Your MessageBird Dashboard features two different options to send SMS messages to a large number of recipients: Group and Bulk Messaging.

Group Messages

A Group Message is an SMS message sent from the dashboard to a specific group of contacts that have been added to your contact list before; is used to send one message with the same content to a large group of recipients. Within this message, you can use custom fields as variables linked to the recipient you are sending the message, for example, a first name that will be inserted automatically for each recipient.

Sending a Group Message is super easy, click here for our step by step guide. 

Bulk Messaging

Bulk Messaging is a way to send out a large number of messages at the same time, without having to send every message separately to our dashboard. When sending a bulk message, simply insert the originator, recipient, content and scheduled time of sending for each message in a spreadsheet that can be uploaded in the Bulk Messaging tool on your MessageBird Dashboard.

Check our step by step guide here to learn how to send a Bulk Message. 

In contrast to group SMS, when using Bulk Messaging you can send completely different messages to different recipients. You are completely flexible to use a different originator, message content, and schedule sending times for each message in the spreadsheet. 

When should I use Group SMS or Bulk Messaging?

We suggest using Group SMS when you are planning to send one message with limited personalization to a large group of recipients at the same time. Are you looking for a tool to send a large amount of completely different messages which gives you more flexibility for each message? Then Bulk Messaging will be the tool of your choice.

Bulk vs. Group Messaging