Tools and strategies for sending bulk SMS messages
Bulk SMS messaging is the marketing practice of sending text messages in bulk to multiple recipients.
The aim? To communicate easily with customers, subscribers or registrants (to promote commercial operations, for example). To achieve this, companies generally use SMS sending software.
What actions should you take and what advice should you follow to optimize your SMS communication campaigns? Which technological solution should you choose to support these operations?
We tell you all about it.
What is bulk SMS?
Bulk SMS involves sending the same message to a large number of recipients simultaneously. This work is carried out via dedicated platforms, specially designed to handle high volumes of messages. The aim? To quickly reach a large audience, whether for a promotion, an alert or important information.
This service is widely used in marketing strategies, as it enables us to reach customers or prospects with direct content, easily readable on mobile.
Why send bulk SMS? The benefits
Sending bulk SMS messages is cost-effective
Sending mass SMS messages means broadcasting text messages to a large number of recipients. But using mobile terminals would quickly become very expensive, and would be detrimental to any company's productivity.
For these economic and practical reasons, SMS text messaging systems have been developed with the rise of new technologies: they now meet the expectations of marketing managers.
For example, it is possible to achieve :
- a significant cost reduction by purchasing a message pack ;
- degressive rates according to the formulas offered by dedicated platforms.
In fact, it all depends on the volume of SMS sent and the features offered by your software.
👉 All in all, SMS marketing has grown in popularity over the years, as it complements the communication strategy while optimizing the budget by means of sliding-scale pricing.
SMS marketing is essential to your communications
Mass SMS is particularly well suited to your marketing strategy. Prospecting via text messaging means exploiting a performance lever that promises higher conversion and transformation rates than email or snail mail.
The SMS channel offers a 98% open rate.
Le Journal du Marketing
💡 Good to know: the new uses for SMS go beyond the simple commercial offer. It's now all about offering more personalization to the recipient, in favor of the performance of your mobile digital strategy. In other words, send the right message at the right time to the right person, just like with emailing.
When to use bulk SMS? Examples of use cases
SMS advertising is the form of advertising most familiar to the general public.
And yet, the uses of this service vary: each use (and each objective) corresponds to a type of SMS campaign.
This table presents a variety of mass SMS campaigns, each associated with its specific objective and strategy. 👉
| Campaign Type | Description |
| Promotional | Send messages to promote special offers, sales, discounts or events. |
| Confirmation | Sends messages to confirm appointments, reservations or orders. |
| Notification | Send messages to inform customers of product updates, deadline reminders, etc. |
| Re-engagement | Send messages to reactivate inactive customers or to encourage re-use of services. |
| Survey/feedback | Sending messages to gather opinions, feedback or satisfaction ratings. |
| Birthday | Send messages to celebrate customers' birthdays and offer them exclusive benefits. |
| Event | Send messages to invite customers to special events or product launches. |
How do I send bulk SMS messages?
Sending bulk SMS messages becomes child's play when you use the right tools and adopt an effective method.
Here's how. 👉
- Select a specialized platform. How do I choose? By opting for an intuitive solution that lets you import your contacts, personalize your messages and track your campaigns. Of course, keep an eye on the rates offered.
- Prepare a well-organized contact list. Segment your audience according to criteria such as age, interests or location. This way, you'll target your messages more effectively, and make them more impactful.
- Write a clear, engaging message. Your SMS should be short, punchy and contain a call to action (link to your site, for example). Keep it to 160 characters to avoid extra charges.
- Plan the dispatch at a strategic moment. Timing is crucial, and you should avoid sending your messages overnight or at inconvenient times.
- Run a test. Mistakes happen quickly, and a poorly formulated message can damage your image.
- Launch your campaign when everything's ready! But don't stop there: carefully analyze the results (reception rate, click-through rate, etc.) to adjust your future campaigns.
7 best practices to improve your bulk SMS campaign
1. Respect the law
The opt-in rule to bear in mind
SMS recipients must have given their consent to receive your message on their mobile. The legal framework imposes this on you: the opt-in rule prevails, spam is outlawed!
In order to obtain this authorization and comply with French legislation, do everything you can to ensure that your message is delivered to the right recipient:
- design a subscription form (with a checkbox, for example) to validate authorization;
- confirm by SMS that the request has been taken into account;
- include the words "stop SMS" in each of your messages, in compliance with the French Data Protection Act.
The General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD)
The RGPD, this European regulation with global reach, has been in place since 2018. In particular, it is based on prior information and the right to object.
Consequently, you must:
- specify to the registered person for what purposes you are going to use their data ;
- deploy the necessary means so that the recipients of your messages can object to this use at any time.
2. Select a legal sending date and time
To protect the privacy of the French, the law specifies the conditions for sending mass text messages: no SMS messages relating to commercial operations between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., including public holidays!
💡 O ur advice: to get off to a good start with a prospect or continue to build customer loyalty, it's best to respect the law and select your sending date, avoiding certain overly popular slots.
3. Send personalized messages to establish a unique relationship
It's important to personalize your mass SMS messages if you want to capture the attention of your recipients. A generic message is likely to be ignored or even deleted. On the other hand, a personalized SMS, which mentions the customer's name or refers to their preferences, creates an immediate and engaging link.
💡 Some tips in this direction:
- include the recipient's first name in the content;
- mention an offer adapted to their purchases or preferences;
- use dynamic variables to insert specific information (date, place, product);
- write a warm and direct text, as if you were talking to a single person;
- segment your lists to send truly relevant content;
- provide response options, such as a follow-up link or contact number;
- add a touch of humor or a friendly tone if relevant to your brand image.
4. Think multi-channel mobile
With rich messaging (rich sms), you can take full advantage of the possibilities offered by the web, without your recipient having to switch media.
From a simple SMS with a clickable link, send your prospect or customer to a mobile-compatible web page.
In short, create a mobile pathway that directs your target effectively, with the aim of optimizing your sales or conversion cycle.
5. Schedule automatic mailings
Using mailing software well also means knowing how to exploit the parameter settings.
✨ Think of the range of possibilities promised by automatic SMS:
- personalization ;
- sending a birthday message ;
- confirm appointments;
- sending promotions;
- invitations to events, etc.
6. Optimize your mailings for better deliverability
In SMS marketing (as in emailing), the deliverability of a message reflects its ability to reach the right recipient, i.e. the right number, assigned to the right person.
To achieve a good deliverability rate, we recommend that you :
- Respect the opt-in rule, i.e. don't spam;
- manage your contact lists properly, cleaning them regularly;
- use a dedicated server to send bulk SMS messages;
- handle SMS STOP messages efficiently;
- have an identified sender domain, etc.
7. Keep a close eye on your statistics
We've already mentioned it, but we strongly recommend that you monitor your actions and analyze performance, with a view to improving the effectiveness of your bulk SMS mailings.
There are many variables involved. Some of the most closely monitored statistics include :
- open rate (how many recipients opened your SMS) ;
- read rate (how many people read your SMS);
- conversion rate (how many people, for example, clicked on the link in your SMS to visit the web page), etc.
☝️ You can take your analysis a step further with the advanced features of professional SMS software.
Comparison of the 9 best bulk SMS software solutions in 2025
Which bulk SMS solution should you choose?
Here are some of the market's leading platforms, listed in alphabetical order.
1 of 9
 allmysms |  Digitaleo |  Ditel SMS Mailing |  Iroquois |  Octopush |  Marketing Cloud |  SMSFactor |  smsmode |  Spot-Hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| For companies with more than 1 employees | For companies with 2 to 5000 employees | For companies with 2 to 5000 employees | For all companies | For companies with more than 1 employees | For companies with 2 to 250 employees | For all companies | For companies with 1 to 5000 employees | For companies with more than 1 employees |
| See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software | See software |
| Learn more about allmysms | Learn more about Digitaleo | Learn more about Ditel SMS Mailing | Learn more about Iroquois | Learn more about Octopush | Learn more about Marketing Cloud | Learn more about SMSFactor | Learn more about smsmode | Learn more about Spot-Hit |
allmysms
MS Innovations, publisher of allmysms, is an expert in mobile marketing operations. This team of sales engineers, based in France, is motivated by a passion for innovation.
With their cross-functional offering, they give you access to tools such as mobile application and site development, virtual mobile numbers (VMNs), etc.
🛠️ Key features include
- automated management of STOP responses ;
- contact cleaning ;
- acknowledgement of receipt ;
- graphical analysis ;
- complete history (dates, messages, SMS responses, acknowledgement status, etc.).
allmysms
Digitaleo
A complete emailing and SMS tool, Digitaleo appeals to e-tailers and marketers for its "ready-to-use" sales operation templates and ease of use.
Various packages also enable small and medium-sized businesses to launch their SMS campaigns at affordable prices, and "segment like the big boys".
🛠️ Key features include
- automated management of STOP responses ;
- contact cleansing ;
- performance monitoring ;
- real-time access to detailed SMS campaign statistics;
- detailed analysis of number of SMS sent, delivery rate, responses, unsubscribes.
Digitaleo
Ditel SMS Mailing
By connecting a modem using a GSM SIM card to your computer, you can send up to 200 SMS/hour, free of charge (depending on your operator and package).
Ditel SMS Mailing is installed on a single workstation: you need to buy it and download updates.
Its strengths? A real telephone number is displayed, guaranteeing a higher open rate. And importing an Excel file enables messages to be personalized.
🛠️ Key features include
- automated STOP response management ;
- file management (duplicates, burnt numbers, etc.);
- SMS test on a dedicated number;
- send programming ;
- history containing status of dispatches and responses received.
Ditel SMS Mailing
Iroquois
Iroquois supports companies in all sectors in optimizing and monitoring all their multi-channel customer relations (e-mailing, SMS, push-notification), via its intuitive, easy-to-use PoWoW solution.
With it, create your email and SMS campaigns with ease, while managing your transactional and promotional mailings and marketing automation scenarios in just a few clicks.
🛠️ Key features include
- Drag&Drop creation tools in responsive design ;
- comprehensive analysis and reporting functions;
- robust, intuitive segmentation tools
- marketing automation scenarios ;
- SMS automation.
Iroquois
Octopush
Octopush is an SMS platform and multi-channel marketing solution, developed to centralize your communication actions across your various channels (SMS, but also email, RCS and instant messaging).
Its main strength? It guarantees excellent ROI, thanks to a conversion rate optimized by the implementation of marketing scenarios and the SMS-email pairing.
🛠️ Key features include
- Targeted campaigns with intelligent planning, short links and virtual numbers;
- creation of marketing scenarios combining e-mail and SMS (no-code integrations) ;
- AI-based recommendations;
- leasing of virtual numbers and qualified leads;
- data security and RGPD compliance.
Octopush
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Developed by Salesforce, Marketing Cloud is an all-in-one digital marketing solution for small and medium-sized businesses.
It includes a wide range of functions designed to optimize interactions with your customers and prospects, across all your marketing channels. So it's only natural that Salesforce should include functions for creating and sending bulk SMS messages, perfectly integrated into the customer journey.
🛠️ Some key features
- integration of SMS into the Journey Builder module, dedicated to the creation of personalized, unified customer journeys;
- message creation in just a few clicks;
- ability to combine multiple SMS messages of up to 160 characters;
- configuration of message preview by code type;
- easy management of unsubscribes.
Marketing Cloud
SMSFactor
The SMSFactor service is 100% French, and anti-SMS low cost: it advocates quality in order to optimize SMS delivery rates.
To illustrate its commitment, it has registered with the French Electronic Communications Regulatory Authority. Strong point: its spirit of innovation with "mail to SMS" has won over many companies, whatever their volume of SMS to be sent.
🛠️ Key features include
- automated management of STOP responses ;
- contact cleansing ;
- performance monitoring ;
- sending reports ;
- detailed statistics: reception, reading, clicker identification, etc.
SMSFactor
smsmode
With over 10,000 customers across Europe and 20 years' expertise in mobile messaging, smsmode is an easy-to-use French omnichannel platform.
A true all-in-one solution, it connects to your CRM for complete centralization of your customer management. At the same time, it guarantees maximum security thanks to its RGPD certification.
🛠️ Key features include
- connection with over 500 French and international operators;
- personalized support from a dedicated account manager;
- creation of a conversational BOT;
- associated services (virtual mobile number, Lookup tool, Verified SMS, Mobile Masking, etc.);
- competitive rates from €0.0312 excl. tax per SMS in France.
smsmode
Spot-Hit
Marketers appreciate the "multi-channel" orientation of the Spot-Hit platform, which is quite robust: by combining SMS, SMS enriched with mobile site, MMS, VMS (voice message on answering machine), and postal campaign, it's possible to multiply the points of contact with a customer.
In this way, you determine and promote the channel with which they are most responsive!
🛠️ Some key features
- unsubscribe/opt-out management ;
- contact list updating ;
- campaign and visit reports;
- real-time tracking of rich SMS or SMS campaigns;
- tracking of statistics for all five channels.
Spot-Hit
Manage and send bulk SMS like a pro!
Now you're ready to overtake your competitors at lightning speed with bulk SMS!
If you're an "experienced" mobile marketer, and you're totally confident in your abilities, try out one of the solutions presented here for yourself.
If you're a "beginner", get some support: each of the tools recommended in this article offers a proven, tailor-made quality of service.
It's up to you!
Article translated from French