What Is Bulk Sms Anyway?

Submitted by Greg Lehman on Monday, January 16, 2012 - 10:28

Remember a time before the internet? Seems weird that something which is such an integral part of our everyday lives now, was such a foreign concept at one time. Watch this hilarious clip from the Today Show in 1994 where the hosts try to figure out what ‘@’ and the internet mean.

I understand Bulk SMS very well because I work with it and talk about it every day. I forget sometimes that when I first started hearing about and researching it, I sounded much like the people on the Today Show. It sounded good, but I didn’t totally understand how it really worked.

This is the challenge/opportunity I face with some people when I meet them for the first time. Let me paint you a picture using a medium you’re very familiar with by now, email.

The Basics

With any Bulk SMS campaign you need 2 parts:

  • the ‘KEYWORD’ &
  • the ‘short code’

Think of the ‘short code’ (ours is 54500) as being the domain name ie. ‘@gmail.com’. This provides the email service. What goes before it, acts like the ‘KEYWORD’ because it tells Gmail which inbox to put the message in. You can have millions of people who use Gmail, but the word before the ‘@’ tells it which inbox to put the message in.

This works very similarly with Bulk SMS. There’s no limit to the number of people who can use the ‘short code’ ’54500′, it’s the KEYWORD that will separate subscribers into their correct groups.

For example, you could own a computer store and tell your customers:

  • “text ‘COMPUTERDEALS’ to ’54500′ to receive mobile coupons”
  • “text ‘SUPPORT’ to ’54500′ to get help with technical issues”
  • “text ‘SALES’ to ’54500′ to speak specifically with our sales staff”

A doctor might use options like:

  • “text ‘reminder’ to ’54500′ to receive appointment reminders”
  • “text ‘medical’ to ’54500′ to get quick answers to medical questions”

All of these KEYWORDS would belong to the same business and they’d all use our short code ’54500′. The different keyword would direct traffic to it’s appropriate place. So you can send specific messages to different groups of people (like an email list) depending on what they’re interested in receiving.

I hope this has helped you to understand a bit more of the basics of how Bulk SMS works. As always feel free to contact me with questions, I’m always happy to help.