Difference Between Promotional & Transactional SMS

When a coupon is sent straight to your phone, don’t you just love how simple it is to redeem it from your favorite brand?

Your favorite businesses love to text you, much as your friends do when they want to give you big life updates.

You have interacted with a brand’s SMS marketing if you have ever received a text message from them with a thank-you note, product news or updates, a discount code, booking or purchase data, or shipment alerts.

One of the simplest, quickest, and most economical methods to interact with the people who follow your business is through Bulk SMS marketing.

Businesses can use SMS marketing in a variety of ways. For example, businesses can use it to notify customers about loyalty points they have available or to share corporate information or sales events. Essentially, SMS marketing enables businesses to interact with their audience in a way that builds a relationship that is mutually beneficial.

Businesses send two different kinds of text messages: transactional and promotional. The objectives, contents, compliance requirements, and sender information of these two message kinds differ.

Understanding the differences between these two categories—as well as how each might benefit your company—is important before you begin utilizing Bulk SMS for marketing.

What is promotional SMS?

Promotional SMS, also known as bulk SMS marketing or text message marketing, refers to the practice of sending unsolicited promotional messages to a large number of recipients via SMS. These messages are typically used by businesses and organizations to advertise their products, services, special offers, discounts, events, or other marketing campaigns.

Promotional SMS messages are often sent with the goal of driving customer engagement, increasing brand awareness, promoting sales, or generating leads. They may include information about new products or services, upcoming events, limited-time offers, discount codes, and other relevant content intended to attract recipients’ attention and encourage them to take action.

What is transactional SMS?

Businesses utilize transactional SMS to communicate transactional information.

Businesses can communicate with clients directly by using this kind of SMS to convey important non-promotional information such as order status updates, delivery alerts, and more. 

Transactional SMS refers to text messages that are sent to facilitate transactional communications between businesses and customers or users. These messages are typically triggered by a specific transaction or interaction and are not intended for promotional purposes.

What’s the purpose of transactional SMS vs. promotional SMS?

To put it simply, think about the kind of response you want to receive from your clients after sending them a specific message. If any, what action are you requiring them to take?

Establish the message’s business objectives and the amount of data or metrics you believe the message will help with. This will assist you in selecting the appropriate message type to send.

Suppose your goal is to enhance website traffic, subscriber engagement, client retention, or purchase rate. In that case, your message is probably classified as promotional SMS. (Since text messages with coupons are redeemed 10 times more frequently than coupons advertised in other methods, promotional text messages can have a significant impact on all of these measures.)

However, transactional SMS can be a useful tool if you want to increase client satisfaction, establish brand reputation, or let them know about important order details. In fact, for support-related topics, over half of the customers said they prefer transactional SMS over other forms of contact.

Both of these SMS techniques are widely used by companies, particularly e-commerce enterprises. Online retailers frequently send communications about new product launches, coupon codes, or sale notifications to specific customer categories or subscribers. These kinds of promotional texts are almost certainly in your inbox if you have provided a brand with your phone number.

Difference Between Promotional & Transactional SMS

Promotional SMS :

• These serve as tools for branding and marketing. ex. offers, sales, etc.

• According to Indian government regulations, promotional SMS can only be delivered between 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

• On DND numbers, SMS messages cannot be sent. If you attempt to send an SMS to a DND number, you will receive a refund of money. SMS will be delivered to non-DND numbers.

Example:   Dear User,

                   Msgclub provides various SMS based services.

                   If you want to send SMS then signup now.

                   Thank you

Transactional SMS :

• Any kind of SMS, including alerts, notifications, OTPs (one-time passwords), bank transactions, etc., can be sent using this.

• Transactional SMS have no time limit and can be sent at any time, 24/7.

• On both DND and non-DND numbers, SMS can be sent.

Example:  Dear User,

                  Your service for premium membership is going to expire soon.

                  Renew today.

                  Thank you

Integrate with a leading SMS tool to optimize your ecommerce marketing stack.

Now that you are aware of the differences between transactional and promotional SMS, you should be able to identify ways in which your company may use both kinds of messages to strengthen your marketing efforts and establish direct contact with consumers. You can utilize SMS marketing for transactional or promotional objectives, and either way you use it, you can be sure that your audience will be engaged in a personalized and effective way.