Email to Text

According to a recent article in the Times the British public downloaded over 4 million apps on Christmas Day after unwrapping more than 500,000 Smartphones or Tablets. The same article also stated also that this Christmas’ sales surge is expected to push the number of active Smartphones and Tablets in the UK over the 18 million marker – making us the third highest in the world behind the US and China.

Our enthusiasm for apps and Smartphone technology is changing the online retail landscape beyond all recognition; 16% of all online purchases made this Boxing Day were placed via Smartphones – a 275% increase on the previous year.

The general public no longer regards the mobile internet with scepticism; they now see it as a huge convenience because it allows them to make those planned or impulse purchases irrespective of where they are. Well known high street brands need to make sure that mobile advertising is in their promotional remit if they want to take advantage of this changing culture.

SMS is an ideal marketing medium for retailers wanting to target these new style Smartphone shoppers because it allows them to quickly and cost effectively inform their customers of different promotions and reductions. All phones support SMS so it also allows them to target traditional online shoppers that have not yet caught on to the Smartphone phenomenon.

Unlike other forms of digital advertising, people do tend to read their text messages as soon as they receive them, so if retailers incorporate an embedded URL in their messages, they are giving those Smartphone shoppers the opportunity to make those impulse purchases, thus increasing their overall sales as a result.

Below are seven other reasons why we believe retailers should incorporate SMS into their overall marketing strategies:

• Concise -SMS messages are to the point. Any message that includes clearly visible information of what is on offer will encourage potential customers to respond if they are interested
• Cost effective – retailers sending SMS messages in bulk can benefit from wholesale pricing
• Wide marketing reach – SMS is used and understood by everyone
• Personalized – mobile phones are very personal so by asking some intricate questions, you can build up detailed profiles of your customers which will enable you to carry out very targeted campaigns
• Quick – you can send appropriate messages to pre-defined groups with a single mouse-click
• Easy to manage – because the majority of online SMS campaigns use email as the delivery mechanism, your customer service staff can manage all correspondence from a single, centralised point
• Easy response mechanism – thus providing your consumers a positive experience

If you want to see how SMS-based marketing campaigns could increase your overall sales why not sign up to our no-obligation trial today?

The majority of people associate the term “reverse billed SMS” with premium SMS services, where more often than not consumers pay a fairly hefty price to receive alerts about the weather, football, other sports results or general informational updates.

This type of application is really useful if you want to promote easy- to- access services to your customer base but, unfortunately, the principle of reversed billed SMS has been widely abused over the years, with consumers being charged for messages they didn’t want to receive in the first place.

We want to tell you about our version of the application. We have turned the basic concept reverse billed SMS on its head because, with our version of the service, it is the original message sender who is charged for any replies they receive and not the receiver.

Why would the sender be willing to pay to receive these messages? Well, if we take the example of text notifications for emails (when you are out of the office) you don’t really want your customer to have to pay for replying to your message because it is not their fault you are not at your desk.

By combining our reversed billed SMS application with Microsoft Outlook email forwarding rules, you can be sure that you will always receive certain types of messages– a particularly useful feature if you need to monitor stock control or support messages, for example.

How does it work? Well, our bespoke messaging software will deduct the cost of each received message from your account (which is the same cost as for sending a message), even if the sender’s details are not logged on our database.

This neat application will complement a number of other email –to-SMS based services, appointment reminders, marketing promotions or job interviews for example, where you want to encourage consumers to reply but without necessarily incurring any costs.

If your customer is unable to keep their appointment, they can quickly reply to your message (at no charge to them) to rearrange or cancel.

If you are running a mobile-based marketing campaign (Christmas promotions, for example), SMS is a great response mechanism, but again, you might not want your customers to pay. If you combine our reversed billed SMS application with your marketing campaign, they won’t have to because you will be charged for each received reply.

Our reversed billed SMS service can also be used in conjunction with our personalised SMS application, which means that all message replies will be delivered directly to the original sender and not to an email inbox or central holding number, allowing you to build up a rapport with
your customer.

Follow this link to find out more about the different products and services we offer.

While social media and web-based projects are all the rage with regards to current-day marketing activities, the whole process can be very “hit and miss” because you have no control over who will follow you on Twitter (or similar) or visit your website.

Direct marketing campaigns allow you to be much more targeted.  Having said that; email, once the most popular medium for carrying out direct marketing campaigns, has also been used to excess, so much so that the majority of us tend to delete emails we do not recognise without even bothering to read the message.

SMS on the other hand, another mechanism for carrying out direct marketing campaigns and for generating sales leads, is not always used as widely as it could be. SMS-based marketing campaigns are by far the most cost-effective and reliable way to send targeted messages to your customers and prospects, particularly if you want to target large demographic areas. Furthermore, if you regularly send out more than 100 messages per day, you will also benefit from wholesale pricing.

Unlike other forms of mobile-based advertising, SMS does not rely on the user having to click on a link to activate the service or access the message. It is very direct and pushes itself in front of your customers, who can respond if they are interested, or text “stop” (or something similar) if they want their details removed from the database.

What are the other advantages of SMS?

1. Well for starters, it’s got a wider marketing reach than any other marketing medium. With more handsets than people in many western countries, cost effective direct marketing campaigns can be carried out on an international scale.
2. It is extremely cost effective. It is much more economical, both in terms of time and money, to send text messages to a large group of people than to make a phone call.
3. It’s easy. SMS-based marketing campaigns can be carried out online via a password-protected interface, or they can be integrated with your email system. This means that your staff can manage all their contacts from a single, centralised point.
4. SMS is not dependant on 3G and messages are delivered almost instantaneously. What’s more, unlike other forms of communication, the majority of your messages will be read by your customers.
5. SMS is unobtrusive because it provides users with a subtle way of making an enquiry without needing to enter into dialogue with a pushy sales person.
6. Bulk SMS services include comprehensive reporting facilities, allowing you to analyse the success of different campaigns and your ROI.
7. SMS is a great way to improve your after sales service – why not send a quick text messages to customers informing them when their order will be delivered, or to remind them of an appointment or meeting?
8. Finally, SMS provides users with an easy response mechanism and it can be used to complement other forms of marketing, such TV or radio- based advertising.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

Running an e/commerce site for automotive spares is a highly competitive business. Companies operating in this sector receive thousands of enquiries on a daily basis and if they want to be successful, they must have the facilities in place to be able to respond to customer requirements quickly and provide good customer care.
Online Automotive, a leading supplier of standard and specialist components, understands the importance of good customer service and has taken the decision to incorporate SMS into its overall enquiry management process to further improve their customers’ overall purchasing experience.

After carrying out some initial market research, Online Automotive decided to integrate the toText.net email to SMS service into the company’s order management system and Terry Dorney, Managing director of the company explains the reasons why:

“First and foremost it offers value for money, an important factor if you are involved in the automotive industry.

In addition, the service is really easy to use and by following simple guidelines on maximum message length we have been able to incorporate SMS as an alternative communications method without creating additional work for our busy customer services department.”

The toText.net email to SMS service integrates seamlessly with Online Automotive’s email system and all messages are sent and received using Microsoft Outlook.
Providing information to customers via SMS as well as email has greatly improved the company’s order conversion rates because they are no longer reliant on their customers having access to email to receive information about their enquiry.

Terry continues “Most people carry a mobile phone at all times so they get our messages straight away, even if they are out and about. If the customer is happy with our quote, they can place an order simply by replying to the message or calling telephone number embedded in the message if they require additional information.”

All messages are created in Microsoft Outlook. By including the customer’s mobile number followed by @toText.net in the “To” field of the email as well as their normal email address, the message can be sent via email and SMS simultaneously. The toText.net software converts the email into an SMS format and forwards the message to the mobile number provided in the message.
Not only has the email to SMS service improved the customer’s overall purchasing experience, it has also given customer services staff the ability to manage email and text messages from a single application.

In addition, all SMS replies are delivered directly to the original sender and not a centralised email inbox, so orders can be processed straight away and staff can begin to build a rapport with customers.

The toText.net email to SMS service supports multiple users at no extra cost, making it an ideal tool for busy customer service departments.
In the future Online Automotive is planning to fully automate its order processing system and SMS will form an integral part of the new order management process.

Ends

Slepe Communications Ltd is a dynamic, growing company based in Cambridge UK. Its staff have many years’ experience in the Internet and telecommunications industries, and are experts in designing, building and operating mobile Internet applications based on text messaging, web and Wi-Fi technologies.
The company is a member of the Mobile Data Association.

Use email to SMS for lead generation

Email has always been a popular choice for direct marketing campaigns and lead generation. In recent years, however, it has had to compete against a number of different communications methods, with social media being the most prevalent.

As Facebook and Twitter grows in popularity, thousands of companies are jumping on the social media bandwagon without really understanding its true potential in order to try and drive more traffic to their websites and generate leads.

An obvious communications channel that has, to a large extent, remained relatively untapped in the sphere of lead generation is SMS. Here at toText.net we find this really surprising considering the sheer number of mobile phones there are in circulation.

However, while email-based campaigns are no longer that effective, email provides a great mechanism for sending out and managing SMS-based campaigns. SMS messages can be sent out in bulk to individuals or predefined groups quickly and cost-effectively using existing email systems.

No plug-ins are needed and no training is required – all you have to do is integrate our SMS gateway with your email system, which can be done easily via our developers API.

The majority of people read their text messages as soon as they receive them. Consumers are also comfortable with replying to text messages because it is quick and they do not have to enter into a conversation. What’s more all replies can be monitored in real-time. If you take all these factors into consideration, SMS driven campaigns have the potential to generate good quality leads that can be followed up and converted into orders by your sales teams.

Below are more reasons why we believe SMS should play an important role in your direct marketing activities.

• Concise -SMS messages are to the point. Any message that includes clearly visible information of what is on offer will encourage potential customers to respond if they are interested

• Direct – SMS pushes itself directly in front of your customers. There are no buttons to click or apps to download.

• Wide marketing reach – There are more mobile phones in circulation than any other technology device so the potential reach of your marketing messages are enormous

• Personalised – Unlike other devices – mobile phones are very personal. By asking some intricate questions, it is possible to build up detailed profiles of potential customers.

• Targeted – Accurate data allows you to carry out targeted marketing campaigns

• Easy to manage – Because SMS messages are generated via email, your sales staff can manage all correspondence from a single user interface. Furthermore all SMS replies are delivered directly to the original sender and not to a centralised holding box, allowing them to develop a rapport with your customers.

Sending SMS messages via email is simple Type your message as normal, but instead of typing an email address in the “To” field, you type in the recipient’s mobile number followed by @totext.net.

Your message is then delivered to our servers where it is converted into an SMS format and forwarded to your customers.

Our customised software will also allow you to deliver email attachments (PDF messages for example) as SMS messages by extracting key information from the data source.

Why not see for yourself how email to SMS can help you increase sales by taking out a free no-obligation trial today.

Click here to find out more

LeagueRepublic, a leading provider of online administration systems for managing sports websites, fixture scheduling and results systems, has integrated Slepe Communications’ inbound SMS application (online SMS technology) into its overall system management software.

Their software has been used to manage over 2000 professional and amateur leagues, since 2002. Up until last year, all match information and results could only be updated via the web, so if team secretaries had no access to the Internet or could not get a 3G signal (as is often the case), this information was often not available to the public until much later.

In order to enable clubs to update their results more quickly, LeagueRepublic decided to upgrade its administration software by incorporating SMS functionality into its overall system at no extra cost to its customers. Even the most basic handsets support SMS and this enhancement meant that results could be published within minutes of a game finishing.

The service has been available for just over 12 months and so far more than 15% of all UK leagues are using SMS to update their team’s results.

The service works as follows: fifteen minutes after the start of a game, team secretaries receive an SMS from Slepe Communications’ administration software reminding them to text in their result at the end of the match.

As soon as the match is over, team secretaries simply text a reply to the original message with the final score e.g. 3 2. The virtual numbers used to deliver the service are provided by Slepe Communications as part of the application. Its bespoke management software determines which results belong to which team using the virtual numbers, converts the SMS messages into HTML and delivers them directly to LeagueRepublic’s servers, where they can then be published and posted immediately.

Not only are results made available to the public almost instantaneously, there is also no charge to the end user for the reminder and the reply is the same cost as any standard UK text message and often falls within their contract package. LeagueRepublic has just signed a deal with Timpson.co.uk Trophies who will fund the SMS system and a 10% website discount code will be included within the reminder message.

Comments Dave Hathaway, Managing Director from LeagueRepublic: “when we decided to investigate the possibility of adding SMS to our system we looked at many different providers. We finally chose Slepe because they were competitively priced and took time to listen and understand our exact requirements.

We are pleased to be able to offer the SMS results system with our free service with funding from our SMS sponsor – Timpson.co.uk Trophies.”

Ranjit Singh, a landlord from Willenhall, who has been using LeagueRepublic’s software to manage his pool league for the last three years, decided to add SMS to his website at the end of last season. Now all 18 teams in the league update their results via SMS.

“It’s absolutely brilliant”, he explained. “When running a league like this you have to be able to provide results quickly so you don’t lose the interest of the teams. The administrators text their results as soon as the game is over and once I’ve had a chance to check them, I make them live, usually within 24 hours.

There were a few minor issues in the beginning, with results being posted the wrong way around, but now that everyone is familiar with it, it works really well and saves me a lot of time because I only have to verify the information.”

Comments Rob Jagger from Slepe Communications: “we are really pleased to know that our software is working well and is helping LeagueRepublic better engage with its customers. This type of market is very competitive and our software ensures that teams do not lose interest because results are updated automatically and made available to the public almost immediately.”

The service is proving to be very popular with pub darts and pool leagues and so far this year more than 111 leagues have decided add SMS as an option for updating their results.

Ends

About Slepe Communications

Slepe Communications is a dynamic, growing company based in Cambridge UK. Its staff has many years’ experience in the Internet and telecommunications industries, and are experts in designing, building and operating mobile Internet applications based on text messaging, web and Wi-Fi technologies.

About LeagueRepublic

LeagueRepublic are based in Wolverhampton and provide online sports administration systems to 2000 sports leagues worldwide, their clients include The Football Association Ltd.

It can be challenging for vehicle hire or maintenance companies to operate efficiently and provide high quality after-sales service to their customers. Both factors, however, are vital to their success and in order to achieve this they are willing to invest in sophisticated job management and allocation software systems.

The majority of these systems use email as the primary communications method. All information relating to a particular job or order is uploaded onto the system and this is used to generate a unique job sheet. These are then sent to appropriate personnel (drivers or maintenance engineers, for example), often located in different geographical areas, as emails with PDF attachments.

Everything runs smoothly so long as the recipient has a Smartphone or a Wi-Fi connection. If they don’t, however, they may not receive important job information or updates until much later, and by then it may be too late to take further action.

Slepe Communications Ltd, operators of toText.net and providers of bespoke online SMS applications, has recognised the limitations of these systems and, as a result, has made a number of enhancements to its popular email to SMS service in order to overcome them.

The company’s SMS management software can now detect if a PDF document is attached to an email and if so extract relevant information such as the location and nature of the job from the data file and forward it to the recipient as an SMS.

If job information is included in the email itself, the software simply converts the message into a text format, giving companies the option to send information via SMS as well as email to ensure delivery.

The system has already been integrated with “CoachManager”, an online job management system supplied by Distinctive Systems and will integrate seamlessly with most other system interfaces via a developers API.
 
Coach and private vehicle hire companies have found the enhancement particularly useful because not all drivers have access to a 3G or wireless connection. In addition, they simply do not have the time to look through their emails and download job sheets when they are working.

The ability to send relevant job information via SMS and incorporating a “read receipt” facility means these companies can now be confident that their drivers receive the correct information immediately and are able to respond accordingly, making them more efficient as a result.

Comments Rob Jagger, Managing Director of Slepe Communications. “While Smartphones are growing in popularity, not everybody has one, and if 3G coverage is patchy, drivers might not even receive their job sheets. All drivers do, however carry a mobile phone and all phones support SMS. Furthermore, messages are delivered almost instantaneously even if the signal is poor.”

This enhanced email to SMS service could benefit many other industries, drainage or gas companies, for example, where it is vital that engineers receive their job sheets immediately to avoid problems that could affect public health and safety.

Ends

Slepe Communications Ltd is a dynamic, growing company based in Cambridge UK. Its staff have many years’ experience in the Internet and telecommunications industries, and are experts in designing, building and operating mobile Internet applications based on text messaging, web and Wi-Fi technologies.
 
The company is a member of the Mobile Data Association.

All businesses strive to provide their clients with good after sales-service, but providing consistently good customer service on a regular basis can be both expensive and time-consuming. During economic downturns existing customers often experience less than adequate customer service; sales personnel are so busy trying to secure new business they often forget about existing customers, believing they are too busy or lethargic to find alternative suppliers.

Not only that, there are so many different communications methods available to us – phone, post, email, social media – selecting the most appropriate method for different client groups is becoming increasingly challenging.

1. The phone is time consuming – especially if you are constantly connected to voicemail
2. Regular mail is too slow, very expensive and not very eco-friendly
3. Social media can be damaging to your brand if sensitive issues such as complaints are not managed appropriately

In our digital age, however, it is fairly safe to assume that our customers own at least one mobile phone and that most offices use email for the majority of written correspondence. So why not combine the two and use email to SMS applications to give your customer service team an efficient and cost-effective way of keeping in contact with your customers using technology they are already familiar with?

Messages are written as normal emails and then converted into an SMS format so they can be delivered. Not only is it practical to use email to SMS to communicate with your clients from a time-management point of view, it is also extremely cost-effective.

All replies are delivered to the sender’s email inbox, so your staff can manage all their correspondence from a single centralised point.

Below is our top 10 list of email to SMS applications:

1. Financial information – SMS is a great way to keep clients updated about stocks and shares, giving them time to sell or reinvest

2. Sports results – Loyal fans instantly know the results of important matches. What’s more, they are often willing to pay a premium to receive this information

3. Invoice reminders – Credit control departments can quickly send SMS alerts to all overdue accounts. What’s more, these types of messages can be personalised to include your client’s name and the exact amount owed

4. Insurance reminders – Postal reminders are often overlooked due to the amount of junk mail we receive. SMS reminders will also help your organisation reduce its overall carbon footprint

5. Delivery notices – Advising your clients in advance of expected delivery times mean they are more likely to be in to receive them and your drivers do not need to make multiple delivery attempts

6. Traffic updates – People can make alternative arrangements if they are aware in advance of traffic problems

7. Birthday reminders – Automated text alerts will prevent you from missing important birthdays -nephews nieces, in-laws etc

8. Email forwarding – By forwarding emails to mobile phones remote staff will always receive important messages, even if there is no 3G signal

9. Appointment reminders – No-show appointments are expensive and can be reduced by as much as 70% using SMS alerts

10. Voicemail notification – A simple text alert means you will never miss out on a business opportunity

All of the above services can be carried out using email to SMS. No plug-ins are needed, there is no need to download any special software.

In addition if you send in excess of 25,000 SMS messages on a monthly basis you’ll also benefit from wholesale SMS prices.

Organisations across the UK are using our email to SMS application to provide their clients with better customer service. Why not sign up to a FREE trial and find out how email to SMS can benefit your organisation?

Our digital era is having a huge impact on the way young people communicate. They have a whole variety of different technologies (Smartphones, games consoles, computers) at their disposal that allow them to interact with each other in many different ways. With more than 80% of 11 – 25 year olds actively using at least one social network site on a daily basis, anyone involved in youth work must embrace these changes if they want to engage with this generation.

The majority of teenagers prefer “hanging out” virtually from their bedrooms rather than going to a physical location. As this becomes increasingly the norm, unless those people who engage with young people are accessible via Facebook, they stand little chance of being able to reach their targeted audiences to promote local events, provide information about sporting events or simply keep in contact with their squad.

Promoting events and activities via social networks is one thing but getting people to turn up is another. Many sports clubs and other organisations, however, have found that SMS reminders about forthcoming activities can complement such online campaigns because it SMS is an easy, yet unobtrusive way to engage with young people.

SMS alerts are also an effective way of providing advice and guidance on wide range of youth-related issues such as health, crime, and drugs.

These types of services work very well because SMS is an easy way to reach a large audience, it is cost effective, messages are delivered straight away and are generally read as soon as they are received. But what happens if a young person sends a reply to one of these received messages?

In the majority of cases, replies to bulk SMS notifications are forwarded to a centralised mailbox or holding number, so the young person may not receive a reply until much later on, once the messages have been sorted.

Our SMS notification service allows organisations to send out bulk messages, but unlike many of our competitors, we also offer a personalised replies facility at no extra cost. This means that all replies are delivered directly to the original sender, allowing them to immediately begin private conversations with these young people, thus developing a rapport and obtaining their trust.  Not only that, message senders only receive replies intended for them.

The service works using a pool of shared sequential numbers that are accurately mapped to a sender ID (youth worker or football coach, for example) and a receiver ID (a young person’s mobile phone) by our SMS data management software.

If our SMS software is unable to deliver a reply (due to poor network coverage or incorrect number details, for example), it automatically sends a message to the sender, advising them to use an alternative means of communication.

Our personalised replies service is also beneficial to other industry sectors – temping agencies or estate agents, for example. In both these cases office staff are in regular contact with the same groups of people on a regular basis and two-way dialogue is commonplace.

As with all SMS applications, our personalised replies service can be integrated with existing communications infrastructures via a developers API.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

Missed NHS appointments cost the Government and ultimately the taxpayer in excess of £6million per annum, according to industry statistics. Patients believe the blame lies with the NHS – letters not being sent out in time, not being able to cancel or change the appointment because phone lines are busy or never answered, or stuck in an automated loop. The NHS on the other hand believes the blame lies with the general public because they never bother to cancel or reschedule their appointments.

Significant cost savings could be made and time wasting could be avoided if doctors’ surgeries, outpatient departments, dentists and specialist clinics made more use of SMS, as recent trials have demonstrated.

Barts and the London NHS Trust have recently deployed an automated online SMS service in their outpatients department, to remind patients about their forthcoming appointments because reports showed that over 94, 000 appointments were missed in 2009. The first reminder message is sent two weeks in advance and the second reminder is sent three days before the scheduled appointment.

If the appointment is no longer needed or convenient, patients can cancel or reschedule simply by sending a reply to the text.

Aberdeen City Council has also recently adopted a text messaging alert service to remind its social housing tenants about maintenance or repairs due to be carried out on their properties. The Council sends its tenants an SMS the day before so they do not forget and if there is a problem they are requested to get in touch by replying to the message.

Considering that more than 98% of 20 – 29 year olds and 89% of all men in the UK own at least one mobile phone, you would think that more public sector organisations would be making use of automated SMS services.

Health visitors could remind mums about their childrens’ vaccinations, community nurses could remind the over 60s about their flu jabs, housing officers could remind tenants that their rent is due, maintenance staff could remind tenants that their meters need to be read – the possibilities are endless.

The cost of sending an SMS message is significantly cheaper than the cost of a first class stamp or a phone call made during the day, particularly to a mobile number.
Text messages are delivered almost immediately and, unlike other forms of communications, the majority of people do respond to their texts straight away. Not only that, sending a reply essentially costs nothing because most phone contracts include a certain number of free texts as standard.

Automated SMS reminders can also benefit other industries – informing drivers their car is due for a service or MOT, for example. It’s good customer service as far as the owner is concerned and it’s  cost effective for the garage because  they can keep their contact list up to date with minimum effort or resource.

Our online SMS facilities are really easy to set up and, by deploying one of our services, you would benefit from significant cost savings almost immediately. There is no software to download because you manage your account online and no training is required.

You can upload your appointment spreadsheet onto our servers quickly and easily and schedule single or multiple reminder messages to be sent on specific days and times.

Unlike other providers we also offer a “personalised replies” facility as part of our standard package. This service ensures all your replies are delivered directly to the original sender, allowing them to immediately begin private conversations and start building relationships.

Many organisations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors are saving themselves money by deploying out online texting services.

Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.