Sometimes, 160 characters isn’t enough. Or perhaps a photo is necessary to get your message across.
That’s where MMS comes in handy. With MMS marketing you can send and receive rich multimedia via text without using external links. Your contacts can see and engage with your media directly in the text message.
Follow Along with SimpleTexting Academy
Want to watch this process walked through step-by-step? Follow along with this video from SimpleTexting Academy.
What is MMS?
MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. MMS allows you to add all kinds of rich media right inside your messages including images, gifs, videos, and audio files. It also lets you write up to 1,600 characters of text, 1,440 characters more than SMS.
You can send MMS messages when sending out Campaigns and Autoresponders.
The added value of text messages including rich media has a fairly positive impact on businesses:
MMS has a 20% higher opt-in rate than SMS
People are 8 times more likely to share MMS content on social media
98% of mobile devices can handle MMS just fine
Create an MMS Campaign - Video Transcript
Hi there! And welcome to SimpleTexting Academy. Today we’re going to go over how to attach photos to your messages using MMS.
MMS stands for Multimedia Messaging Service. Here’s how it works:
Click on Campaigns on the left-hand panel and select New. For this example, let’s pretend we’re an animal shelter that needs to find a temporary foster parent for a new kitten.
Give your campaign a name - we’ll call this one “New kitten.” This is just for your reference, your contacts won’t see it.
Click MMS. Now let’s write out our message. “We have a new kitten that needs a temporary home. Are you available to foster Whiskers for a week?”
Time to attach our photo. Click the paperclip icon. If you already have a link to the photo, click Add from URL and paste it here. Or you can select an image from your computer by clicking Upload and choosing your file.
As you can see, I already have an adorable photo of Whiskers ready to go. Wait for the image to load, then insert it.
In this preview section, you can see how the photo may appear on your contact’s device. Some devices may not support MMS.
Those contacts will receive an SMS fallback message with a link to the photo instead. You can edit your fallback message using this box.
Now select the list or multiple lists that you want to send your MMS message to. You can either send your message now, schedule it for later, or set it as recurring.
Done! MMS isn’t limited to photos alone. You can use it to send audio, video, GIFs, or even PDFs.
Note that when you send an MMS message, it’s worth 3 credits. An SMS message is 1 credit.
That’s all you need to know to get started with MMS. Thanks for watching!
Create an MMS Autoresponder
If you'd like to send an MMS when setting up an Autoresponder, the steps are pretty similar to setting up an MMS Campaign!
Navigate to your Autoresponders tab, and click "New Autoresponder." Just be sure to toggle the "MMS" button and follow the steps above as you draft your message. 😃
Check out this article for more general information on how to set up Autoresponders.
SimpleTexting Tip — File Size☝️
If you are using a toll-free number, these are the file types accepted:
15MB upload limit for PNG, JPG/JPEG, GIF
600KB upload limit for animated GIF
When it comes to file size, you can upload a .jpeg or .png that’s up to 15 megabytes, and we’ll resize it for delivery.
However, if you’re attaching an audio file, video, PDF, or any other type of file type that can’t be resized, it needs to be limited to 1 megabyte.
About MMS through the Inbox:
If you'd like to send a file not as a link, but as an attachment, use the Inbox option 'Embed media as MMS'.
You can still upload maximum file sizes of 15MB for GIF, JPEG, JPG/JPEG, PNG and 600KB for VCF, MP3, MP4, PDF and animated GIF.
Additional carrier format limitations may be applied depending on the number. We'll let you know if the selected format isn't supported.
Note: Starting with the end of August, 2022, MMS max file upload size for Sinch numbers will be:
GIF (static) - MAX size 740 KB
PNG - MAX size 740 KB
JPG/JPEG - MAX size 740 KB
MP3 - MAX size 740 KB
MP4 - MAX 740 KB
GIF animated - 600 KB.
If you're uploading multiple files in the MMS attachment, the size limit is the sum of the file sizes. You can upload up to five files.
Want to upload an image that exceeds the max file size? SimpleTexting has a handy built-in feature that shrinks images so that they meet provider gateway limitations. So, if the image size exceeds 740KB, you can still try to upload it.