Bulk SMS campaigns are one of the fastest ways to reach large groups of people with sms messages they actually see and act on. Instead of relying only on email marketing or social algorithms, bulk text messages lets you land directly in your audience’s mobile phone inbox with timely, focused updates. With SMS open rates as high as 98%, bulk sms gives organizations, from nonprofits to small business teams, a direct communication channel for updates, reminders, and calls to action.

On top of that, marketers often see response rates around 40–45% and strong click and conversion rates, making SMS marketing a powerful tool for any business plan that prioritizes customer engagement and quick follow ups. 

When you pair bulk SMS messages with automation tools, peer-to-peer – two way conversations, scheduled reminders, and personalization, you create the feeling of a one-to-one conversation at a massive scale, whether you are engaging supporters, customers, or voters.

In a landscape crowded with spam, email overload, and distractions, bulk texting helps you stay connected and communicate directly with people who have opted in. 

This guide walks through how to plan and run effective bulk SMS campaigns from start to finish, and highlights the unique ways bulk sms software like CallHub helps you stay compliant, automate your outreach, and get better results from every message you send.

What is bulk SMS campaigns?

Bulk SMS (Short Message Service) enables organizations to send large numbers of text messages simultaneously to groups of contacts who have opted in for the communication. 

These same messages are typically sent from an online platform to 

• promote campaigns and fundraisers or upcoming events
• send notifications or appointment reminders
• Broadcast real time updates
• support internal communication
• Enhance customer engagement and nurture loyal customers
• Strengthen marketing activities like text message marketing

Because messages reach the mobile phone directly, they are ideal for urgent updates, customer support notices, and communication that must be seen quickly.

Bulk sms platforms like CallHub simplify sending messages with features like segmentation, personalization, large scale delivery reports, and the ability to schedule messages, ensuring every message has a personal touch.

When to use and not use bulk SMS campaigns

Bulk SMS works best when you need to reach many people quickly with a short, clear message and a simple action. Ideal scenarios include:

• Time-sensitive alerts such as last-minute event changes, closures, or emergency notices
• Event promotions and reminders for rallies, webinars, fundraisers, or appointments
• Campaign and fundraising pushes where you want people to donate, sign, or register
• Routine updates like order status, program reminders, or service notifications

In these situations, people benefit from concise information and a direct call-to-action they can act on immediately, such as clicking a link, replying with a keyword, or showing a code in person.

When bulk SMS campaigns is not a good fit:

Bulk SMS campaigns is less suitable when you need deeper, two-way conversations, richer content, or highly sensitive exchanges. In those cases, other channels like peer-to-peer (P2P) texting or MMS may serve you better.

Use bulk SMS when speed, reach, and simplicity are the priorities. When nuance, back-and-forth conversation, or rich media are essential to your goal, lean more on P2P texting, MMS, or a combination of these channels.

How to run bulk SMS campaigns?

Bulk SMS marketing involves several steps to plan, execute, and measure the effectiveness of your campaign. 

Step one is to get opt-ins for messages from your target audience to comply with regulations like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act). You can collect phone numbers through website opt-in forms, in-store sign-ups, events, or other channels.

Once you have the contacts opted in, your following campaigns could include bulk SMS communications. Remember to:

• Craft concise, engaging, and relevant messages.
• Include a clear call-to-action (CTA).
• Include links related to the CTA (as relevant) to reduce friction before taking action.

Adhere to regulations and guidelines governing SMS messages relevant to your marketing campaign , such as obtaining recipient consent, providing opt-out options, and maintaining compliance with spam laws. Failure to comply with regulations This also helps strengthen customer engagement.

From here, you need a reputable bulk SMS service provider that offers the features and capabilities you need for your campaign. CallHub offers advantages like message delivery rates, scalability, pricing, customer support, and regulatory compliance. 

Bulk SMS campaigns: best practices and compliance

Let’s look at some of the best practices for bulk sms marketing:

• Obtain consent explicitely: Ensure you have obtained explicit permission (opt ins) before sending SMS messages to phone numbers. This helps you comply with regulations such as GDPR and TCPA and builds trust with your audience.

Important: Your first message to new contacts must identify the sender, set expectations on the nature and frequency of messages, and state simple opt-out mechanisms. Typically, this first message would be a prompt when they opt in via text. However, if you are collecting opt-ins from elsewhere, this would ideally be your first bulk SMS to your newly acquired contacts.

Template: Hi {first_name}, this is Vin from the Diesel campaign. Glad to have you here. We will send event notifications to you every month. Send CANCEL to stop messages. 

• Provide opt-out options: Include clear instructions on how recipients can opt out of receiving further SMS messages from you. Make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe if they no longer wish to receive your messages, and promptly honor their requests.

CallHub will automatically unsubscribe contacts who respond with keywords like STOP, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, etc. In our system, these phone numbers are added to a DNC list to avoid sending SMS messages in future campaigns.

Keep messages concise: SMS messages have a character limit, typically 160 characters. Keep your messages concise, clear, and to the point. Focus on conveying your message effectively within the limited space to capture recipients’ attention quickly.

• Personalize messages: Use the recipient’s name or other personalized information to make your messages more engaging and relevant. Moreover, carriers will flag identical messages and may even affect your delivery rate (unless you have a 10DLC number). Adding personalized fields will make each text message unique and stop this flagging. This also helps strengthen customer engagement.

CallHub allows you to personalize your messages with the help of merge tags. Our default tags include first and last name, address, and contact number information. You can also add more custom fields (e.g., supporter levels or donor levels) on CallHub or import them from your CRM.   

• Include a clear call-to-action (CTA): Every SMS message should have a clear and compelling CTA that prompts recipients to take a desired action, such as donating, visiting a website, or replying to the message.
• Timing matters: Consider the timing of your messages to maximize their impact. Track the performance of all your bulk SMS campaigns while experimenting with the timing. While there are some studies on the best and worst time to send text blasts, test your campaigns for yourself.

Best time to send bulk SMS? 

Using some common sense and considering the target audience, you should be able to customize a time that works best for you easily. For example, if your campaign is appealing to white-collar workers, Monday morning at 9 a.m. may not be the best time to ask for donations. And you must consider time zones. What is 9 a.m. in the east will be 8 a.m. in Central time. 

Here are some quick tips: 

Weekdays: 

Between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m. and between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

People tend to check their messages before starting work, before going for lunch, before heading home, and after dinner. The ideal time would be between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., when most people would be home after work. 

Weekends:

Between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, and between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays.

You aim for ‘before weekend plans begin’ on a Saturday and ‘after the weekend is wrapped up’ on a Sunday. 

Use automated text scheduling to ensure all messages are sent at the optimum time. You can schedule your messages while setting up your texting campaign in CallHub.

Advanced best practices for successful bulk SMS campaigns

Use a 10DLC number

10 Digit Long Code (10DLC) numbers are sanctioned by mobile carriers for application-to-person messaging (A2P). Compared to earlier local long codes used for campaigns, 10DLC can support higher volumes of text messages and improve deliverability when you send text messages at scale.

A2P messaging means using software like CallHub to send text messages instead of sending them from your mobile phone. 

A new organization called The Campaign Registry (TCR) now exists to help register 10DLC numbers. These organizations are vetted, and TCR assigns them a ‘trust score’. This allows the carriers to increase message throughput for solicited messages and offer better deliverability. 10DLC makes it much harder for bad actors to send unwanted text messages through carriers. 

Here are some advantages: 

• 10DLC numbers are approved for A2P texting by carriers. You are minimizing the small chance of not reaching contacts.
• 10DLC numbers get higher messages per second (MPS) than previously used long code numbers. This will vary based on the trust score (Low, Medium, High) that the TCR assigns to a campaign.
• With consent being key to 10DLC, you will get better response rates for your campaigns (and thereby reduce costs).

CallHub is an official CSP (Communication Service Provider) partner of TCR. We can register your brand, campaigns, and use cases, and get you 10DLC numbers that you can use on CallHub’s texting campaigns.

It’s as simple as registering with CallHub and filling out a form.  Post this; you can rent 10DLC-enabled numbers when you set up a campaign. 

Segment your contact lists for better targeting

Personalization is key. Consider some facts from this 2021 McKinsey & Company study: 

• 71% “expect personalized interactions.” 
• 76% said they were “frustrated” when there was no personalization in the communication. 
• Companies saw a 40% increase in results from personalization. 

What does personalization mean? 

• Messages are addressed to the contact by name. 
• Messages acknowledge if the contact has interacted with this campaign (or business) before and reference the last message. 
• Messages acknowledge the contact’s location, preference, or previous answers to questions.
• Messages are triggered by the contact’s behavior – a response, no response, a link clicked, etc. 

Advanced segmentation of your contact lists considers these factors. While you start with a complete “universe” list, your list should be segmented with every campaign. Depending on your use case, you could segment lists based on the activity (or inactivity) of a contact, the nature of their responses, or reach diverse audiences – demographics (relevant to your campaign).

Read Also: Understanding List Segmentation: A Beginner-Friendly Guide 
However, maintaining and multiplying contact lists perpetually may be overwhelming. Ultimately, you want to take personalized actions for each contact, hence the segmentation. We have another solution.

You can easily set this up using CallHub’s WorkFlows – using trigger words in the replies of contacts to automatically send a second message at a scheduled time on a later date. 

Here is one of the short videos/webinars for a better understanding:

• Updates list: Messages that inform the contact about actions taken since the first message. Again, you can automate this process at a scheduled time.  
• Location-specific information: Messages are regularly sent to inform the contact about events, meetings, offers, donation drives, etc., being held in their area. 
• Cause-specific list: This is the same as the location-specific list, except this is for a particular issue, cause, product, etc., that the contact expressed interest in. 

Automate your bulk SMS campaigns marketing

With automated text messaging, you can avoid operating a large part of your texting campaigns manually – not to mention having to remember and send out follow-up texts at the right time. 

Automating your campaigns reduces the time, effort, and resources required to communicate with your contacts—and is significantly cheaper. Messaging costs an average of $1-$5 per interaction, but automation can bring it down to 25 cents.

Critically, scheduled text broadcasts send time-sensitive information or promotions – like a text to your supporters reminding them of an upcoming event. You can create a campaign in advance and schedule it a day before the event. 

With CallHub, you can choose the time for the message to go out and set up operational hours for your campaign. 

You can also use auto-replies to have conversations in real-time. You can enable ‘Automatic Replies’ when setting up a texting campaign, add the trigger word, and reply on the spot.

For example, if you ask for an ‘RSVP’ in the first message and someone replies with ‘RSVP, ‘ a trigger will auto-reply immediately with details about the event and where to register, and WorkFlow will send a scheduled text to remind them of the event a day before the event.  

Use mass texting as a way for data collection

Data is the lifeblood of the modern political campaign. You need it to maximize volunteer time, to use limited financial resources best, and to encourage voters to support your candidate or cause. Data collection will be key to your campaign.

You can collect data when a contact signs up or opts in via text-to-join campaigns. Based on your set-up, you can send an automated message asking for specific details, such as their name, email address, or other relevant information. You can also You can also gather information, confirm attendance, or refine contact lists through automated replies—improving your text message marketing strategy over time.

As the contact responds to the mass text messages with the requested information, the data syncs back to your CRM, giving you a high-quality contact list to start contacting. This even lets you frame follow-up questions based on this data.

Bulk SMS laws include: 

TCPA (telephone consumer protection act) : The TCPA regulates SMS messages and requires prior express written consent from recipients before sending messages via SMS. It also mandates opt-out mechanisms for recipients who no longer wish to receive notifications.

CAN-SPAM Act: While primarily focused on email marketing, the CAN-SPAM Act also applies to SMS. It requires that messages include clear identification of the sender, accurate header information, and opt-out mechanisms. Additionally, it prohibits deceptive practices in messages.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guidelines: The FTC enforces various guidelines for SMS marketing. These guidelines encompass principles of truthfulness, accuracy, and fairness, as well as requirements for obtaining consent and providing opt-out options.

Further, several state-specific laws are involved as well. For example, California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) imposes additional requirements on businesses collecting and processing personal information of California residents, including provisions related to marketing communications.

Make sure you are always compliant during your bulk SMS campaign. CallHub always stays on top of the rules laid out by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and keeps the product up to date to ensure the highest level of compliance.

FAQs on bulk sms campaigns

Vinayak Hegde

Vinayak Hegde is a content marketer who has been covering non-profits, changemakers, and advocacies for over six years. His experience includes all forms of digital content creation, including text, audio, and video.