The mandated shift from alphabetic sender ids to numeric sender ids in SMS advertising is a bittersweet development for the SMEs sector, which relies heavily on this cost-effective advertising medium.

According to the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India guidelines, sender ids, which usually denote the name of the company sending the messages, have to be replaced with a numerical sender id. A distinct numerical sender id has been assigned to every company advertising though this medium.

“This is a blessing in disguise for many SMEs. This will compel most customers to open all messages to check the context and relevance to them .So the promotional ones from SMEs which generally went unread will now see better consumption,” said Mr Ashwin Roy Choudhary, Founder and CEO of Bombil Media, which is a bulk SMS platform. More than 50 per cent of its customers are SMEs.

This regulation may be good news for small and lesser known SMEs who have a greater chance of getting noticed by consumers. “We have seen a slight increase in consumer responses. Earlier we used to get 45-50 responses and now the number is at 55-60,” said Mr Aman Bindra, Founder, Bindra CNG, which deals with CNG fittings. They recently sent off one lakh SMSs in their last campaign.

Although at this stage SMEs feel it is difficult to draw a conclusion, the new regulations are somewhat unfavourable to bigger SME clients. “Our responses have dipped by almost 20 per cent. It was much better when the alphabetical sender id was there. Consumers would immediately be notified that it was our message without even opening the message,” said Mr Uday Patil, Founder, Anand India Corporation. The company deals in spy products and car accessories and sends six to eight lakh messages everyday.

Companies opting for mobile advertising or marketing can avail of two types of services – free and paid. SMEs sending out bulk messaging prefer to go for the paid model as it ensures that no other advertisements will appear with the same message. Also ensured are delivery reports and prioritised messaging. “We have 25,000 SME customers. Most good companies would like to identify themselves in the sender ids as it would immediately catch the customer’s attention,” said Mr Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, SMS GupShup, which makes 40 per cent of its revenues from SME clients.

As the numeric sender id gives all companies an equal chance of getting visibility, smaller SMEs are getting a better return on investment. “We have already seen close to 12-15 per cent better responses for the campaigns we have executed for our smaller clients in the last two days,” said Mr Choudhary.

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