Almost all mobile phones, regardless of type or ‘smartness’, have one thing in common – SMS. Some estimates say that there are more than 4.5 billion SMS enabled devices in the world today, which makes texting a valuable communication channel among people. Other stats also say that 98% of SMS messages are opened and read within 3 minutes of receipt, a much higher rate than it is the case with emails, especially emails used in marketing purposes. To make it clear, the percentage of emails which get opened is just 22% (in average), which proves that SMS marketing has a much better performance than email marketing.

The world of SMS is full of acronyms that might confuse you, especially if more than one term is used for the same thing. So, we decided to help you learn this specific language. Being familiar with SMS industry jargon is half the battle. We’re starting with MO vs MT messages. Industry experts and professionals often use these two terms. What do these acronyms mean? Let’s start with the MO message.

Although we witness a serious rise in popularity of Over-The-Top (OTT) instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, more than 50% of WhatsApp users still think that SMS will always be an essential form of communication for them. And more importantly, OTT messaging services don’t allow users to send messages in bulk which puts SMS on the top of the list of the most useful marketing tools.

Mobile marketing has proved its importance. Today more and more companies and brands are using mobile marketing to reach out to customers and keep them in the loop. The most commonly used mobile marketing tactic is SMS marketing. It is the oldest form of mobile marketing simply because the first mobile phones in the 1990s were able to send/receive only the SMS. So, marketers had just this one tool available to use – hence the SMS marketing was born. But, mobile technology progressed tremendously, and today mobile phones have so many different capabilities that we can freely say we are carrying small computers in our pockets. Nevertheless, SMS marketing is still the most popular form of mobile marketing because it’s easy, cheap, fast and provides great ROI.

SMS marketing is a perfect business choice if you want to communicate with your customers/audience in a fast, efficient and inexpensive way. There are more than 6 billion mobile devices in the world today. SMS reached more than 3 billion people using these 6 billion devices. This means that SMS is ruling the mobile market and is the most used tool on smartphones, despite mobile development with an abundance of mobile apps and easiness to access and browse the net on a mobile phone.

Bulk SMS is a very useful and effective marketing channel that should be an integral part of any mobile marketing strategy that tends to achieve real success in today’s mobile world. As we all know, mobile phones are ruling our digital world, so mobile-focused marketing has become a focal point of every strategic marketing planning. Mobile marketing is a huge must for every business that wants to keep a competitive edge over their competitors and maintain advantage within the industry.

Before the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Shanghai official start tomorrow, the GSMA announced a new list of mobile operators supporting a mobile industry initiative for a universal Rich Communication Services (RCS) profile worldwide. The list contains the following mobile operators: AIS, Axiata Group, Beeline, Bell Mobility, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Claro Brazil, Claro Colombia, Indosat Ooredoo, M1, Megafon, MTS, Optus, Personal Argentina, Personal Paraguay, Reliance Jio, Rogers Communications, Singtel, StarHub, Telcel Mexico, Tele2, Telefónica, Telkomsel, Telus and T-Mobile US. Those mobile operators have joined the group of MNOs supporting this initiative back in February at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

1. How SMS Marketing starts? SMS marketing starts when a mobile user sends a keyword as a message to a specific shortcode. These type of messages are called MO messages (Mobile Originated message). Here is an example: Text START to 8888 for our weekly list of special offers! The moment the system receives the message (subscription) containing the keyword, the phone number from which this message was sent automatically goes into a database and triggers an automated response – a new text message sent back to the user. This message is also called the MT message (Mobile Terminated message). In this case, the message would contain a list of all available special offers of the week.

This year’s Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona 22-25 February, was full of innovative technologies and spectacular product launches. Among all the glitz & glamour, one of the groundbreaking moments was the one when global mobile operators, including América Móvil, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Globe Telecom, KPN, Millicom, MTN, Orange, PLAY, Smart Communications, Sprint, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, Telstra, TIM, Turkcell, VimpelCom, Vodafone, the GSMA, and Google have announced the launch of mobile industry initiative to accelerate the availability of Rich Communication Services (RCS).

Social media has changed the world in so many ways. Communication and connecting to other people have become easier, faster and more fun so the number of active social media users have grown rapidly and we can say that today vast majority of people in “The Internet World” have at least one social networking profile.