Leading Mobile Marketing Solutions Provider

txtNation provides marketers with technologies and services to help them create effective, permission-based mobile marketing programmes.

The mobile phone is gradually becoming the central component of 1:1 marketing communications. The opportunities for marketers are exciting: targeted, relevant offers straight to the customers hand; rich data on usage and behaviour; higher response rates; flexible and cost-effective commercial models; and the potential to create rewarding, interactive and long-term customer relationships over the mobile phone.

Yet the challenges are also significant: how to gather and manage mobile usage data; how to utilise this data to create true 1:1 marketing programs; and, in a medium where customer choice and permission is paramount, how to create mobile content and offers that customers will want to actively select or ‘pull'.

txtNation's suite of products, services and solutions help companies to create profitable, ongoing relationships that provide enhanced value for their customers.

Find out more at mFUSION: www.mfusion.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.

SMS2.0 - Messaging Redefined!

Advertisers will now get the message!

In a world where contests are floated by the dozen, day in and day out, there are a few that dare to be different and attract attention. One such popular contest that is held often around the world is the fastest mobile messaging contest.

It has young mobi-geeks take on the challenge and create records that would put a normal mobile user to shame. But that’s just a contest we’re talking about. Imagine a situation where the user is fed with textual and messaging options like none other. We are referring to SMS 2.0, a new mobile messaging service that will be fed to millions of mobile users in the country a couple of months from now.

For the company responsible for creating SMS 2.0, one of the key things of importance is creating technologies that will enable media on mobile phones. And why not, as it believes that mobile is the one device that is carried by everybody. Why not? There is nothing that can be called scalable media on mobile.

Currently the whole ecosystem is such that one revenue model is advertising. We already have top 10 to 12 advertisers who have signed on. In terms of revenues, just the pilot that we did has given us revenues of 15 to 20 percent of the total all India mobile marketing revenues. Going ahead, the revenues coming from SMS 2.0 would easily be double of what the industry estimates suggest.

Find out more at mFUSION: www.mfusion.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.

Now, SMS to pay your life insurance premium

You could be soon buying insurance and other financial products with a click of a finger. SMS crazy Indians now just need to send a text message to pay the premium for their insurance policy.

Paying the premium for your life insurance cover is now as simple as typing a text message. ING Vyasa Life Insurance has tied up with Paymate India to provide the first of its kind premium payment service through an SMS. The company feels this mode of payment will help reach out to more customers.

However, this service is currently available only for those who hold an account with Citibank or Corporation Bank.

And while ING Vysya Life Insurance has gone ahead to facilitate SMS payment, others are making a start to provide financial advisory on SMS.

They plan to introduce a host of insurance guidance services over a mobile phone. Just through an SMS you can know how much damage you will do to your pocket by delaying your retirement planning.

No more cutting cheques and standing in queues to pay your premium, and no more appointments with the agent for your financial planning. Life insurance companies are now looking at innovative methods to reach out to a larger younger customer base.

Find out more at mFUSION: www.mfusion.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.

USA Today goes live with SMS Advertising

USA Today has become the first national newspaper in the US to launch a free SMS-based news update service funded by interactive mobile advertising (IMA).

Text-based services may sound dull within the context of all the hype surrounding mobile TV, video sharing and the like. But today, in the real world, there are an awful lot more people using SMS than there are using those other services. So why not keep early implementations of IMA simple? At least that way the ads are more likely to get seen, and advertisers are more likely to get measurable results. But this announcement also raises another issue - what will happen to telcos’ dreams of building IMA revenues if media owners and other brands keep bypassing their channel in this way?

The USA Today service has been implemented via a partnership with 4Info, the SMS-based publishing specialists. Every day, SMS short codes are published in the print issue of the newspaper that readers can use to sign up for free SMS news updates on their favorite topics. Each update also contains a text-based ad offering discounts or promotions on products and services related to the subject of the update. Users can then react to the ad by texting a response if they want to take advantage of the offer.

The service neatly integrates the mobile and print communication channels in a basic but potentially effective way, by providing a service that many users will value, via a technology that everyone with a mobile phone has access to, and most people use at least occasionally. Right now, this will make for a more attractive proposition to users who either don’t have a phone capable of handling richer content, or who don’t use those features because they are worried about running up huge data bills.

The launch of this service also indicates that some media companies with large audiences are determined to plough their own furrow when it comes to building a more interactive relationship with their customers, and offering additional value to advertisers. Mobile operators hoping to use IMA revenues to offset declines in voice revenues should be concerned about this. They need to intensify their efforts in persuading advertisers that their IMA can be even more targeted and effective than that offered by individual publications or other media channels, thanks to their wider reach and the granularity of their user data.

Find out more at mFUSION: www.mfusion.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.

SMS Marketing USA

Although the states are usually ahead in telecoms, they have been surprisingly late to catch up on the text messaging game. Although the states are usually ahead in telecoms, they have been surprisingly late to catch up on the text messaging game. What is it about texting that Americans haven't yet 'got'?

SMS Marketing USA
Before answering this question, it might be useful to understand the reasons behind why SMS became such a widespread phenomenon on this side of the pond. Although never intended as a peer-to-peer communication and certainly never advertised as one, SMS was invented in 1992 as a means for mobile technicians to communicate while working in the field. SMS began spreading like wildfire in '95 - largely driven by the fact that the networks opened up, so consumers could text across different networks. Another driver was the lack of a pricing structure for SMS in the early days, so it was free to text! Later, when the pricing structure was introduced, the fixed standard tariff of 10-12 pence per text was still affordable and therefore didn't deter teenagers from becoming text crazy! Text messaging became a fully established teen phenomenon by the late 90's and today networks send over 1.4 billion texts a month, across a much broader age demographic.

By contrast, cell phone subscribers in the US have to pay when they both send and receive a text message. Only AT&T Wireless do not charge their customers for receiving SMS messages. However, this does not get around the fact that customers on other networks still pay to receive messages from other mobile subscribers.

Cross-network texting is another issue for the emerging US market. Until relatively recently cell phone users in the US have only been able to send text messages to people on the same network. To educate the entire base that they can now text anyone on any network is no trivial task. While we have now reached a stage where UK consumers are educated enough to handle differential pricing for both on and off-network texting (for example, Virgin's 'text another Virgin Mobile customer for 3p'), American customers are still learning that they CAN text other networks.

A factor which drove the usage of SMS marketig in the UK and which by contrast has restricted usage in the US is prepaid phone packages. Until recently, there have been no prepaid packages in the US, but their existence in UK is cited as one of the reasons why text messaging flourished so rapidly. Teenagers could text away happily, knowing exactly how much of their pre-paid budget was left as opposed to getting a nasty surprise at the end of the month.

Finally, one reason why the future success of SMS in the US may continue to be jeopardized is the messaging channels available on mobile that are competing with SMS, such as instant messaging and email.

Beyond these technical and commercial issues, the last consideration is a cultural one. Can SMS really become part of the American culture in the way it has in the UK? With most 'cell phone' tariffs giving in excess of 1,000 cross network voice call minutes per month, many Americans question why they would ever want to send a text message for potentially an additional 10¢ per message. "Why would I send a text when I can call them with all those minutes I have?" This, for me at least, is what 'getting it' is all about.

Communication by text message is not the same as talking to someone on the phone; it is not even the same as emailing someone. Text communication is a law unto itself. For some it is a way of throwing out an insult, for others it's an easy way of passing on some quick information, it's a way to let someone know you care, it's a way of arranging your social life, it's a way of communicating when you have to be quiet, it's a way of talking behind someone's back, it's a safe way to flirt, it's an easier way to lie. If you can understand why all of this is different from speaking to someone on the phone then you've 'got it'.

Find out more at mFUSION: www.mfusion.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.

USA Mobile Marketing Grows

The USA will no longer be the sleeping giant in mobile. “The number of mobile applications at-the-ready for wireless consumption is increasing every month,” said SMS.ac's CEO Michael Pousti. “Bearing all this in mind, I believe that 2005 will see the U.S. emerge as the one of the top three mobile data consuming nations in the world, measured by data volume. That means awesome growth. And the realization of those phenomenal numbers, along with the revenues they generate should quiet the skeptics that earlier questioned whether mobile messaging would ever happen in the U.S.”

“According to U.S. messaging figures, approximately 14 billion text (SMS) messages were sent domestically in 2003,” said Pousti. “Various industry reports indicate that mobile messaging will reach approximately 25 billion by the end of 2004. And because of the explosive growth SMS.ac is seeing domestically with respect to the exchange of multimedia and textual communications, I am confident that the aggregate number of mobile messages sent within the U.S. will nearly double to 45 billion, in 2005.”

Find out more at mFUSION: www.mfusion.net. Contact us at: sales@txtnation.com.