SMS Advice

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

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?

SMS continues to be one of the most popular and cost-effective ways of keeping customers updated.  All mobile phones support SMS functionality and, unlike many Smartphone apps, it is not reliant on a 3G signal and, unlike other forms of e-communication, people do read their text messages.

With more than 50 million mobile phones in circulation in the UK alone and with mobile penetration exceeding 130% in Western Europe, the marketing reach for SMS based promotional campaigns is enormous.

While most business mobile contracts include “unlimited texts” as standard, in reality this means a fair-use policy of around 300 messages per month. If you frequently send more than 100 SMS messages per day, it is more economical and reliable to send your messages in bulk using an SMS aggregator.

Not only that, it is more cost-effective and efficient to keep in contact with customers and colleagues by SMS than by phone. By taking advantage of bulk SMS applications you can significantly cut back on the number of routine phone calls you make on a daily basis, reduce the number of queries you receive and free up staff time so they so they can undertake more fulfilling tasks.

Because it is so easy to setup and manage bulk SMS services using readily available online applications, we thought we’d share with you our top ten bulk SMS applications.

1. Promotional campaigns – Mobile phones are very personal, allowing you to build an accurate profile of your customers. Using this information, you can then carry out targeted campaigns to particular demographic groups – e.g. a special promotion on wedding dresses for unmarried females or information about holiday clubs for parents with young children.  Targeted campaigns result in higher conversion rates.

2. Payment reminders –Free up resource by reducing the number of phone calls you make to customers reminding them an invoice is overdue or that their rent is in arrears by setting up an online SMS reminder service.

3. Delivery information – SMS is a great way of informing customers of an expected delivery time. By including a “reply” facility (allowing customers to requesting an alternative delivery time, for example) you will cut back on the number of wasted journeys.

4. Appointment reminders – the NHS loses millions as a result of people failing to turn up to appointments. SMS is an effective way to remind people of routine appointments. By embedding reply facilities, you can give customers the option to cancel if they no longer need the appointment.

5. Time-sensitive alerts – SMS is the quickest and easiest way to inform a large group of people – parents, for example, that school will be closed due to bad weather.

6. SMS broadcast – This is the quickest way to communicate general information to a particular group of people – sports teams, for example, telling them a match has been cancelled or rescheduled.

7. Calendar reminders – Not everyone has a Smartphone with a synchronised calendar.  Sending employees SMS reminders of their daily meetings or appointments will improve your organisation’s efficiency.

8. Machine to machine alerts – SMS is a highly efficient way of alerting support engineers of a server or storage problem.

9. Business continuity – In the event of an incident occurring, how long would it take you to implement business continuity facilities? Using SMS to facilitate your business continuity
procedures will help minimise downtime and loss of revenue.

10. Voicemail notifications – Integrating SMS functionality into your overall communications infrastructure means you will never miss out on a business opportunity.

We provide bulk SMS facilities to a wide range of different industries and unlike our competitors we also provide personalised a replies facility with all our services at no extra cost. This means you can add a personal touch to campaigns because replies to received messages are delivered directly to the original sender and not a central mailbox or holding account, allowing you develop a rapport with your clients.

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

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.

The main challenges public sector organisations have had to face since the General Election have been how to reduce costs and operate more efficiently while still maintaining high levels of customer service.

Such pressures are taking their toll and nowhere is this more apparent that in education. Schools are obliged to keep parents/carers updated of their children’s progress during the academic year via reports, parent evenings etc. Failure to do so reflects badly on them and can effect funding.

In addition to this, schools are in contact with parents/carers more or less on a daily basis about routine information such as exam dates, school trips, after school clubs, teacher training days, parent/teacher meetings, school uniform, fund raising events and so forth. Administration staff are increasingly overstretched and keeping up with routine communication is becoming more and more challenging.

Many schools have been using electronic communication for some time and Government has stipulated that by the end of 2012, all schools will be required to communicate with parents electronically. Email, however, is not necessarily the most effective way to communicate routine messages, particularly time sensitive ones. Unless the recipients are online (assuming they have Internet access in the first place), or have a Smartphone, chances are they won’t receive the message until it’s too late.

The most effective way to deliver time sensitive information, both from an execution and a cost point of view, is via SMS. This was demonstrated by the findings of a BBC survey carried out in Scotland in December last year, which showed that after local radio, SMS was the second most popular way to receive information about school closures. 

SMS notifications could easily be much more widely adopted to deliver routine messages and to provide parents/carers with progress updates of pupils. They are currently updated via parents’ evenings, which happen two or three times a year.  Indeed, a recent survey carried out by Becta has shown that more than two-thirds of parents would like to receive regular SMS or email messages about their childrens’ progress in school. Only 8% of those surveyed benefitted from such a service.

No specialist software or equipment is needed and single or multiple messages can be sent to individuals or pre-define groups. Messages can be targeted (by year group about a school trip for example), written and delivered instantaneously using online SMS services. Unlike bulk emails, which can be affected by SPAM filters, you know your message will get through. Even in the unlikely event that a parent/carer does not have a mobile phone, text messages can be left on landlines.

SMS notifications are cost effective because messages can be bought in bulk. You can also see at a glance how many messages have been delivered and how many replies you have by looking at delivery reports. 

We are a provider of online SMS services and unlike most other SMS providers, we also provide a personalised replies facility at no extra charge. What this means is – if a parent responds to a message received from a teacher, that message is delivered directly to that teacher and not to a centralised holding account, as is usually the case with online SMS services. It is an effective, yet non- time consuming way for teachers to establish relationships with parents/carers about a pupil’s progress, so that help and support can be provided when it is needed.

All our online SMS solutions integrate seamlessly with electronic registration systems via a developer’s API, and this API can also be customised to meet specific requirements. Click here to find out more about who we are and what we do.

Over the centuries the most successful inventions have been the most simple. The same goes for technology – the more straightforward the application, the more likely it is to succeed. You won’t find a better example of this than in the field of mobile communications.

The rise of the mobile Internet and Smartphone apps has had a profound impact on mobile marketing campaigns. They have become increasingly complex as the larger brands try to outdo each other in their efforts to provide rich mobile content.

But is there really any need to reinvent a proven wheel just for the sake of it? With regards to mobile advertising, some of the most successful campaigns have been executed using good old fashioned SMS – the best example there is of “less being more”

According to research carried out by comScore during the last quarter of 2010 by, there are more than 100 million subscribers to SMS marketing services in the top 5 EU countries (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain). The research showed that SMS adverts reached almost 50% of the 230 million mobile users and that the most popular types of SMS adverts were product, service or brand-related.

SMS adverts for donations to charities reached almost 10 million consumers and more than 10% of subscribers responded at least once during a 3 month period. Coupons or discounts sent via SMS also received high response rates.

Why then, in the age of Smartphones and Tablets, is mobile messaging still a popular delivery medium?

• It’s cheap – both for campaign executors, who can purchase SMS messages in bulk very cost effectively, and for consumers, who can send and receive predefined numbers of messages  as part of their contracts
• It’s quick – SMS messages are delivered almost instantaneously
• It has a wide marketing reach – all mobile devices support SMS
• Is not reliant on 3G networks so campaigns are not reliant on good network coverage
• It provides an easy response mechanism  – allowing for spontaneous decisions
• It is easy to monitor the success of different campaigns
• It’s direct – unlike mobile apps or mobile web pages, which require users to pro-actively access them, SMS pushes itself directly into the site of the consumer
• It integrates seamlessly with e/marketing activities
• It’s widely understood by everyone
• It provides a positive user experience because messages can always be delivered

Targeted mobile advertising campaigns can be carried out quickly, efficiently and cost effectively using our effective PC to SMS or email to SMS marketing tools.
Once you have set yourself up with an account you can be running successful campaigns within minutes and reaping the rewards as a result.

Our PC to SMS and email to SMS products can be easily integrated into your overall IT infrastructure or corporate website via a developer’s API, thus complementing your overall e-marketing strategy.

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

Online SMS applications are usually associated with promotional campaigns. They are quick and easy to execute, their marketing reach is enormous due to the sheer number of phones in circulation and they provide consumers with an easy way to interact and respond.

However online SMS applications can also be used to help save lives, as an innovative trial carried out by WelTel Kenya1  has clearly demonstrated. The story was covered by the Independent and in this pilot, SMS technology has been used to help HIV-positive patients stick to their strict drugs regimes by sending them SMS reminders to take their daily doses of life saving medication.

Apart from receiving their usual dose of antiretroviral drugs, the 500 plus patients involved in the trial also received discrete text messages and they were instructed to reply “Sawa” (”fine”) or “Shida” (”problem”) to these SMS messages within 48 hours.

Those who confirmed they had a problem or failed to respond to the message within the timeframe were called by a nurse to find out what was wrong.
The number of patients that achieved 100% adherence to their regime was 12% higher in the SMS group. In addition, the number of patients who were able to achieve suppression of HIV to below detectable levels in their blood – a key benchmark of success – was 9% higher in the SMS group.

Less than 4% percent of patients texted the reply “problem” With such results, a single nurse could use SMS technology to help manage the welfare of a thousand plus patients spread over a wide geographical area and expect to make follow-up calls to only 33 patients per week.

The trial was easy to implement because it was based on existing mobile communications infrastructure. Nurses used a computer to write and send out the messages. According to industry estimates mobile penetration is practically 100% in Kenya so you can almost guarantee that patients had access to a mobile phone. Such a system is more economical than expecting nurses to make personal visits to individual patients.

Online SMS applications are benefitting millions of people in other ways too. Take banking, for example. Millions of people in Africa, and indeed in other third-world countries do not have bank accounts because they can’t afford one, but they do have mobile phones. Using SMS technology as a driving force, organisations like M-Peso are giving poorer people access to financial services they could have only dreamt about 10 years ago. All you need to set up an account is a standard mobile phone, an M-Peso SIM and an identity card. Money can be added to our mobile phone account at designated agencies and all financial transactions are carried out more or less straight away via SMS.

SMS technology is allowing even the poorest people to save money, transfer money and pay their bills safely and securely.

Online SMS applications are by far the easiest way to make contact with people dispersed over vast areas. No special equipment is needed and the majority of people have basic mobile phones capable of receiving texts.  Bulk SMS messages can be sent to thousands of people via email to SMS or PC to SMS applications.

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

According to recent research carried out by mobile transaction network, mBlox, more than two thirds of consumers in the UK would like to receive their shopping coupons in the form of a text message.  Not only that, almost a third of them are already familiar with this concept and have used mobile shopping coupons.

The research revealed that over 70% of UK consumers would be interested in receiving coupons via SMS while out shopping, to alert them of special offers or promotions and such like – could add a whole new dimension to Tesco Club points!

In addition, separate research carried out by the Mobile Marketing Association has shown that a quarter of  European consumers (based in France, Germany and the UK) would be more likely to respond to advertising  campaigns of any medium if they could do so using their mobile phones, with SMS being the preferred option.

With such astonishing figures, there is little wonder that over 38% of retailers in the UK have incorporated SMS marketing into their overall advertising and promotional strategies.

Why are the statistics so high for SMS compared to other marketing mediums?

• Well for starters there are more mobile devices than any other technology gadgets in the UK, so the potential business reach is enormous
• More and more businesses are turning to SMS for important communications because emails can easily get lost or overlooked
• Bulk text messages are delivered within seconds and redeemed within minutes – no other communications method can reach consumers so quickly and in such a contextual way
• SMS allows for easy interaction – consumers only have to text a key word to a mobile number or short code in order to receive further information
• High response rates allow retailers to further tailor their advertising campaigns.
• SMS marketing allows consumers to engage with big brands – bringing them to life
• SMS is the preferred communications method for the younger generation
• SMS can compliment overall marketing campaigns
• And finally – Receiving tickets, coupons etc via mobile phones as text messages helps businesses to become greener in the way they operate. 

Click here to find out how our business SMS solution can add an extra dimension to your existing marketing campaigns.