SMS goes beyond just being a great marketing tool.

It also allows consumers and businesses to enjoy greater peace of mind when it comes to security. With both sensitive personal and business data constantly under threat from hackers, it’s important that businesses offer a secure means of protection.

Importantly, SMS has grown to fill this role—providing the tool necessary to keep consumer data safe. Through the use of SMS, businesses can help make sure that their customer data is protected.

By using SMS in your own business, you can better secure your consumers’ data, while also establishing a better record for your brand. This win-win situation reflects why you should start using SMS for security—if you haven’t already.

Below, we’ll explore the different ways that SMS impacts security, looking at the processes of 2-factor authentication and OTP in particular.

What is 2-factor Authentication?

2-factor authentication offers a leg up on traditional online security measures, as users are required to provide two pieces of information in order to enter an account.

For instance, they may need a password, as well as a text code.

Here, you can see how SMS comes into play. Through the use of 2-Factor authentication, businesses can help make sure that consumer information is protected.

With 2-factor authentication, businesses can also help ensure that a user’s account will not be compromised. Under traditional settings, if a hacker managed to secure the username and password of an online user, they would then be able to hack into their account.

However, with 2-factor authentication, this is becoming much more difficult. Instead of just needing a user’s information, they would also need a code texted to the user’s phone.

Presumably, this phone will be on the user—and not on the hacker. This means they would be unable to access the code needed to enter the user’s account. In this way, SMS has become a vehicle for protecting consumer data at some of the world’s most secure institutions. Banks, for instance, use 2-factor authentication on their websites and mobile apps. You may even come across this on other sites when attempting to change sensitive user information—such as a password.

In this way, SMS has worked to provide security to millions of Internet users across the globe. However, the role of SMS in cybersecurity does not stop at 2-factor authentication. It also plays a significant role in OTP.

What Is OTP?

One-time passwords, also known as OTP, provide high-level security. These passwords are generally codes that can be submitted, allowing users to log in one time into a specific site or software.

These generated passcodes ensure that no unauthorized users have access to restricted content. These codes typically get delivered to the phones of authorized users, making them unavailable to anyone else.

This can help protect businesses and the sensitive information they have stored. By utilizing OTP within your own organization, you can better protect your company’s private information—and that of your customers.

Looking for a powerful way to receive free SMS? With our 2-Way SMS, now you can. 2-Way SMS brings you the powerful benefits of SMS marketing for free.

Want to learn more and see if 2-Way SMS is right for your business? Below, we’ve put together a guide of the information you need to know.

Who Is 2-Way SMS For?

If you own a business, 2-Way SMS is right for you. This powerful service can help you achieve the engagement you need—from the people you need it from.

That’s right—from SMEs to large-scale corporations, 2-Way SMS offers the same powerful benefits. If you’re looking to grow your business by staying actively engaged with your customer base, 2-Way SMS is right for you.

Why Use 2-Way SMS?

This powerful virtual SMS service provides you the same great benefits of all other types of SMS. This means that you can start building an SMS strategy that will grow your business.

Our platform makes sure that you can send and receive SMS, allowing you to grow your company’s top-of-mind awareness while boosting its bottom dollar.

Want to know more about 2-Way SMS? Let’s take a look at some of its great benefits.

Benefits of 2-Way SMS

2-Way SMS provides some of the best benefits of any digital marketing campaign. Consider how the following benefits may help you grow your business.

1. Track Your SMS

Importantly, 2-Way SMS provides the tools you need to keep track of your SMS marketing strategy. With 2-Way SMS, you get insight into the valuable data you need in order to know just where you stand.

Because 2-Way SMS allows you to understand the health and feasibility of your SMS strategy, you can make sure that you’re achieving the best results possible.

This includes any types of sales and promotions that you may be sending through your SMS. By having this data, you can see which advertisements work—and which ones don’t.

2. Work with All SMS API

Even better, our virtual SMS platform boasts amazing compatibility. Great for all SMS APIs, you can be sure that you’ll enjoy the same great reliability and functionality as other all other types of SMS.

This means that you never have to miss a beat in your SMS marketing approach.

3. Stay Engaged with Customers

Finally, 2-Way SMS allows businesses just like yours to stay engaged with your contacts.

By running deals and promotions, or surveys and polls, businesses have the flexibility they need in order to capture their contacts’ attention.

By staying in touch with your customers, you can start building a positive brand image. And with fast, real-time 2-Way SMS, you can even supplement this by providing prompt customer service to your contacts.

In many ways, 2-Way SMS allows businesses to add a new layer of convenience for customers in dealing with a variety of transactions. Successfully incorporate it into your marketing strategy to start seeing real results in no time.

SMS.to does more than provide businesses with bulk SMS services. Instead, not only do we allow companies to get in touch with their customers, we also provide greater insight and tracking through our very own shortlinks.

If you’ve delved into SMS marketing already, it’s likely that you’ve come across the term “shortlinks” before. But what are they? And how can you cleverly use SMS.to shortlinks to spice up your marketing campaign?

Take a look below at three ideas that you should consider while planning your own SMS marketing strategy.

1. See the Number of Clicks

SMS.to allows users to see exactly how successful each link is. This allows businesses to see critical information. For example, you can use SMS.to shortlinks to measure just how many people are reading your messages, on average, or to see what type of content your contacts are most interested in.

This can be done, of course, by measuring to see which content got the most click-throughs. In doing this, you may find that you need to change up the focus of your marketing strategy to better resonate with your consumers.

Keep in mind, too, that this will allow you to track the base-level health of your overall SMS marketing campaign. For this reason, businesses have made shortlinks one of their top tracking sources for their marketing data—and you should, too.

2. See What Consumers Do After Clicking

Even more importantly, however, you can start seeing what your customers are doing after clicking the link. For instance, you may decide to track the number of people who sign up for a promotion or who buy a product.

Additionally, depending on the link, you may even manage to see how engaged your contacts are. Say, for instance, that following clicking the link, customers were prompted to fill out an online form of some kind. This would allow businesses to measure not just the initial interest contacts have in the message’s content, but also how motivated people are regarding the subject.

By using SMS.to shortlinks to track this data, businesses can get a leg up in their SMS marketing strategies.

3. Use Links to Track Ad Effectiveness

Perhaps one of the most important and out-of-the-box ways to use SMS.to shortlinks is to track advertisement performance.

Fortunately, there’s a lot of room in this regard when it comes to businesses. Depending on the type of link sent, businesses have a number of different ways to track the effectiveness of their ads.

For instance, as we’ve noticed, you may have some opt-in promotional only offered through the link. This would offer a very straightforward way of knowing just what type of advertisement content is preferred by your contacts. By collecting an aggregate of this data over time, businesses can start to refine and hone their SMS marketing strategies to be as effective as possible.

With a little creativity and a lot of focus, businesses can use SMS.to shortlinks to diagnose the health of—and even improve—their SMS marketing strategies.

Implementing SMS into your workflow doesn’t have to be difficult.  At least not with SMS.to.

Our SMS API gateway offers simple and affordable services that allow for minimal disruptions. If you’re one of the many business owners wondering how SMS can be incorporated into your workflow, don’t worry.

SMS.to has got you covered. Consider the information below as you considering implementing SMS into your workflow.

How Does SMS.to Work?

SMS.to provides a powerful SMS API gateway that connects online merchants with mobile networks. In turn, these mobile networks can transmit your bulk SMS messages to your customers.

In some ways, you can think of our API as the bridge between you and mobile network providers. Through our system, you can make sure to get your bulk SMS out to your target audience.

Our powerful API provides benefits that your company would otherwise lack on its own. For this reason, investing in an SMS gateway such as SMS.to allows businesses to finally get in touch with their customers en masse.

SMS.to connects with hundreds of mobile networks so that you can get your message out to the people you need to contact.

How Does SMS.to Work with HTTP?

Yes!

SMS.to features a reliable HTTP to SMS API that can get your site connected with the mobile networks you need. This digital infrastructure will allow your website to send automated messages or notifications to your customers via our various mobile networks.

Our API works to transmit your message to these networks—something that you wouldn’t be able to do on your own. And without getting this bulk message to the networks, you’ll find that getting in touch with your customers isn’t an easy task.

For this reason, SMS.to’s bulk SMS services provide the reliability you need to run your online marketing campaign.

With SMS.to, you can streamline your digital marketing communications by sending messages and alerts straight to customers’ mobile phones. With this powerful approach, you can easily reach consumers without hassle!

Our API boasts incredible functionality that can be easily incorporated into your workflow. With SMS.to, you’ll never have to miss a beat. Simply connect and integrate our API with your software to start enjoying these powerful benefits.

What Do You Need?

So what do you need to use SMS.to?

The good news is that many find that their software is already compatible to be used with our API. If not, some custom coding may be required in order to secure your connection.

Even better, so long as you—or someone on your staff—has enough programming knowledge, making this connection should be effortless. Within no time, you can have our powerful API integrated with your software—giving you the access you need to start sending bulk SMS to your customers. You can also access some other great benefits straight from your SMS.to dashboard—such as free HLR lookups that can make sure that your database is accurate.

Questions? Contact us to find out more about how our SMS, REST, and HTTP API can be incorporated into your business’s workflow.

To get the most from your SMS marketing strategy, you need a service that allows for 2-Way SMS. 2-Way SMS provides a powerful way for businesses to start boosting their bottom dollar, decrease lost revenue, and build a better relationship with customers and clients.

SMS.to features all the 2-Way SMS services you need to start taking your business to the next level. But what is 2-Way SMS, and how can it help you grow your business?

Below, we’ll take a look at this popular form of SMS marketing and see how it can start helping you cut costs and save money faster than you ever thought possible.

What Is 2-Way SMS?

In many ways, 2-Way SMS is exactly what is sounds like.

If you’ve ever received an automated text from a business, you may have noticed that some allow for responses, while some don’t.

2-Way SMS refers to automated messages that allow for consumers to reply with some form of feedback. Studies indicate that 2-Way SMS encourages greater participation on the part of consumers, as they become actively involved and invested in the messages they are receiving.

By incorporating 2-Way SMS into your marketing strategy, you can start increasing your customer traffic and build better top-of-mind awareness.

But how can you go about using 2-Way SMS in your campaign? We take a look at some of the cleverest ways to use 2-Way SMS to start seeing better growth.

How to Use Them

There are several effective ways to start using 2-Way SMS. Consider the following as you look to add them into your SMS marketing strategy.

1. Set Appointment Reminders

One of the most important benefits of 2-Way SMS is that it allows for businesses to plan ahead for appointments.

With 2-Way SMS, businesses can bulk message patients and clients ahead of time to confirm their appointments. This serves a two-fold purpose: first, it helps remind individuals that they have an appointment, saving businesses time and money.

Second, if for any reason an appointment can’t be made, individuals have the power to respond with an automated message that will allow them to reschedule. In this way, businesses can stop losing unnecessary money.

2. Get Feedback About Services

Want to start improving the services you offer? Use 2-Way SMS to get nearly instant feedback on your customers’ experiences.

Because most customers are likely to read their SMS, a 2-Way system can encourage them to respond almost in real-time. This allows you to have the insight you need to start improving your business’s practices.

3. Use It as Customer Service

By using 2-Way SMS as part of your customer service routine, you can start developing a better relationship between your business and your clients.

In this way, you can build your brand’s image and have a better reputation within the market.

Areas We Service

SMS.to allows you to enjoy all the great benefits of 2-Way SMS. Keep in mind, however, that currently SMS.to offers this option only in the United States, the United Kingdom, and in Canada.

Those wishing to start employing an SMS marketing strategy within their businesses need not forego HLR lookups

If you’ve never looked into SMS marketing, this term may be new to you. However, with the proper use of HLR lookups, you can strengthen your business’s SMS marketing campaign.

For this reason, it’s important to not overlook the benefits HLR lookups can bring to your business. Below, we’ll go over what these tools are, why businesses use them, and the benefits they can bring to your business.

What Are HLR Lookups?

HLR lookups, also known as HLR checking, allow businesses to get a real-time look into a Home Location Register. These registers are used to store subscriber information from various mobile networks.

By utilizing HLR lookups, companies can find out valuable information about their own subscriber data, helping them create a more useful customer list.

As we will see, HLR lookups prove especially useful for companies that wish to run an SMS marketing campaign.

What Do They Do?

HLR lookups send a query to a network’s HLR and return useful information regarding a mobile number. For example, companies can find out if a mobile number is currently active or inactive—important information for businesses looking to use SMS marketing.

Why Use Them?

So why use HLR lookups as part of your SMS marketing strategy? Below, we’ll take a look at the powerful benefits offered by HLR lookups.

As we do so, keep in mind that SMS.to includes HLR lookups as part of its powerful bulk SMS marketing service.

• Verify the Validity of Your Database

Your marketing campaign won’t be very successful if you don’t have an accurate database. Businesses need accurate subscriber information databases to make sure that their SMS strategies are performing as expected.

If a subscriber’s mobile number is inactive, for instance, you may be wasting valuable resources sending them messages. For this reason, validating databases proves an important part to maintaining a quality SMS marketing campaign.

• Clean Your Mobile List

Additionally, the information gleaned from using HLR lookups allows businesses to clean out their mobile lists. In other words, you can eliminate any inactive numbers so that you’re servicing only active clients.

• Get Vital Information on Networks

As noted, HLR lookups allow companies to better regulate their databases by providing critical information.

First and foremost, HLR looks will allow businesses to ensure that only correct mobile numbers are entered. When signing up, customers will not be able to enter a fake phone number, meaning that you can ensure the validity of your data.

Furthermore, these services can make sure that the numbers of customers are providing are in service. Again, this is important to businesses actually wishing to reach consumers.

• Reduce Costs

Finally, because you won’t be wasting time or resources sending information to fake numbers, you can reduce your company’s marketing costs.

Additionally, because you will be sending your SMS to more real people, you can ensure more value is added through your marketing campaign.

For these reasons, consider getting a service—such as SMS.to—that will allow you to get real-time HLR lookup capabilities. Doing so just may take your business’s marketing strategy to the next level.

Our mission is simple, we want to simplify and enrich business communications, making them accessible, affordable and efficient by introducing simple to integrate, cost-effective and rich communication features.

Today we released 2 features to that direction

HTTP REST API

The first version of our HTTP REST API is ready, you can now send a single message to a number, single message to multiple recipients, and a message to an uploaded list.

More features and possibilities will be available soon, contact us for technical support and integration into your systems!

Read the docs here: https://blog.sms.to/api-docs

Endpoints: https://blog.sms.to/api-docs/endpoints.html#api-endpoints

GET YOUR API KEY TODAY!

2-Way SMS feature

Easily from within the dashboard, you can click the 2-way SMS menu and Rent a number. Current availability is for USA, UK, Canada but many more countries will be released soon. If you need a particular country let us know and we can make it happen.

Click Rent Number, Choose Country, Number and Done!

Our platform makes communication simple, rent a range of numbers to use for appointment confirmations, polling, support numbers, and any other type of conversational product.

You will soon be able to set up auto-responders and callbacks back to your application

START WITH 2WAY SMS

Continuing our mission to create a complete omni channel business communication platform we are releasing our new feature the HLR Number Verification/Lookup

This feature is accessible from your web dashboard.

What is HLR Number Lookup?

With the HLR Lookup you can determine if a number is valid, invalid, inactive or has been ported. This lookup can also help you define the home network of a mobile subscriber as well as the roaming network if the mobile number is in another country than its country code.

The service is very useful for data sanitation by removing mobile numbers no longer active as well as minimisation of the SMS Marketing/Billing. Many carriers charge per attempt and by removing inactive numbers can provide considerable savings in the long run.

Another benefit is to identify the carrier of each mobile number you can optimise delivery on a pay per carrier billing model and again reduce costs.

 

How do I get started?

The feature is seamlesly integrated in our web platform, login in your account, and you can verify a Single Number, Paste a List, or verify a list from your List Manager.

GET STARTED