SMS pro: 5 platforms to launch your professional SMS campaigns
Have you thought about integrating SMS pro into your marketing activities?
If not, we strongly recommend that you use this powerful marketing tool. When you consider that around 81% of the French population has a mobile phone and consults it all day long (sometimes as soon as they wake up), you can see the business importance of text messaging!
However, even if SMS marketing seems easy to use at first glance, it requires certain good practices to be put in place, as well as the use of appropriate tools... particularly when it comes to sending mass SMS messages!
Conversion, loyalty... whatever your objectives, use our examples to find the SMS model that's right for you. Then discover a selection of SMS sending solutions that will guarantee the success of your SMS campaigns.
The 5 benefits of SMS Pro
1. High read rate
SMS is a means of communication with a very high read rate. In fact, we can say that the read rate of an SMS varies between 95% and 100%!
2. Personalising the sender
With certain marketing solutions, you can personalise the sender's name so that your recipients can immediately identify you.
3. Adapting the content to the recipient's characteristics
The content of the message can be personalised simply by entering the recipient's first and last name, or even an order number, date or appointment time.
4. Speed of reception
Professional SMS messages take just a few seconds to arrive on the recipient's mobile phone, even for large volumes!
5. Acknowledgement of receipt
With certain marketing solutions, you can monitor the performance of your campaigns in real time and see which SMS has arrived on a mobile that has been switched on, one that cannot be reached, or to an invalid mobile number.
How do you make a success of your SMS campaign?
1. Optimise the content of your message
In most cases, your SMS message is limited to 160 characters, so you need to be concise, clear and effective. Don't forget to personalise your content with the recipient's characteristics!
2. Send at the right time
To be sure of reaching your target and optimising your performance, you need to choose the right time to launch a marketing campaign. Some SMS sending platforms allow you to schedule the sending of your marketing messages.
3. Adapt the frequency of sending
The aim is to find the right balance between SMS campaigns that are too frequent and those that are too far apart.
Free text messaging platforms
It can be tempting, especially if you're just starting out, to look for free online text messaging platforms. But the fact is that everything has a cost, especially if you opt to send bulk SMS messages.
However, if you're not sure about taking the plunge, you should know that most text messaging solutions don't require any commitment or subscription. What's more, they often offer a batch of free text messages so that you can try out their services.
Finally, it's worth remembering that the costs of these platforms are still low, so you'll get a good return on your investment.
Selection of pro SMS platforms
There's a huge range of pro SMS software on offer, so which solution should you choose?
Here's a quick roundup of tried-and-tested tools.
Allmysms
A complete professional SMS service connected to over 700 operators worldwide, allmysms will help you achieve your marketing objectives.
Allmysms in a nutshell:
- An easy-to-use SaaS interface;
- Easy contact management for your direct marketing strategy: you can add segmentation filters to better target your campaigns;
- Optimised planning to make your SMS campaigns more effective;
- The ability to integrate your SMS with your software, websites and applications, using APIs and web services. Guaranteed to save you time!
- A dashboard for analysing the impact of your campaigns;
- The choice of launching a premium or low-cost SMS campaign, depending on the number of credits you want to allocate to your mobile marketing;
- Buy SMS packs, or pay for your campaigns at the end of the order. You can even pay at the end of the month, giving you the option of sending unlimited SMS messages;
- No commitment or subscription required;
- Free trial available.
Price: from €4.5 for a pack of 100 text messages
allmysms
Octopush
The Octopush sending platform is ideal for sending successful marketing or transactional SMS messages.
Octopush in a nutshell:
- A user-friendly SMS solution in SaaS mode;
- The ability to connect Octopush to an SMS API;
- A platform that is both easy to use and secure for hosted data;
- Greater flexibility, thanks to the many services on offer: for example, the option of choosing between SMS pro (for more qualitative campaigns) and SMS low cost (for mass mailings);
- SMS templates available. No more lack of inspiration!
- Easy management of your SMS campaigns thanks to the possibility of managing your sub-accounts;
- A usage alert to help you stay within your pre-set credit limit;
- Statistics to help you assess the success of your campaigns;
- No commitment, and free text messages to test the solution.
Rate: from €0.019 per text message
Octopush
SMSFactor
SMSFactor is a French platform specialising
- an intuitiveSAAS platform that is quick and easy to learn,
- ability to integrate and automate the sending of SMS directly into your business applications thanks to its REST API.
- a range of plugins so you can connect to your favourite tools (Zapier, HubSpot, Prestashop, Chrome, etc.),
- a connection with several hundred operators to send your Pro SMS campaigns worldwide,
- offers free support 5 days a week for all their customers and also a technical hotline available 24/7,
- buy prepaid SMS packs or opt for monthly payment based on actual usage (from 3,000 SMS per month),
- with no time limit on use and no commitment, with the option of testing the platform free of charge.
Rates: from €0.039 per SMS.
SMSFactor
Proxima SMS
Simple to use, the Proxima SMS platform lets you send large numbers of SMS messages... but that's not all!
SMS Proxima in a nutshell :
- Assistance in preparing and programming your SMS campaigns. This support is included in the price, with no unforeseen additional costs;
- A host of features for a successful Rich SMS experience: adding landing pages (directions, slideshows, etc.) to your SMS messages, sending surveys (very useful for gathering information about your customers), etc.
- The possibility of acquiring new customers by renting an opt-in file, from which you select your prospects according to various criteria (geographical location, title, age range, etc.). These files come from partners who have obtained permission from the contacts, so everything is secure!
- Free online access: pay only for credits;
- 100 free text messages to test the platform.
Rates: from €0.15 per SMS for an opt-in campaign
SMS Proxima
Spot-Hit
With over 300,000 million messages a year, Spot-Hit is a sure thing!
Spot-Hit in a nutshell:
- Ideal for multi-channel management of your marketing campaigns, as the software allows you to manage your SMS, emailing, voice, MMS and mail campaigns at the same time;
- The ability to create enriched SMS messages;
- Easy management of your national and local campaigns for your groups and networks;
- Optimisation of your contact lists thanks to deduplication, classification by group and file import;
- A free tool for building your mobile sites;
- The ability to track your performance (unsubscribes, open and click rates, etc.);
- A no-commitment, no-subscription solution;
- Try Spot-Hit for free with 100 free credits.
Rates: from €0.039 excluding VAT per SMS
Spot-Hit
Here's an overview of the SMS pro software that will help you achieve your marketing objectives. And there are many others (OVH Telecom, Orange SMS pro, Api SMS, Sarbacane, etc.). It's up to you to find the one that best suits your business and the budget you want to allocate to SMS.
Launch your SMS pro campaign!
SMS pro is a communication channel that you need to deploy: very high open rates, easy to set up, very good ROI - there are many business benefits to be had from this powerful marketing lever.
Are you convinced? Take inspiration from our examples, choose the right tool... and text!
Updated article, originally published in August 2017.
Article translated from French
Currently Editorial Manager, Jennifer Montérémal joined the Appvizer team in 2019. Since then, she's been putting her expertise in web copywriting, copywriting and SEO optimisation to work for the company, with her sights set on reader satisfaction 😀 !
A medievalist by training, Jennifer took a short break from fortified castles and other manuscripts to discover her passion for content marketing. She took away from her studies the skills expected of a good copywriter: understanding and analysing the subject, conveying the information, with a real mastery of the pen (without systematically resorting to a certain AI 🤫).
An anecdote about Jennifer? She stood out at Appvizer for her karaoke skills and her boundless knowledge of musical dreck 🎤.