Mass Texting Service Platform

Everything You Need to Know About Mass Texting

Today, organizations, charities, and companies move at breakneck speed thanks to technology. You’re expected to keep up with the needs of your members and customers on even tighter timelines and limited budgets.

The key to running your organization more efficiently is better communication. But if you have more than one person in your organization (and we’re sure you do), then you need tools that help you communicate clearly, quickly, and affordably.

Emails work fine, but they won’t give your audience immediate updates. Phone calls are personal, but most of your audience won’t answer, anyway.

How to Send a Mass Text Message (Video)

Mass texting is the best way to connect in a way that’s immediate, non-intrusive, and convenient, both for your organization and your audience.

Use this guide to learn the basics of mass texting, how easy it is to use DialMyCalls to send mass text messages, and to see how it’s a perfect fit for your brand’s communication toolkit.

What Is Bulk Text Messaging?

Organizations use mass text messaging to send a single SMS message to thousands of people at the same time. Instead of taking a painstaking amount of time addressing hundreds of contacts manually in your phone, mass texting makes it easy to communicate with everyone at once.

Bulk SMS isn’t done through your phone; instead, you can do it from a web-based platform or even an app. This way, you can communicate with thousands of people in just seconds—no fumbling with your phone required.

Mass texts are more effective than manual texting because they’re fast and accurate. Send everyone on your list the same information in mere seconds.

All organizations will use mass texting differently. Depending on your business model and goals, you might send your audience alerts, coupons, shipping updates, new deals, or warnings via mass text. It’s the perfect way to send quick, digestible information that you know your audience will read.

Because mass texting is web-based, you can create separate segments within your audience, sending more relevant, targeted information based on audience interests.

While some organizations, like Little League teams, use mass texting just for communication, others make it a part of their marketing strategy. Because it’s ROI-positive, mass texting is a shoo-in strategy to boost customer acquisition and even retention for your company.

The Difference Between a Mass Texting Service and Texting Apps

Before we touch on how mass texting (bulk SMS) works, it’s important to understand how mass text messaging is different than the texting apps you might have on your phone.

 

First, texting apps limit how many people you can reach with one message. You usually can’t reach more than ten people at once with a group text. If you have more than ten customers, this just isn’t an efficient way to spend your time. Mass texting services save you from sending multiple group chats to customers so you can focus on more important things.

Second, you can’t have a private conversation with the contacts in your group chat. If one person has a question, everyone in the group chat can see it. Depending on the back and forth, the number of group chats can get pretty annoying.

Third, it’s really hard for people to leave a group chat. If you’re having a couple of back and forth conversations with 10 people and they have no power to leave the conversation, that’s going to distance these customers from your brand. Mass texting, on the other hand, gives people the freedom to leave the conversation if it isn’t right for them.

Types of Mass SMS Solutions

There are several reasons to send out a mass text message, which may change depending on the type of organization you have. For example, your school, place of work, church, club, or group may need to send out the following:

Alerts

This includes, for example, changes in game times, practice cancellations, school closures, impromptu work meetings, and even alerts about prowlers in the neighborhood.

Coupons and New Deals

Make it easy for your customers to take advantage of your sales. You can do this by using mass texting through DialMyCalls to send out promo codes, coupons, announcements regarding upcoming sales and specials, etc. Your customers are far more likely to open a text message than they would an email, and subsequently more likely to use a coupon/give you their business.

Shipping Updates

An informed customer is a happy customer. Your company may be entirely trustworthy, but you have to prove that to every customer, every time. One way to achieve this is to provide them with updates regarding the location of their order.  This will give them peace of mind, which will increase the likelihood of them using your company’s services in the future.

Warnings

Save precious time by using DialMyCalls to send out emergency alerts. Whether it’s a boil-water advisory, inclement weather, hazardous road conditions, fires—mass texting is an excellent way to quickly let others know when there is an emergency at hand.

Prayer Chain Hotlines

Let’s face it, church management is easier with the use of technology. Many churches and other religious groups have used a phone chain to get the word out about congregants who are in need of prayer. Texting this information, however, is not only faster, it’s a more reliable way to reach your church members.

Rather than wait for one person to forward the message, as you would have to do with the old-fashioned phone tree route, SMS prayer chains get the message out to everyone at once, instantaneously.  This helps stop the breakdown of communication, something that, in the past, has been a problem for many churches. Learn more about how to use a prayer chain through SMS mass texting.

Appointment Reminders

Doctors, dentists, mental health therapists and several other occupations require setting up appointments. Make it easier on you and your clients by sending out an instant reminder of upcoming appointments, rather than relying on a phone message or a reminder card, both of which may be ignored or forgotten.

How to Send a Mass Text

Now that we know what mass texting is (and what it isn’t), let’s dive into how your organization can use DialMyCalls to send bulk text messages to their audience. It boils down to just a few simple steps:

Create Your Campaign

To get started, log into your DialMyCalls web portal. If you don’t have an account, sign up for free—no credit card or setup fees required to get started.  After you’ve successfully created a DialMyCalls account, you can choose to import existing contacts from a previous list if you have it, or you can set up a new list altogether.

Mass Text Promos and Deals

The next step in creating your campaign is to choose an SMS keyword that your audience can use to opt into your list. Try to choose a keyword that’s related to your brand or product. For example, if you own a pizza shop, you could use the SMS keyword “GETPIZZA.”

Once you’ve chosen your keyword, you’ll need to set up your SMS short code. DialMyCalls lets our clients use our short code so there’s no need to set one up when you choose our platform.

When someone wants to opt into your list, they send the keyword to your short code. So promoting your mass text campaign would look like “Text ‘GETPIZZA’ to 80123 to get exclusive coupons and deals.”

You don’t have to use just one keyword, either. If your audience has different interests, you can use different keywords to opt them into a certain segment in your list. This helps you send more relevant offers to each person.

For example, if you own a clothing store, you could have a list for customers interested in summer swimsuits and another for shoe aficionados. This is the perfect way to personalize your customer conversations to get even more engagement.

Mass Text Alerts, Emergencies and Updates

DialMyCalls can help you get the word out, fast. Whether it’s a snow-day, boil-water advisory, construction alert, or change in venue, people need to know what’s going on, and the sooner the better. Schools, churches, clubs and other community groups can use mass texting to relay critical pieces of information to members.  Again, recipients opt-in–and opt-out, if they so choose – to receive these convenient alerts.

Similarly, you will choose a keyword for members of your organization to text to the short code.  For example, to join a church prayer chain, a congregant could text “PRAYER” to 80123. Or to get information about school closures due to inclement weather, a parent could text the keyword “YESWTHR” to 80123.

Grow Your Contacts

After setting up your campaign, you’ll begin growing your list. Advertise your mass text campaign with signage in your physical location, on social media, and via flyers or labels on your products.

It’s very important to remember that all new contacts need to opt-in to receive messages from you. DialMyCalls logs compliance and opt-in data for you, which will keep you more protected in the event of an audit.

Send Relevant Messages

Once you’ve started populating your list with customer information, it’s time to send them relevant, valuable messages. The great thing about the web-based DialMyCalls platform is that you can quickly type messages to your audience on your computer.

But remember, you can’t overwhelm your customers with mass texts. You have to always deliver value to your customers. Focus on making your customer the superhero, with you playing the role of sidekick. This will encourage customers to stay on your list and engage with you for the long haul.

Once you start sending messages to your followers, you’ll be able to engage with them in one-on-one conversations in your mass texting online portal. From here, it’s all about continuing to provide value, respecting your customers, and growing your list. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Benefits of Sending Mass Text Messages

With DialMyCalls, bulk texting is simple, efficient, and cost-effective no matter the size of your organization. When you opt for mass text marketing, you stand to benefit in four big ways:

1. Better Engagement

Text messages have an astounding open rate of 98%. Your customers are not only reading their text messages, but they’re engaging with the content, too. If you want to quickly engage with customers, mass texting is the way to do it.

For example, if you send a customer a coupon at 10 am, they’re likely to show up at your restaurant for lunch at 12 pm. That’s the power of engaging SMS marketing at work.

2. No Technical Knowledge Needed

There’s no need to understand code, computer networking, or the complexities of SMS marketing with the DialMyCalls mass SMS platform. Just sign up, focus on your campaign, and let us do all the backend work.

3. It’s Affordable

Mass text messaging gives you a better return on your marketing dollars. Instead of throwing money down the drain on Facebook Ads, get real engagement and results from text marketing.

Whether you’re a small shop or a large enterprise, you’ll boost the lifetime value (LTV) of each engaged customer with SMS marketing.

4. Save More Time

You’re busy running your organization. You don’t have time for labor-intensive marketing campaigns that may or may not affect your bottom line. Mass texting through DialMyCalls is super effective and doesn’t require a lot of time to set up.

In fact, you can put a lot of your text marketing on autopilot by scheduling your messages in advance. You can text two people or two thousand—the size of your list won’t affect how much time you invest in the campaign.

Mass Texting Best Practices

Curious about mass texting but haven’t tried it before? No worries. You’ll be mass texting like a pro as long as you follow these best practices. If you ever have any questions, the DialMyCalls team is also available to help brainstorm and troubleshoot your campaign.

Set Clear Expectations Beforehand

If you don’t want people to unsubscribe from your text campaign in droves, it’s important to set expectations. Let people know what they’re getting into before they opt-in.

Always let your customers know how often you’ll contact them, why, and what types of content they can expect. For example, you could say, “Opt in to Pizza Joe’s text alerts to get money-saving coupons every Tuesday.” You can include this message on signage promoting your text campaign or via an introductory text after opt-in.

Watch Your Frequency

It’s important to stick with the frequency you promised when you set expectations. If you suddenly start texting your customers too often, they’re going to unsubscribe. Don’t increase your mass texting frequency after customers sign up; that’s just annoying.

Make It Useful

Your mass texting campaign shouldn’t be about your brand; it should be about the customer. Make your text updates helpful and interesting so customers have a reason to stay on your list. Offering exclusive promotions, deals, or coupons will go a long way to maintaining your list.

You don’t have to send just freebies, though. Mass texts are also a great way to show customers you’re thinking about them. Send anniversary, birthday, or holiday texts to show you care. This gives value to your customers and reminds them about your brand without coming off as spammy.

Why Should You Consider Mass Texting as Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

Being able to send bulk SMS text messages is a valuable addition to any business’s marketing toolkit. Regardless of your industry or size, mass texting can benefit your brand in the following three ways:

1. Save Time

Have you ever wished you could put your marketing on autopilot? Mass texting helps you connect with your audience in a way that’s fast, convenient, and quick to set up.

Thanks to DialMyCalls’ scheduling and automation features, you can set up campaigns to automatically chat with your audience. Manage your conversations on the go from the DialMyCalls mobile app and let us do the heavy lifting. This is as close to true autopilot for your marketing as you can get!

2. Start Real Conversations

Because you can segment your audience with mass texting, you’re able to send hyper-relevant messages to different members of your audience.

Mass texting isn’t about blasting off one-way messages, either. They empower you to reply to customer comments, suggestions, and questions in a private discussion. This means you can build closer, more relevant relationships with your customers, leading to increased engagement and sales.

3. See Bottom-Line Growth

Texting gets people’s attention. Text messages have better open rates than email and have the power to immediately influence customer action. If you’re looking for better ROI on your marketing (and who isn’t?), mass texting is a cost-effective option that gets results.

Why Choose DialMyCalls’ Mass Texting Service?

You have the option to choose from several mass texting services for your brand. Why should you choose DialMyCalls?

Try It for Free

If you’ve never done mass texting before, don’t worry. DialMyCalls lets you do a trial run on our platform to make sure it’s the right option for your organization. There are no setup fees or a credit card required, either. We give you 25 free credits so you can try our platform before you spend a single penny. Start your free trial now.

Easy to Use

The DialMyCalls platform is intuitive and easy to navigate. Simply upload your contacts, write your message, and send it out to your list.

Schedule and Automate Messages

Automate your customer communication with DialMyCalls’ scheduling and automation capabilities. Be as involved or hands-off with your campaign as you like.

Two-Way Communication

By purchasing the 2-way texting add-on, customers can respond to your message with DialMyCalls’ mass texting, opening up communication and new possibilities.

Stellar Deliverability

“Deliverability” is our middle name. We make sure your messages arrive safely in your customers’ inbox.

World-Class Customer Support

If you ever have any questions, our helpful team is on standby to help you market smarter.

Helpful Features

The DialMyCalls bulk SMS platform includes other helpful features such as:

Two-Way Messaging

With two-way texting through DialMyCalls, you can instantly receive replies from text recipients, poll customers/clients, receive RSVPs for events, and more. Plus, you can get set up with a personal long code SMS vanity number.  This will change the way you communicate with your customers, clients, parishioners, or group members.

Bulk Messaging

No matter the size of your opt-in group, you can get the word to them quickly and effectively by using bulk messaging through DialMyCalls. Learn how you can use IMGUR to send recipients photos!

Long Code SMS

If you don’t want to use DialMyCalls’ standard short-code, you can purchase your own SMS long code.  It’s quick and cost-effective, plus it’s a more personal option. The long code option can also receive phone calls, or redirect phone calls to an existing line, including landlines.  DialMyCalls can even set up a voicemail option for your long code number. However, this option is slower for bulk texting. This option is perfect if your broadcast is small, doesn’t have a tight timeframe, or you are using your long code for 2-way texting. You can send about 60 texts per minute.

Short Code SMS

Short code is the way to go if you need to get the word out fast to a large amount of people.  You can use DialMyCall’s short code—80123—for sending out important mass notifications, such as emergencies.  With this feature, you can send up to 6000 messages per minute.

SMS Templates

You can send a previous text broadcast, but this will be deleted after 90 days.  Instead, save a broadcast as a template. It will only be deleted when you choose to do so. This can come in handy if you need to send the same message out frequently.

SMS Keywords

Use a keyword to allow your customers to opt-in to your mass text messaging service. You will ask them to “text ‘KEYWORD’ to our shortcode, 80123.”  Customers who have purchased credits or a monthly plan will receive a free custom keyword. For an in-depth guide at how this works, click here.

See how our platform can help you get more results in less time.

Who Uses Our Mass Texting Service?

Is mass texting right for your organization? All types of companies, charities, and other groups use DialMyCalls mass texting to communicate with their audience.

Churches and Religious Groups

Religious organizations often need to communicate with all of their members at once. Whether you want to replace a church calling tree, set up a prayer request line, or send event reminders, mass texting for churches makes rapid communication a breeze.

Accountants and Tax Firms

Need critical financial documents from your clients? Let the DialMyCalls system do all the heavy lifting. Send appointment reminders and important dates to your clients via mass texting.

eCommerce Companies

Keep your customers in the loop at all times with mass texting. Thank them for their order, send shipping notifications, and solicit feedback all within the DialMyCalls mass texting platform.

Entertainment Venues

There’s a lot of pressure for entertainment venues to have a packed house. Use mass texting to fill empty seats. Invite customers to join your mailing list for discounts and offer them limited-time deals on slow nights to pack the house.

Nonprofits

Stop spending your precious nonprofit dollars on mailers or flyers. Mass texting can help with event reminders, volunteer outreach, and overdue book notices. Enjoy immediate, accurate communication that keeps your nonprofit running smoothly.

Real Estate

Real estate agents have to be on 24/7. You know how quickly houses come on and off the market; quick communication is key to closing on a home ASAP. Send your clients mass text reminders about meetings or even the latest home listings.

Spas and Salons

Don’t your customers deserve a little “me-time”? Use mass texting to remind your customers to come in for their next haircut or whenever they’re overdue for a much-needed massage.

Schools

Schools have plenty of stakeholders that make communication a challenge. Mass texting makes it easy to send parent notifications, emergency alerts, and school closings automatically to everyone on your list.

Retail

You deserve more foot traffic to your retail location. Mass texting gives you the power to send timely offers to your customers, boosting customer loyalty and your bottom line at the same time.

Hotels and Multi-Family Residential

You have plenty of people coming and going from your property. Keep everyone in the know with mass texting. Send check-in or rent reminders, emergency alerts, or a complaint form to communicate more efficiently.

Restaurants

Diners love hearing from their favorite restaurants, especially when they’re getting deals! Set up a mass texting campaign to fill seats in your restaurant with timely offers and coupons.

Doctors and Dental Offices

Don’t tie up precious office resources by manually calling your patients. Mass texting helps you send appointment reminders automatically with zero hassle.

Get in touch with us now to brainstorm your next mass texting campaign.