Picture this (literally!)— you’ve successfully sent an MMS marketing campaign to your contacts with the correct MMS image sizes—no disruptive loading times or broken files.
Just like any other marketing campaign, MMS marketing requires you to truly be cognizant of even the smallest details, which can make or break your campaign.
For example, if you send an image file to hundreds of contacts that exceeds the standard size limit, your MMS message may not get delivered—meaning you now have to deal with a high bill for a campaign that failed to send.
We want you to have successful campaigns so we’ve created a guide to help you better familiarize yourself with MMS messaging best practices like:
- File Size
- Image Dimensions
- Image Formatting
- Aspect Ratio
What is MMS Messaging?
MMS messaging, or multimedia messaging, is the concept of sending images, videos, audio clips, GIFs, etc., to your contacts.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Examples of MMS messaging could include photos of food or travel, images of new products and services, holiday promos, and more.
Leveraged with SMS, MMS has become a dynamic business strategy to boost engagement, promote awareness, and refine contact communication.
MMS Image Size Guidelines
Two of the most crucial things to get right in your MMS messaging are the image file size and image dimensions, which can affect your deliverability rate if done incorrectly.
- File Size: The smaller your file size, the faster your deliverability rate will be. Our recommendation is that your file size should not exceed 500KB, but this can depend on specific carriers. You can always use free tools like TinyPNG to decompress a larger file size!
- Image Dimensions: Typically, MMS image dimensions are measured by pixels, which are the small dots or squares that make up the image you see on a screen and can influence image resolution.
There are various pixel dimensions that you can send to get your message across, you should know that sometimes an image with more pixels will send exactly the same as a smaller image. This means you’re better off sending the smaller one to maximize deliverability.
Below is a line-up of the same image sent with different dimensions and pixel sizes:
300 x 300 px
400 x 400 px
600 x 600 px
800 x 800 px
MMS Image Formats
Aside from image dimensions, you also have a few options for your image formatting. The most common image file types to send are:
- .JPG/.JPEG
- .PNG
- .GIF (animated image)
.JPG MMS
.PNG MMS
MMS Aspect Ratio
Next, you should consider aspect ratio, which is the ratio of an image’s width to its height and affects how your image visually shows up to your contact.
Common aspect ratios for MMS messaging are:
- Square image: 1:1 (example would be 600x600px, 320x320px, etc.)
- Portrait image: 9:16 (vertical image size; common size is 640×1138 px)
- Landscape image: 16:9 (horizontal image size; common size is 1280x720px)
MMS Marketing Best Practices
You’re ready to send out your MMS marketing campaign! Make sure you think through the purpose of your campaign and align your image to your overall messaging goals.
To recap all the information above:
- Keep your image size under 500KB.
- Some image sizes will look the same when sent. Use smaller pixel sizes to experience better deliverability rates.
- Send your images in .JPG or .PNG.
- Your aspect ratio should be 1:1 or 9:16 for images.
- Test, test, test! Always be your own judge and send yourself a few sample MMS messages before doing a mass campaign.
MMS Messaging with Sakari
Sakari’s text messaging service allows you to send and receive MMS in a few different ways, including via attachment or a simple URL.
We also just launched our newest feature for Universal MMS, which allows you to send images via a unique link, even if MMS is not supported by your country or provider.
Want to test it out for yourself? Start a free trial today!
