What is SMS in Business?

People ask us so often what is SMS in business? Everyone is familiar with texting with friends and family but what does it look like when a business starts texting customers?

This question usually comes in two parts: What is SMS from a technical standpoint and how do I use it in my business?

What is SMS?

The acronym SMS stands for Short Messaging Service. It refers to the text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols to enable devices to exchange short text messages.

The SMS text-only standard was first formalized in 1985 in the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standards.

SMS messages include text characters only. MMS messages (Multimedia Messaging Service) messages can include pictures, video or audio content as well. With an SMS you can send a message of up to 160 characters.

Today, SMS has become fairly synonymous with any text message sent to a mobile number.

When it was first introduced, SMS messaging was only used between mobile phones. People thought you could only send an SMS from one phone to another. Now, businesses use software and desktop applications to send and receive messages between their business audience members’ mobile numbers.

Check out our How Messaging Works Guide if you want to learn more!

What is SMS in Business?

SMS in business is different than SMS for personal messaging – very different. Can you imagine trying to respond to hundreds to thousands of texts on your phone? You can’t.

For SMS in business you need a platform that empowers you to manage all aspects of high volume text messaging in both an automated and interactive way.

With business text messaging you can:

1. Respond 24/7

With SMS auto-responses you can automatically respond as soon as your audience reaches out, even if you’re asleep! This ensures you never miss a conversation and you can immediately engage with those who made an inquiry or request.

2. Assure you’re compliant with all of the laws

Compliance is complex and stiff financial penalties can hurt your business. With text messaging you have to meet messaging compliance requirements, as well as carrier compliance requirements. Luckily, with the right SMS messaging platform you won’t have to stress, the platform automates the compliance requirements. For example, SMS-Magic we offer a comprehensive global compliance solutions to be sure our customers are compliant so they don’t have to spend months coding custom compliance requirements in support of laws and carriers.

3. You don’t use your phone

You don’t want to be texting hundreds of people with just your phone, right? With an SMS text messaging platform, you can have interactive conversations, create and send bulk message campaigns (like nurtures), and automate scheduling, surveys promotions and responses.

Check out our Business Text Messaging vs Personal Text Messaging infographic to see a quick overview of SMS in business, and how it differs from your personal messaging.

The question of what is SMS in business is the right question to be asking in today’s world. Your audiences want you to text with them (74% of customers prefer texting over email.) With the right platform you can get going quickly and start using the channel that customers prefer.

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If you haven’t yet adopted business text messaging for your team and want to learn more, schedule a demo and we’d be happy to share our expertise with you, answer questions and show you what text messaging can do for your business results.