Why relying on free SMS messaging services is a bad idea

Utilizing a free SMS service may seem like a brilliant idea for any company that wants to make their marketing campaigns successful. However, using free services could end up having more of a negative effect on your business than a positive one.

Below we take a look at the routes involved in bulk SMS messaging.

First of all, let’s look at what types of SMS messages you can send depending on the quality of the route. Then we’ll analyze the disadvantages issues that could arise from using a free SMS messaging service – particularly for commercial or professional use.

Why use SMS messaging in your marketing strategy?

SMS is an excellent channel for B2C communication.

Firstly, 85% of customers use their mobile phone to get the latest updates. SMS messages are 100% compatible with any device.

It is also worth noting that SMS fosters familiarity and intimacy brands and customers. SMS has an open rate of around 100%, which is the highest of any methods of communication.

Lastly, the vast majority of SMS messages are read just a few minutes after delivery. A vast number of companies from a multitude of sectors use SMS to communicate with their customers.

SMS route quality

However, the quality of your message depends on your connecting route, and the price depends on the countries your customers are based.

The quality of an SMS route is determined by:

• Reliability (the most important factor). Reliability depends on whether the route is as direct as possible to an operator.

Below are the categories of routes according to reliability:

• Direct (0 hop). The route is directly connected to the operator. There are no intermediaries.
• Semi-direct (one hop). There is only one intermediary between connection to the operator. Normally this intermediary is a local interconnection company. This is a fairly high quality route.
• Indirect (+1 hop). When there is more than one intermediary. These are unreliable routes, which can cause problems in terms of availability, delivery time, etc.
• Wholesale. Wholesale routes only successfully deliver a small percentage of messages. In addition, the behavior of the routes differs over time, so can vary greatly from one week to another. These routes are the most vulnerable to errors and incidents.

Delivery time

Marketers often use SMS messaging to communicate an announcement, offers, or other essential information to their customers. Occasionally, discounts, for example, are valid for just one day or maybe few hours, when the customer can buy a product at an unbeatable price.

In these cases of time-sensitive traffic, if the message arrives the following day, or fails to arrive at all, there was no point in sending the message at all. Unfortunately, this can happen when businesses rely on disreputable companies that can be very alluring in their offer of free SMS messaging services.

It’s therefore important to consider:

• Delivery time. How many seconds or minutes does it take for an SMS message to be delivered (when recipients are available and active)?
• Customizable sender ID. This feature depends on the country and operator, as some don’t allow companies to personalize their sender name. However, a quality route should allow this feature if permitted by the country and operator.
• Message delivery confirmation.
• Can you include hyperlinks in the text of the message?

SMS pricing

The price of SMS messaging varies depending on the qualities and features of the message, and how direct the route is as explained above.

Many businesses look for the lowest possible price when it comes to marketing budget. In the case of SMS messaging however, a cheaper service often means a bad quality route, which could cause problems with delivery, or the inconvenience and frustration of messages that go undelivered.

Illegal SMS messaging services

Businesses looking for a free SMS messaging service put themselves at risk of not only getting stuck with a bad quality route with few benefits, but that the service provider might be operating illegally by utilizing data fraudulently.

Using any website or SMS messaging application requires recipient data also to be uploaded. It is important to trust in the SMS messaging company, and ensure that recipient data is not copied or used inappropriately

SMS messaging services do not guarantee data privacy, specifically mobile numbers, which is in breach of GDPR legislation that is in force across Europe.

Many businesses advertising free SMS messaging are operating from countries that have more relaxed or no laws on data privacy – most don’t even disclose their address or country of operation at all. This poses a serious risk to the businesses contracting SMS messaging services. Infringement could incur a fine or legal action against GDPR infractions.

On top of this, messages sent via low quality routes even contain third party advertising in many cases.

Sending free SMS messages is not the solution. LabsMobile allows you to take advantage of all the most advanced SMS marketing features above.

Don’t leave the reputation of your company to chance. We guarantee quality, delivery speed, and features that enable you to analyze the results of your campaign, so you can continue to see the benefits of using LabsMobile while improving the reputation of your company.    

Why relying on free SMS messaging services is a bad idea

LabsMobile only uses direct or one-hop routes that guarantee maximum quality in more than 200 countries. LabsMobile complies with all privacy and data protection legislation when handling data provided to us by our clients for the purpose of sending bulk SMS messaging campaigns.