Marketing SMS messages, otherwise known as Promotional SMS, are the unsolicited texts that are sent by companies advertising their products and services to mobile subscribers. Since the number of people with mobile phones today numbers in the millions, this type of marketing presents an effective low cost option.
This is owing to the fact that bulk SMS is very cheap nowadays as a result of the growing preference for mobile messaging apps for texting. A cursory look through my Safaricom SMS inbox gives credence to this fact.
Example of companies sending me their marketing messages regularly or used to include: VUNA3, MONEYBOX, Tipster, uLima, SPORTS, DAFABET, JOBS, MEGADOLLAR and EliteBET just to mention a few. Fortunately such SMS messages can be blocked for good using Safaricom’s Stop Promotional SMS service.
Stopping Promotional Messages
1. Dial *100# to open the Safaricom’s main USSD menu.
2. Enter 2 for My Account.
3. Select 1 to Manage my subscriptions/products.
4. Select 2 for Promotional Messages.
5. Under Manage Promotional Messages select the first option to STOP Promotional Messages
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| Stop Promotional Messages |
6. In the next menu type in the NAME of the service you wish to stop the marketing SMS’s.
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| Enter the Service Name |
7. If you are not sure of the name of the service, just go to your Inbox and check the NAME of the SENDER – that is the name of the service.
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| Check SMS for Sender Name |
8. You should then get a notification that marketing messages from that particular service have been successfully stopped.
Checking and Reactivating Stopped Promotional Services
To confirm a service has indeed been stopped, do the following:
Go back to the Promotional Messages menu as explained above menu but this time choose the second option: Check Stopped Promotional Messages.
You should then get a list of all the Marketing Services that have been stopped.
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| Stopped Services |
Should you wish to reactivate any of the disabled services, in the same menu reply with its corresponding number in the list.
Note
- Unlike when stopping some Premium Services like games and info services, you won’t be charged anything to stop these marketing messages.
- These messages shouldn’t be confused with promotion SMS messages from Safaricom about their offers and promotions. Fortunately these too can be stopped.
