Why You Shouldn’t Send Spam in SMS

Approximately 70% of all SMS messages are considered to be informing: money transfer, hotel or restaurant booking info, taxi, online store order statuses, etc. However, they are not initiated by particular companies in certain spheres.

Even large banks do not send SMS themselves. They order mass SMS messaging from the companies that act as intermediaries, transferring messages to the operator’s networks. For banks, and not only, it is unprofitable and technically difficult to interact with the operators directly.

The remaining 30% of the traffic falls on the advertising SMS about discounts and promotions. Large companies trigger messaging using the contacts from their contact base. If the client does not have own client database, then it’s possible to send out messages to subscribers of mobile network, agreed to receiving SMS.

This service may be provided by the operator, BSG acts as an agent, having no direct access to the database, for example. Such messaging is more expensive. In addition, there may be certain limitations. For example, one subscriber can not send more than two advertisements per month from all companies and so on.

The subject of spam is something that is often viewed under scrutiny and should be taken into consideration by both SMS aggregators and the companies that use their services.

So, advertising is quite a different form of messages. Unlike information messages they are viewed by moderators for compliance with the current region advertising legislation and so on.

More than 80 million messages may be rejected monthly simply because they do not match demands of the current legislation.

Of course, large retailers, are unlikely to send SMS with the advertising of prohibited content: drugs, sex, etc. But smaller regional aggregators that are connected to the platform may send a lot of spam for different purposes, and depending on the regional laws, use the most suitable channels. Moderators keep detecting violations and reporting this to the senders.

Various SMS Messaging Cases

Banking notifications:

• You give a phone number when opening an account with a bank and connect SMS notification service.
• After the transaction is made, processing department transfers SMS and the phone number of the client to the aggregator through the secure channel.
• The aggregator defines the mobile operator of the addressee and sends SMS there.
• The mobile operator sends SMS to the subscriber.

Online store notifications:

• You leave the phone number when you receive the bonus card and agree to receiving notifications.
• The marketing department of the store orders mass messaging with promotions from the agency as per the customers base.
• The agency’s moderator checks SMS text for spam.
• If the message is approved, the agency sends it to the operator.
• The operator sends SMS to the ending customers.

Spammers:

• Spammers collect the telephone numbers at any expense. They steal, buy, or get the client database from the operators in different ways. Some databases may be even used from the Internet if they’ve been placed there on a free access basis from the specified sites.
• Do mass messaging through the international operators or one-eyed mass messaging services.
• The operator receives SMS and sends it to the subscriber. After the law banned SMS spam in the majority of countries, including Eastern Europe, the operators are obliged to block mass messaging from the companies that have not a direct contract with them. Any illegal moves are nowadays well traced and controlled.

Why Online Stores Use Mass SMS Messaging

All large retailers are engaged in attracting and retaining their customers, and they just need to send out messages for either informing or advertising for a variety of purposes: boosting sales, improving marketing team work, etc.

October-December here is a high season, since every potential customer is expecting sales and promotions. There are customers that have their business planned for six months ahead. Some do not know what will happen tomorrow, etc. Another — suddenly express the desire of sending out text messages, and that’s where we help: the system allows you to send out over 100 million messages simultaneously.

It seems that SMS is the most effective tool for systematic impact on the audience, no matter the market. In few minutes you can bring the information to thousands of people you are interested in. This is a necessary service: one-time password services, alerts and other important things work.

How Subscribers React

In general, SMS-message is an effective way of communication both in PtoP and BtoB models as it is received immediately, and is more likely read in 98% of cases. So, the best possible frequency for sending text messages is 3 contacts with the subscribers per month. If you send less often, the clients may lose touch with the brand, and if more often — start getting annoyed.

Some subscribers complain about receiving advertising messages. They may even call everything unwanted and uninteresting a spam, especially those messages that were sent from the companies they do not recognize and have never given their permission for messaging to.

In this case, every client may contact us, leave a complaint on the web or dial customer support services for us to know where exactly spam attempt occurred.

If you have never subscribed then the news lettering stops. Those who are annoyed by promotional SMS, are often advised to call the company-sender and ask to unsubscribe them from the services. Unfortunately, there is no Unsubscribe button applied in SMS like in E-mail messaging. So, this is the most effective way.

However, sometimes users complain even to information messages initiated by their financial institutions. It happens that a person calls the operator, demanding to cancel SMS banking services, and later complains that he does not receive any SMS notifications about withdrawals. There are also clients that do not even know that SMS banking is switched on and have no idea they pay for the service on a monthly basis, etc. Each case is individual.

Which’s yours? What spam issues have you ever dealt with? Feel free to share.

Do not forget to use our platform to send SMS online.