Text Messages

Text Message Marketing Companies

Text Message Marketing CompaniesText message marketing companies are offering more services and better features to business customers looking for another inexpensive way to communicate with customers and get their messages out to these customers. Far too many customers do not react to email campaigns. The emails are deleted without reading them or they end up in junk folders never to be seen. They are auto deleted within a week or less. The return is rather small for the few that do actually read the message. Consumers and customers are too afraid of being tricked into something by opening an email message. This is due to all of the spam emails sent to them daily.

Text Message Marketing Companies – Target Your Message

Now text message marketing companies have set up services that are easy to use, easy to compose messages. With a click of the mouse the messages are sent to ten or thousands of smart phones. Target your text message locally or based on subscribers. Either way can be set up and used by business customers trying to market to their customers.

Not everyone checks their email all of the time. But they do carry their cell phones with them. They do tend to check text messages before any other kind of message including email and voice messages. In fact most would rather have a text message rather than a voice message. Since it takes so long to call in and listen to a voice message that someone has left you.

Send a text message and tell me what you want is the way that most people seem to like it. Text messages are much less expensive compared to voice communications for both the sender and the receiver. Many people only have limited voice and data plans. They do not want to use their plans for these kinds of messages. Unlimited text messages on the other hand are easy to read and get a persons attention.

Inexpensive

Text messages are now priced very inexpensively for business with most messaging sent over the internet. This capability is really changing the approach that companies use to market via text messaging. With smart phones becoming more prolific and supporting these text messaging app’s, advertising is now available right on the app on the persons phone.

The owner of the phone who installs the free app on the phone gets the app for free. As long as he or she agrees to accept these advertising messages from time to time as well as advertisements on the app itself.

Most people ignore this advertising on their smart phone. However from time to time there is really something there  that interests the user and they click on the advertisement. Even a small percentage of users clicking on this advertisement can mean big numbers for the advertiser. With millions of smart phones out there are millions of potential customers who may click on these advertisements.

For more information about text messaging, click here.


Business Text messaging Service

Business Text messaging ServiceBusiness text messaging service comes in a variety of apps that can be downloaded to you mobile smart phone and used to receive or send messages to your colleagues, your customers and your friends for free. Business customers particularly like text messages. They can be sent to their customers and colleagues advising of special events and specials on products and services.

As this picture demonstrates text messages or SMS messages can be sent to many smart phone. As well as cell phones or even tablet devices. Once you have the address you can send the same advertising message or the same alert message to your customers. Also your employees depending on the situation. This is a lot more efficient since not everyone has access to their email while they are on the move. They do have their cell phones as a rule. They will receive the message and be able to react to it as needed.

Business Text messaging Service – Emails & Junk Folders

Emails often go into junk folders, filtered out before the client even sees them let alone reads them. Text messages always end up in the client’s inbox. Although some customers will simply delete without reading them. Most will give a text message a quick glance before deleting the message. If that message is from a trusted source, like your business they will be read and responded to.

Send a text message blast to customers that you deal with to advertise a new special. Let customers know that they have reached a loyalty rank that gives them more benefits. There are a host of applications that can be interesting to business people as well as the clients, customers and consumers that your business serves.

Cost to Send Messages

Compare services for the cost to send messages, to receive messages and the set up costs. There are many companies now offering text messaging via the internet now which has drastically reduced the cost of maintaining a messaging server and sending messages. Compared to the old fashion approach this service is far superior. Individuals who send or receive messages will enjoy these free services and can easily take advantage of them.

These same free services can be used by companies to deliver messages, however as your volume increases you may be forced to pay for this service. However it is still much less expensive than the traditional SMS or text message facilities that the cellular companies appear to offer.

Universities are using this technology to alert their students of situations that they must be made aware of instantly. Based on some events this has actually saved lives by making everyone aware that there is an incident in progress and they must take cover.

The vast majority of students now carry cell phones or smart phones that are capable of sending and receiving text messages so this is a perfect way to send and receive text messages that are informational as well as alerts that need to reach virtually the entire student body.

For more information about text messaging, click here.

 


Text Messaging Services for Business

Text Message SystemText messaging services for business has come a long way. This is older technology. But now businesses use this technology to advertise their business products and services. They use it to invite customers to openings and special store events. Also they provide text messaging to their employees to communicate with each other.

With all of the methods that are available for communicating with each other, this one is probably the simplest and easiest to use. While being less intruding at the same time during meetings and other group activities.

 

Personal Text Messages

When was the last time you were in a meeting, were people were receiving and sending messages to their colleagues? Some will be asking their people to send them bits of information about the presentation they are viewing. Others will be suggesting that their employees need to look into some detail.  Others will be setting up their social calendars for the evening or the weekend.

Hard to tell if it is work related or personal but at least they did not need to step out of the room to take a call even if they did miss a point or too in the presentation or discussion. Text messaging is great for business people attending conferences as well. If you are in a large area, reception or listening to a speaker, it is easy to stay in touch with the job at home or hook up with a colleague for drinks at the bar later.

But can you really pay full attention to what is going on in the meeting when you are sending and receiving text messages? We do not think so and it can be very frustrating for presenters who are giving a presentation when someone is sitting there sending or receiving text messages.

Text Message Effectiveness

Some companies claim that 95% of text messages sent are in fact read, while 26% of those people who saw a message actually responded to the message at least once. This is a very high rate and why businesses like to use text messaging. Confirming that orders are ready, voice mails left and much more are several of the ways that text messaging services are used for business. Even calendar updates when someone commits to come to a meeting you have invited them too.

There are so many uses of text messaging that you pretty much cannot do without this service. Carriers offer the service  now to their customers as bundles that are part of larger packages of services. Bundles of 100 incoming and outgoing messages are typical. There are also unlimited plans which can be purchased if you really plan to send or receive a lot of text messages.

For more information about text messaging, click here.


Text Messaging Marketing

Text Messaging MarketingText messaging marketing is just another form of advertising that consumers just cannot get away from. Companies and advertising organizations send out millions of text messages every day to unsuspecting cell phone users. This is an attempt to garner some business from them. These messages are sent by the millions and are often ignored by consumers receiving them. They just do not hit the mark for many people and irritate a lot of others. At the very least you have to go in and delete them to reduce memory consumption on your phone.

If you have a text messaging plan on your phone then at least you do not have to pay for the incoming message. Although it is still annoying. You have to read each one and then delete it. Still every once and awhile there are some good deals available. You can save money by taking advantage of them.

Text messaging is actually old technology now. Messaging is becoming available over the internet and sent to your smart phone for free. With a free app on your phone you can send and receive messages to your friends etc without any cost what so ever. We expect that text messaging traffic is going to decline over the coming years as more and more people purchase smart phones.

Text Messaging Marketing – APPs

As these apps become popular there will be text messaging marketing on these new apps as well especially if they make it into a majority of user’s phones. Text messaging is an old technology owned and operated on the mobile phones that are sold by the various carriers. Smart phones are growing by leaps and bounds, so it will not be long before we begin to see a decline.

Most people today will always get a text plan with their phones since sending text messages is actually cheaper than talking over the phone and who wants to talk anyway these days. Most teens just send text messages. A few people we know only have a text plan and a data plan on their phones. They block all phone calls over their phones from the traditional cellular networks to limit voice charges. They can do all of their calling using the data network with Voip on their smart phone and also send text messages. This appears to be the way of the future.

Yet many of our older friends only have cell phones, mobile phones or smart phones only for emergencies and some just take a pay per use plan. They are definitely not into sending or receiving text messages. Still more and more people are gradually getting used to using smart phones and sending text messages. It is an inexpensive and unobtrusive way to communicate.

For more information about text messaging, click here.


Text Messaging Advertising

Text Message SystemText messaging advertising is another way that companies can advertise to consumers. Some cell phone users are starting to receive a lot of text messaging advertising. Frankly many people find it is quite annoying. These messages take time to read and delete. They are potentially using up some of your incoming message quota for text messages every month. If you have an unlimited plan, they you probably do not care quite so much. They even come in during the middle of the night which used to wake us up. Now we leave the phone downstairs were we cannot hear it in the middle of the night. Many mobile owners will turn their phones to private mode at night if they do not want to be disturbed.

Text Messaging Advertising And Your Phone Number

The writer made the mistake of giving out their cell phone number once to a company who then sold the number to an advertiser. Selling numbers to advertisers apparently occurs all of the time. This advertiser began sending text messages to my phone at really odd hours. I now leave my phone down stairs at night so that it does not wake me up. I will still hear it if it rings and if it is an urgent call.

Fortunately I also have an unlimited incoming text message plan so do not need to worry about how many text messaging advertising messages I actually receive. If I had a limited plan, I would have to do something about this problem. These messages eat into your monthly quota and can cause a problem for many people.

Short Code Text Messages

There are also text messages which are called “short code  text messages”. and each time you receive one your account is charged $2.00. This is an outrageous amount to charge for an alert message that you did not want and did not order. There may be some alert messages that might be worth this kind of money. I do not know what they would be. I certainly do not want them. In my mind this is really a scam and they should be disallowed! The phone company makes a lot of money from them and does nothing to stop them unless you call them to have these type of messages blocked.

In the mean time, call your mobile provider and have them block these kinds of test messages from being received by your phone. This is the only way to block text messaging advertising of this type. You have to have specific numbers to block which you can do with short code text messaging.

Not sure if I can ask my carrier to block text messaging advertising in general from being received by my phone. If this could be put in place, it would be really appreciated by many consumers, but the carriers would lose a lot of revenue if they did block them so I really do not think that they will take the step to block general text messaging advertising.

Does anyone know if this is possible. If you do have some idea regarding blocking these kids of text messaging, leave us a comment and instructions on how to go about this.

For more about text messages, click here.


Spam Text Messages

Spam Text MessagesAre you receiving a lot of spam text messages? These messages could be causing you a lot of money on your monthly cell phone bill. You may not even know it! Let’s assume that you have 250 messages per month for incoming and outgoing messages. If you are beginning to receive a lot of spam text messages on your mobile phone, there is a chance that you could exceed your limit for the month. Every message that is over the limit can cost you extra. Extra messages can cost twenty five cents a message, depending on the carrier. If you have unlimited texting, then you may only about the time to read and delete these spam text messages, which can be annoying.

There are ways to deal with this problem. First select a plan were you have unlimited incoming messages, so that you will not care how many you actually receive. The second thing to do is to report the spammer to your carrier. Determine if it is possible to block the messages from ever getting to your phone. They take time to look at and they are annoying as well. If you can stop them from even getting to you at all it would be so much better. Your carrier can block specific messages that are sent from the same phone number all of the time. The carrier might charge an additional fee for this and the spammer may just change phone numbers.

Never reply to a spam message. It will tell them they have a real phone that the spam text message is being sent to. Once they know they are dealing with a real cell phone they are just going to send more. You may even receive an increase in spam messages. Plus they might sell your number to other spammers. Just ignore and delete them until your carrier can stop them.

Also, avoid giving out your cell phone number to people that you do not know on web sites. They all want contact information when you fill something in, however, try to avoid this at all costs. Most web sites are ok, but there are those sites that collect numbers plus other information and then sell it to text message spammers for example. suddenly you are receiving text messages from companies that you never heard of before. Keep your number off of Facebook and other social sites, unless you want to have more contact that you ever wanted.

Spam Text Messages Cost Money

Spam text messages can cost you a lot of money, so the best thing is that if you receive more than two or three from the same number, deal with it quickly to put a stop to receiving more text messages from this number. Learn how to block numbers easily by checking with your carrier who usually will provide this information on their web site.

You can also call their help desk to have someone at your carrier put a block on the numbers for you. Either way don’t waste time, do it quickly or you will be inundated with text messages.

For more about text messages, click here.


Text Message Appointment Reminders

Text Message Appointment RemindersI just read an article about text messaging. It described how for the first time text messaging traffic provided by the mobile companies has actually declined month over month. It appears that consumers instead of paying as much as twenty cents a message are looking for other means of sending text messages. Personally I only use text messaging to communicate with my kids and to receive text message appointment reminders. I also receive updates to meetings by text message when someone I have invited to a meeting either declines or accepts an invitation to a meeting invite that I have sent out. I use Google Gmail and Google Calendar and they have this great feature that does this for their users.

Why is Text Messaging Declining

There are so many app’s available now that use the internet to send and receive messages as long as both parties have the app loaded on their smart phone. Apple has a product that does this and there are many apps on the Android platform that also provide this feature. The text messaging capability is still the universal method of sending a text message to any cell phone virtually in the world and although traffic may have declined one month, chances are that text messaging on cell phones will continue to dominate.

Carriers just need to get their marketing right to ensure that their users are not pushed away from the cell phone to these internet apps that come for free. I currently pay $5 for 250 messages sent and unlimited incoming messages. This works out to two cents a message for the text messages I send, which is virtually free. There are plans that allow unlimited messaging as well. With all of my incoming text messages free, I tend not to bother with the apps available in the phone unless I am traveling outside the country and want to send messages for free, then I use the internet app.

Why Receive Text Message Appointment Reminders

First of all with my plan all incoming messages are free so I can receive as many as I wish. Secondly when I am not near my desktop PC and I do not have time to look at my smart phone and check the calendar, receiving a text message alert that tells me someone has accepted or declined an invite is very useful. It keeps me up to date on the progress of setting up meetings and who will be attending.

I also use this reminder service to alert me to an upcoming meeting. Thirty minute, 10 minute and 5 minute warnings are great when you have an important meeting to attend to. You can make sure that you are not late due to being involved in some other activity. It is also a neat trick to get out of a current meeting by programming your appointment reminders to send a text message for each meeting warning you that it is about to start and it is time to leave the current meeting you are in.

Not only can you disentangle yourself from a meeting, your meeting partners will have the sense that you are very busy and need to make efficient use of your time.

Who Are the Biggest Users of Text Message Appointment Reminders?

Business people are likely the biggest users of this kind of service, but they do not come close to the teens that live for their text messaging. If you are a parent with a teen make sure you have the unlimited plan for text messaging, otherwise you could pay a bundle in monthly fees.

There are probably other uses for text message appointment reminders, and we would like to hear about them from readers. In the mean time enjoy sending and receiving text messages.

For more articles about text messaging, click here.


Text Messages from Izod

Text Messages from IzodText messages from Izod can save you money! Recently I was in one of the Izod factory outlet stores when I heard over the speaker system in the store a message about saving $5.00. All I had to do was send a text message to a number they gave which was actually a short text message code and they would send a text message back to me with a coupon for $5.00 which I could then use at the cash register when I paid for my clothes that I was already planning on purchasing.

This is an example when text message short code program messages can save you money. Most of the time, you received these innocuous messages, and while providing information, they cost you money every time you receive a short code text message.  This time we saved $5 on our purchases in addition to all of the other great sales that we got at Izod. It also did not cost me anything due to my text message plan and that IZOD was not charging to send these text messages.

Stop Text Messages from Izod After You Receive the Coupon

Once we received the coupon via text message and paid for our purchases, we left the store. I then sent a text message from my phone to stop any more text messages from being sent to my phone. This is important for readers who pay per text message. Each time you receive one of these messages, you will pay for each individual message. So once you have the coupon send a stop message until you visit Izod again. It is easy to do. All that is needed is to send a reply to the same address that you originally received the first message and include the word “stop” in the message. Nothing else should be included in the message text.

Deals at Izod

We really like Izod and we wanted to take a moment to hi-light the sales we got. We started with a $75 sweater which was discounted by 70%. They then added another 30% discount and I had another coupon for an additional 20% discount. When you add the $5.00 coupon , the price of the sweater came to $12.28 ! What a deal!

We do not normally talk about department stores and some of the deals that they offer. However in this case, Izod demonstrated a unique way they can use short code text message programs to help their business. They keep their customers loyal and happy at the same time.

We still got charged for the messages to our cell phones. But the cost of these messages was far less than others we have experienced. We also got a deal as well. As long as you are careful you can save money and take advantage of these programs. Once we had our coupon and it was processed through the register, we sent a message to stop further text messages.

We also routinely get emails with coupons attached. They offer additional savings to those that are already in the store. We just received one which we printed offering up to 45% off everything at the cash register.

All in all a great day . I always love it when you get good deals. Even if it is only $5, it is still money in my pocket!

For more information about text messaging, click here.

 

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Text Msg – Short Code Program

Short Code ProgramHave you as a consumer been taken in by this scam? That is what I think it is. Recently I started receiving these funny text messages on my phone. I have an unlimited text plan so really did not pay much attention to them. They keep asking game type questions and wanted me to answer the question. Of course I never replied to them and forgot about it until I received my cell phone bill.

On it were records of 8 short message codes that I had received and for each one, the phone company charged me $2 for a total of $16.00! What is this? Especially when I did not even ask for it. These charges can really add up in a hurry!

When I called my cell phone provider they tried to tell me that I had subscribed to this service. I asked them to tell me who the company was. The answer was “Ideal Mobile”, whom I have never heard of! I think that between my provider and this company there is a deal were they split the revenues at my expense!

They wrote it off and told me that in the future I would have to pay. They also told me how to stop the messages from being sent to me. Readers pay attention to your bills . I have included a reference from another web site called, “Sumotext”, which explains short message codes very well. Hopefully this will help our readers!

Note: If you get these messages and do not want the, just hit reply and type “stop” and then send!

Short Code Program Explained

Dedicated Short Codes

Taking cues from Asia and Europe, wireless carriers through the CTIA created the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) as an entity to administer short codes (5 or 6 digit abbreviated phone numbers). Leasing a short code is similar to leasing a domain name. Short Codes ensure that consumers remain in control of their experiences by providing them a trusted method to ‘Opt-In’ and ‘Opt-Out’ of mobile marketing campaigns or alert services from their phone.

Costs of Dedicated Short Code

Carrier-assigned short codes can be leased from the CSCA for $1,500 quarterly. If you want to pick out the numbers of your short code (i.e. choose a vanity code), the CSCA charges $3,000 quarterly.

Benfits of Dedicated Short Codes

Short Codes protect our mobile devices from SPAM and unsolicited marketing. They identify the content providers to both the carriers and consumers. Unlike with e-mail (where you simply lease a domain name and start sending people e-mail messages), all short codes are initially black-listed from carrier’s networks.

Each Short Code program has to be independently provisioned, tested, then certified by each wireless carrier to gain access to that network and that process currently takes 8-12 weeks. Carriers conduct regular audits to ensure ongoing compliance of each short code on their networks and they can easily block programs that don’t follow their rules.

Shared Short Codes

A short code can be shared by multiple content providers if the program is managed by a Short Code Application Provider like SUMOTEXT with a system capable of maintaining carrier compliance while differentiating between program traffic through the use of unique keywords.

However, due to the growing number of programs being run over shared short codes, wireless carriers continue to tighten requirements for the application providers who offer these services. As such, SUMOTEXT thoroughly reviews all new programs and regularly reports new programs and their associated keywords to wireless carriers.

5 Big Rules for Compliance

1. Consumers must ‘Opt-in’ to a short code program from their mobile device before they can be sent anything. Even an initial message that asks for permission is considered SPAM.

2. Consumers must ‘double’ opt-in (confirm their intent to subscribe by replying “YES” to a welcome message) to any short code program that charges fees – or – to any standard rated program when the subscriber opts-in from a web form.

3. All subscription or alert services that will have recurring messages (even standard rated programs) must provide a compliant opt-In confirmation message. That message must contain:

a) Content provider’s name (e.g. “Applebees: “)

b) Program description (e.g. “Welcome to our Mobile VIP Club”)

c) Frequency of alerts (e.g. “Max 8msg/mth”)

d) Rate/cost disclosure (e.g. “Msg & Data rates may apply.”)

e) Instructions for opt-out and help (e.g. “Reply STOP to end or HELP for help”)

4. All short code subscription services with recurring messages (even standard rated programs) must contain “Reply STOP to opt-out” in each and every message sent from the system. This is a requirement for both premium and standard rated programs.

5. All short code programs must support the universal commands STOP, QUIT, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE, STOP ALL, and HELP.

NOTE: There are many other short code requirements and some are different for each carrier. Be sure to choose an application provider with an intelligent system designed to format and process messages differently for each carrier network.

For more text messaging information, click here.

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