SMS isn’t just a convenient way to chat with friends. It’s also a powerful mobile marketing tool for businesses. A huge amount of the global population own a mobile device, and most use their phone to send and receive text messages. More importantly, mobile users are more engaged with bulk SMS messaging than they are with other mobile marketing avenues.
As long as people have carried mobile phones marketers have seen the potential for a new way to contact an engaged and responsive audience.
A whopping 98% of SMS messages are read, and the response rate of text messages is 45%, versus 6% for email.
While sending an SMS to someone in another country seems pretty straightforward, navigating the intricacies of global bulk SMS is actually quite tricky. For starters, different countries and carriers have different definitions of what acceptable use is, whether for sending SMS messages or for setting opt-in policies.
There are regulations regarding sending SMS, and more specifically bulk SMS is permitted and under what conditions, vary from country to country. SMS can make a huge impact on your business when executed correctly and is on the rise. Sendmode has compiled some information on restriction associated with certain countries based on questions frequently asked by consumers.
Restrictions differ from country to country/when sending between countries. For example, French law forbids promotional traffic between 9 pm and 8 am, on bank holidays and Sundays. Any messages sent within this time will be queued for delivery. While American and Canadian numbers have a daily limit of 500 messages per day and 1 SMS per second, although additional numbers may be purchased. Numbers are best used for local, two-way communication, for receiving SMS from local mobiles rather than internationally. Some restrictions do apply while using numbers. You can find specific restrictions per country in the infographic below.
There are a few advantages of having this information:
1. Keep Content Readable
Different mobile carriers encode and concatenate your messages in different ways. Having local knowledge will help you structure your messages to ensure they arrive exactly how you sent them.
2. Use number that maximize deliverability
As displayed on the infographic, many countries have very specific guidance for each type of phone number when it’s used as the source of your SMS. Typing a wrong number may result in your message being shut down. For example, in countries such as Egypt, phone numbers must be pre-registered.
Thanks for reading, we hope you found this blog helpful.
Saoirse
