Bulk SMS: how to build a campaign that converts
Bulk SMS beats email where speed and certainty of delivery matter: around 98% open rate in the first minutes, while email fights for 20%. But "send to everyone" is the fastest way to burn your list and earn fines. A good SMS campaign is a process: a clean base, segmentation, personalization, the right moment and hard measurement. Let us walk through it step by step.
Preparing the base and consent (GDPR)
Start with a clean base and current marketing consent. Sending to people without consent risks fines and — just as costly — losing sender reputation with carriers. Import numbers from CSV or XLSX: the system validates the E.164 format and filters out duplicates and invalid numbers. Before a large send, HLR verification — checking whether a number is active before you pay for it — lowers cost and improves the deliverability rate carriers watch.
Segmentation: less is more
One message to your whole base wastes SMS potential. Split recipients by what you know about them: purchase history, location, funnel stage, last-active date. A new customer gets a different SMS than one who has not bought in 60 days. Segmentation raises CTR and — importantly — cuts opt-outs, because the content is relevant.
Personalization and copy in 160 characters
An SMS has 160 characters per segment (beyond that the message splits into more, costlier segments). Every word counts. A proven structure: a recognizable sender (Sender ID), one concrete benefit, one clear CTA, a short tracked link. Use field personalization right in the body — {name}, {code}, {amount}, any field from your CSV. "Anna, your -15% code expires today at 10pm" beats "Sale in our store" every time. You set it all up in the bulk SMS module.
Timing and throughput
Timing matters. Schedule sends for hours of real recipient activity — for B2C typically 10am–12pm and 5pm–8pm, for B2B during work hours. Avoid early morning and late evening (irritation = opt-outs). The infrastructure handles up to 100,000 SMS/h, so even a large campaign goes out in full without queuing. You can schedule sends ahead or run them on a recurring basis.
A/B tests: guess less, measure more
Before sending to the whole base, test two copy versions on small samples and send the winner to the rest. Test one element at a time: CTA, length, presence of a discount, the hour. Even a few percentage points of CTR on a large base is real money. The bulk module has A/B testing with automatic conversion measurement built in.
Measurement and campaign cost
Measure three things: deliverability (did it arrive), CTR (was the link clicked) and conversion (did the goal happen). The dashboard shows them in real time, and short tracked links on your domain tie a click to a purchase. Calculate the cost in advance in the calculator: no subscription, the rate drops with volume. A test account with 100 free SMS is on the sign-up page.
FAQ
How many SMS per hour can I send?+
The infrastructure handles up to 100,000 SMS/h, with no queuing even for large campaigns.
Can I personalize the copy for each recipient?+
Yes — any field from your CSV (name, code, amount) goes straight into the body. Personalization meaningfully raises CTR.
How is bulk SMS billed?+
Pay-as-you-go, no subscription. The per-SMS rate drops with monthly volume — full table in the pricing.
Is it worth checking numbers via HLR before sending?+
Yes, for large bases. HLR Lookup filters out inactive numbers, lowering campaign cost and improving deliverability.