SMS API Providers: How to Choose the Right One?
Mobile phones have seen an increased usage in Southeast Asia over the last decade. From 2011 to 2018, the number of people who own mobile phones have risen by 27%, and this number is expected to soar to a startling 5.7 billion or more than half of the world’s population by the year 2020.
It is no wonder that text messaging have become a popular means of communication.
SMS has a greater reach than any other communication channel, and a higher open-rate of 98% as compared to emails.
SMS uses for businesses are unbounded — there already exists a widespread interest in SMS marketing and enterprise communication. Today, businesses can easily automate their marketing communication efforts through APIs. They allow their SMS to reach customers easier and faster.
How can businesses go about adopting messaging technology?
There are two approaches. Businesses can either develop their own SMS messaging platform from scratch, or source for an established SMS gateway provider.
Developing a messaging platform from scratch is no simple feat and will require extensive development resources and software codings. Not only is it time and resource-consuming, there lie many shortfalls that ambitious app developers tend to overlook. These can include unsecured coding, malicious threat and limited functionality. As such, this first approach is not so ideal for sprouting businesses.
Instead, businesses and developers should consider partnering with reliable and established SMS API providers. These providers’ dedicated business are in developing secure bulk SMS gateways. This way, your business can capitalize on wholesale cost savings and focus on generating wider engagements with your consumers.
Here are 4 key factors to consider when looking for a suitable SMS API provider:
1. Security
Look for a service provider who can ensure high quality and secure network routing for your messages. Unsecured SMS APIs are easily hijacked by spammers which will result in messages falling into the spam lists of users. Solution providers with a good track record of reputable companies as their customers is a good SMS platform to consider.
2. Reliability
To avoid SMS messages getting lost or undelivered, having a high-quality network infrastructure is essential. Simply relying on an open-source bulk SMS gateway is inadvisable as it will often face crashes, get hacked or experience network issues. A reliable SMS API provider will ensure that their network infrastructure is stable and capable of handling hundreds of thousands of messages sent.
3. Scalability
The scalability of an SMS API depends on the infrastructure complexity and platform stability built by the developers. Hence, only reputable messaging service providers will be able to meet your business needs and offer the freedom to scale SMS campaigns and traffic accordingly.
4. Wide network coverage
Businesses that require the use of SMS functionality will also require wide network coverage so that their text messages will reach their customers no matter where they are in the world.
It is important to keep this in mind to ensure fruitful SMS marketing efforts. Thus, businesses should seek a service provider that has network coverage in their markets. They should also provide 24/7 global support to address any issues that may arise.
The very reason why many developers choose to create their own SMS APIs may be the same reason for failing. For the sole purpose of saving costs, their SMS service becomes unstable with a high tendency to cause traffic breakdowns.
This is why it is important to choose the right SMS API provider that is reputable and reliable.
To find out more about how Wavecell can meet your SMS API needs, check out Wavecell’s API Documentation page.
You can also retrieve a free API key by signing up at no cost, or talk to us at hello@wavecell.com to find out more about our SMS API platform.
