Running International SMS Campaigns – Best Practices

International SMS campaigns can be effective tools to energise your customer base, especially if your business is predominantly online. Apply best practice guidelines for the best results.

According to South African law it is possible to send unsolicited international SMS messages to mobile devices in South Africa without requiring the permission of the handset owner – but you have to provide them with the option to opt out and also disclose where exactly you got their information.

While this may seem like a possibly lucrative opportunity, actually implementing this form of communication is a bad idea. And here’s why:

• People hate SPAM, regardless of whether it’s mobile or not.
• Companies that send unsolicited messages risk damaging their brand by sending an unwanted message to a very personal device.
• Trouble will never be far away – seeing as the source of the mobile number has to be made available on demand, the company in question could either find themselves in trouble with the law (where no source can be named), in court, etc.

In all instances, whether the international SMS destination is the United Kingdom, France, South Africa or even locally in Australia, it pays to ensure that all messages are solicited through measures in line with the destination country’s regulations.

Only Send Solicited Messages

That being said, there’s another aspect of international SMS messaging that has to be kept in mind. Regardless of what country you are in and where you want to send to, it is important to keep in mind that people, who asked for messages from you, did so with one purpose in mind:

They’re interested in what you have to say/offer with regards to a specific product, service, etc.

More formally, this is known as solicited content, which basically means that contacts want to know about a specific product or service from you. A good example of unsolicited contact is where someone, say Bruce, goes to his local home appliance store to buy a shovel. He signs up to receive further information from them regarding their specials. But three messages later, he is fed up – instead of sending him information related to the items he bought, he got an SMS promoting a popular brand name doll house with a slide and revolving doors – all three which he has no use for or interest in.

Aside from that, there are the obvious content types which should preferably not be sent via international SMS. For a full indication of content types that are not acceptable, refer to our Terms and Conditions.

Only send solicited content

And finally, we arrive at a subject which, at times, can be a bit tricky. It relates to the sender ID used to send messages to each of your international SMS destinations. The short and sweet of it is that you’ll have to check what the requirements are for sending international SMS messages to a particular destination country. In some cases you might be required to apply for a number local to that country to ensure your messages get delivered – Australian short codes will not work, for instance, in the United States, etc.

Use the right sender ID

That being said, although international SMS might seem a bit tricky to navigate at first, rest assured that it is definitely worth it, especially in the long run.

For more information, please refer to our international SMS page.

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Tags: international SMS, Sender ID, unsolicited content, unsolicited SMS