OTT Messaging
OTT Messaging
Heard of OTT messaging? Not quite sure what it’s all about? While the acronym might not be all that familiar to you, the channels used for OTT (over-the-top, BTW) are sure to be. In a nutshell, OTT messaging uses apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Google Business Messages or Instagram to connect and chat with your customers. With the meteoric rise of these apps in recent years, it’s a great way to meet your customers where they hang out. Here, we break down what OTT messaging is, how it works and when you’d use it instead of SMS. Let’s dive in.
A quick explainer on OTT messaging
Without getting too technical, OTT messaging uses a text-based communications platform ‘over the top’ of an existing internet service. More broadly, OTT also describes technologies that sit on top of other systems (think the Apple TV box that streams movies to your television). With literally billions of people around the world using apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to stay in touch with friends and family, OTT messaging is a great tool to add to your communications toolkit. OTT messaging is great for your customers, too. Just like any other conversation, chats in these channels are personal, helpful and easy to track. Customers love the familiarity of their favorite channels and will appreciate the fact that you meet them there. And, with the right OTT platform behind you, it becomes incredibly easy to manage all your chats across apps and channels.
Let’s take a quick look at the main instant OTT messaging apps:
Facebook. With almost 3 billion users, Facebook is a great place to meet your customers for a chat. To make it easy for customers to chat to you, simply add a ‘Message’ button to your page, add chat to your ads, and use Messenger for live chat. Instagram. To connect directly with customers on Instagram, use direct messages (DMs). DMs are great for asking questions, providing support and general chit-chat about your brand. Google’s Business Messages. With this form of chat, customers can message you straight from where they find you on Google. You’ll just need to enable chat in your Google Business account—once done, the chat button will start showing up on your Google Business and Maps listings. WhatsApp. WhatsApp Business is an easy way to sort and manage your OTT messaging. And, with over 2 billion monthly active users, it’s clear customers love it, too. To get started, you’ll need to work with a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider like OTT Messaging Media to set up your account. Then, you can add click-to-chat to your website, run click-to-WhatsApp ads on Facebook, create a WhatsApp QR code, or run a WhatsApp marketing campaign.
SMS vs MMS
SMS vs MMS
You probably send text messages daily, but you still might not be able to answer the question: “What is SMS?” In short, SMS is simply an abbreviation for Short Message Service, or another name for a text message. You might be doubly confused when it comes to understanding the difference between SMS vs MMS. These two terms are used interchangeably but actually refer to different types of messaging. The simplest way to understand the difference is that SMS refers to text messages, while MMS refers to messages with a picture or video. Understanding the breakdown of SMS vs MMS messages and their differences will give you more insight into how to best connect with your customers, as well as which mass text messaging service is best for your business.
What is SMS?
Let’s start with the definition what SMS is. What is the difference between a text message and an SMS message? Well, an SMS is a text message. SMS was developed in the 1980s and is one of the oldest texting technologies. It’s also the most widely used, despite a growing number of alternate ways to communicate. While you might refer to a variety of different message types as simply a “text” in your daily life, however, the difference is that an SMS message contains only text (no pictures or videos) and is limited to 160 characters. For example, technically iMessages aren’t text messages, even though most people usually refer to them as such.
MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. You can think of it as an enhancement to the standard SMS message. You’ve probably guessed it by now, but the main difference between SMS and MMS is that you can send multimedia in your messages. This includes media such as videos, pictures, audio clips and GIFs, and more. Additionally, MMS allows for up to 1600 characters of text in your message — which is a considerable amount more than a standard SMS. MMS vs SMS: A Side-By-Side Comparison By now you’re probably already starting to understand what SMS is, especially since you probably send multiple SMS messages in your daily life. However, it might be easier to see what SMS is visually, especially since two pieces of similar content can look different when using SMS vs MMS messaging as a strategy. Even though the below image is based on an iPhone screen, when comparing SMS vs MMS, Android, iPhone, and other smartphones follow the same pattern.
Should I Use SMS vs MMS?
Now that you’ve answered “What is SMS?” and “What is MMS?” it’s time to decide which type of message is best for you. Choosing between SMS vs MMS requires you to understand what your end users are more likely to engage with and what your use case is. Do you need to communicate a quick message and have people follow a link? If so, SMS vs MMS may be the right choice. If you’re looking to really grab their attention, can afford the additional cost, and need to show them something visually, MMS vs SMS is the way to go. Ultimately, what’s most important is measuring your results and making adjustments to fine-tune your strategy and get the best ROI possible. Most Usms-gh users will send a mix of SMS and MMS messages to balance their costs and engagement.
Auto SMS Sender
Auto SMS Sender
It seems like everywhere you turn, people are talking about marketing automation. Even though it’s easy to tune out common buzzwords, automation is something you need to pay attention to — especially when it comes to SMS. Tools like an auto SMS sender can upgrade your messaging strategy and increase your revenue. Looking for the best auto SMS software? Here’s how to weed out the good from the bad.
If you’re considering an auto SMS sender that doesn’t have a drag and drop interface, be sure to spend time demoing the product so you know just how complicated it will be to alter the texting sequence. We find that the best automatic text messaging strategy involves incorporating data to make constant improvements — whether that be to the flow of the journey or the wording of your messages. If the process to make changes is complicated, chances are you could break the entire journey by making small changes. Or, the amount of time it takes to update your automatic texting journey could discourage you from regularly optimizing it. If you have a drag and drop interface, this isn’t a problem, but if not, don’t settle for a sales person merely showing you how it works. Ask for a demo period of the software so you can get to know it yourself.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they move to an auto SMS sender is sending out text messages that are too generic. This happens when you don’t segment your text list accurately enough. We like to use the term “segment of one” at Usms-gh, which emphasizes how niche we believe segmentation can get.
In order to maximize the potential of sending automatic SMS messages, you’ll want the platform you choose to integrate directly with the processes you already have in place.
“Collecting information is now totally automated without someone from our team having to be managing that and inputting that data. We get the information we need and save time while doing it,”
Not only do you need the first party data, but your SMS sender should be able to do the work for you when it comes to sending messages to the correct segments. There should be no manual entry involved in sorting your contact list — that’s the work for your auto SMS sender. If you’re in the process of shopping around for an auto SMS sender, this is an important feature to ask about.
For example, do you use Slack to communicate with your sales team? Find an auto SMS sender that integrates with Slack so that you can seamlessly send contacts to the appropriate sales representative for more in depth follow up or conversation.
Choosing an auto SMS sender can be overwhelming. There are a lot of companies that claim to have certain capabilities they don’t necessarily have.
source: slicktext
Spam Text
SPAM TEXT
Do you feel like you’ve been getting more spam texts than usual? Odds are, it’s because you are. Spam texts are unsolicited messages sent by scammers in an attempt to gain personal or financial information. Sometimes, these scammers may use familiar area codes or pretend to be someone you know in order to gain your trust. While carriers are constantly implementing new security measures, spam texting has exploded in popularity across the United States over the past few years. There’s even a new word to describe the phenomenon: smishing. At USMS-GH, we have a zero-tolerance policy for spam texters and smishing attempts, and we go to extensive lengths to keep bad actors from using our SMS marketing services. Keeping up-to-date on the latest spam texting statistics, data, and best safety practices can help you further protect your personal information and identify what a fake message looks like.
The Rise of Spam Texting in 2021 & 2022
From 2020 to 2021, there was a 58% increase in spam texts sent. In September of 2021, the number of spam texts sent was 1.227 million. By comparison, in August of 2022, 10.89 billion spam texts were sent. In April of 2021, Americans received around 16.9 spam texts a month. In April of 2022, that number skyrocketed to 41 spam texts a month. There’s no shame in getting caught up in a spam attempt. In fact, as of 2021, 1 in 3 Americans had reported falling for a mobile phone scam, and less than 35% of people realize that they’re a target of a scam texting attack. It’s impossible to get a break from spam texts. In fact, in 2021, January and February were the only months with fewer than 6 billion spam messages sent. Spam calls decreased by 50% from April to June of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way society operated. Spam text frequency surpassed spam call frequency for the first time in 2020, with the gap continuing to widen in 2021 and 2022 (87,850,585,036 spam texts sent vs. 72,236,875,541 spam calls placed). Phone Spam & Spam Texting Statistics & Trends Here are the scams and fake messages you should be on the lookout for, as well as the most targeted demographics.
Popular scam texting trends
59.4% of spam recipients in 2021 were male, while 38.3% were female. In 2021, the most targeted age range for phone spam was 35-44 for men and 18-34 for women. The least targeted age range for both genders was 65 and up. More recently, smishers have utilized fake two-factor authentication messages to steal personal information. Hackers also tend to use local area codes like 10DLCs or spoof numbers you might recognize in order to gain trust. How Do You Stop Getting Spam Texts? At their best, spam texts are simply annoying, but at their worst, they can be a gateway to fraud, identity theft, and cyber crimes — all of which can cost you precious time and money. So how do you stop getting spam texts? While there’s no 100% foolproof solution, there are a few things you can do to ensure you only receive the SMS messages you signed up for Block the sender Once you block a number, you won’t receive any calls or texts from them again. On an iPhone, click on the contact that the text came from. When you open the contact card, the Info tab will give you the option to block the number. On an Android, press the three buttons in the top corner of the screen, then select “block and report spam.” There’s no limit to the amount of numbers you can block, so you can do this anytime you get a text.
Notify your carrier If a carrier knows that a number is sending spam, they’ll investigate and block them from sending any more messages. All you have to do is forward the text you received to 7726 — this works for most major cell phone providers, including MTN, Vodafone and AirtelTigo. Reply stop While replying STOP to some spam texts may not work, there’s a chance the spam is from a service you signed up for at one point in time. If that’s the case, then legitimate short codes give you the option to opt-out by simply replying STOP.
Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH Messaging
Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH Messaging
Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging is an excellent tool for businesses to stay in touch with their customers. It allows you to send mass text messages to all your customers simultaneously. According to a recent study, seven(7) out of every ten(10) people own a smartphone in 2020, making it easy to reach at least seven(7) out of ten(10) customers you have. Another research conducted also stated that 90% of customers you send text messages to read in less than 3 seconds. Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging channel also has a read rate of 98%. Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging is redefining how businesses interact with their customers these days. It is helping Businesses send product updates and promotional messages to their customers directly on their mobile phones. Over the years, the Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging channel has become a central communication tool for businesses around the globe. SMS Marketing is reliable and easy to use. It helps businesses capture the attention of their clients from all over the world with just a simple click of a button. The data above confirms why sending Bulk SMS-GH messaging? is the preferred choice by businesses in reaching their customers rather than the other forms of marketing. works well for both B2B and B2C environments.
Here are some ways in which you can use Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging for your business: Customer communication Why do businesses need Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging is a great way to communicate with customers. You can send customers an update about new products or promotions you are running, or give them important information like account details or product delivery updates. Event notifications If your company organizes events like seminars, conferences, or product launches, you may use Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging to notify people about the event’s location, time, and date so they don’t miss it. This will also help you in getting more attendees for your event as people will know exactly when and where the event is happening.
Sending reminders People often forget about things like paying bills on time or completing tasks by a certain date. In such cases, if you send them a reminder through, Why do businesses need Bulk SMS-GH messaging right before their deadline arrives, they are more likely to remember what they need to do and complete their task on time without any hassle. source: nalosolutions
SMS sales automation
SMS sales automation
From prospecting to lead management and closing deals, your sales team can use SMS sales automation to help move customers through the sales pipeline. It works by programming text messages to be sent once specific sales steps, conditions or qualifications have been met on the sales journey. SMS shines in a wide range of sales activities, including: Sales prospecting (cold and warm) Follow-ups and reminders Relationship building Sales touchpoints Scheduling appointments, demos and consultations
Your sales team reaps some big benefits
To the buyer or prospect, SMS sales automation looks and feels like a personalized, one-on-one conversation. To you, however, it’s just one of potentially thousands of personalized messages you can send with the click of a single button. By adding automated text messaging to your sales process, you can: Drive maximum ROI. Instead of the time-consuming task of manually sending out individual messages, you can send potentially thousands of personalized messages at once to help maximize ROI.
You can add as many prospects as you like to your nurture journey. SMS sales automation programs grow with you. Get your sales messages across fast. Want to capture leads faster than your competitors, but in a less intrusive way? Instead of chasing them over the phone, send them a quick text message inviting them to get in touch when it suits. Build personalized relationships. Text messaging strikes that magic formula of feeling both personal and informal. It’s perfect for building relationships and gaining the trust of prospective clients. SMS sales automation shines at every stage of sales You can use text messaging in all stages of the sales process. Map out your entire sales journey and consider which moments are ripe for a text message or two. Here’s an example of an inbound B2B sales pipeline that could benefit from SMS sales automation In the awareness stage Using the example above, a customer downloads an eBook from your website. Instead of following up with email marketing (which, let’s face it, has lower open rates than text messaging), use SMS sales automation instead. Give the customer a few days or a week to read the eBook, then send some helpful texts with additional links to content they might find interesting.
In the consideration stage
In this stage, your customer has requested a product demo and booked an appointment with one of your sales reps. Send an automated SMS sales automation reminder one day before the meeting – it’s a helpful gesture and also reduces the likelihood of a no-show. In the decision stage The customer is so close to buying. They’ve got the contract, but they’re stalling on signing. Send a quick text reminder, asking if there’s anything you can help with. Or, to get the customer across the line, offer a discount on the original offer if they sign and send the contract back within the next 24 hours. Integrating with other platforms makes all the difference Already use other SMS sales automation tools and systems? Integrate text messaging into your preferred platform for maximum scalability and minimum effort.
For example, USMSGH integrates with some of the most popular sales automation tools in use today. It means you can easily add text messaging to your existing workflows and sales processes. You can even add SMS sales automation to your internal triggers to let sales leads know when a customer needs a follow-up. Here are three powerful integrations between USMSGH integrates and sales tools.
2-Way Bulk SMS
2-Way Bulk SMS
2-Way Bulk SMS lets you send and receive messages to and from hundreds of people at once through a web-based platform that uses API. Your customers can reach you by sending simple keywords via a short code or long code. In response, you get to reply to these messages through your computer or phone application that uses the system. In terms of using bulk SMS for business, the capability of communicating to clients or potential customers in bulk is quite an efficient way of reaching your target especially when you have limited resources or manpower to carry out your promotional strategies. The added convenience of receiving replies directly (and instantly) from your recipients, increases the possibility of quick sales, repeat business or increased conversion.
Why Should You Use 2 Way Bulk SMS
2-Way Bulk SMS provides a quick solution to customer concerns. With a single keyword, you get to know what they need and promptly give them a suitable response. You are also highlighting convenience and practicality on the part of your end-users. In the past, people had to contact businesses through phone calls or snail mail and both methods were too time consuming and counterproductive to queries and concerns that needed immediate attention.
The possibilities are endless when you begin to maximize the advantages of two way communication in honing B2C relations and expanding the influence of your business. Here are some of the biggest benefits that you can possibly gain from 2-Way bulk sms: 1. 97% Read Rate 2. Practical and Budget-friendly 3. Convenient and foolproof 4. Enhanced Communication with Customers 5. Fast and Hassle-freeresses. IP addresses filter . Sending messages will be possible only from the whitelisted IP addresses (attempts at sending messages from other IPs will result in the following response: ERROR:105). IP addresses should be separated by semicolons
There are several companies that provide 2 Way Bulk SMS applications for you to read, reply, and even monitor the messages you send and receive. Some interfaces are also available for both web and smartphone. You don’t need rocket science or additional software to operate it or deliver your message, in the same way that text messaging is an activity that is already a staple in your customers’ daily routine. Simple, quick, and easy. Out of all the constantly changing advertising trends, SMS is something that has been quite constant and flexible throughout. It is a simple and immediate exchange of messages. By using 2-Way Bulk SMS, you can send a message to a hundred customers within minutes. You can upsell more products and even convert more leads without having to stress out your marketing and support representatives.
Regardless of size, every business could use a helping hand from their customers. Since 2-Way Bulk SMS lets recipients reply directly to businesses, it effectively bridges gaps between the two. The more customers get the chance to interact with brands they support, the more likely they are to willingly participate in future promotions and efforts to sustain the business.
Conclusion
Quite frankly, there are several more advantages of 2-Way Bulk SMS marketing awaiting to be discovered. The key is to have a clear vision of how you want to grow your business so you can incorporate 2-way bulk SMS accordingly for your company’s objectives and customers’ demands. Once you decide to promote your business and reach out to customers using text messaging, be sure to the New Media Services team a message. Our very own LOOP (Live Online Operator Platform) platforms have helped countless companies carry out accessible communication channels, including bulk sms service for business, for long-term growth and stability.
SMS API: A Quick Start Guide
SMS API: A Quick Start Guide
SMS API: A Quick Start Guide, it's simpler than ever to start sending text messages to your consumers. Rapidly integrate our SMS API: A Quick Start Guide into your applications and start sending messages to customers right away. Reach your customers whenever you want, wherever they are, in multiple markets across the world. Our intuitive, low code SMS API: A Quick Start Guide integration is all you need to start sending messages to customers today. When you have questions, our SMS API: A Quick Start Guide developer hub has detailed examples and tutorials to help you get started and answer your questions. Let’s dig into the usms-gh SMS API: A Quick Start Guide with a few examples and code samples. First, the basics of SMS API.
SMS API standards are simple
The usms-gh SMS API: A Quick Start Guide handles different mobile network operators (MNOs) and country-specific requirements so you only have to worry about writing code. Here is the most basic example of sending a message through the API
Sending Social Invites and App Links
The SMS API: A Quick Start Guide allows you to integrate Social Invites and app sharing. The sample below would send the link and also allow you track the link through the usms-gh Portal. Social Invites are powerful and easy ways to drive app downloads and user engagement. Fully-Featured Messages The fully featured text messaging options built into the SMS API: A Quick Start Guide let you specify additional parameters that will make your campaigns more compelling—and easier to track for reporting and analysis.
Flash SMS
We recommend OAuth 2.0 authentication. To use OAuth, please generate a new token with selected scopes in the OAuth Tokens section of the Customer Portal. Authorization header will be necessary in request to our Bulk SMS API. If your environment doesn't support headers modification, please add the access_token parameter with its value to request. Please note that this is not a recommended authorization alternative and it has an adverse effect on security..
Basic Reporting
A bank detects possible fraud. An airline makes a last-minute gate change. When your customers need to see urgent messages, Flash SMS messages skip their mobile inbox and appear right on your customer’s home screen. Just one additional line of code enables Flash SMS messages in your application through the SMS API. Every message you send generates a response code, which will be delivered to you through the SMS API: A Quick Start Guide. 200 OK means the message went through, if something went wrong, the SMS API will let you know. The response code tells you what the problem was and our documentation and developer resources will help you determine the cause and how to fix the problem. Now that you’ve got the basics of using the usms-gh SMS API: A Quick Start Guide, you can use it to generate, track, and optimize international text message campaigns quickly and easily. When you’re ready for your app to do more, the SMS API: A Quick Start Guide can handle Number Lookup, two-factor authentication, and messaging across additional platforms (email, voice, and chat/OTT). All of these advanced functions are available using the same SMS API: A Quick Start Guide, and can reuse much of the same code you developed for your initial campaigns. Start connecting your apps to SMS with the usms-gh SMS API: A Quick Start Guide and help your company reach billions of people around the world.
SMS Unicode
SMS Unicode
Conventionally, SMS Unicode (Short Message Service) messaging is recognized to be one of the most used mediums of communicating. The techniques used in constructing SMS Unicode messages shape the way messages are sent and received by recipients. With that noted, understanding some concepts and integrating some of the best practices will be key in ensuring that messages are delivered the way it is expected and also reduce the risk of unexpected costs. Getting answers to these and many other information would definitely keep us all well informed and appreciate the way to properly put out text messages going forward. We start by taking a brief look at texts and how they play a role in SMS Unicode messaging. First of all, it is important to note that all characters that we see on our screens are just symbolic representations of data being fed to computers for human understanding. Every character on your keyboard is encoded in GSM 03.38 when it is being used to create an SMS including the spaces between words. SMS Unicode basically supports two standards of character set: GSM-7 and UCS-2(Also known as Unicode).
A single payload of an SMS message can only contain a capacity of 140 bytes . Hence for a message of more than 140 bytes (i.e. for 160 standard GSM characters), it is considered as a longer message and hence it is split into individual messages called segments . This is described as a concatenated message/multi-part message. In a multi-part message, some of the allocated bytes from the payload are used to create a user data header (UDH). This provides identification and ordering information so that the receiving device knows how to order the separate payloads, which may arrive at the handset out of order into a single readable message. The UDH takes 6 bytes or 48 bits. Hence for multi-segment messages, this leaves 153 GSM-7 characters or 67 UCS-2 characters per segment.
Messages that are not encoded by GSM-7 (Unicode) are limited to 70 characters. Here are a few points to note which will be of benefit to us as we continue:
GSM-7 : This character encoding standard uses most but not all, characters for languages that use the Latin-based alphabet, such as English, Spanish, French. The GSM character encoding uses 7 bits to represent each character. One SMS message that uses GSM can contain a capacity of 160 characters (packed in up to 140 octets) in one SMS Unicode message in the GSM network. The basic character set GSM & can be found here.
Beside the standard GSM characters, characters such as “€ ^ { } [ ] ~ | “ symbols can be used in SMS Unicode messages. The 160 segment count remains, though these characters use additional space; twice the amount of space per character.
Unicode Encoding: Wikipedia describes this type of character as encoding which allows use of a greater range of characters and languages. Unicode also known as UCS-2 can represent the most commonly used characters including punctuation marks, mathematical symbols, technical symbols, arrows, and characters making up non-Latin alphabets, such as Thai, Chinese, or Arabic script and Emojis characters at the cost of a greater space expense.
When UCS-2 characters are included in the body of a message(using GSM/UCS-2 encoding ), the message automatically changes to UCS-2 encoding (which will change the message body limit to 70 characters each).
So going forward we do understand that the character limit for an SMS Unicode is 160 or 70 per message segment depending on the type of characters being used. So for instance if an SMS is sent with texts of about 170 character limit, the message is going to be segmented into 2 parts if it is using GSM encoding (i.e. 153+17 ) or 3 parts if it is Unicode encoding (i.e. 67+67+36). The character length of an SMS message is 160 only if it is GSM encoding. If special characters are used in a text message, it will be a Unicode encoding, and it will reduce the character limit to 70 per segment.
An SMS Unicode message is charged per segment, so with the above example the sender is charged respective to the total of the message segments. With that in mind, we do realize it can be very worrying for individuals who would want to communicate with as much freedom and flexibility and not worrying so much about the cost involved, and usmsgh takes care of just that! usmsgh provides a platform where users are able to send as many messages with as many characters for the users’ satisfaction at very affordable rates.
Source: Arkesel SMS Unicode
Conventionally, SMS Unicode (Short Message Service) messaging is recognized to be one of the most used mediums of communicating. The techniques used in constructing SMS Unicode messages shape the way messages are sent and received by recipients. With that noted, understanding some concepts and integrating some of the best practices will be key in ensuring that messages are delivered the way it is expected and also reduce the risk of unexpected costs. Getting answers to these and many other information would definitely keep us all well informed and appreciate the way to properly put out text messages going forward. We start by taking a brief look at texts and how they play a role in SMS Unicode messaging. First of all, it is important to note that all characters that we see on our screens are just symbolic representations of data being fed to computers for human understanding. Every character on your keyboard is encoded in GSM 03.38 when it is being used to create an SMS including the spaces between words. SMS Unicode basically supports two standards of character set: GSM-7 and UCS-2(Also known as Unicode).
A single payload of an SMS message can only contain a capacity of 140 bytes . Hence for a message of more than 140 bytes (i.e. for 160 standard GSM characters), it is considered as a longer message and hence it is split into individual messages called segments . This is described as a concatenated message/multi-part message. In a multi-part message, some of the allocated bytes from the payload are used to create a user data header (UDH). This provides identification and ordering information so that the receiving device knows how to order the separate payloads, which may arrive at the handset out of order into a single readable message. The UDH takes 6 bytes or 48 bits. Hence for multi-segment messages, this leaves 153 GSM-7 characters or 67 UCS-2 characters per segment.
Messages that are not encoded by GSM-7 (Unicode) are limited to 70 characters. Here are a few points to note which will be of benefit to us as we continue: GSM-7 : This character encoding standard uses most but not all, characters for languages that use the Latin-based alphabet, such as English, Spanish, French. The GSM character encoding uses 7 bits to represent each character. One SMS message that uses GSM can contain a capacity of 160 characters (packed in up to 140 octets) in one SMS Unicode message in the GSM network. The basic character set GSM & can be found here.
Beside the standard GSM characters, characters such as “€ ^ { } [ ] ~ | “ symbols can be used in SMS Unicode messages. The 160 segment count remains, though these characters use additional space; twice the amount of space per character. Unicode Encoding: Wikipedia describes this type of character as encoding which allows use of a greater range of characters and languages. Unicode also known as UCS-2 can represent the most commonly used characters including punctuation marks, mathematical symbols, technical symbols, arrows, and characters making up non-Latin alphabets, such as Thai, Chinese, or Arabic script and Emojis characters at the cost of a greater space expense. When UCS-2 characters are included in the body of a message(using GSM/UCS-2 encoding ), the message automatically changes to UCS-2 encoding (which will change the message body limit to 70 characters each).
So going forward we do understand that the character limit for an SMS Unicode is 160 or 70 per message segment depending on the type of characters being used. So for instance if an SMS is sent with texts of about 170 character limit, the message is going to be segmented into 2 parts if it is using GSM encoding (i.e. 153+17 ) or 3 parts if it is Unicode encoding (i.e. 67+67+36). The character length of an SMS message is 160 only if it is GSM encoding. If special characters are used in a text message, it will be a Unicode encoding, and it will reduce the character limit to 70 per segment. An SMS Unicode message is charged per segment, so with the above example the sender is charged respective to the total of the message segments. With that in mind, we do realize it can be very worrying for individuals who would want to communicate with as much freedom and flexibility and not worrying so much about the cost involved, and usmsgh takes care of just that! usmsgh provides a platform where users are able to send as many messages with as many characters for the users’ satisfaction at very affordable rates. Source: Arkesel
Combining Email Marketing with SMS
Combining Email Marketing with SMS
Combining email marketing with SMS packs a pretty potent punch. Here are the top five benefits of mixing both of these channels into your marketing strategy. Each new generation has increased interest in receiving brand communications via SMS. Companies need to keep up with the times if they’re going to effectively engage their audience and get the results they need. That means setting up a bulk SMS system that integrates with other marketing efforts. Combining email marketing with SMS has the potential to drive significant ROI. It’s a particularly effective channel to communicate personalized offers, event updates, or time-sensitive information. Its strengths can fill some of the gaps in your email campaigns to make your marketing strategies more powerful. Given the popularity of mobile devices, it’s no surprise the two methods work together well. You can make the most of email and SMS marketing by understanding the best use cases for each. Because their strengths are complementary, using both communication channels strategically can result in more effective campaigns and more engaged customers.
Combining email marketing with SMS are entirely permission-based.
Whether your customers fill out an online sign-up form to a weekly email newsletter or tick a box to receive SMS shipping notifications, they’re providing consent for you to communicate with them on these platforms. The list your company compiles from these sign-ups is higher quality than anything you can gather through social media and search engine cohort builders. Rather than targeting your audience with ads they don’t want to see, an email marketing and SMS approach offers a personalized solution to interact with the right audience. Those who opt in are interested in what you have to say, making them perfect prospects. Social media and search ads must appeal to someone who has no connection to your brand. Combining email marketing with SMS marketing come with a guarantee your end audience already knows the basics of your brand. Communications for these mediums have more real estate for you to build your brand and story. Even short missives, when done well, can increase consumer sentiment and boost your company’s image among fans.
Customer data and list growth can be shared between the two.
As you grow your Combining email marketing with SMS program, you have the opportunity to test and learn what type of content drives engagement and conversion. Over time, you’ll be able to gain insight into your subscriber behaviors and interests to boost both email and SMS success. You can then take the subscriber list and accompanying insights from your Combining email marketing with SMS marketing off to a good start. Yes, you’ll still have some fine-tuning to do, but you won’t need to start from scratch like most companies do with their email marketing campaigns — that’s a big advantage. You can complement the launch of your text message campaigns with an email blast that asks subscribers for their phone numbers (and consent). Your SMS success can help optimize future email marketing as well. When you offer good incentives for SMS sign-up, you can expand your reach beyond your base of email subscribers.