How To Start Bulk SMS Business In Nigeria 2023 And Be Making ₦300,000 From The 1st Month
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The profit is consistent and I'm 100% confident about this. Follow me as we run this show together.
Very quickly, I'm going to show you everything you need to know about bulk SMS business in Nigeria and how you too can start this business in 2023 and be making at least NGN 300,000 monthly from the comfort of your home without breaking the bank even if you are not a software developer. It's really easy.
Among many questions in your mind, the top of them all is, 'Is this business still profitable in 2023?' Come on, it's because of this business that I'm currently at goat meat (Isi ewu/nkwobi) joint now as I'm typing this message. I guess you know what happens at that joint.
Yes, I'm really going to walk you through step by step with no step skipped.
Below is the outline of our bulk SMS business show today.
- Who am I? Why should you listen to me? Why must you believe me?
- Is bulk SMS business profitable in 2023?
- A quick story of how I started my first bulk SMS business and 6 things I learnt from my mobile app’s journey to its first 1,000 downloads in 2017.
- How to start your own bulk SMS business – Everything you need to know before you start.
- How to choose a domain name and hosting company for your bulk SMS business. Don’t make my mistakes.
- How to create your bulk SMS website the right way, step by step with no step skipped – You don’t need to have prior knowledge of programming.
- How to deliver bulk SMS to DND numbers in Nigeria – If your bulk SMS platform delivers to DND numbers, you have made it.
- How and where to purchase your own bulk SMS units (super APIs) at an incredibly lower price, yet very reliable.
- How to price your bulk SMS business. I will show you my best-proven pricing strategy.
- How to advertise your bulk SMS business with little budget and gain your first 1,000 customers in 2 weeks using Google Ads and a few other channels.
- How to buy me biscuits after your first month of hitting it big.
This is already really looking like a long essay, more of that type they asked us to write in WAEC English Language. I actually smashed my English essay back then. If you doubt me, bring your WAEC result and let me bring my own. Lol!
Let’s get back to our business of the day. Are you ready?
- WHO AM I? WHY SHOULD YOU LISTEN TO ME? WHY MUST YOU BELIEVE ME?
My name is Frank Umeadi. I’m a tech entrepreneur and a software developer with 9 years of experience. I’m the founder and CEO of Mart Technologies Limited – RC: 1474753 (Mart.NG), the leading online supermarket in Nigeria and also the 2019 winner of the NiRa’s .ng ‘Most Innovative Service Company of the Year Online’ award. You must have seen some ladies and gentlemen wearing the lemon green t-shirts fulfilling some orders in the streets of Abuja. That’s us, no one else!
I studied Computer Science Education at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka and graduated in 2015 with a second class - upper degree (almost first class, but there is no problem). I’m from Abagana, Anambra State, Nigeria.
I’m also the founder of FraNKAPPWeb Technologies (with CAC No – 2384195), an information technology consulting firm. I have created tens of websites for my clients on the journey. This includes creating a football scouting website KickToGlory.ng in 2017 for Peter Okoye (P-Square) together with Friday Kujah, a FIFA Player Licensed agent (the then manager of Jay-Jay Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Taribo West etc.). Peter Okoye later supported my business with a photoshoot with my company’s logo (should I call it an endorsement? No!). Well, you can search for ‘Frank Umeadi and Peter Okoye’ on Google.
I’m also the founder of appwebSMS.com, a leading bulk SMS service provider in Nigeria with over 15,000 users/paying customers. I have a mobile app for this platform and it currently has over 10,000 downloads with the second-best 4.5-star rating on Google Play Store. You can find it on the Google Play Store.
I’m also the founder of SMS.com.ng, also a leading bulk SMS service provider in Nigeria with over 30,000 users/paying customers. I launched this platform on July 27th, 2019. I also have a mobile app for this platform and it currently has over 30,000 downloads with the best 4.8-star rating on Google Play Store. You can also find it on the Google Play Store.
I’m also the founder of BulkSMSNigeria.ng, also a premier bulk SMS service provider in Nigeria with over 10,000 users/paying customers. I launched this platform on August 21st, 2019. Don’t mind me; the bulk SMS business is doing me like sugar, that’s why I have three. And you people should hold me o, if not; I will have 20 bulk SMS platforms. That’s how sweet the business is.
I’m also the founder of VTU.ng (Buy/Resell Cheap Data & Airtime | Electricity Bills Payment | Cable TV Subscription | Print Recharge Cards | Fund Betting Accounts). We are doing well over there, really with over 100,000 users and mobile app downloads.
I also have many other things I do online but let’s give it a break here and get started very quickly on our main business of the day.
- IS BULK SMS BUSINESS PROFITABLE IN 2023?
You really don’t need to think about this. The simple answer is YES, bulk SMS business is very much profitable even in 2023 and forever.
Some people may say that bulk SMS business is no longer profitable because a lot of people are already in the business. Don’t allow anyone to tell you that again in 2023. That’s enough reason to believe that the business is profitable because people are rushing into it. Obu onye ji igu ka ewu n’eso (It’s the person that has palm fronds that goat follows). Like I said earlier, it’s because of this business that I’m typing this letter to you from goat meat (isi ewu/nkwobi) joint.
Here are some facts about bulk SMS
- 350 billion text messages are sent every month. - CTIA
- SMS is the most used data service in the world. - Nielsen
- 91% of mobile phone owners use their device for SMS. - Smart Insight
- More than 4.2 billion people are texting worldwide. - MBA Online
- SMS messages have a 98% open rate, while email only has a 20% open rate. - Mobile Marketing Watch, 2017
- 62% Percent of Smartphone users check their phones immediately after waking up. While 79% of Smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up. - IDC
Now, the cost of bulk SMS marketing is very much cheaper compared to radio and TV, and because of this, Churches, Organizations, Businesses and individuals have chosen bulk SMS as their preferred means of reaching their target audience.
Let’s do some calculations.
Let’s assume you make NGN 1.00 per unit of SMS sold. That’s, you purchase at NGN 1.45 and sell at NGN 2.45. Now, NGN 2.45 – NGN 1.45 = NGN 1.00 profit per unit sold. Of course, it’s possible and that’s the margin I make per unit sold, maybe, because I buy in bulk. I will show you how I do that later.
And you have about 1,000 users of which 400 are active customers monthly. Now inside these 400, you have 20 that are king buyers. Now, these 20 customers purchase at least 5,000 units weekly. Your profit per week from each of them would be 5,000 * NGN 1.00 = NGN 5,000. In a month is NGN 5,000 * 4 = NGN 20,000 from one customer. Now from that 20 king customers is NGN 20,000 * 20 = NGN 400,000.
Oh, we have even exceeded our target of NGN 300,000 monthly. Let’s just say your average profit was NGN 0.80 and not NGN 1.00 or maybe some of your king buyers did not turn up for that month, you will still land at least NGN 300,000 per month. Don’t also neglect the average customers that pay NGN 5,000 NGN 2,000 and even NGN 500. Though I used to frown sometimes whenever I receive an alert of NGN 500, they are still super buyers at their level. Let’s love them all.
This is why many bulk SMS businesses are catching out so big from this industry and never looking back. As it stands now, even 1,000 active bulk SMS platforms cannot serve the need of this service for Nigerians. Why not go in and do better with your own service? I remember going to the office of the biggest bulk SMS company in Abuja here (of course, I’m not the biggest, not yet), and this guys just took one whole gigantic building in a beautiful estate as their office. Like, what? Na only una waka come? Come to this industry now and take your own share. Don’t dull yourself.
Are you still in doubt? I don’t like showing screenshots, but for the sake of this message that I want to pass, see below for my last 30 days earnings from just one bulk SMS website and only online payment on Paystack (NGN 519,713.67 in 30 days). Offline payments via bank transfer are not added yet to it. This is from one of my bulk SMS websites; 30 days period and without offline bank transfers added. Purely online payments! Bank payments are mostly the same revenue range compared to online payments at the end of the month.
- A QUICK STORY OF HOW I STARTED MY FIRST BULK SMS BUSINESS AND 6 THINGS I LEARNT FROM MY MOBILE APP’S JOURNEY TO ITS FIRST 1,000 DOWNLOADS IN 2017
1000 downloads in the first 4 weeks (September 2017) may be relatively very little but it was motivating at my end, so I decided to share with you a few things I learnt in the process perhaps it could help you too in your journey especially in this bulk SMS business.
Often times the most lucrative opportunities are the ones we know nothing about. Indeed, how time flies. A quick flashback to June 2016 when I launched my bulk SMS business, appwebSMS.com, I was so afraid that my business could be one of those that died on arrival because there were hundreds of bulk SMS websites already in existence.
I later picked up courage when I observed that indeed there were hundreds of bulk SMS websites, but there were just about 5 - 10 bulk SMS businesses out there. There is really a difference between having a bulk SMS website and having a bulk SMS business. Lots of them had crappy copy & paste (CTRL + C & CTRL + V) bulk SMS websites, but I wanted to build a business around my own website. Today, I want to tell you that my case is very much different. It has been a success story.
In early 2017, whenever I checked the stats of the pages of my bulk SMS website, the mobile app download page used to have the highest views after the home page. This kept telling me one thing; my customers need a mobile app.
But how can I give my customers a mobile app since I didn’t have the perfect skills in Android Development (things like Material Design, Java & Kotlin)? This leads us to the lessons I learnt from my mobile app’s journey to its first 1000 downloads on Google Play.
(a.) Procrastination is very deadly – I was really a poor developer before today. I needed to up my skills in Android Development to enable me to launch the mobile app for my customers, so I enrolled in a few courses on Udemy and I also downloaded some quality materials on Material Design and Kotlin.
Now came a time when my village people staged a fight with me. It was more like a Temple Run. The first night, I opened my Udemy app to start learning with the courses I enrolled in, next thing someone sent me a message on WhatsApp and vooooooooooom I’m already on WhatsApp to check the message. I did not leave WhatsApp again till the next morning and then realized I had wasted a precious night. I really blamed myself, but it did not stop there. The second day, the same thing happened, but this time it was Facebook that stopped me from learning. My bad, this happened for a period of 12 good days.
The 13th day, I decided to give my village people a run for their ch**m and I stood against all odds. Believe me; I uninstalled WhatsApp, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Medium, and Quora from my phone. Yes, I also deleted Quora because I was spending tens of hours reading questions and answers of people that have made it in life. I installed Stack Overflow instead. I still wonder how early-stage developers succeeded without StackOverflow.
At this point, I was good to go. I shunned social media completely for a period of 4 weeks and the results became very interesting. I was able to learn Material Design, Java and Kotlin to an extent that I could develop the bulk SMS mobile app. Did I forget to mention that I learnt by doing? Well, I want to tell someone today that the best way to learn is by creating real-world applications in the process. There will always be great guides on StackOverflow to help you understand every concept. Please, run away from any programmer that detests StackOverflow. Let me tell you that I developed my bulk SMS app, appwebSMS within 4 weeks even as I was learning (learn-by-doing).
Had I allowed social media to win the war, I would have still been there hopping on when to learn. My brothers and my sisters, the time is now. Procrastination is very deadly. Don’t allow it to keep you back in the dark ages. Stay awake today and smile tomorrow. No time. I mean, no dulling at all.
(b.) User Interface and Experience are the Princess and Queen (use the industry-standard) – Love at first sight, that kind of thing you know. They said all that glitters is not gold, but believe me, you will first pick up that thing that glitters before you now go ahead to discover whether it’s gold or plywood.
This same principle applies to mobile apps. If you want to download an app from Google Play and you notice from the screenshots that the design looks so bad, you will never download it. I guess you will agree with me on that because you don’t want yet another trash on your phone.
I was able to sell my app really quickly to my target audience because of its simple yet beautiful user interface and experience.
When creating your own app, you really need to invest heavily on UI/UX. It gets and retains those customers for you. Use the industry-standard tools like Android Studio so that you can easily implement Material Design to your app. Also, ensure that you optimize the size of your app to get as small as it can so as to increase download choices in emerging markets like Africa.
(c.) Promoting your app aggressively with a personal story is the king – the need for this cannot be overemphasized. Just imagine this story that I’m also telling you here. It’s so personal and motivating that you will just fall in love with me soon, but hey, I’m in love already. Follow me, let’s get this party hotter. You are about to make your best decision in 2023.
So, I launched my app on a Sunday and I told a few lines of personal stories linked to my reasons for developing the app. That was the best thing I could have done and it helped caught my friends attention to download and also rate my app 5 stars on Google Play. Everyone wants to see a reason to support you. Don’t always present yourself as a company.
A company most times does not have a human face, but you as the owner of the company have. Use your personal brand to launch on the first day, then go back to respond to queries as a company. Human beings are always afraid of companies I must tell you. Come closer to your people and they will come closer to you.
This early downloads and positive reviews you get from your friends are what will push your app to the next level. Use platforms like Nairaland, Quora and others to promote your app, but please, don’t waste your time promoting a crappy app. Ensure you have played your own good part, else bad reviews will eventually fall on you – Yakataaaaaaa…!
(d.) You can’t be perfect at first launch – “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you have launched too late” – Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Founder.
You have heard it from Reid Hoffman. This is also one of the reasons Google Play has provisions for app updates. You can’t do it perfectly at first launch. Even WhatsApp, Facebook and other big players are still pushing out updates today. This is because it’s not yet perfect for its users.
When I was developing appwebSMS, I deactivated the search functionality so as to debug an error. As time goes on after my launching, one of my users complained that he needed the phone contacts' search feature, that was when I remembered I did not activate it back before launching. A user also complained about not being able to send messages to more than 100 contacts. I tested again and noticed that I had wrongly used the GET request method instead of POST. This being that the GET request method allows only 2085 chars long. I’m really a dumb ass programmer. Only a few users knew it then and the best thing I did was to fix the bug and push out the update. Life is so easy!
So, don’t wait to be too perfect before you launch. “Your ideas only gets clearer as you work on them” – Mark Zuckerberg. Launch today and seek user feedback. Remember, there is no time.
(e.) You will get 1000%+ new paying customers in a few weeks – This is where it gets most interesting. Of course, everyone wants that ease. Everyone wants to just tap an icon on their mobile phone and do it vaaaaaaaam. Why then deprive them of their want? Launch an app today and see how your business will gain thousands of new paying customers. I’m a living witness.
Before I launched my app, I had about 170 paying customers in 1 year (my bad, I wasn’t advertising my platform). But immediately I launched my app, my paying customers increased to 700 in just 4 weeks (We now have over 8,000 customers). Before, I used to wake up to lots of unsolicited MTN messages, but these days I always wake up to at least 4 payment alerts and another 15 alerts while in the office. This is just for customers that paid online; now add those that make a bank deposit and mobile transfers. It has really been a great journey. If I start BOLE (roasted plantain) business today, I must launch an app for online ordering the next day.
(f.) Customers are truly always right; be patient with them – during the cause of my exponential increase in customer base, I had received lots of calls from different backgrounds of individuals. I learnt that as a business owner, you must be patient with every single customer and offer them great support. One fateful morning, a customer called me on phone and this is our conversation over the phone:
Customer: Hello from the other side, my name is ******
Me: Well Done Sir (in Falz voice)
Customer: Please, am I speaking with appwebSMS?
Me:* I now remembered that I forgot to do the normal thing because we were acting Falz over the phone.
Me: Good day and welcome to appwebSMS! How may I help you today?
Customer: I saw your app on Google Play. Please, how can I download it?
Me: *I was like Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyy. How will you download it? I wanted to get angry in the first place but I had my chill. I started lectures with this man o. I mean, complete “Google Play Installation Processes 101” Finally we downloaded the app together over the phone call. How did he even get our phone number? Well, Next…
Customer: How do I create an account?
Me: *Oh sh*t! What have I done to deserve this now? In my mind though. But we passed this stage.
Customer: How do I activate my account? How do I log in? How do I save phone numbers to phonebook?
Me: *My people, the questions were many, I nearly cried because I was answering the call. This is how we were on lectures o until he asked – How do I make payment? Then the normal me came back. Let me tell you that this particular customer purchased an SMS unit worth NGN40, 000 at the end of the day.
Since then, I always treat all the customers like newborn babies over the phone. They are truly always right. We just need to be patient with most of them.
These are a few things I learnt in that short period of time and I thought it could be beneficial to some people going forward, hence my sharing with you.
- HOW TO START YOUR OWN BULK SMS BUSINESS – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START
Before you start your bulk SMS business, please, I want you to first of all go and register a business name with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and open a corporate bank account.
Note: Not having a registered business name does not stop you from starting this business (many are making money from it with their personal names), but believe me, it’s very important to pull off more sales quickly.
Now, if you happen to visit my bulk SMS website and all my claims on the website sounds interesting to you, then you discovered that you are about to make payment to the bank account ‘Frank Somtoo Umeadi’, you would be like Hey! Are you sure this dude is reliable? Won’t he scam me? Are you sure he is not going to close shop anytime soon?
Those thoughts may come to customers mind if they don’t see you like a big company to trust. You need to make them believe you and one of the best ways to do this is by having a registered business name and a corporate bank account.
Once you are done with business name registration, kindly buy some t-shirts and print your business logo on it, then go to the studio and take beautiful pictures with some persons. You will use these pictures as banners on your website. You see, this is called premium branding and that’s the trick that’s working for me. Many people think I have a million-dollar bulk SMS Company and hundreds of workers all because of the beautiful branded pictures on my website. Only those pictures make them believe my platform without a doubt.
Some will even make payments, forget about it that day and come the next day to claim their units. They believe me like that. I want them to believe you too.
Some will even make payments, forget about it that day and come the next day to claim their units. They believe me like that. I want them to believe you too.
You need to create an account with Paystack.com, an online payments gateway for Africa. You will be using them to accept payments online on your website.
I think this our show is really getting so long. Why not get some cup of coffee and be chilling down?
There are two ways of starting a bulk SMS business.
- Registering as a reseller under any Nigerian bulk SMS provider and then be reselling to people around you. This happens especially when you own a cyber café.
- Creating your own bulk SMS portal (website or app) and being in charge of pricing and everything.
Now, there is something very important that you need to know. The word RESELLER has been used in many ways in the bulk SMS industry. I want you to understand it today. The truth is that all bulk SMS providers in Nigeria are resellers including SMS.com.ng.
The cost of becoming a major SMS Gateway is really huge and it takes a lot of resources to manage. Do you think it costs a million? No! Maybe a billion.
Now, what we do here in Nigeria is that we create a white label bulk SMS reseller website and use it to connect to the APIs of major SMS gateways and then resell their SMS services.
Using the option (i) above to launch into the business is not the best option. It will limit you to what you can achieve. Your chances of making much profit will be low because you will be purchasing at a high price from the Nigerian provider and you also won’t be able to allow users to register under you. Nevertheless, it’s still a great option to start with when you have a limited budget.
Going through the option (ii) is by far the best decision you will ever make yet in 2023. You will be in control; manage your prices, manage your users; make more profit and have many other possibilities at your fingertips.
- HOW TO CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME AND HOSTING COMPANY FOR YOUR BULK SMS BUSINESS. DON’T MAKE MY MISTAKES
A domain name is the website address of your bulk SMS business. An example is sms.com.ng. That’s my own domain name.
Choosing a domain name and a reliable web hosting company can be most times tough when you don’t have enough information.
You want to choose a domain name that’s short and easy to remember and at the same time meaningful to the scope of your business. I guess you love my own domain name, sms.com.ng, right? It is short; easy to remember; and meaningful to the scope of my business, bulk SMS.
You need to take out time to decide and find the best domain name for your own bulk SMS business. Please, in the case you can add the words ‘SMS or bulksms’ to it, please do. That will help you on Google rankings because it has the keyword for your business. People are searching for the keyword ‘Bulk SMS Nigeria’ and this is why I also created another bulk SMS website, BulkSMSNigeria.ng to gain some targeted traffic.
Your domain name can be a .com, .com.ng or .ng. Please, don’t use any other domain extension as they are not common to the users.
A hosting company is a company that hosts your website’s files on their servers, such that when your website address is visited, your website files will be loaded from your hosting company’s servers.
I’m sorry to say this because I’m a Nigerian, but please, don’t ever use any Nigerian hosting company for your bulk SMS business. When I said anyone, I mean it. Don’t use any Nigerian hosting company for your bulk SMS business to avoid being doomed. I know 90% of all hosting companies in Nigeria, and I must tell you that they are trying but not enough for your money business.
When I first started this journey, I used a Nigerian hosting company. They frustrated my life that I almost gave up. In this minute my website is loading, in the next 5 minutes, it’s no longer loading. Then the most painful part of it is that when you contact them, it will take them 2 days to reply to you. Now, their replies will be like “We are sorry about this, we are looking at it.” Come on, what the heck?
If that was the only problem, then we could still manage, but no, I woke up one day only to notice that my website is nowhere to be found. When I contacted the hosting company, they apologized and said that their server was attacked and all the websites on that particular server were deleted erroneously. Everyone’s site was gone. No backup; nothing at all. My journey on that particular website ended abruptly.
Then I moved to another Nigerian hosting company. After 1 month, their servers too were attacked and my 3 websites got vanished. This story is long and old now, but you can still cry for me though. This didn’t happen only to me, but my friend too. He lost 5 websites with a particular Nigerian hosting company due to ‘attacks’ on their servers.
My brothers and sisters, as an upcoming entrepreneur, I want to recommend to you Namecheap. Namecheap is the hosting company I later found a home with. They are foreign and one of the bests in the world. They have the cheapest hosting plans in the world and yet very reliable. They will give you free SSL which is very easy to install. Their least hosting plan which currently goes for $15.44 for the first year and $30.88 subsequently will allow you to host 3 websites without shaking. They have the best customer support in this world. If you ever face any issue, just chat with them on their website and your issues will be resolved in less than 10 minutes. They will even still be there begging you to help you with any other thing. Forget it, they are super.
Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated to Namecheap. I’m only giving a personal review because I use and love them.
- HOW TO CREATE YOUR BULK SMS WEBSITE THE RIGHT WAY, STEP BY STEP WITH NO STEP SKIPPED – YOU DON’T NEED TO HAVE A PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF PROGRAMMING
Truly, gone are the days when creating your own business website requires you to be a badass programmer or have lots of money to pay a developer. These days, there are tons of content management systems (CMS) that enables you to easily create your business website in some hours without having any knowledge of programming. We have the CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and many others. Among these, WordPress is arguably the most popular and easiest to use, but in the course of this our journey, we will be using Joomla to create our bulk SMS website.
You can create a new Joomla website or easily convert an already existing one to a full-fledged bulk SMS platform just by installing a component that I will show you below.
There are many bulk SMS portal creator components and scripts available in the market and I want us to discuss four of the most popular choices before we continue.
4 Bulk SMS Portal Creators and Scripts
- SMS Portal Creator - SPC (Joomla Component) – www.smsportalcreator.com
- Jeema SMS (Joomla Component) – www.jeema.net
- Ultimate SMS (PHP Script) – www.codecanyon.net/item/ultimate-sms-bulk-sms-application-for-marketing/20062631
- Sendroid Ultimate (PHP Script) - www.sendroidultimate.com.ng
A Table Comparison of the Four Bulk SMS Portal Components/Scripts
|
Features |
SMS Portal Creator (SPC 4) – Joomla Component |
Jeema SMS – Joomla Component |
Ultimate SMS – PHP Script |
Sendroid Ultimate – PHP Script |
|
Price |
NGN 15,000 (plus NGN 20,000 for pro features) |
NGN 42,090 |
NGN 28,914 |
NGN 21,500 (or NGN 65,000 for pro features) |
|
Text Message |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Unicode Message |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
MMS |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Voice/Robo Calls |
NO |
NO |
YES |
YES |
|
Flash SMS |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
2-Way SMS |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Validate Mobile Number at Registration |
NO |
YES |
YES |
NO |
|
DND Management |
NO |
YES |
NO |
NO |
|
User Management & Crediting |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Duplicate Number Removal |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Personalized/ Customized SMS |
YES |
YES |
NO |
NO |
|
Phonebook |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Own HTTP API |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Schedule SMS |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Custom Sender ID |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Birthday SMS |
YES |
YES |
NO |
YES |
|
Any SMS Gateway Integration |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Welcome SMS |
NO |
YES |
NO |
NO |
|
User Reseller System |
NO |
NO |
YES |
|
|
Routing |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Bulk Email Sender |
NO |
YES |
NO |
YES |
|
Upload Contacts (CSV & TXT) |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Pre-defined SMS Templates |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Filter Words |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
PIN/Voucher Topup |
YES |
YES |
NO |
YES |
|
Transfer SMS Units |
YES |
YES |
NO |
YES |
|
Online Payment & Automatic Crediting |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Customization Options |
Not Possible |
YES, Easy & Unlimited |
YES |
Limited |
|
Installation/ Learning Curve |
Easy |
Not too Easy |
Not too Easy |
Not too Easy |
|
License Type |
Limited to one Website & dependent on their server |
Unlimited Websites & Independent on their server |
Limited to one Website & dependent on their server |
Limited to one Website & dependent on their server |
As someone who has experience with all of the four listed components/scripts, I can only recommend just one choice for you and that’s Jeema SMS. Don’t be shocked because of my straight face. I’m recommending this because of one major reason, ‘license’.
How will you feel if you wake up one day and notice that your bulk SMS platform is no longer working properly all because of a failure in license authentication from your bulk SMS component/script server? Very bad! This has happened to me twice with SMS Portal Creator (SPC 4), in fact, as we speak now (9th September 2019), their official website is down because of hosting issues. How unprofessional? Secondary, for the past 5 years, they have refused to ship out updates for us the users. It’s so painful.
Sendroid Ultimate and Ultimate SMS also work the same way when it comes to licensing. The license of your bulk SMS business depends on their servers to work. That’s so bad that if any of them should close shop (go out of business), you too would go out of business. So disastrous!
But only Jeema SMS gives you the power you need to be unlimited. There is nothing like licensing on their server. You will have total control of your business. You can customize the system anyhow you want it. You can use it on an unlimited number of websites. With Jeema SMS, you are a superman. I’m using Jeema SMS on SMS.com.ng and that’s one of the best decisions I made in the year 2019. You too should go for Jeema SMS.
To get started, you first need to learn how to create a Joomla website. Please refer to this documentation https://www.joomla.org/about-joomla/getting-started.html
After that, kindly refer to the documentation of Jeema SMS at http://www.support.jeema.net
Note: The most important pages you need for your bulk SMS website main menu are ‘Home, Send SMS, About, Pricing/Payment, API, Reseller, Blog and Contact’.
You can always contact me (+2348104938958) whenever you face any issue.
- HOW TO DELIVER BULK SMS TO DND NUMBERS IN NIGERIA – IF YOUR BULK SMS PLATFORM DELIVERS TO DND NUMBERS, YOU HAVE MADE IT
On July 1, 2016, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) mandated the telecommunication operators in Nigeria to implement Do-Not-Disturb (DND). Since then, there has been a serious issue with bulk SMS delivery to DND numbers in Nigeria. This issue is as a result of the introduction of the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) service by the GSM Network operators which allows their customers to opt-out of receiving promotional messages for 3rd Party services (Bulk SMS, VAS promos, etc.)
Because of this, the bulk SMS delivery rate reduced from 99% to about 80% and customers became furious. Some customers decided to stop using bulk SMS services since the delivery rate had become so poor. Even some bulk SMS business owners were frustrated and they closed shop.
But all that was then. Now, we have found an everlasting means to send bulk SMS to DND numbers in Nigeria through what is called SIM Hosting. A hosted SIM is like your normal SIM card hosted online. As a normal phone number, it bypasses all the restrictions from Network Operators. We used to use what is called corporate route to deliver to DND numbers but that does not work again unless you are a CAC registered financial institution.
This is how the Hosted SIM delivery to DND numbers work; when you send out a bulk SMS, your bulk SMS portal will receive a response from your SMS gateway; if the response code matches the one for DND numbers, your bulk SMS portal will resend the message to that number using another route (Hosted SIM). In this case, the recipient will receive the message with the Hosted SIM number as the sender.
As I said, I will never hide anything on this post, and the last time I checked, the only trusted company that offers SIM Hosting service is SmartSMSSolutions.com. They are the biggest bulk SMS Company in Nigeria. I’m using them for my SIM Hosting service, and since then, my life changed for good. More super and bigger customers because I now deliver to DND numbers without extra charges.
- HOW AND WHERE TO PURCHASE YOUR OWN BULK SMS UNITS (SUPER APIS) AT AN INCREDIBLY LOWER PRICE, YET VERY RELIABLE
You see, I’m not here to tell you to start using my API for your bulk SMS business. I don’t want to do that. I want you to purchase from where I also purchase so that you can make so much money. If you start purchasing from me, I may add a little amount on top of what I buy and sell to you. I don’t know, but people still choose to buy from me personally instead of going directly to where I buy from.
There are lots of companies were you can purchase bulk SMS units from and integrate their premium bulk SMS APIs. These companies have direct connections and links with all the GSM operators in Nigeria and other countries. They sell in Naira, Dollars and Euros and you can pay online from their websites or make a bank transfer because most of them have branches in Nigeria. There are incurred charges each time you make payment.
Below are some international bulk SMS gateways you can use.
(i) Infobip - www.infobip.com
They are originally from the Netherlands, but they also have an office in Ikeja Lagos, Nigeria. They are super reliable, but there pricing model for a starter seems high. Except you want to be selling at NGN 2.50 per SMS, which is very OK and that’s what I sell too. There are people selling at that price and their clients are still buying from them. In bulk SMS, delivery is the king, not the price. A client will be ready to pay you NGN 3.00 per SMS as long as the SMS get delivered within seconds and you guarantee a 99% delivery rate. If you want to use them, you can go to their website and send them a message. They will reply to you and an account manager will be assigned to you and from there, you can start using their service.
Infobip Pricing:
Airtel = NGN 1.65
9mobile (Etisalat) = NGN 1.70
Glo = NGN 1.70
MTN = NGN 1.75
(ii) RouteMobile (formerly RouteSMS) - www.routemobile.comRouteMobile is an Indian company. They are very good at what they do. They have direct connections (promotional route & corporate/transactional route) at a moderate price. I have been using them since 2016.
RouteMobile Pricing:
Airtel = NGN 1.45
9mobile (Etisalat) = NGN 1.45
Glo = NGN 1.70
MTN = NGN 1.75
(iii) Smart SMS Solutions – www. smartsmssolutions.com
Smart SMS Solutions powered by Horlar IT Solutions Limited is the biggest bulk SMS Company in Nigeria based in Abuja. They are the ones I visited their office, and boom, these guys use a gigantic building all to themselves as their office. They are super reliable and their prices have remained consistent for many years. I also use Smart SMS Solutions.
Smart SMS Solutions prices:
Their pricing strategy is different and that’s how your own pricing should look like. They charge from NGN 1.45 to NGN 1.75 per unit/SMS depending on the volume of SMS you are purchasing.
I always buy at NGN 1.45 per unit/SMS because I purchase with Over NGN 750,000. You can also buy at that price or at NGN 1.50 per SMS if you are able to purchase with NGN 150,000. Kindly check their website to see other plans.
When you have chosen the company you want after comparing and asking questions from their support team, they will create your account for you and give some SMS units for testing. You will get their HTTP API URLs and integrate on your bulk SMS website. I can always help you out to solve any issue.
- HOW TO PRICE YOUR BULK SMS BUSINESS. I WILL SHOW YOU MY BEST PROVEN PRICING STRATEGY
Pricing is one of the most important parts of this business. I had made mistakes in the past and I have learnt a lot already too.
Below are my discoveries about bulk SMS business pricing.
- Many bulk SMS customers do not want ambiguous calculations.
- They want it very simple and straight forward.
- They want 1 unit to send 1 SMS.
- They don’t mind paying higher for better delivery rate and speed.
Anything not related to the above is out of it. You see, some bulk SMS websites offer mouthwatering prices like NGN 0.90 per unit or NGN 1.00 per unit. These websites end up charging their customers about 2.5 units per SMS sent and that means they actually charge NGN 2.5 per SMS.
Many of their customers don’t know about this trick otherwise known as hidden charges, the few that find out always become furious and vow never to use that platform again. You should avoid this trick if you want to be successful in this business. Always state your prices very clear on your pricing page.
Many of their customers don’t know about this trick otherwise known as hidden charges, the few that find out always become furious and vow never to use that platform again. You should avoid this trick if you want to be successful in this business. Always state your prices very clear on your pricing page.
Please don’t sell so cheap, instead, improve your services. I was selling at NGN 1.99 per unit/ SMS. I was making NGN 0.50 profit per unit sold. It wasn’t that big, but it was something. I later increased to NGN 2.5 per unit/SMS and none of my customers complained and they kept buying from me and even more. Now, I make NGN 1.00 profit per unit sold.
I continued marketing my brand as the best and only bulk SMS platform that ensures 100% delivery. This branding strategy had brought in many top users including some loan service websites using my API.
The pricing write-up below is from my bulk SMS website, SMS.com.ng.
“We are not cheap, but we are AFFORDABLE. 1 Unit = 1 SMS to all GSM Networks in Nigeria including DND numbers. No Subscriptions! No Hidden Charges! No Gimmicks! Send bulk SMS for as low as ₦1.80. No one else, but SMS.com.ng do this in Nigeria.”
My Bulk SMS Pricing in Nigeria
|
VOLUME (UNITS) |
PRICE (₦)/UNIT (SMS) |
|
2 Test Units |
Free |
|
1 - 9,999 |
₦2.49 |
|
10,000 - 99,999 |
₦1.99 |
|
100,000 - 999,999 |
₦1.90 |
|
1,000,000 and above |
₦1.80 |
Note: 1 Unit = 1 SMS including DND numbers
Everyone is ready to buy from me irrespective of the price because they believe I give quality delivery. That should be your target.
- HOW TO ADVERTISE YOUR BULK SMS BUSINESS WITH LITTLE BUDGET AND GAIN YOUR FIRST 1,000 CUSTOMERS IN 2 WEEKS USING GOOGLE ADS AND A FEW OTHER CHANNELS
You need to advertise your website for people to know about it and give it a trial. The best way to advertise your bulk SMS website and get a quality return on investment (ROI) is using Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords). This is because the people that need your services are on Google searching for the right bulk SMS platform.
You don’t need Facebook or Instagram Ads. Don’t waste money on Facebook and Instagram Ads because the users are there entertaining themselves. Facebook and Instagram Ads are best used for e-commerce products marketing.
I spent less than $75 (NGN 27,450) on Google Ads (AdWords) to gain my first 1000 customers for SMS.com.ng in 14 days of which over 500 of them have made a purchase at an average of NGN 1,300 per person. That’s about NGN 650,000 sale in the first month.
See the screenshot below.
See the screenshot below.
Below is how my ad looks on Google.
I urge you to spend some money on Google Ads and you will never regret it.
- HOW TO BUY ME BISCUITS AFTER YOUR FIRST MONTH OF HITTING IT BIG
Well, don’t buy me any biscuits. I really want to help you make it in this bulk SMS business. I want to do something for you and I want to be there for you until you tell me to go.
I have good news for you. In the past year, I have helped a lot of starters hit it big in this business, all raking in at least NGN 300,000 monthly. I’m proud and confident about this.
LET ME BUILD YOUR BULK SMS BUSINESS (WEBSITE) AND HELP YOU MAKE NGN 300,000 NEXT MONTH
You might be thinking while reading this post, ‘can I help you to set up your own website?’
The answer is yes. I can help you to do this with the best practices in mind. I have done this for many people, but I only accept to do it for those that are ready to do this business. I don’t like to collect money and create a website for someone who doesn’t have the passion to succeed in the business because if the person fails, I had failed too.
This is why I try as much as possible to create the website for you and also give you all the necessary training and support that you need to succeed in it.
This is why I try as much as possible to create the website for you and also give you all the necessary training and support that you need to succeed in it.
WHAT YOU WILL GET FROM THE BULK SMS WEBSITE THAT I WILL BUILD FOR YOU
- 1 Year Domain Name Registration
- 1 Year Premium Foreign Web Hosting (Unlimited Bandwidth) - Namecheap
- Professional Joomla Website Design & Development
- Jeema SMS Component; Installation, Configuration & Customizations
- Topnotch User & Mobile Friendliness
- Cron Jobs Setup for SMS Scheduling
- Professional Logo
- Super Website Security
- Content Development
- Paystack Online Payment Integration (You can choose your own payment gateway)
- Social Media Integration
- Multiple Bulk SMS Gateway APIs integration
- Weekly Website Backup from Namecheap Hosting Company
- 1 Month Free Basic SEO Campaign
- 1 Month Free Technical Support
- You will Own Total Control of Your Website including cPanel and Namecheap Account Details
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO GET A PROFESSIONAL BULK SMS WEBSITE FROM ME, FRANK UMEADI?
Is it NGN 600,000? No No No!
Is it NGN 400,000? Come on, you are just a starter in this industry; you shouldn’t pay that much to get started. You need some money for marketing and to also purchase bulk SMS units.
You know what? The price is just NGN 299,000 and you will get a complete professional bulk SMS website just like SMS.com.ng.
This kind of offer is never found anywhere else, but with me, Frank Umeadi.
If you are ready to start making your next NGN 300,000 monthly then pay in NGN 299,000 into my bank account below for us to get started.
Bank Account Details
Account Name: FRANKAPPWEB TECHNOLOGIES
Account Number: 1211132724
Bank: Zenith Bank
After Payment, What Next?
After making your deposit please call, text (SMS) or WhatsApp me +2348066017971 with the following details:
- Name of Depositor
- Date of Payment
Once I confirm your payment, we will take it up from there. That’s when we should talk about your desired domain name (I will help you to choose one), and you will also provide other necessary information to purchase your domain name and hosting.
After 14 days, I will be through with your bulk SMS website and hand it over to you.
Making money online in Nigeria is pretty straightforward if you know what works. It’s all about knowledge and research. I want to use this opportunity to wish you success ahead on this business. Please don’t forget to always contact me when you need help. I will be there for you until you ask me to go.
Good luck!
21st January 2023
Frank Umeadi
Phone & WhatsApp: +2348066017971
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