Legitimate enterprise use cases
- Seasonal offers and promotions to an opted-in customer list
- Store openings, new product announcements, and loyalty program updates
- Event invitations and reminders to a registered audience
- Re-engagement campaigns to lapsed customers who previously opted in
Audience and consent preparation
Before sending, build the list from customers who explicitly opted in — at checkout, during signup, or through a dedicated marketing consent step. Segment by how recently and how the customer opted in, and keep a record of consent; this is both good practice and a requirement covered in our Saudi SMS compliance guide.
Transactional versus promotional messaging
Not every message to a customer list is "bulk" in the promotional sense. Order confirmations and appointment reminders are transactional even when sent to many recipients over a day — see transactional SMS. True bulk/marketing campaigns are opt-in only, must be clearly identifiable as promotional, and are subject to the do-not-disturb and opt-out rules covered in our compliance guide.
Scheduling and reporting
Plan sends around permitted hours rather than around convenience for the sender, and stagger large sends where the platform supports it to avoid a single burst overwhelming delivery. After sending, delivery reports let you see acceptance and delivery status per recipient, which matters for cleaning your list over time.
Arabic SMS length considerations
Arabic text uses Unicode encoding, which allows roughly 70 characters per segment versus 160 for GSM-7 Latin text. A campaign message that reads naturally in Arabic can easily span two or three billed segments — check message length with our SMS segment calculator before a large send.
Campaign-quality checklist
- Every recipient has an on-record opt-in for promotional messages
- The sender ID clearly identifies your business (see sender ID registration)
- The message includes a clear way to opt out
- Send timing respects restricted hours
- The list has been cleaned of previous opt-outs and invalid numbers
Sector use cases
- E-commerce: seasonal sales, restock announcements, and loyalty-program updates to a customer list that opted in at checkout or signup.
- Government and public-service communication: public announcements and service updates sent to a registered, opted-in audience.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between bulk SMS and transactional SMS?
Bulk SMS is promotional messaging sent to an opted-in list — offers, announcements, campaigns. Transactional SMS is triggered by a specific customer action (an order, a booking, a verification) and is not marketing content, even when it goes to many customers over a day.
Do I need consent before sending a marketing SMS?
Yes. Promotional SMS in Saudi Arabia should only go to recipients who have given clear opt-in consent, and every message needs a working opt-out path. See our compliance guide for the full picture.
Why does my Arabic campaign message cost more per recipient than expected?
Arabic text uses Unicode encoding, which fits fewer characters per SMS segment than Latin text. A message that looks like "one text" in Arabic can bill as two or three segments — check with our segment calculator before sending at scale.
How is a sender ID for campaigns registered?
Sender ID registration for the Digital Connect platform is handled through the Interkey parent site — see sender ID registration for the process.