Echo has been available for several months within our Beta Zone but at 10:00 GMT today Echo Version 1.0 will be released into the wild as a live application.

It will be the default for all new customers, although of course our “classic” Web SMS application is still available and supported for both new and existing customers.

A quick tour will highlight just how big a step forward Echo is over our current version of Web SMS – with a more intuitive navigation, useful new functionality such as mail merging bulk SMS sends direct from an Excel spreadsheet , and a far more attractive and consistent design. 

However, Echo is also provides the basis for a exciting range of new services and functionality that we describe as Message Relationship Management – the ability to centralise and organise all your online messages and contacts. At go-live you will be able to:

• View threaded SMS conversations – just click on a Sent or Received SMS to see the other parts of the conversation
• Live access to contacts in other online tools such as Plaxo and Salesforce

And within just a few weeks, perhaps most usefully of all, you will be able to import your contacts from your mobile phoneIf you are an existing customer and would like to try Echo simply visit www.esendex.com/echo and log-in as usual. If you don’t have an account the please sign-up for a free trial now – we’d love to hear what you think. ]]> http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/echo-%e2%80%93-our-new-web-sms-application-is-launched-today/feed/ 2 http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/our-pricing-policy-explained/ http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/our-pricing-policy-explained/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:22:26 +0000 Julian http://172.16.1.140/blog/?p=290

One SMS is much like another, right? So why are everybody’s prices different?

Esendex has never sought to be a least-cost router although we’ve always tried to be competitive. Our pricing policy is based on 4 basic principles:

1. Keep it simple
2. The more you spend, the lower the price
3. The greater your commitment, the lower the price
4. Esendex needs to be a profitable business to offer a viable, long term Business SMS Service. 

Keep it simple

We operate in a number of markets, not just Australia but also the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany and and over the years we have realised that the vast majority of our customers send “local” traffic: Australian customers tend to send within Australia, German customers tend to send within Germany.

We have sufficient volume in each market to offer our customers a “blended” price: we make no distinction between local and international traffic. We do not operate on a credit basis – one SMS – or indeed Voice SMS – can be sent anywhere.

Some destinations cost us a little more, some a little less but we can absorb these variances. Most of our customers find this clarity important.

We also make no charge for delivery receipts, set-up, support or our SDKs.

The more you spend, the lower the price.

Other SMS providers prefer a flatter price profile, ie there is a smaller discount for higher volumes. Some even offer flat pricing regardless of volume.

This can be to our disadvantage in straight price comparisons but we believe that it’s the right thing to do.

When you are doing your own price comparison its worth considering how we’ll compare in the future when your volumes have grown, not just now when you are starting out.

Some of our customers have even chosen to do their testing with the cheapest service they can find and then move over to us once they’ve gone live.

The greater your commitment, the lower the price

We offer 2 basic pricing schemes: Prepaid SMS and our SMS Tracker Tariff.

Our lowest pricing is reserved for those customers who can make a greater commitment to us.

Potential customers sometimes ask why they should pay more if they pay in advance. We ask our Credit customers to commit to us (a minimum spend of just $25 for at least 3 months for our Tracker Tariff) and we feel that we need to reward or incentivise this commitment. And for those customers who can commit to a specific volume each month we’re able to lock in an even better price with a bespoke tariff.

We also believe that it’s in everyone’s interests to enter into a longer term arrangement – we’re still working with almost 75% of our first 100 customers from 2002!

Esendex needs to be a profitable business to offer a viable, long term Business SMS Service.

The SMS market is a competitive one and we’re mindful of this – in fact we’ve just reduced all our prices. But if you are to enter into a long term relationship or are prepurchasing messages you need to know that those messages will still be available when you need them in the future.

Esendex is no start-up. We’ve been profitable for many years and can afford to continue to grow and develop our service.

We also need to be able to afford to deliver your messages via more than one route.

The Mobile Network Operator’s connections fail. If your supplier’s pricing is based on a mark-up on a single route what happens when that route fails? Can they still afford to deliver your message? Esendex can deliver via a minimum of 4 routes into each of its markets and this is absorbed within our pricing.

So is Esendex right for you?

Our pricing works for most – it’s not right for everyone.

However, we are also flexible. If you are delivering to a specific market or have particular constraints or issues we may be able to construct a bespoke tariff.

Give us a call on 1300-764-946 or email sales@esendex.com.au if you’d like to talk through your requirements. ]]> http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/our-pricing-policy-explained/feed/ 0 http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/are-you-using-an-sms-service-to-build-customer-loyalty-if-not-why-not/ http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/are-you-using-an-sms-service-to-build-customer-loyalty-if-not-why-not/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:00:21 +0000 Ann http://172.16.1.140/blog/?p=288

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!

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 ]]> http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/upcoming-scheduled-maintenance/feed/ 0 http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/still-not-sent-your-christmas-cards-send-an-sms-instead/ http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/still-not-sent-your-christmas-cards-send-an-sms-instead/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:23:16 +0000 Julian http://172.16.1.140/blog/?p=284

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!

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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! ]]> http://blog.esendex.com.au/post/mobile-networking/feed/ 0