Clickatell’s pricing page can be located by navigating to http://www.clickatell.com and then selecting “Pricing and Coverage” from the horizontal top menu.

Most business owners use this page to determine how much they will spend to send a predetermined amount of messages to a specific destination. And here’s how you can do it.

Before we get to the actual calculations, it is important to understand a couple of basic terms that will allow you to make the right choice. These are:

Message Credit: A message credit is pretty much like a token you’d buy at an arcade or a fair to go on the rides. It simplifies the transaction by providing a ‘universal currency’ regardless of the destination you want to send to.

Message Credit Cost: The credit cost refers to the actual monetary value of a credit, or, in simpler terms, how much of your local currency you’ll need to exchange for one credit. Credit cost is based on the actual credit volume -  the more credits you buy, the lower the credit cost.

Message Cost: Quite simply, this refers to the actual cost (in cold, hard currency) of a message sent to a handset on a destination network.

MO or Inbound Messages: MO is an abbreviation for ‘Mobile Originated’, and refers to messages sent to you by your contacts from their mobile handsets. That’s why they are called ‘Inbound’ messages – they are inbound to you.

MT or Outbound Messages: In contrast to the above, these refer to messages sent by you to your contacts (hence ‘Outbound’). They terminate (or stop) on your contacts’ mobile handset, which is why they are sometimes referred to as Mobile Terminated (MT) messages.

Calculating Message Cost

Now that we’ve got the necessary terminology covered, let’s look at how message cost can be calculated. For the purposes of this post, let’s assume that there’s one thing that every business owner would like to know:

“How much will I have to pay to send X amount of messages to this specific destination?” In human terms we can put this into the following example: “How much will I have to pay to send 500 messages to Vodafone?”

From the pricing page mentioned above we can use the dropdown fields to see how many credits we’ll need to send a message to a specific destination (Credits / SMS) as well as how much we’ll have to spend to send a single message (Currency / SMS).

Here’s the calculation:

• Amount of Messages x Currency per SMS Message

If we work in Euro, the above can be translated into:

• 500 messages x EUR 0.062 per SMS Message = EUR 31.00

Pretty straight forward.

But consider the following scenario: you’re on the Standard MT Coverage page and want to determine what the actual cost per message is. All you have is the price per credit and the network cost (the amount of credits needed to send a message on that specific network) – how do you determine message cost?

In the image above we selected the United Kingdom (UK) as our destination country, and we want to send to Vodafone. As you can see, the outbound (MT) message cost is 1.5 credits. For the purposes of this example we’ll assume that 1 credit is EUR 0.044. Here’s the calculation:

Credit Cost x Outbound Message Cost (in credits) = Message Cost (in currency)

Or

EUR 0.044 x 1.5 = EUR 0.066

We can then perform the following calculation to figure out what we’ll need to spend to send 500 messages on the Vodafone network:

Amount of Messages x Cost per Message (in currency)

500 x EUR 0.066 = EUR 33.00

And that’s all there is to it.

If you have any questions regarding any of the calculations above or need any other related information, feel free to leave a comment. Alternatively, navigate to our Pricing & Coverage page to put the above into practice!

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The automation of bulk SMS messages pose a problem to many businesses in the travel industry that seek to communicate important information to their clients. Information types that should be communicated to current and prospective customers include those that would essentially help them plan their journey, including confirmation, alerts and notifications. This can be achieved by implementing SQL database triggers in the database.

How do Triggers Work?

A trigger is a procedure which is executed when an INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE occurs in a specific table. These triggers are implicitly executed and can be used to invoke stored procedures that allow for the transmission of bulk SMS messages to contacts.

With certain database systems triggers can also be stored outside of the database. One example is with Oracle Forms that form part of the Oracle Forms application. In this instance a trigger is fired when a specific trigger point is executed.

Implementing Triggers

Oracle, MySQL and many other database engines support database trigger functionality. This means that travel companies running both proprietary and open source databases will be able to implement these triggers to communicate with contacts using bulk SMS. In terms of the implementation, two key areas in the organisation become involved:

Marketing

Marketing – Before triggers can be implemented for bulk SMS messages, it is important to determine which messages will be sent to customers. Naturally this depends on the information available to the company – one company might have a facility for automatic weather alert updates. This type of service can be used to inform travellers of weather conditions at their destination. Another company might have access to information pertaining to available rates and/or specials at restaurants and hotels, which might prove useful to travellers in that area.

Software Development / Engineering

Once the message types have been decided on, the development team has to implement the SQL triggers in the appropriate tables. As soon as values are added, changed or removed, this will then activate the database trigger, thereby using bulk SMS to inform clients of the relevant changes.

Naturally the teams that implement bulk SMS will also have to consider which API is appropriate for said implementation. This depends on the software environment being used, and also on the messaging requirements of the business.

There’s more information about the integration of SMS into the business. Just visit our bulk SMS page now.

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South African charities exist aplenty, and for good reason: we’ve got a lot of people that need plenty of help both locally and in countries throughout Africa. As such good reason exists to ensure that charities cast their nets far and wide to ensure that they communicate their message as efficiently as possible to get in touch using a medium that’s near-ubiquitous, effective and quite simply convenient.

Why is SMS Marketing Effective?

The mobile phone is a unique device for a number of reasons, most prominently for the fact that it is more personal to the owner than any other electronic device. It can also be carried anywhere at any time. This virtually makes it a real-time marketing medium, capable of communicating information of interest to members of a target audience right then and there. Additionally, messages sent to offline handsets are delivered to said handsets as soon as the device is switched on. This makes SMS marketing an effective near-instantaneous medium of communication to which contacts can respond as soon as they receive the communication – perfect for those campaigns that have a measure of urgency associated with them.

When Contacts Respond…

So your contacts receive a message and would like to respond immediately. Traditionally they’d either need to be at an internet point to log into their bank accounts to make a donation, or even make the sometimes inconvenient journey to the bank.

SMS marketing campaigns, however, can be set up in such a way as to allow recipients to immediately donate by replying to a message or simply sending a message to a number that was promoted on any other medium…

Text Message: “XYZ Charity is collecting for Pakistan flood relief. Replying to this message will donate R5 from your available airtime. To unsubscribe…”

Other media (i.e. in-store notice): “Someone needs your help today. Donate R5 toPakistan flood relief efforts by sending an SMS to 12345. You’ll be billed R5 on your available airtime each time you send a message to the above number.”

The above is achieved using a premium rate short code, which is a short, memorable number which can be set up to charge individuals who message that number with a predetermined fee, in this case R5. Whether the charity gets the full R5 or only a part of it depends on the agreement they have with the aggregator or carrier through which the service is running. This makes SMS marketing more than just marketing; it makes it a versatile transactional medium that can make life easier for both charities and the people who wish to interact with them.

Read more about how you can reap the benefit of this short, yet effective, communications medium by going to our SMS marketing page.

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Nowadays business is all about providing customers with value. It’s this value that convinces customers to stay, thereby benefitting the business through repeat purchases. Companies and organisations that use bulk SMS can therefore benefit by providing customers with increased value through a medium that is inexpensive and capable of providing a realistic return on investment over a favourable period of time.

So how can bulk SMS be used to provide your customers with increased value? Here are a couple of ideas:

Finance

Bulk SMS in terms of finance is something we’re all familiar with. As a result of the immediacy and the privacy of the cell phone, consumers have come to expect financial institutions to communicate account information with them using SMS. Information types include both alerts and notifications when:

• Accounts are accessed
• Accounts are modified
• When payments are due
• Etc.

Social Networking

The internet is usually associated with social networking, with sites like Facebook and Twitter being those that immediately come to mind. However, bulk SMS is a technology that is almost synonymous with social networking, that allows customers to receive status updates and notifications via text message for those moments when they cannot be close to a computer or when, for whatever reason, they are not able to access the internet from their mobile phone.

Again, bulk SMS can be used in this context to provide customers with security (such as when an account is accessed), when communication from a person or a group of people are received, etc. Additionally, text messaging can be used by businesses with social networking profiles to provide their customers with an additional means of customer service through text messaging.

Customer Service

Taking the lead from social networking, it should be kept in mind that bulk SMS provides an ideal addendum to customer service, too. Companies and organisations that have a CRM solution in place are able to provide an automated text messaging service similar to that of an interactive voice response system (more commonly known as an IVR) to provide their customers with an inexpensive, fast and ubiquitous means of customer service. This reduces the work load of employees and provides the customer with the benefit of having a 24/7 customer service solution.

The above indicates a small portion of the ways text messaging can be used to provide customers with that extra value to ensure that they keep coming back, and ultimately purchase again.

Get more information on how text messaging can add value to a product or service by navigating to our bulk SMS page now.

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It’s a simple question with an ostensibly easy answer. But the wrong choice could unnecessarily cost the business thousands of Rands. How do you decide between application programming interface (API) integration and 3^rd party software? Here’s a simple procedure to determine which one is right for you…

Step 1: Determine Your Messaging Needs

We’ve blogged about this extensively, but it always remains important: who will you message and why? Here’s are two examples to illustrate the importance of determining this requirement:

Monique’s Art Store: An antique art store periodically receives antique paintings worth quite a bit. To ensure that the paintings have the best chance of being sold they would like to get in touch with customers who’ve previously bought similar paintings.

Official Savings & Loans: To keep up with the times, this private bank would like to offer its customers more in terms of security and customer service. After a number of meetings, it was decided that a solution needs to be implemented that will inform customers when their accounts are accessed and also ensure that regular reminders are sent that will ensure that all instalment dates are adhered to.

In one of the above examples SMS software will work, in the other one it won’t.

Step 2: Do the Math

Of the two examples above, it’s obvious that one will send less messages than the other. Which solution will work out better for  the Art Store? Which solution for the bank?

Should the bank choose to go the SMS software route to save money on implementation, they might be faced with a situation where they need to employ someone on a full-time basis to watch the account logs to ensure that messages are sent as customers access their accounts. In this instance the answer is obvious – but in many instances the reality is a bit more complex, making the decision-making process a bit more difficult. That’s why it’s best to work out the costs before making that decision.

The same goes for the Monique’s – seeing as they probably don’t have a large customer base and might not get any new paintings in for a while, it seems unnecessary that they should suddenly spend money on API integration when a simple software download will do.

Step 3: Make the Decision

When you’ve finally done the math, take the time to figure out how SMS text messaging will fit into the businesses as a whole. Monique’s Art Store can obviously use text messaging in future marketing campaigns when they decide to branch out and sell other antiques that past and current clients might have an interest in.

Official Savings and Loans, on the other hand, can ensure that clients receive targeted messages based on the products they currently use or have shown an interest in.

From the examples above, it’s obvious that Monique’s will fare better with SMS software, while Official Savings and Loans will be able to enjoy the benefit of seamless integration with the SMS gateway. This is not only attributable to how SMS will be used, but also to which IT resources are available – Monique’s being smaller, will probably have to rely on an external software developer whereas Official Savings and Loands will have recourse to an internal development department.

However, regardless of whether they make use of software or it’s gateway counterpart, both these businesses are able to ensure that they gain a steady return on their investment by contacting customers with targeted information.

Read more about the various solutions available to businesses of all sizes. Go to our SMS software page now.

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More and more businesses in South Africa are using the SMS gateway. As a technology previously restricted to large corporates, smaller businesses are now also increasingly making use of bulk SMS messaging through the SMS gateway. And if you want proof, just Google a simple phrase like “receive SMS updates” and restrict your search to “Pages from South Africa”. The most recent search provided 7,710 results with the first couple of pages indicating a mix of businesses all offering their customers the ability to receive alerts and notifications through SMS.

So why are businesses opting for 160-character communication with their customers? Well, the reasons are both numerous and pretty straight forward, with the most obvious being:

• Cell phone penetration in South Africa is rapidly increasing. While many sources reflect that South Africa has already reached 100% cell phone penetration rates, the number of actual mobile devices in use could be a few percentage points lower.
• Globally mobile phone penetration is expected to reach 74% by the end of 2010. This is good news for businesses looking for a cost-efficient yet very effective way to stay in touch with international clients.
• As a result of the competition in the SMS Gateway industry, rates per message sent are dropping drastically – sending bulk SMS messages is often much cheaper than individual messages.
• SMS Gateway technologies are becoming easier to integrate into everyday software packages, making it more accessible to the average business owner.
• On average 94% of all text messages are read. And as a result of the personal  nature of the cell phone, response rates to campaigns, etc. are much higher.

But perhaps most importantly of all…

• Consumers are expecting it – the cell phone is more than just a communications device, it’s portable ‘living’ information. And since it’s free to receive an SMS in South Africa, it won’t deplete airtime or data limit.

That’s why businesses are using the SMS gateway to stay in touch with customers, and why they’re reaping the rewards, too.

Educate yourself about the various technologies involved and give yourself the advantage. Read more on our SMS Gateway page today!

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Last week we explored the difference between push and pull messaging.

Push messaging constitutes instances where messages are pushed to a mobile subscriber’s phone. He or she didn’t specifically request the information, but receives it nevertheless.

Pull messaging on the other hand refers to instances where customers specifically request a service or information. In other words, they pull it toward themselves.

But, that’s only scratching the surface. Let’s take a more in-depth look at how it works…

The Catch-22 of Push Messaging

Let’s imagine for a minute a world where you can randomly push your messages out to any person with a mobile phone, with no rules to regulate the flow of these messages or their content. If virtually any email inbox is anything to go by, our mobile phones would be cluttered with endless amounts of s-p-a-m and we’d have to pay providers to restrict these messages, or get software to do it for us (forcing everyone to buy a handset capable of storing and running the software package). In fact, it would be the personal computer all over again, just smaller and choked easilier by large amounts of unwanted content.

Lucky for us we sometimes learn from our mistakes. In South Africa you can refer to the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 for regulations about unsolicited messaging.

Push messaging requires opt-in customers – in other words, customers that have physically opted in on your text messages campaigns, indicating that they have an active interest in what you have to say or sell.

So how do you get opt in customers?

Just Pull Them

Or rather, let them pull you. Remember, the excellent thing about SMS marketing is that your audience is already qualified – that sale is almost there. So all you need to do to let them pull you is use any existing advertising channel to let them know you have a text message service available.

If you refer to our previous post you’ll note that the following message types all form part of pull messaging:

Text..

• …to win
• …to vote
• …to feedback
• …for call-back
• …for alerts
• …for code
• …for rewards

Any of the above call-to-actions can be advertised virtually anywhere where traditional and more contemporary advertising channels exist.

Tip: Incentivise your pull message campaigns. It works.

Pull a Little, Push More

Pull campaigns aren’t the only way to get subscribers to your SMS marketing campaigns, but they are effective. When you combine your push and pull strategies for the purposes of customer acquisition and increased sales over the short term, the campaign structure would look something like this:

1. 1. Pull: Launch a campaign to advertise your SMS marketing service using a medium applicable to your target market.
2. 2. Opt-in: Provide those who respond to your pull campaigns with the option to opt in – but remember to give them a reason. “Join today to receive future specials and freebies…” is an example of a good start.
3. 3. Push: You now have the contacts for your SMS marketing campaigns. Ensure your own success by keeping the following in mind:

• Let your contacts know where they stand: tell them how often they can expect messages from you.
• Cater for their interests: Would try and sell a parachute to Superman? No. The same goes for your clients – give them content you know they’ll have an interest in.

Although there is still a lot of info, we’ll have to stop this post right here. But next week we’ll have a look at how you can gauge audience response and tweak your campaigns for better SMS marketing success!

Read about the benefits of mobile marketing, get campaign ideas and see which products and solutions will fit your business by visiting the SMS marketing page now.

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The importance of SMS

Whether you’re a developer tasked with integrating SMS text messaging into the current company software infrastructure, a savvy marketer with a penchant for shaping short catchy phrases with a 160 character limit or a layman with an aim to become a can-do-man… this post series will give you a solid framework to grow your SMS marketing expertise. Here are a couple of quick-facts about SMS – the “to the point” and direct line of communication to your customers:

• Global Mobile phone penetration is forecast to be at 74% by the end of this year. This is more than computers and television sets combined.

• All mobile phones can send and receive SMS text messages. Not all mobiles can install and run mobile applications.

• About 94% of all text messages are opened and read.

• Response rates are, on average, higher for SMS text messaging than many other types of media.

• The list goes on…

This means that you’ve got the benefit of a medium that is always on right there in your current or prospective customer’s pocket. And the only requirement for that direct line of communication to be established, is mobile coverage. The success of your SMS marketing campaigns depend on how you use SMS, and obviously your message too.

To SMS, or not to SMS…

SMS Marketing… yes it’s marketing with SMS, but it’s much more than that: it’s the use of a wireless medium for the delivery of content that can also be used as a direct response medium across many channels, or on it’s own.

What does that mean?

It means that SMS can be used in both a push and pull capacity:

Push: A business sends out information or content to a client that has previously subscribed to a SMS marketing campaign.

Example: Jim Huffington arrives on your website and notices your SMS service, where you inform him that, should he opt in, he will receive periodical messages from you regarding special offers, announcements, SMS V.I.P Club discounts, etc. As a typical consumer, Jim is very interested in good prices for quality products, so he signs up.

A week later, you push out the first promotional message to Jim. A week and a day later, he has made a purchase as a result of your message (and for targeted future marketing, you keep track of all Jim’s purchases).

Pull: A current or prospective customer, regardless of subscription status, can request information from your business’ SMS service. This is typically done by advertising access to this service using any other channel, whether traditional or evolutionary, such as print, online, radio and TV. Using any of these mediums, you’ll prompt the user to…

Text..

• …to win
• …to vote
• …to feedback
• …for call-back
• …for alerts
• …for code
• …for rewards

Getting a grip on the concepts behind the definitions above will ensure that you have a clearer idea of which  type of message to use during each stage of your SMS marketing campaign.

In next week’s SMS marketing post… we’ll take a look at what the more in depth requirements are for push and pull messaging with the mobile phone (and it’s not something you’ll easily find on Google…)

In the mean time, see which SMS tools would be best suited to your business by visiting our SMS marketing page.

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Here’s why is it important to use the right API:

• The right API choice will facilitate integration and ease of use
• Reduced development costs
• Improved interaction with customers and employees

Of course there are thousands of other reasons, but the above carry quite a lot of weight. And, as such, it is in your best interest to ensure that the SMS API you implement is the right one. Ask yourself these questions to facilitate the decision-making process:

1. “Do I really need an SMS API?”

You might be asking, “What’s he talking about?” Seeing as you are on this page, you probably know what you want. But you’ll be surprised how many people make the wrong choice, and end up losing out on opportunities for increased sales because they could have invested in a product more suited to their business.

Other products include the web-based bulk SMS text messaging interfaces, and desktop software. These products are suitable for businesses who won’t be sending more than a couple of thousand messages a month, who don’t need integration with their other software packages and who don’t have access to their own development resources.

2. “Okay, I really need an API. But now what?”

Will you be sending messages on a continual basis, in other words any time of day or night? Or will you be sending your messages in batches on a weekly, monthly or any other periodic basis?

3. “Got it – I’ll look into that. But what if I want my customers to reply to me?”

Aha, that’s very important indeed. Only certain APIs are capable of two-way SMS messaging. It’s important to take the long-term communication goals of your company into account – you might not need bi-directional communication today, but in a year from now when there’s a new marketing boss with a penchant for the opinions of customers and a strange fascination with text-to-win campaigns, you might just be glad that you had the insight for foresight (hehehe).

Hack: Really need  to use a certain API, but realises it doesn’t support two-way SMS messaging? No problem – just use another one that does in conjunction with your preferred API.

And finally, once that’s done, you’re ready to go into detailed selection of the right API according to the functionality you need:

Fig 1

Fig 2

Once you’ve made your choice, all you need to do, is to go to our SMS API page and register free for the right product. It’s as easy as that!

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In remote Kilifi, a town on the Kenyan coast, inhabitants had the pleasure of following each world cup game on the Open Air Cinema. While this may prove that soccer is perhaps one of the most popular sports around, the emphasis here falls on the Open Air Cinema and the opportunity it brought to this area: providing an educational advantage to local girls in the form of workshops during the day that focus on technology. This initiative was made possible by Moving the Goalposts , a non-profit organisation in Kenya. But initiatives like these often raise the question, “How will those individuals in even more remote areas be able to receive the same benefit?” One option is using the (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) SMTP protocol to easily distribute information via the mobile phone.

Mobile Penetration in Africa

It’s all about communication really. We receive a substantial amount of real world, real time information from friends and family. We also receive a fair amount of education from them – we learn from their experiences in terms of common interests and needs. While South African mobile penetration is currently at 98%, African mobile penetration is currently in the 40% region. And you can bet your bottom dollar that this is a figure that will definitely increase as mobile phones become more affordable – with a CAGR of 22.5% between 2005-2011 and an estimation of a penetration rate of 42% in Africa next year, it is becoming clearer that the mobile is the de facto global communications device. And seeing as all mobile phones currently in use have the ability to send and receive SMS text messages, it only stands to reason that educators will be able to reach more people using bulk text messaging on the mobile device. And SMTP is what makes this possible.

What is SMTP and How can it be Used to further Education?

In terms of bulk SMS, SMTP is an application programming interface (You’ll hear your developer friends refer to it by its abbreviated name, “A-P-I”) – or rather, one of several. These application programming interfaces allow for the easy connection of, say, a desktop computer or a server to an SMS gateway, which enables the transmission of bulk text messages.

But, unlike the other application programming interfaces, SMTP doesn’t require any real programming skills – if you can create a normal plain text email where the body contains the parameters as indicated below, you can use the SMTP application programming interface to use bulk text messaging.

Using the SMTP API (as indicated in the image), bulk SMS can be used to:

• Distribute school and class schedules
• Fuel attendance
• Open a direct and inexpensive line of communication between parents and teachers
• Provide students with study instructions
• Distribute concise subject related information, e.g. “Both plant and animal cells are eukaryotic, with the major difference being plant cells have a cell wall”
• Provide students with potential test questions, e.g. “Newton’s laws of motion consist of 3 separate laws. Name them and elaborate on them.”
• Etc.

The 160 Character Conundrum

Arguably, it’s because of its concise nature that the SMS has become so popular – it’s only 160 characters and makes for a message that can be read in under 5 seconds and replied to (depending on tapping speed) in under a minute. But, can you say all you want to say in 160 characters? In some cases yes, in others no. Bulk SMS text messaging, much like normal text messaging, provides a platform for message spanning, or concatenation. This means that messages can exceed the 160- character limit to ensure that all relevant information is transferred to the recipient via the SMTP API.

In the message above we’ve added the ‘concat’ parameter because the character count of the message exceeds 160 characters.

What About Cost?

Bulk SMS messaging is traditionally seen as an expensive way to communicate, by and large as a result of the of the many premium-rated SMS advertisements on television. In reality it was and will, for the foreseeable future, be an inexpensive method of communication, whether messages are sent with SMTP or any other technology – messages credits are bought in bulk and are therefore cheaper than SMS messaging through from mobile to mobile. From the recipients’ point of view, the text messages are free, unless a premium rated service is implemented by the sender.

All things considered, it’s easy to see why SMS text messaging is the preferred choice for educators, businesses and organisations who are looking for an effective, inexpensive and, perhaps most importantly, ubiquitous way to communicate with their customers and other contacts. And using the SMTP API just makes it so much easier.

For more information, go to our SMTP page today.

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