Mass text messaging allows companies and organizations to communicate quickly using a medium that has wide adoption and consumption. It is estimated that 95% of the adults in the United States have smartphones. Infact most adults have their cell phones with them throughout the day. It is also widely accepted that most people read text messages within minutes of receiving them. As a result mass text messaging is an efficient and effective way to communicate with employees, customers and members of a community.

Mass text messaging is simply sending a text messages to a large group of individuals. Today there are really two different types of mass text messages, the first is used by companies or communities to convey desired information. Examples of this type of mass text messaging could be a pharmaceutical company running a clinical trial sending medication reminders to patients, or a company texting all the staff members requesting shift coverage. It could also be a college sending a text message about an emergency on campus conveying that all students should shelter in place or avoid a specific area, or it could be an elementary school sending a text to all parents that school is cancelled due to inclement weather. Perhaps it is a church sending out devotionals or prayer requests. In other words, these mass messages are sent to a specific audience and contain specific relevant information, in almost all cases the recipient has implicitly "opted-in" as a member of community to receive the messages and the messages themselves are not typically marketing in nature.

The second type of mass text messages are related to marketing. Restaurants may send lunch specials to customers, or retail stores may send out text messages with discounts. The key to these marketing messages are that the recipient has specifically requested to receive the information and "opted-in". The messages are decidely marketing in nature, but the recipient has requested to receive the information.

There are a number of software applications or online services that allow companies to send a large volume of text messages. There is a big difference from a restaurant allow customers to sign-up to receive text message lunch specials and simply sending out mass messages to customers who have not made the specific decision to receive the marketing messages. Unsolicited mass text messages can incur large fines, so it is imperative that the sender has the expressed permission of the recipient to send any marketing related text messages. While text messaging is a very effective communication strategy for easily communicating information to a large targeted audience it is important that laws are followed and recipients have requested the receipt of any marketing related messages.

The easiest way to send mass text messages is to use software like PageGate from NotePage in conjunction with cellular hardware (GSM modems or routers). You can create groups and sub-groups to send highly targeted messages.

Article Date: August 6, 2020