Esendex Australia Blog - Email to SMS, Email to Text, SMS Software and more

Are you using an SMS service to build customer loyalty? If not, why not!

Ann — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:00:00 +1000

I recently wrote an article on using Business SMS services to increase customer loyalty and retention and thought it would be useful to offer a chopped down version on our blog.

It has been proven time and time again that customer loyalty and retention are central for increasing business revenue. After all, it costs on average, three times more to acquire new customers that it does to keep an existing one. A study by the global business consulting firm, Baines and Company concluded: “A 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%.”

We are seeing more and more of our customers turning to Business SMS to build loyalty with their customers as its immediate, discreet, has high readership (over 98%), is cheaper than the phone and direct mail, and it encourages a response. One of the best devices for contacting people is the mobile phone, as they are always with their owner and they can use it wherever they are.

So how can a business use SMS to improve customer loyalty and retention? Here’s a few ideas for you:

Regular SMS communication keeps your brand in the minds of your customers
Use SMS to confirm appointment times, reducing no show rates and therefore your costs.
Provide excellent Customer Service. Get your customer service team to communicate via SMS with customers.
Encourage repeat purchase by sending timely reminders – such as insurance renewals, garage services, hairdressers etc.
Use SMS to confirm delivery time of goods.
Reinforce and build brand recognition and awareness through SMS marketing campaigns.
Send last-minute promotions via SMS to boost demand for your products and services.
Allow your customers to send SMS messages back to you. SMS lends itself to 2-way communication with customers.
For many people today, SMS is the preferred method of communication for customers and if you don’t offer this channel your customer may go to a competitor that does.

And one last thought, always, always ensure your message recipients have opted in – there’s nothing worse than getting unsolicited text messages from companies you’re never heard of!

Upcoming scheduled maintenance

Chris — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:50:00 +1000

We will be performing scheduled maintenance at our Melbourne Data Centre as indicated below.

Purpose of maintenance: Firewall Modifications
Date: Thursday 12 February 2009
Time: 20:00 hours - 22:00 hours AEST time
Duration: Possible disruption at different times during the outage window
Services Affected: http://www.esendex.com.au

Esendex apologises for any inconvenience experienced by this necessary maintenance. We advise all customers who access our website using http://www.esendex.com.au to use the alternative URL http://www.esendex.com during the maintenance window. Message submission, delivery, and notification are not affected by this maintenance.

We do appreciate your co-operation and understanding during this event. If you have any queries relating to this maintenance please contact us on 1300-765-146 or alternatively submit a support ticket by emailing support@esendex.com

Still not sent your Christmas cards? Send an SMS instead

Julian — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:23:00 +1000

The pace is quickening as we all move towards the holiday season and there still seem to be 101 things that need to be done. If you’ve not sent your Christmas cards yet, either on behalf of your business or your personal cards, why not send an SMS instead.

It’s cheaper, quicker and more likely to be read.

Simply load up your contacts into Web SMS and use the Group Send feature. Or use the Schedule Send feature to time the delivery. If you’ve got staff working at the weekend or on Christmas day itself why not send them a quick thank you.

Of if you use our Email SMS service, browse through your contact list and send an SMS to everyone you’d have sent a card to.

That’s one more think ticked off the To Do list – pass me a mince pie!

Major Update to Web SMS - Call for Early Adopters

Chris — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:15:00 +1000

The new version of Esendex’s Web SMS tool is due for Beta release early next year. This new version is based on extensive feedback from customers and will provide a much simpler interface.

It also builds on the cleaner site design of www.esendex.com.au to deliver a better aesthetic experience.

The new version will be released in stages and the first will focus on sending messages and the “Upload and Send” facility. If you’re interested in getting involved at an early stage, particularly if you are a regular user of the Upload and Send feature, then please let your account manager know.

The “classic” version will of course still be available and will remain the default interface for the time being.

Esendex launches Business SMS services in Germany

Ann — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:41:00 +1000

With the market for mobile communication in Germany maturing , text messaging specialist Esendex, expands its reach into the country with the launch of www.esendex.de/. Esendex routes its SMS traffic directly through leading European operators and, with a presence in Ireland, Spain, France and Australia, is a reliable choice for the German market.

Esendex offers German companies intuitive internet-based services to deliver SMS and voice messages quickly and effectively. Using Web SMS, E-mail SMS, SMS API or Voice SMS, companies can communicate to their staff and customers during the busy Christmas period and beyond. Part of the website launch sees Esendex offer a free trial that takes less than three minutes to set up and guarantees 25 test messages.

“Germany was one of the first markets to start using PC and internet-based SMS, so it was natural progression for us to expand into this market,” explains Julian Hucker, Managing Director at Esendex. “As experts in our field, we will provide German companies with a reliable and effective service. We’re looking forward to this exciting new venture and we are certain that visitors will be impressed with our offering.”

Esendex launches Affiliate Partner Program

helen — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:43:00 +1000

Today sees the launch of our ‘Affiliate Partner Program’, which enables partners to make money simply by referring new customers to us*. The free program is aimed at businesses and software suppliers who want to enhance the functionality of their own services with our Business SMS and Voice SMS Messaging services.

We already get some great referrals from customers so we wanted to put a program in place to financially reward our ‘advocates’.

Members of the Esendex Partner Program can receive a revenue share of up to ten per cent of customer payments, simply by recommending our services. As a partner you will work with a dedicated account manager and receive training on the Esendex messaging platform. You’ll also get a free listing and online reference within the Partner Directory giving you improved visibility on the web. We’re also offering partners a free two-way Web SMS account that includes 100 messages per month for testing and demonstration purposes.

To find out more, or to join the partner program, go to our Partner Pages, or give our sales team a call on 1300-764-946.

*Terms and conditions apply. Visit the Esendex Partner Program pages for more information.

Web SMS helping with Mine Safety

Chris — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 02:37:00 +1000

Safety is paramount within mining operations and operators are continually looking to review and improve their safety procedures.

Esendex has recently started working with a number of companies who wanted to use SMS.

For example, Copper Mines of Tasmania has incorporated Web SMS within their safety protocols so in the unlikely event of an emergency they can quickly and reliably get a message out to Site Managers, OH&S representatives and other key staff.

This is a very active area and we'll be updating this article in the near future.

Mobile networking

Chris — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:39:00 +1000

No matter where you go, it’s impossible to escape talk of social networking sites. Newspapers are littered with stories and someone will undoubtedly mention the name of a particular site before your day is out. Recently there’s been lots in the news about the boom of social networking sites, but what about mobile social networking sites?

There are currently 31 mobile social networking services, including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, a number that is expected to rise this year as these are attracting large numbers of users by providing new business opportunities.

There are also a number of Web 2.0 type services such as Twitter than whilst not necessarily mobile services, use features such as SMS to keep people up to date.

Christine Perey of Mobile Social Networking comments, “Mobile social networking is reaching its first boiling point and everyone wants to participate.”

International research by Informa Telecoms & Media, the leading provider of business intelligence to global telecoms and media markets, reveals that the amount of world-wide users of mobile social networks rose to 57 million in 2007, double that of 2006. The telecoms intelligence company predicts that the growth in revenue of this market will only accelerate and that by 2012 will reach $52 billion.

I’ve been at the Web 2.0 Expo this week and even amongst all the evangalising, mobile social networking and ambient computing has been a common thread - definitely something to keep your eye on!

Lost in translation

Chris — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:24:00 +1000

The world wide web means business today is rarely limited to a single country and it’s often the case that an employee will visit a foreign speaking country at some point in their career. With this in mind, this week I was really impressed by a few very clever translation tools.

Linguatec language technologies showed off its remarkable piece of software for smartphones and PDAs. Shoot and Translate works by translating text that you photograph with your handset, for example a street sign or building name, which the application then scans and allows you to either listen to or read the translation. The application also allows you to enter text manually into your phone and accounts for spelling mistakes and linguistic frippery.

Launched by Talking Technologies , SMS Demo is another piece of handy software that translates foreign languages. This application works by allowing you to send a text to another mobile, landline, email or fax, which the application translates and delivers in either text or audio and in over 30 languages. Nützlich, oder was?

It’s not just the Americans who’re catching up

Chris — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:54:00 +1000

Following the comments in my last blog entry about growth of the US mobile messaging market, here’s a quick snapshot of Australia’s texting activities. With mobile phones increasing in popularity as a method of communication down under, Australians are set to send more than ten billion text messages this year. According to telecommunications analyst, Gartner, Australians are predicted to send 10.8 billion texts in 2008 and will top 11.2 billion by 2011. From messaging alone, figures also show that the country’s revenue is expected to grow 15.7 per cent this year to $US60.2 billion ($70.45 billion).

Although the UK still heads the field with a staggering 57 billion text messages sent last year, December 2007 (see Julian’s 18/12/07 post), saw Esendex Australia surpass its sales targets for 2007. This included servicing microbusinesses, SMEs and even some of Australia’s top 10 businesses. With such a successful history of sales in business communications and high industry predictions, Esendex looks set to have a promising year down under!

New look website is here!

Chris — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:56:00 +1000

The new look www.esendex.com.au goes live today! It’s been a little while coming but this major update takes on some proven learning from our international sites.

The information is better laid out – and easier to update
The dedicated Developer Zones and Support Site provide detailed information for more technical enquiries
Company Blogs, including Support and Developer Blogs, allow us to deliver frequent and less formal information updates. All blogs also support RSS and email subscription
The login bar is simpler, and more consistent – you’ll see this in the top right of the home page. Once logged in a simple navigation system provides access to both your Esendex services and your company and account details.

We hope you like the update as much as we do – we’d welcome your thoughts

NEW Voice SMS service launched today!

Chris — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:57:00 +1000

Today marks the launch of our new business messaging service - Voice SMS. With Voice SMS you can send SMS messages in voice format directly to mobile phones and fixed lines worldwide. Simply click on ‘Voice SMS’ in the compose screen of your web account and the message is received as a voice call.

What’s particularly smart about Voice SMS is that it will make repeated attempts to deliver the message and will prompt the recipient to acknowledge that the message has been received, providing an important audit trail. The person sending the message can see real time status updates and see when the message is acknowledged.

We’re pretty excited to see how our customers will use this new service in their businesses. It’s ideally suited for mission and emergency critical situations, where proof of delivery is needed, for contacting staff out of hours, or for those who can’t easily read an SMS, such as drivers, the elderly and visually impaired. But as we’ve seen with our other business messaging services – there will probably be lots of great applications for Voice SMS that we haven’t even thought of yet!

Voice SMS is available to all new and existing business messaging customers as a no-cost option. Pricing starts at just $40 per month for 200 SMS or Voice SMS messages, regardless of destination country. If you already have an Esendex account, just enable Voice SMS in your options screen and start sending voice messages straight away. If you’re new to Esendex sign up for a free trial to test the service or just give us a call. You can read a bit more info about Voice SMS here.

Wal-Mart takes SMS Marketing to the limit

Chris — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:02:00 +1000

An interesting article by Evan Schuman on his "Storefrontbacktalk" site describes how Wal-Mart’s highly secretive testing of SMS marketing in Dec-07 highlighted two important lessons:

SMS messages are supposed to be punchy: don’t try and cram too much in
Our mobile phones are also very personal: don’t abuse this by sending too many messages.

One Wal-Mart employee was quoted as saying:

"We were sending 10-15 (offers) in about three or four text messages. We learned that three messages is where the consumer says, 'I've heard enough from you, Mr. Retailer,'."

Two interesting points:

The sheer scale of the “test”. Wal-Mart, never one to do things by half, signed up hundreds of thousands of people to the program
This was in the US, surely yet another sign that the States is opening up to the opportunities for business messaging.

America plays catch up

Chris — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:58:00 +1000

James’ blog entry on Wal-Mart raised a very interesting point about the use of business messaging in America, particularly with his ending comment,

“This was in the US, surely yet another sign that the States is opening up to the opportunities for business messaging.”

Mobile phone usage in the US continues to grow with 56 per cent of American mobile phone subscribers using SMS. Figures from the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association) show that, in 2007 alone, more than 240 billion text messages were delivered in the US. This is a considerable amount more than in 2005, when only 57 billion had been sent. American businesses are starting to communicate and interact with their customers by using text messages as a delivery channel.

According to GfK NOP Research, one in three US mobile subscribers, or 78 million people, saw or listened to an advert on their mobile during Q4 2007. Of those ads received via SMS or MMS, 33 per cent remembered the brands being promoted.

Not only do these statistics show that America is increasing their business use of the text messaging, but also that America is catching up with the Europe and Asia at a rapid pace.

Formalising the text message – for or against?

Chris — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:15:00 +1000

The surge of people using the text message to communicate raises an arguable question - should the text message become a formalised mode of communication?

A court heard recently that the City of Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, declared under oath that he did not have an affair with his chief of staff nor did he fire two police officers in a retaliatory manner. However, text messages between the mayor and his chief of staff suggested otherwise and brought his testimony into question. The City eventually settled with the police officers, but the incident does highlight the need for businesses to include all messaging systems in their recording policies.

ARMA International, a not-for-profit professional association for managing records and information, states that “a record, regardless of its format or the media on which it is recorded, supports decisions, justifies budgets and expenses, communicates ideas, confirms sales and purchases, documents rights, provides accountability, and otherwise provides information. This information may be required by executives, staff members, legal/regulatory authorities, stockholders, students, the public, and others in the organisation.”

Ultimately, if emails, word documents and phone conversations are accepted for official records, then surely text messages should be too?

For further information, please check out ARMA International