Bulk SMS Messaging is a Marketing Cheat Code

Bulk SMS Messaging campaigns are a great way to reach large audiences. You can open engagement with your customer base with online memberships or telling them about new promotions. From there, you can send well-placed SMS messages that can drive clicks and sales if done the right way. If you aren’t using bulk SMS messaging as part of your digital marketing plan, you are missing out. Many clients assist with SMS marketing – all with different features. When it comes to bulk text messaging, we found the ClickSend has the most to offer.

Not all SMS marketing clients are made to support bulk messaging fully. Contact list size, user-friendliness, and reports can all be an issue. It’s not enough that you can send a text to a large audience. The process should be straightforward. And because there is a fine line between engaging an excited audience and pestering customers to the point that they don’t want to be bothered anymore, it would be good to get reports on how the messages are received.

ClickSend’s user interface is clean and easy to use. Sending a bulk SMS messaging campaign is very straightforward and took little effort. Simply put, ClickSend checks all the boxes.

Sending Bulk SMS Messages from Your Computer

Using your computer to send bulk texts is simple. To start, you will need to sign up for a ClickSend account.

Setting up your ClickSend account

Before going any further, you need to know that ClickSend is a paid service. Their homepage gives you the option to ‘Get Sending for Free.’ This only allows you to test their service with a small free credit briefly. This does you no good if you’re looking for a one-time free message.

On a positive note, ClickSend only charges for the outgoing messages.

Creating a contact list

If you have a massive address book that you want to use for bulk message sending, importing all your contacts can be very taxing. ClickSend thrives where other bulk SMS marketing clients suffer. From their Dashboard, click on ‘Contacts’ and click the add button to create a new contact list. Here you can create multiple contact lists with different audiences. This helps if you are running multiple SMS campaigns at once.

Click on ‘New List for Campaign’ to find two options. You can import contacts manually. If you have a relatively small list or if you want to add one or two contacts to a larger list, manual entry is the way to go. However, if you have a large list, click ‘Import Contacts.’ ClickSend will allow you to import a spreadsheet, and they give you an example spreadsheet to download that you can edit with your own contacts. Simply copy and paste your contacts and import.

Adding credits

ClickSend works on a credit basis, so you will need to add funds before sending your first text. Click on your existing balance in the ClickSend dashboard, and you can ‘Top Up’ your account. ClickSend offers different packages ranging from $20 for 877 messages to $5,500 for 679,000 messages. The more you spend, the more you save. Based on your contact list, you should know exactly how many texts you need to spend and, therefore, how much money you need to spend.

Your campaign

Creating an SMS marketing campaign is simple once you have the funds and your contact list is imported.

From the dashboard, click ‘SMS Campaign’ under ‘SMS’ and click ‘add campaign.’

You can name the SMS campaign, direct which contact list to send the messages to, and create the message. You can create a custom short URL to direct readers to your site. ClickSend also gives you a list of templates to use and the option to add an opt-out for recipients who do not want to receive any more texts. You can also choose to send the text message immediately or schedule it for a later time.

Review

After you send the SMS campaign, you can refer back to the dashboard to check important data. You can check the number of links that were opened, from what device, and what region.

Final Thoughts

The beauty of ClickSend lies in its comprehensive use and simplicity. For those who benefit from bulk SMS messaging campaigns, it does everything you need it to do – nothing more, nothing less. Its prices are competitive, and you do not need to sign up for a subscription. You add funds and use them as you please. ClickSend is an overall great tool for marketers.