What Is MMS Group Messaging?

What Is MMS Group Messaging?

Before we delve into the intricacies of MMS group messaging, let’s first clarify MMS as a concept. 

What is MMS? 
Short for Multimedia Messaging Service, MMS goes beyond a simple text, It includes multimedia content like video, audio, images, and GIFs. Just like SMS, users can send and receive these messages over a cellular network.

MMS group messaging is an extension of group texting that allows businesses and individuals to seamlessly communicate with a large number of recipients using multimedia content like images, audio, and video files. 

MMS group messaging is an effective, inexpensive, and intimate form of group texting that is known to drive more engagement and useful conversations.

Types Of MMS Group Messaging

There are two major ways in which MMS messages can be shared with multiple people at once –

MMS Group texting

In the case of MMS group texting, you can send messages by adding all recipients to a group IE a single ongoing thread is created wherein all group members can read and contribute to a conversation. 

MMS Broadcast texting

Many a times due to privacy concerns, nature of the content being shared etc. a sender may want to send a text to multiple contacts but without a group message. In this case, broadcast or mass texting can be used this type of text delivery system creates individual threads between the recipients and the sender.

Check out our detailed article on group text vs mass text to understand the use cases and differences between these two types of group messaging. 

Benefits Of MMS Group Messaging

Time-saving

MMS Group messaging helps to engage with multiple participants at once, thereby saving a lot of time and effort. You can send group MMS messages to a large audience with a single click. All you need to do is sign up for a group MMS software, import your group(s), type your message, and hit send! 

Ability to get creative 

Since MMS group messaging allows you to send media as a part of your promotional texts, you can be more creative and differentiate yourself from the competition. From running polls and surveys to initiating contests and sharing notifications; you can try various things to drive engagement using MMS group messaging. 

Better engagement

Since MMS allows for images, videos, and GIFs, it naturally catches the attention of the reader, thereby driving quality engagement. Businesses usually experience a major improvement in Customer response rates, conversion rates, and CSAT scores.

Enhanced sales

Sometimes just brand engagement may not translate into sales. You can also drive immediate sales by incentivizing your customers using MMS group messaging. On-demand coupons are a great way to get the attention of your customers, these coupons can be redeemed in-store or on your website.

Use Cases Of MMS Group Messaging

MMS group messaging is highly advantageous for both internal and external communication. Here are some top use cases: 

Internal communication 

• Sharing information regarding upcoming meetings and events
• Making informal chats with coworkers more engaging and fun
• Sharing information regarding any updates related to sales, revenues, and profits 
• Congratulatory messages on special occasions 

External communication 

• Sending product videos/brochures to customers 
• Promotional messages
• Business announcements 
• Congratulatory messages on Birthdays and festivals 
• Collecting feedback and survey responses
• Sharing notifications and updates

Why Do MMS Group Messaging Campaigns Fail?

In order to induce quick action, boost engagement, and drive sales; you need to ensure that your MMS marketing efforts are on point. There are many reasons why your MMS messaging campaigns might fail — 

• Unclear Calls-To-Action
• Poor Timing 
• Poor Targeting
• Poor Design
• Lack of Incentive
• Insufficient Message Frequency etc.

All the reasons mentioned above can be addressed with a combination of your marketing instincts and your past campaign data, but, One of the major reasons MMS group messaging doesn’t drive results for businesses is message filtering to prevent spamming

What is Message Filtering? 
Due to the increase in spam messages, many mobile carriers have now implemented filtering systems that can block and prevent your messages from being delivered.

One of the major reasons your MMS campaigns might be failing is that your messages are not getting delivered in the first place, Businesses don’t want to invest in creating a user database and instead end up buying data and start using the same for marketing communications which inevitably results in poor results.

How To Build A Database To Launch MMS Group Messaging Campaigns

Opting in is the written consent that a customer gives to receive business communications. So, to be able to generate sufficient engagement, build your customer base, boost sales, and more importantly avoid spamming you need to invite people to opt-in to receive communications. 

Here are three easy and effective strategies to build a huge opt-in database

Utilize Keyword Opt-ins 

When customers text keywords to short code numbers, they have opted in for communications. Here’s an example:

The ‘ILOVEWINTERS’ is the keyword and ‘599599’ is the shortcode number. 

When a potential customer views the advertisement and is interested in the discount offer, he/she will text the given keyword to the shortcode number. The moment they do so, they have opted in to receive group marketing messages for the concerned business. 

Another great advantage of keyword opt-ins is that when a customer sends a keyword to a shortcode, you automatically know what their interests are, and you can further segment customers into different groups based on their interests.  

Fact check: What are short code numbers? 
Short code numbers are short digit sequences that are used by businesses to run marketing campaigns. These abbreviated numbers are shorter than telephone numbers and are 5-6 digits in length. Short code numbers require carrier approval since they are used for marketing purposes. 
In order to invite maximum opt-ins, you need to promote your shortcodes and keywords wherever possible. From social media to emails, posters to advertisements; you need to really get the (KEY)word out! 

Capitalize on Sign-up forms 

Another way to invite opt-ins is by sending web forms to your customers. 

A web form that initiates sign-ups generally requires the customers to enter their name, phone number, and email address; and check a box that verifies that the customer agrees to the terms and conditions of the business. 

When a customer fills in all the details and hits ‘submit’ he/she has opted in to receive messages from the business in question.

Share Paper forms 

Though old school, paper forms are also a great way to invite opt-ins and engage with your customers. But how do you ensure compliance with a paper form? It’s simple: adding a checkbox along with a disclaimer. 

Here’s an example: 

You will be surprised to see how quickly a business can generate a database using the above-mentioned opt-in options and the best part is that these people actually want to hear from you so you can now focus solely on the engagement and relevance of your messages.

How to execute the perfect MMS group messaging campaign

Do you want to extract maximum value from your messaging campaigns? Well, here’s the ultimate checklist that will help you achieve your customer communication and engagement goals. 

Brand vetting for 10DLC numbers

10DLC is a 10-digit long code that is used to send A2P messages to customers. 

Any business that wants to send A2P OR application-to-person messages to its customers needs to register itself and define the texting campaign which includes sample text messages and the goals of the campaign. 

This is done to prove to the network carriers that the messages sent by the brand are not spam.  

The network carrier then analyzes the brand and gives it a score on a scale of 0-100, which decides the number of messages that the brand can send in a day. 

A lesser score (say 40/100) would mean a lower texting limit (say 10,000 messages/day), and a higher score (say 90/100) would mean a higher texting limit (60,000 messages per day with a single carrier). 

The number of messages that businesses can send depends on their individual scores. The main idea behind vetting is to prevent spamming of messages. Here’s an example of brand vetting:  

Fact check: What are long-code phone numbers? 
A long code number is nothing but your usual 10-digit phone number. Long-code phone numbers are 10-digit numbers that are used for P2P communication. In the case of long-code phone numbers, businesses can send only one message per second. product/service feedbacks, campaigns and promotions, and multi-party chat services are some common use cases of long code numbers. 

Use proper methods for opt-ins

As discussed earlier, before sending marketing communications across, you need to ask permission from your customers. Doing so will help you acquire a database of people who actually want to receive marketing messages from you. 

You will not have to send messages to people who aren’t interested in doing business with you. You need to respect the privacy of your customers and approach them politely. Hence, asking for their consent is very important not only to avoid spamming but also to ensure that your campaigns deliver results. 

Focus on Your Customer

Send crisp MMS group messages that serve the purpose of promoting your business and also provide relevant information to your recipients. 

If people receive messages that do not align with their interests, they might not respond, or worse; they might mark your business as spam. So make sure that your messages are well-thought-out and that they align with the intent of the user.  

Allow for easy opt-outs

Whenever you send a message to your customers, always close it with a one-liner that clearly gives them the option to unsubscribe. Here’s an example: “Reply ‘STOP’ to opt out”. Also, track your opt-outs. If a lot of people are opting out of your communications, figure out what’s causing the spike and take corrective measures.

Explain the recurring text program to customers

A recurring text program is a text message marketing program wherein a customer receives promotional text messages from brands that contain exciting deals or coupons to redeem. Explaining this to your customers can boost engagement and also ensure a reduction in opt-out rates

Timing is Important

No one like to receive early morning or late evening messages, alongside the time of day be well prepared for any messaging around special events, for instance, a Christmas sale campaign might not yield very good results if it is rolled out on the 24th of December.

Be Mindful of Beliefs and Sentiments

Do not send anything that can potentially hurt your customers’ sentiments in any way possible or makes them uncomfortable. Make sure that every single message is well-constructed, has meaning, and benefits the customer. 

Personalize your messages

Simple personalizations like adding the recipient’s name can boost engagement by 15-20%, you can do so easily by using text messaging softwares. Emitrr’s messaging capabilities send personalized MMS and SMS group messages using various templates and properties.

Why does SMS turn into MMS even when we don’t add images/videos?

There are multiple reasons why carriers might turn SMSs into MMSs:

• The message contains a subject line 
• The message is too long  
• The message contains attachments 
• The message is being sent to more than one recipient 

When to send an MMS over an SMS: 

• When your message exceeds 5 SMS segments 
• When your message exceeds 700 characters 
• When you wish to add emojis or pictures 

Some important things to keep in mind: 

• Never include Bitly links in your message, as the carriers might consider the message to be spam.
• Never write lengthy messages. Try keeping messages short and crisp
• If you wish to communicate a lot of information in one single message and send it as a group MMS, then convert it into a PDF format and send that PDF file to your recipients. 

Fact check: What are SMS segments? 

The standard character limit of an SMS is 160 characters. This constitutes 160 bytes or 1 SMS segment. There are two scenarios that arise here:
The message exceeds 160 characters 
In such a case:

• 1 SMS segment   = 160 characters 
• 2 SMS segments = 161-306 characters 
• 3 SMS segments = 307-460 characters 

After reaching 306 characters, every 153 characters will constitute a new segment. 
The message includes emojis or special characters ($, ^, #, *)
If the message includes at least one special character or emoji:

• 1 SMS segment = 1-70 characters 
• 2 SMS segments = 71-134 characters 

After reaching 134 characters, every additional segment will constitute 67 characters. 

How do carriers treat MMS group messaging?

There are various carriers that support MMS group messaging: 

• AT&T
• Sprint
• US Cellular 
• Verizon Wireless 
• Metro PCS
• T-Mobile USA

Network carriers also have their own set of rules when it comes to MMS group messaging. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) prohibits businesses to use MMS group messaging for promoting illegal goods and services. 

It also holds the authority to block messages that contain hate speech, profanity, and pornographic content. In the US, these are the top carriers that support MMS group messaging. If your messages aren’t supported by either of the aforementioned carriers, they will still be sent, but as an SMS. The media will be converted into a link. So, it will be a text with a link, but it will still be sent across. 

To understand how carriers treat SMSs and MMSs, let’s look at the comparison table below: 

FAQs on MMS Group Messaging

Explore Emitrr’s MMS group messaging

Emitrr is a customer communication and engagement platform through which you can send marketing campaigns and generate engagement. By using Emitrr’s messaging capabilities, you can send one-to-one messages, group messages (SMS and MMS), and mass texts. 

It is possible to send MMS group messages using Emitr, just like you can send mass texts, BCC texts and group texts using the software. You can add images and videos while drafting MMS messages to your customers. 

Conclusion

MMS Group messaging can help you generate good ROI for your business, drive more engagement and easily ensure customer recall. 

As a business owner, you need to be in compliance with the rules of sending marketing communications to your customers. All you need to do is understand what your customers need, formulate a sound marketing strategy, and implement it by the way of messaging. 

Considering the open rate of messages, MMS group messaging can surely get you ample leads and conversions and help stimulate sales. Check out how you can make the most of MMS group messaging by booking a demo with Emitrr.