NeuroTags Articles and Updates
  • NeuroTags
  • Blog
  • Anti-Counterfeiting Solution
  • Customer Loyalty Solution
  • Supply Chain Visibility
  • White Papers
  • Contact Us
NeuroTags Articles and Updates
  • NeuroTags
  • Blog
  • Anti-Counterfeiting Solution
  • Customer Loyalty Solution
  • Supply Chain Visibility
  • White Papers
  • Contact Us
Featured, NeuroTags Tech,

How SMS and MMS Differ from Each Other

by NeuroTagsNovember 5, 2019no comment
difference between mms and sms

You will most likely be familiar with the terms SMS and MMS, whether you are in mobile marketing or not.

Even though instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have taken over the messaging, SMS and MMS still exist, if not so vigorously.

At one point, all of us would have received an SMS or MMS notification. But do you know what these terms mean? 

Mobile marketing has proved its value in digital marketing. More and more brands are employing mobile marketing to reach out to their target audience. Mobile marketing is being essentially used to establish long-term associations with consumers. SMS and MMS are one of the common and oldest mobile marketing tactics.  If you are into mobile marketing, you must understand how integral they are in building sales and marketing strategies. 

What is SMS?

SMS stands for Short Message Service. It is the basic text message you receive on your smartphone’s inbuilt messenger app. 

SMS enables users to send short messages (approximately 60 characters each) to receivers via phone number. While one text message is 160 characters long, you can send long texts at one go, which are basically split into multiple segments of 160 characters each. Usually, a carrier charge is applied for every text message of 160 characters you sent. 

The first SMS/MMS services date back to the 1990s, and it was the only marketing tool available back then. SMS is still the most popular type of mobile marketing because of its affordability, speed, scalability, and good ROI.

Text messages or SMS transmit through a network of cellular towers, controllers, location registers, servers and a web of base stations and more servers before they finally reach the recipient’s phone. Due to this reason, a failed SMS is most likely to happen during bad weather conditions and jammed servers.

What is MMS?

MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. It allows you to share multimedia, such as images, videos, documents, audio files, etc. to different devices. You use the same messenger technology that you use for SMS to send and receive an MMS. 

While you may have sent multimedia messages to Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, sending MMS is quite different because, in here, the media is transmitted via your mobile service provider. 

Just as when you make calls and send/receive texts a carrier charge is applied by your mobile service provider, an MMS functions in a similar fashion. MMS does not work over WiFi. It requires a cellular data connection between the sender and receiver. 

MMS essentially is used to deliver push notifications, in-app messaging and other one-way communications. 

MMS does not have a standard limit, like SMS. However, it totally depends upon the device you and the recipient are using. That being said, all carriers can smoothly handle 300 KB size of multimedia. 

SMS and MMS Usage

SMS is a common and popular way of texting in the USA, as all mobile service providers offer unlimited texting plans. However, since most users possess iPhone, iMessage follows suit and holds the second position.

On the other hand, WhatsApp is by far the most popular messaging application in the rest of the world. It gained precedence in the year 2013 after unlimited texting plans over the WiFi became a norm. In countries like India, China, and Brazil, where mobile operators offer only limited texting plans, WhatsApp unlimited person-to-person texting is a boon.

An average American adult uses a mobile device for 3 hours every day. It has led many B2B businesses to use SMS as one of the effective channels for product and brand marketing, and reach new customers. 

Apparently, 90% of all text messages are read within 3 seconds of their arrival. Hospitals and other health care providers still use SMS to send alerts and reminders. Not only them but also eCommerce platforms and logistics, food delivery partners, and routine customer service providers use SMS to send information and notify customers about appointments, dues, bill payments, etc. 

Difference between MMS and SMS

Although they have emerged from the same technology and they are often interchangeable, they do differ from each other vastly. 

We have listed below the key difference between the two:

Length: SMS stands for short messaging, so the maximum length permissible is 160 characters per text. 

The length increases 10X times in MMS. You can write up to 1600 characters in a single MMS message. 

Message Delivery: Since SMS predates the internet, they are transmitted via cellular towers and still functions the way it was originally built. The process is highly complex and involves many stations and servers.

MMS uses the Transmission Communication Protocol/Internet Protocol or TCP/IP to receive and send multimedia messages. This means you need cellular internet or data to encode and decode MMS content. 

Messaging Charges: The carrier charges are cheap, or perhaps nil in the case of SMS, while the carrier charge is 10X times more in the case of MMS. However, most mobile service providers deduct a monthly rental and make the entire process unlimited. 

If you ask us which is better for marketing, MMS or SMS, we would say it is a mix of both that will help you create a perfect marketing communication strategy. It will not only be effective but also co-efficient to combine both the services to deliver optimum information to consumers. 

For instance, for a prompted response, a simple SMS will be perfect, while for customer engagement, an interactive video player via MMS shall be apter. 

However, your budget, your consumer niche, and your product and services should be the ultimate deciding factor on whether to include MMS or SMS or both in your marketing strategy. 

Please contact us to know how NeuroTags technology helps brands strengthen marketing strategy. 

MMS marketingMMS vs SMSmobile marketingSMS marketing
Previous

Why collecting your retailers’ data should be your top priority

October 7, 2019
Next

Top 5 Loyalty Program Strategies for Maximum Return

November 12, 2019

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Related posts

Top 5 business cards
Featured, NeuroTags Tech,

Top 6 Digital Business Cards: Secure, Professional, and Enterprise-Grade

by NeuroTagsJune 19, 2023no comment
Gamification with QR code
NeuroTags Tech,

Onboard Tons of Customers with QR Gamification

by NeuroTagsMarch 29, 2023no comment
What Are Electronic Business Cards?
NeuroTags Tech,

What Are Electronic Business Cards? 

by NeuroTagsDecember 22, 2022no comment
warranty_management_business_advantage
NeuroTags Tech,

Benefits of a warranty management solution | The Complete Guide

by NeuroTagsDecember 10, 2022no comment

Recent Trends

  • Evolution of Anti-Counterfeit Packaging – How brands can benefit from it ?

    Evolution of Anti-Counterfeit Packaging – How brands can benefit from it ?

    August 30, 2021
  • Top 6 Digital Business Cards: Secure, Professional, and Enterprise-Grade

    Top 6 Digital Business Cards: Secure, Professional, and Enterprise-Grade

    June 19, 2023
  • Onboard Tons of Customers with QR Gamification

    Onboard Tons of Customers with QR Gamification

    March 29, 2023
  • What Are Electronic Business Cards? 

    What Are Electronic Business Cards? 

    December 22, 2022
  • Benefits of a warranty management solution | The Complete Guide

    Benefits of a warranty management solution | The Complete Guide

    December 10, 2022
  • Warranty management has direct bottom-line impacts. How are you managing them?

    Warranty management has direct bottom-line impacts. How are you managing them?

    November 25, 2021

Follow Us On

Industry Usecases

  • Electronics Accessories
  • Cosmetics
  • Spirits and Wines
  • Cannabis

Commonly Searched

Anti-counterfeiting (9) Anti-counterfeit solution (25) Anti-counterfeit techniques (3) Brand protection (17) consumer brands (3) consumer engagement (8) Consumer Marketing (3) counterfeit alcohol (3) Counterfeit cosmetics (2) counterfeiting (4) counterfeit makeup (2) counterfeit wine (3) customer behaviour (2) customer engagement (5) customer engagement solution (2) Customer retention (3) Customer Rewards (4) Damage control (2) digital innovation (2) Digital warranty (5) drug authentication system (2) Email Marketing Automation (2) eWarranty (2) fake alcohol (2) fake wine (3) geo-targeting (2) Loyalty Engine (4) Loyalty Programs (9) Loyalty Program Solution (3) marketing in offline market (2) NeuroTags (30) NeuroTags Anti-Counterfeiting Solution (4) NeuroTags eWarranty engine (4) pesticide (2) pharmaceutical (2) product digitization (3) product story (3) Referral Programs (2) sales growth (4) save farmers (2) supply chain digitalization (3) supply chain management (4) supply chain visibility (4) track & trace (3) track and trace (3)

Popular Posts

Product Digitization Explained
Anti-counterfeiting Solution, Featured, Loyalty Program Software, Marketing Automation Software, NeuroTags Tech,

Product Digitization Explained

by NeuroTagsAugust 28, 20191 comment
What Are Electronic Business Cards? 
NeuroTags Tech,

What Are Electronic Business Cards? 

by NeuroTagsDecember 22, 2022no comment
Indian Consumer Protection Bill 2019 Mandates Action against eCommerce Counterfeiting Frauds
Anti-counterfeiting Solution, NeuroTags Tech,

Indian Consumer Protection Bill 2019 Mandates Action against eCommerce Counterfeiting Frauds

by NeuroTagsAugust 12, 2019no comment
What is product serialization and what are its benefits?
Anti-counterfeiting Solution, Featured, Loyalty Program Software, Marketing Automation Software, NeuroTags Tech,

What is product serialization and what are its benefits?

by NeuroTagsSeptember 16, 2019no comment
Counterfeiting – Huge loss to the economy and how it can be stopped
Anti-counterfeiting Solution, Featured, NeuroTags Tech,

Counterfeiting – Huge loss to the economy and how it can be stopped

by NeuroTagsJanuary 20, 2020no comment
Why do companies need supply chain digitalization?
Featured, NeuroTags Tech,

Why do companies need supply chain digitalization?

by NeuroTagsJanuary 21, 2020no comment
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Terms
  • Privacy

© NeuroTags 2023