According to SellCell, phone owners around the world send 23 billion text messages every day, with the U.S. alone sending 2 trillion SMS and MMS messages every year. Despite how often we’re sending messages though, a lot of us still don't know the differences between the message types. We’ve compiled a quick list below to not only help you get to grips with SMS and MMS messaging, but to show you how you can best utilize each for your business.
What is SMS?
“SMS” stands for "Short Message Service" and is more commonly known as a "text message". An SMS message is limited to 160 characters (including spaces) and does not allow videos or pictures to be included in the message.
What is MMS?
“MMS” stands for "Multimedia Messaging Service" and allows you to send messages of up to 1,600 characters—far more than SMS. MMS also lets you send and receive multimedia elements such as videos and pictures and relies on either a connection to the internet or your cellular network.
Advantages and Disadvantages of SMS and MMS
SMS and MMS are both strong methods for engaging and connecting with customers via a mobile device, so how do you choose the right one for you? To help you decide, we’ve listed our top pros and cons of SMS and MMS respectively:
Advantages of SMS
- Cheap to send.
- Quick and concise.
- Does not require time and effort.
Disadvantages of SMS
- Cannot send videos, pictures, or other media, making it hard to grab customer attention.
- Limited to 160 characters, so you can only include so much information.
Advantages of MMS
- Capable of sending multimedia like videos and pictures, making these messages more engaging and pleasing to the eye.
- A 1,600 character-limit allows for more flexibility, helping you if you need to send more information.
Disadvantages of MMS
- Costs more to send.
- Not everyone’s phone plans allow them to receive MMS, which can lead to missing out on potential customers.
- You may need to hire someone to design MMS messages to make them look more appealing and interesting.
Interested in trying out SMS marketing for your business?
Now you know some differences between SMS and MMS marketing, we hope you’ll find it easier to decide which mass texting service is a better fit for your business. We advise using at least one method to build and maintain better relationships with your customers.
Depending on what you want to do with your mobile marketing, SMS is the easiest option when sending mass text messages to many contacts at once and takes much less time than sending an MMS message. If you’d like to read more about the benefits of SMS, we have an article here listing our Top 10 Benefits of SMS Marketing Strategies.
We also recommend you check out SimplyCast's SMS marketing software!
Why SimplyCast?
SimplyCast provides a no-code SMS automation software that lets you send bulk text messages from your computer, allowing you to create a professional SMS campaign with no coding skills!
Want to try it out? Click on the button below to request a demo today and get in contact with one of our team members who will happily guide you through the application.
