Grow your business with personalized, timely mobile messages

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1 Grow your business with personalized, timely mobile messages

2 Introduction Acquiring and keeping customers are more difficult than ever before for small businesses. Small businesses everywhere are looking for new ways to increase the effectiveness of their marketing to strengthen their customer relationships. They are finding that the mobile phone enables them to engage more personally and cheaply than ever before with their customers. In this guide you ll learn how mobilizing business communication with Personalized Priority Messaging (PPM) increases productivity, reduces operating costs and helps you to grow your business. What is Personalized Priority Messaging (PPM)? Leading technology research firm, Gartner Inc., reports that there are one billion PCs installed worldwide. The number of individuals connected to the Internet is estimated at 1.7 billion. In contrast, there are more than 5 billion mobile phones in use today. By 2012 there ll be more than 6 billion if the current growth rates persist 1. Mobile communications technologies are being adopted so quickly by a growing number of the global population that personal communication is now even possible with customers in remote corners of the world. There are more than 5 billion mobile phones in use today. By 2012 there ll be more than 6 billion if the current growth rates persist. Personalized Priority Messaging (PPM) is the use of SMS s ability to contact almost anyone in the world. SMS text messages are almost immediately read, can be responded to and is valuable to the sender or receiver because the messages are simple, relevant to the receiver and received at the right time. PPM is most effective via SMS because: The text message wakes the mobile handset when the message is delivered and either makes a sound or vibrates to attract the attention of its owner. SMS messages can be sent and replies can be received. SMS can be used to contact more than 70% of the world s population. 1.

3 PPM cuts through the noise to get you heard Your customers are bombarded with more advertising and other messages than ever before. This is reducing the effectiveness of advertising at a time when your customers are expecting you to communicate with them in a more social, relevant and timely manner. Your customers receive an average of 21 marketing/advertising non-spam s a week, up by more than 30% from 2006 (Silverpop, 2010) Roughly 50 million tweets are created per day (Twitter, 2010) The average American is exposed to at least 16,000 advertisements, logos and labels in a single day (Dr Dharma Singh Khalsa, 1999) Daily new blog posts are in the millions Your customers mobile handsets are personal to them and have the ability to attract their attention better than any other communication device in use today. More than 98% of text messages are opened (Frost & Sullivan, 2010) and between 26% and 51% generate a response (Nielsen, 2008). PPM enables small businesses and their customers with low-cost communication that delivers excellent rates of message receipt, readership, recall and response. In short, your customers are more receptive to PPM messages than other messages, are highly likely to read them, remember them and act on them. Key Benefits and Applications of PPM PPM compliments other communication channels such as social media, and blogs, but can also be successfully used on its own. Some of the key benefits of the use of PPM in small businesses include: Creating customer demand for your products Improved ability to communicate with your customers Closer relationships with your customers Better service delivery

4 Case Introduction studies AutoPapa Autopapa.ge is an online used vehicle directory in Georgia that brings prospective vehicle buyers and sellers together. Autopapa.ge lets buyers create a profile with the details of a vehicle that they would like to purchase. This may include the vehicle year, make, model, price and location, amongst others. Users expect to receive messages as soon as a listing is created that satisfies their criteria. The Search Agent monitors new listings and informs the users of matches, via PPM text, as soon as they are published. THE RESULTS Autopapa.ge found that SMS helped the buyers to get the notifications both timeously and no matter where they were at the time. This speed means that buyers do not have to monitor new listings to find the right car, and more cars are sold more quickly from listings on the site. In just two months s vehicle database has grown to become the 2nd largest in the Caucasus region. They are currently 3rd in terms of website traffic and compete with a number of more established online vehicle websites. After announcing the new SMS functionality, website signups have increased by 300%, with 80% of newly registered website users indicating an interest in the Search Agent s text message functionality. Ocom Software Australia-based Ocom Software builds software applications for small businesses in the health care, transport, finance and legal industries to reduce operating costs and increase profits. Telephonic appointment confirmations take up to 4 hours and result in high outgoing call costs for small businesses. Ocom Software realized that a solution was needed that would help their clients reduce the time spent by employees confirming & reminding people about appointments. This would free up employee time, increase productivity and reduce outgoing call costs. The team at Ocom Software built a simple appointment scheduling application and integrated it with Clickatell s SMS gateway. Now their customers simply needed to submit an appointment confirmation or reminder from the software and a PPM text message with the details is sent to a mobile phone. Message recipients now also have a stored record of their appointment on their phone. THE RESULT Ocom Software s clients now spend an average of 75% less time confirming appointments. The number of late, cancelled or missed appointments have reduced significantly. The result is a dramatic reduction in call costs and an equally dramatic increase in employee productivity. VianetSMS VianetSMS enables retail outlets in Denmark to mobilize their customer service function. Retail outlets use the VianetSMS online platform to enable customers to request business contact information, including phone numbers, website addresses or Google Maps directions, by completing a simple form. Consumers can now receive the business s contact information via PPM text when they complete the contact form. THE RESULTS VianetSMS is now a leading choice among Danish retailers and the growth in their customer base indicates that they have successfully addressed a consumer need for real-time, relevant messaging, no matter where the recipient is.

5 Small Business solution Start your small business PPM program now with Communicator 2 COMMUNICATOR2 Communicator 2 is a simple application that enables any business to send and receive SMS text messages. It works within your web browser - no download or installation required. Easy contact management Create & use message templates One or two way messaging Powerful reporting And much, much more... Quick & easy setup Find out more about Communicator2 Sign up for free, add messaging credits and start texting! Questions? Speak to an expert right away. us at experts@clickatell.com. Why should you trust Clickatell with your text message program? Clickatell the global leader in Personalized Priority Messaging through all mobile devices is the largest Online SMS mobile messaging gateway in the world, covering 869 networks in 223 countries and territories, with the potential to reach 5 billion mobile phone users - more than 70 percent of the world s population. Clickatell enables simpler, quicker and more verifiable delivery of high-value, just-intime, individualized communications and associated mobile transactional services. Its carrier-grade mobile messaging solutions have been embraced by more than 13,000 enterprise, government, medium and small business customers and application developers. Founded in South Africa in 2000, Clickatell is based in Redwood City, California. For more information visit our website at Happy Texting!