BULK SMS — THE AFFORDABLE AND EFFECTIVE MARKETING GIMMICK YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR !!!!

Think effectiveness, Think efficiency ,Think convenience…..

Bulk SMS is the most underutilised tool for modern day communication. Question is, do people really know what Bulk SMS is? Let me simplify it for you. Firstly, SMS stands for short message service. This is a text message sent from one mobile device to another. Bulk SMS is therefore, sending an SMS to a large number of recipients in a predetermined group at once, hence the term BULK SMS.

This communication tool is popular within the Banking Sector, Insurance companies, Non Governmental Organisations, Unions, Media, Community Groups, Marketing Agencies, Churches, Schools, Hospitals or anyone wishing to communicate to a large group of people.You can use Bulk Sms for instance, to update customers, advertisement of new products, make announcements, send banking transaction notifications.

“cheaper by the dozen’’

-Frank Gilbreth, Sr.

Frank Gilbreth’s favourite joke which he used to tell people who would ask why he had 12 children.The statement might mean so many things depending on the context but in this case it elaborates how sms that are sold in bulk have a lower per item tariff than sms that are sold individually.Bulk SMS are budget friendly, have low set up and running costs hence they are cost effective and have high return on investment compared to newspaper ads, tv commercials, billboards and other forms of communication.

You’re probably wondering why you would pay for sending out SMS when your can send emails for free instead? Well think about it, SMS portrays a sense of importance and demand to be opened, while emails are usually filled with spam and require internet for access. Furthermore, with emails, the user has to login in the system to access the email then read while in that same space of time more than 10 sms would have been read.There is also a high possibility that emails may be lost amongst junk mail or read only after a week due to lack of internet access while 90% of all SMSes are opened within the first 3 minutes. Food for thought! Research has shown that emails have a very low open rate of 22 % compared to an incredible high of 98 % for SMS making SMSes more effective and their information reaches the targeted audience or demographic quicker with less effort.

Nowadays, any cell phone has SMS features be it a smartphone or basic GSM phone, making it convenient for anyone to receive an sms with or without internet connection. Due to this, it is possible to reach more users with Bulk SMS than any other platform. Anyone is able to send an SMS since it doesn’t need any pre-qualifications but just a little training when using the web portal to send the SMSes making Bulk SMS sending effortless.

“The more that you read,the more things you will know.’’

- Dr.Seuss

I am glad to say that Afrosoft also understands this concept hence Bulk SMS is one of the products it offers to its clients locally and internationally. It being a Bulk SMS aggregator for all mobile network operators in Zimbabwe, it provides clean and legal Bulk SMS services. Furthermore clients can push traffic directly to their customer’s phones without going through grey routes and international gateways.The Bulk SMS are affordable ranging from $0.02(2 cents) to $0.01 (1 cent) depending on the volume of traffic being sent. Afrosoft also gives the client 3 options of sending these SMSes by using the Web Portal, SMPP or HTTP.

Unlike regular SMSes , our Bulk SMS platform comes with analytics that offer helpful insights for your marketing campaign. You can find out how many clients/users you managed to reach, by checking your delivery rate as well as also find out the ones who switched their contacts so as to re-engage them. A study into The State of SMS forecasts that, usage of Bulk SMS will only continue to grow going forward, with 37.2 million customers opting in to receiving communications via the channel, and this figure is set to rise to 48.7 million by 2020. So what are you waiting for? Contact Afrosoft today, and reach your users the smart way, using Bulk SMS. REMEMBER, THE MORE THE MERRIER!!!