With EDS transactional SMS gateway, we help our clients design, build, host and operate your own SMS applications, quickly and effectively. To offer our end users seamless transactional text message marketing campaign, we have in place multiple Direct Gateway connectivity with major mobile operators throughout the world.

Transactional SMS refers to text messages sent from businesses to their customers providing information necessary to use their product or service. Often sent via an SMS company, examples of transactional text messages include those regarding customer invoices and account balances, order confirmations, shipping, tracking and delivery information, or messages containing links enabling customers to reset a password.

Benefits of SMS for sending transactional information

There are many benefits to sending transactional information to customers via SMS as opposed to more traditional methods like phone, post or email.

It is the communication platform of choice by consumers: A study by Harris Poll found that 64% of American adults with text messaging capability said they would prefer to interact with companies via SMS than phone. This figure jumped to 76% for adults aged 18-34. SMS is a non-intrusive channel, and allows recipients to receive and digest information at a time that is convenient. That being said, 95% of SMS are actually opened within 5 minutes of being received.

Efficiency – with modern SMS software, setting up transactional SMS is relatively quick and easy to do. Once established, there is minimal human input required, enabling businesses to direct resources to other areas of the business.

Effectiveness – over 98% of text messages are opened. This makes SMS the most effective platform available for communicating with customers. This is particularly important when sending critical transactional information.

Speed–  Transactional SMS are generally time-sensitive in nature, making it vital for businesses to use a platform that allows information to be sent and received swiftly.  Transaction SMS is driven by triggers and messages can be sent to customers almost instantly. Furthermore, 95% of text messages are opened within minutes of being received, allowing customers to respond promptly in-turn.

Convenience – 90% of adults have their mobile phone within arms reach at all times. Unlike email, it’s easy for customers to send and receive messages at almost any time of the day – not just when they are sitting in front of a computer or available to take a phone call. This makes SMS an extremely convenient channel for transactional communication.

Loyalty: Transactional SMS can help facilitate a deeper customer relationship and provide a valuable marketing opportunity. Keeping customers informed and engaged via SMS after a transaction can help establish a direct connection between brand and consumer, enhance customer experience and build loyalty, thus driving sales.

How Transactional SMS Software Works

In order to enable transactional SMS through an SMS company, you need a reliable SMPP (Simple Messaging Peer to Peer) protocol to function as a relay engine. SMPP, which is a level-7 TCP/IP protocol acts like a robust backbone, allowing swift and effective delivery of messages.

Most enterprises, apps or SaaS providers connect with an SMS gateway provider to roll out their transactional SMS and benefit from its potential. Usually integrators look at array of integration options such as SMPP, HTTP, plugged REST and SOAP along with other alternatives with specific use cases such as MMS API and Email to SMS integration. In most cases, transactional SMS can be a straightforward plug-and-play integration that sits on the top of any system. Some, more security focused enterprises, such as banks and financial institutions, however, look at RESTful or SOAP integrations in order to secure their sending. Ultimately, an API solution is needed to connect with the sender system and therefore enable this transactional SMS module.

After establishing that connection, SMS senders or service users are required to design workflows that suit their business needs and stage it in a way to confirm transactions via SMS

Examples of Transactional SMS:

  • Dear %first_name%, here is your account balance $ 45.32. Regards. Zero Bank! Text STOP to end
  • Dear %first_name%. Credit Bank: Your credit card account is past due. Please make a payment today. Visa-xxxx Text STOP to end

Here are the precautions, requirements for sending Transactional SMS

  • To avoid costly legal Fees, always keep a clean database of your opted-in clients and you can produce as evidence in case a complaint is filed by recipient
  • Don’t send any promotional message to any of your transactional channel
  • Advantage is that since these SMS are not for marketing & promotional, therefore even the numbers that are included in the National Do Not Call list get these messages.
  • Delivering bulk urgent information to people eg -Alert SMS, urgent notifications to students and parents.
  • Transactional SMS can be sent at any time, without any time constraint.

Why UAE SMS Marketing?

  • Less Pricing than the Local Providers
  • Fast Message Delivery (more than 14 messages per second)
  • Advance Onsite/Telephone/Online/Email Support
  • Mobile Numbers Databases which make it possible to deliver your SMS to most interesting recipients only
  • No Setup Charges, No Monthly Charges, No Specific Volume Commitment
  • User Friendly Web Based Application which allow you to send Single Bulk SMS and History/Monthly Analysis Reports
  • Integration Facility in your Existing Web/Desktop Based Applications
  • SMS Reply Option can be provided

SMS Application Features

  • SMS Application Features
  • SMS Marketing By Your Company Name
  • Web Based Application
  • Full Support to send SMS in English/Arabic/other Languages
  • Phonebook-Can store contacts as well as Manage Contacts in Groups
  • User can be able to send Single or Bulk SMS
  • User can send Bulk SMS from any computer just having Internet Browser
  • Integration Facility in your Existing Web/Desktop Based Applications
  • View Messages History & Delivery Report
  • View Credits Information

If that all sounds a little overwhelming, never fear, our customer success team are available 24 hours to talk you through the process. Meanwhile, our tech team are able to assist with establishing transactional SMS quickly and seamlessly.

SMS Marketing FAQ’s

Sure, marketers have been experimenting with it for months, sending one or two short messages. But few of you have fully integrated it into your email marketing strategy, even fewer into your overall marketing plan.

As with anything new, learning how this new channel fits into your cliché of marketing initiatives can be painstaking. However, by avoiding it, you could be missing out on building more powerful brand awareness, increasing the performance of your other channels, and driving new leads.

In fact, when most consumers spend an average of five hours a day on their mobile devices, we’d say you’re missing out BIG time.

To help you understand SMS marketing more fully, and use it to its fullest potential, we’ve put together these SMS marketing FAQs to explain the who, what and how of this channel.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) created rules that must be followed if you want to use SMS marketing:

You must state the frequency of your SMS messages. In other words, how often you’ll be sending these messages to people who have signed up for them.
You must provide a way to reach customer support, e.g. “Text HELP”
You must include a message about cellular providers, e.g. “Msg & Data rates may apply”
You must include a link to your Terms and Conditions
You must always let your subscribers know they can opt out of messages and provide a way to do so, e.g. “Text STOP to unsubscribe.”

The TRA incites harsh punishments for those who don’t follow the standards it’s set out for SMS marketing. We’re not talking a slap on the wrist – more like a slap with heavy fines.

The sender-id is the originating number (or alpha string) that appears on the recipient’s phone. A sender-id is a string of up to 11 characters. First 2 characters represents “AD” means Promotion, which followed by an hyphen(-). You can use remaining 8 characters of the sender-id. It could be your company name or brand name. For example, if your company name is BulkSMS then the sender-id can be like AD-BulkSM

Yes, technical support is available through email and phone. We have technical staff available 24 Hours a day. You can raise a support ticket to notify a problem with our tech support team.

It’s important to regularly maintain your contact list to ensure that you are not sending messages to invalid numbers. We provide you with real time delivery reports with details of message sent and their delivery status.

No, it is recommended to have the recipient’s consent to send messages to them. They should identify who is sending the message. You should provide a functional unsubscribe facility for the target recipients.

There can be various reasons for this.
• You might be sending the messages to a number listed in TRA registry.
• The mobile is in a not reachable place with low or no network signal.
• There may be a handset problem. Put your mobile SIM card in another handset and try.

Developer API (Application Programming Interface) is a medium which provides the options to request and execute the SMS functionalities. Our HTTP based API extends our sms functionalities by allowing you to integrate the sms features with your Web and Desktop applications

Frequency of messages should be no more than two to three times a month, especially as you’re building your list and nurturing trust with your subscribers on this channel. Don’t send the same message over and over again. If it’s the same offer, say it a different way.

Set your SMS marketing campaigns to send only during business hours of business days. This channel is still personal. Even though subscribers have explicitly opted in to receiving messages to you, they’re still going to be wary of this marketing channel. Don’t wear out your welcome; be respectful of subscribers’ time and attention.

The best topics to promote with your SMS messages include:

promotional – giveaways, discounts, special sales
surveys – ask your prospects or customer what they think
customer service – follow up with your customers with appointment times or to get feedback on service interactions
transactional – send receipts and reminders
event invitations – invite guests to your events with a short message

That’s a big no. At least at this point in the lifetime of SMS marketing, there’s no way to include images in your SMS messages. Less work for your creative team, but a little more work on the creative side for you.

Not many. This is no time to be verbose. Network providers limit SMS marketing messages to 160 characters in English and 70 Characters in Arabic message. You’ll have to get to the point while enticing your SMS subscriber to take action. We won’t lie – this is no easy feat. SMS marketing is a new channel, and as such, comes with new challenges. No doubt learning to write concisely AND persuasively will be a learning curve, but it’s a must if you want your SMS marketing to be a success.

SMS is a casual communication channel in our personal lives, so striking a more casual tone in your SMS marketing messages is appropriate. Striking too professional of a tone with SMS can come off sounding cold or standoffish. However, avoid swinging too far to the other side of the fence in being overly casual. Don’t use abbreviations or slang unless it’s a typical part of your already established branding.

You can ask existing subscribers to opt in for SMS marketing campaigns. Remember, you must gain explicit consent from them and record exactly how and when you received that consent. You can also gain new SMS subscribers along with new email subscribers by updating any website forms to include an option for SMS marketing. Again, make sure it is 100% clear what people are opting in to receive.

SMS isn’t just a powerful channel on its own. It increases the potency of an entire lifecycle marketing strategy when combined with other channels such a website and email marketing. Integrate your SMS messaging through marketing automation campaigns. When someone takes an action (or doesn’t take an action), you can set up a personalized SMS message to send to them to increase the likelihood of conversion.

You can choose to set up your SMS marketing through software services dedicated to this one channel. You can also set up your SMS marketing through many marketing automation services and email service providers who have now built SMS capabilities into their systems. We recommend the latter approach, as it supports an integrated lifecycle marketing approach that will ultimately make your entire marketing program a success.

When it’s all said and done, SMS isn’t a solution for every marketing challenge out there. SMS does have its advantages and definite downsides. These should probably be considered, depending on your use case, before settling on it.


A Leading Social Media Marketing & Lead Generation Company in Dubai, UAE

EDS is a team of social media experts delivering online business solutions and exceptional digital marketing results for companies worldwide. We combine commercial thinking with technical brilliance in Lead GenerationSocial Media MarketingSMS MarketingEmail MarketingPush NotificationsGoogle AdsWeb DevelopmentSearch Engine Optimization and pay per click, content generation and online communications. For us, it’s all about return on investment and innovation to add value to your business. If you feel the same, please get in touch and let us provide you with a Free Audit of your online presence. A leading Digital Agency online marketing and Web Development Company with offices in Dubai, UAE . Highly creative and Experienced staff will be delighted to serve you and take the opportunity of your requirements such as Brand Identity, Corporate BrochureOutdoor Advertising, Radio Advertising, Advertising Campaigns and Web HostingDigital Marketing, Online MarketingYouTube AdvertisingInstagram AdvertisingFaceBook AdvertisingTwitter AdvertisingSnapchat AdvertisingProgrammatic AdvertisingSEOTechnical Tasks, Social Media InfluencerMobile MarketingOutdoor AdvertisingPress Release DistributionWhatsApp MarketingLinkedIn AdvertisingVideo Shoot & Editing, FAQ's.

Call us today on +971-4-5193444 and our Experts will be delighted to help you.

Featured on Khaleejtimes, GulfNews, Arabian Business, Zawya
Featured on Khaleej Times
Featured on Gulf News
Featured on Arabian Business
Featured on Zawya

GET IN TOUCH

Address: Office 211, Palace Tower, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai, UAE

Email: [email protected] | Tel. : +971 4 5193444 | Mobile : +971 55 6889896