personalise your messages and track your campaigns. Of course, you should also look at the prices on offer.
- Prepare a well-organised list of contacts. Segment your audience according to criteria such as age, interests or location. This will help you target your messages more effectively, and make them more impactful.
- Write a clear, engaging message. Your SMS should be short, punchy and contain a call to action (a link to your website, for example). Make sure you keep it to 160 characters to avoid extra charges.
- Plan to send it at a strategic moment. Timing is crucial, and you should avoid sending your messages at night or at inconvenient times.
- Carry out a test. Mistakes happen quickly and a badly formulated message is likely to damage your image.
- Launch your campaign once everything is ready! But don't stop there: analyse the results carefully (reception rate, click-through rate, etc.) so that you can adjust your future campaigns.
7 best practices for improving your bulk SMS campaign
1. Respect the law
The opt-in rule to bear in mind
The recipient of the text message must absolutely have given their consent to receive your message on their mobile. The legal framework imposes this on you: the opt-in rule prevails, spam is outlawed!
In order to obtain this authorisation and comply with French legislation, do everything you can to ensure that you are on your side:
- design a subscription form (with a tick box, for example) to validate authorisation;
- send an SMS to confirm that the request has been taken into account;
- include the words "stop SMS" in each of your messages, in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act.
The General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD)
The RGPD, a European regulation with global reach, has been in place since 2018. In particular, it is based on prior information and the right to object.
As a result, you must:
- specify to the registered person the purposes for which you intend to use their data;
- deploy the necessary means so that the recipients of your messages can object to this use at any time.
2. Select a legal sending date and time
In order to protect the privacy of the French, the law specifies the conditions for sending mass text messages: no text messages relating to commercial operations between 8pm and 8am, including public holidays!
💡 O ur advice: to get off to a good start with a prospect or continue to build loyalty with your customers, you should respect the law and select your sending date, avoiding certain over-popular slots.
3. Send personalised messages to establish a unique relationship
It is important to personalise your mass SMS messages if you want to capture the attention of your recipients. A generic message is likely to be ignored or even deleted. On the other hand, a personalised SMS, which mentions the customer's name or refers to their preferences, creates an immediate and engaging link.
💡 Here are a few tips:
- include the recipient's first name in the content ;
- mention an offer tailored to their purchases or preferences;
- use dynamic variables to insert specific information (date, place, product) ;
- Write a warm and direct text, as if you were talking to a single person;
- Segment your lists to send truly relevant content;
- Include response options, such as a follow-up link or contact number;
- Add a touch of humour or a friendly tone if relevant to your brand image.
4. Think multi-channel mobile
Thanks to rich messaging (rich sms), you can make the most of the possibilities offered by the web without your recipient having to switch media.
Using a simple text message with a clickable link, send your prospect or customer to a mobile-compatible web page.
In short, create a mobile journey that guides your target effectively, with the aim of optimising your sales or conversion cycle.
5. Programme automatic mailings
Using sending software well also means knowing how to exploit the settings.
✨ Think about the range of possibilities promised by automatic SMS:
- personalisation ;
- sending a birthday message ;
- confirming appointments
- sending promotions ;
- invitations to events, etc.
6. Optimise your dispatches for better deliverability
In SMS marketing (as in email marketing), the deliverability of a message reflects its ability to reach the right recipient, i.e. the right number, allocated to the right person.
To achieve a good deliverability rate, we recommend that you :
- respect the opt-in rule, in other words, don't spam ;
- manage your contact lists properly, by cleaning them regularly;
- use a dedicated server to send bulk SMS messages;
- deal effectively with STOP SMS messages;
- have an identified sender domain, etc.
7. Keep a close eye on your statistics
We've already mentioned it, but we strongly recommend that you monitor your actions and analyse performance, with a view to improving the effectiveness of your bulk SMS messages.
There are a number of variables involved. Some of the most closely monitored statistics include :
- the open rate (how many recipients opened your SMS) ;
- the read rate (how many people read your SMS);
- the conversion rate (how many people clicked on the link in your SMS to visit the web page, for example), etc.
☝️ You can take your analysis a step further with the advanced features of professional SMS sending software.
Comparison of the 9 best bulk SMS software packages in 2025
Which bulk text messaging solution should you choose?
Here are some of the market's leading platforms, listed in alphabetical order.
1 of 9
 allmysms |  Digitaleo |  Ditel SMS Mailing |  Iroquois |  Octopush |  Marketing Cloud |  SMSFactor |  smsmode |  Spot-Hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For companies with more than 1 employees | For companies with 2 to 5000 employees | For companies with 2 to 5000 employees | For all companies | For companies with more than 1 employees | For companies with 2 to 250 employees | For all companies | For companies with 1 to 5000 employees | For companies with more than 1 employees |
| See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software |
| Learn more about allmysms | Learn more about Digitaleo | Learn more about Ditel SMS Mailing | Learn more about Iroquois | Learn more about Octopush | Learn more about Marketing Cloud | Learn more about SMSFactor | Learn more about smsmode | Learn more about Spot-Hit |
allmysms
MS Innovations, the publisher of allmysms, is an expert in mobile marketing operations. This team of sales engineers, based in France, is motivated by a passion for innovation.
With their cross-disciplinary offering, they give you access to tools such as mobile application and site development, virtual mobile numbers (VMNs), etc.
🛠️ Some key features
- automated management of STOP responses ;
- contact cleaning ;
- acknowledgement of receipt;
- graphical analysis ;
- full history (dates, messages, SMS responses, acknowledgement status, etc.).
allmysms
Digitaleo
A complete emailing and SMS sending tool, Digitaleo appeals to e-tailers and marketing managers for its "ready-to-use" commercial operation templates and ease of use.
Various packs also enable small and medium-sized businesses to launch their SMS campaigns at affordable prices, and to "segment like the big boys".
🛠️ Key features include
- automated management of STOP responses ;
- contact cleansing
- performance monitoring ;
- real-time access to detailed SMS campaign statistics;
- detailed analysis of number of SMS sent, delivery rate, responses, unsubscribes.
Digitaleo
Ditel SMS Mailing
By connecting a modem using a GSM SIM card to a computer, it is possible to send up to 200 text messages per hour, free of charge (depending on the operator and the package subscribed to).
Ditel SMS Mailing is installed on a single workstation: you need to buy it and download updates.
Its strong points? A real telephone number is displayed, guaranteeing a higher open rate. And by importing an Excel file, you can personalise your messages.
🛠️ Key features include
- automated management of STOP responses ;
- file management (duplicates, burnt numbers, etc.);
- SMS test on a dedicated number;
- sending programming ;
- history containing the status of messages sent and responses received.
Ditel SMS Mailing
Iroquois
Iroquois helps companies in all sectors to optimise and monitor all their multi-channel customer relations (e-mailing, SMS, push-notification), using its intuitive, easy-to-use solution: PoWoW.
With PoWoW, you can easily create your email and SMS campaigns, while managing your transactional and promotional mailings and marketing automation scenarios in just a few clicks.
🛠️ Key features include
- Drag&Drop creation tools in responsive design ;
- comprehensive analysis and reporting functions
- robust, intuitive segmentation tools
- marketing automation scenarios ;
- SMS automation.
Iroquois
Octopush
Octopush is an SMS platform and multi-channel marketing solution, developed to centralise your communication actions across your various channels (SMS, but also email, RCS and instant messaging).
Its main strength? It guarantees an excellent ROI, thanks to a conversion rate optimised by the implementation of marketing scenarios and the SMS-email pairing.
🛠️ Key features include
- targeted campaigns with intelligent planning, short links and virtual numbers ;
- creation of marketing scenarios combining e-mail and SMS (no-code integrations);
- AI-based recommendations;
- leasing of virtual numbers and qualified leads;
- data security and RGPD compliance.
Octopush
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Developed by Salesforce, Marketing Cloud is an all-in-one digital marketing solution for SMEs.
It includes a wide range of functions designed to optimise interactions with your customers and prospects, across all your marketing channels. So it's only natural that Salesforce includes functions for creating and sending bulk SMS messages, perfectly integrated with customer journeys.
🛠️ Some key features
- integration of SMS into the Journey Builder module, dedicated to the creation of personalised, unified customer journeys;
- messages can be created in just a few clicks;
- ability to combine several SMS messages of more than 160 characters;
- configuration of message preview by code type;
- easy management of unsubscribes.
Marketing Cloud
SMSFactor
The SMSFactor service is 100% French, and anti-low-cost SMS: it advocates quality in order to optimise SMS delivery rates.
To illustrate its commitment, it has declared itself to the French Electronic Communications Regulatory Authority. Strong point: its spirit of innovation with "mail to SMS" has won over many businesses, whatever the volume of SMS messages they need to send.
🛠️ Key features include
- automated management of STOP responses
- contact cleansing
- performance monitoring ;
- sending reports ;
- detailed statistics: reception, reading, identification of clickers, etc.
SMSFactor
smsmode
With over 10,000 customers across Europe and 20 years' expertise in mobile messaging, smsmode is an easy-to-use French omnichannel platform.
A truly all-in-one solution, it connects to your CRM for complete centralisation of your customer management. At the same time, it guarantees maximum security thanks to its RGPD certification.
🛠️ Key features include
- connection with over 500 French and international operators;
- personalised support from a dedicated account manager
- creation of a conversational BOT;
- associated services (virtual mobile number, Lookup tool, Verified SMS, Mobile Masking, etc.);
- competitive rates from €0.0312 excluding VAT per SMS in France.
smsmode
Spot-Hit
Marketers appreciate the "multi-channel" orientation of the Spot-Hit platform, which is quite robust: by combining SMS, enhanced SMS with mobile site, MMS, VMS (voice message on answering machine) and postal campaign, it is possible to multiply the points of contact with a customer.
In this way, you can determine and promote the channel with which they are most responsive!
🛠️ Some key features :
- unsubscribe/opt-out management ;
- contact list updating
- campaign and visit reports;
- real-time tracking of rich SMS or SMS campaigns;
- tracking statistics for all five channels.
Spot-Hit
Manage and send bulk text messages like a pro!
Now you're ready to overtake your competitors at lightning speed by sending bulk SMS messages!
If you're an "experienced" mobile marketer and you're totally confident in your abilities, try out one of the solutions below for yourself right now.
If you're a "beginner", get some help: each of the tools recommended in this article offers a tried and tested, made-to-measure quality of service.
It's up to you!
Article translated from French