by anton | Jul 22, 2015 |
I don’t think it would be out of place to write that ever since our ancestors discovered that logs could be made into seats – and a circle of cavemen could then be called a meeting – we have equated meetings to work. This is why for many years competitive types would settle down at their favourite pubs and hold after-hour meetings where they would all inform each other about how many meetings they had attended that day. This was a way of illustrating to their friends just how hard working they had been. Enter the advent of ubiquitous email access in corporate South Africa, and suddenly hard work is not defined in meeting hours anymore, it’s about how many emails you sent and received during a particular working day. A friend of mine recently told me he sent and received over 120 emails in one day, followed by perhaps a dozen text messages, and in last position, he said he received perhaps ‘one or two’ phone calls. ‘One or two?’ I thought, ‘That’s an opportunity!’ It seems to me that communication has become more text-based than at any other time in history. With people having to work their way through thousands of lines of text-based emails a day, marketers have a fantastic opportunity to be heard – quite literally – via InTarget’s voice-based mobile advertising service. These days, when the phone rings, people take notice because it has become so unexpected for so many of us. And that’s especially true of the younger generation who barely make a phone call today. We’d love to hear from you (forgive...
by anton | May 19, 2015 |
Text Tags are a clever way to incorporate advertisements in permission based mobile messages to your customers. How do these ads look and how does it all work? Have you ever received a Please Call me from someone that look something like this: “Please call John (John’s number). For low insurance premiums, call Company X at number so-and-so.” The first line is the standard wording you expect from a “please call me” message, and the second line is an example of a Text Tag ad. But these mobile ads aren’t limited to call back request alone. You can also insert them in missed call alerts, balance checks, recharge notifications, end of call notifications etc. The only “trick” to this kind of advertising is stricter character limitation. You have less than the usual 160 SMS characters at your disposal because the actual message (e.g please call john) forms part of your overall message. Thus, you are looking at about 40 – 100 characters that you can work with. That is why Text Tag messages usually focus on one strong call-to-action. This action call can say absolute anything you want – e.g. click to call, click to see a menu, click to go to website, click to send SMS etc. Text Tags ads are basically a bonus on top of a message that you have to send anyway. Now, depending on the type of message you are sending to a customer’s handset, the customer will either have the option of saving the message or not. USSD Push type message usually don’t provide you with a storage option that of course has...
by anton | Aug 25, 2014 |
A Mobile WASP can offer you various mobile products and services for your business’s mobile communication. Why should you care to sign up with one? We can give you four excellent reasons! Mobile is the best thing since sliced bread Don’t take our word for it. Approximately more than 80% of all Africans own a cell phone. According to Yonder Media, there are about 20 million mobile phone users in South Africa with devices capable of accessing the internet. (The total mobile phone population is estimated at 33 million unique users.) The percentages of mobile penetration in our country is by far the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and compare very favourably with most other middle-income countries. Brands are jumping on the mobile marketing bandwagon Sure, not every single company out there are making use of cell phone marketing, but more and more brands are signing up with Mobile WASPS. Why? They are realizing that it adds value to their campaigns. They are hungry to communicate with their clients in a way that is effective, cheap and simple. Brands have even started to advertise on mobile channels like Mixit. According to the channel itself, their number of advertisers have doubled in last year alone; clearly this method is delivering positive results! Mobile provides various marketing opportunities Thanks to the Mobile WASPS, there are many mobile channels to choose from, and a variety of uses for every channel. From direct marketing and brand awareness to client relations and collecting payments, a business can make use of USSD, Premium SMS, Bulk SMS, Direct Operator Billing, mobile applications, mobile vouchers, automated voice messaging,...
by anton | May 30, 2014 |
Banks are always looking for ways to add security to their clients’ transactions. But did you know that USSD Aggregators can assist with this? People often fall victim to card scams and cloning at ATMs. Every time financial institutions find a solution for one problem, scam artists simply discover another loophole or way to commit fraud. Banks spend a lot of money to fight these problems, but it isn’t always enough. But one company called Watago, a child company of Eyeline Communications, found a way to use Unstructured Supplementary Service Data against fraudsters. Their system enables clients to be in complete control of their ATM activities via their mobile phone. The USSD Aggregator allows the user to receive a notification on their phone whenever their bank card is used. The user then accepts or declines the transaction by replying with a corresponding number on the message. Thus, the transaction can’t take place if the client doesn’t authorise it. It is also, according to an article on globalussd.com, impossible to use a duplicate a locked or “empty” card – you need to know the password and the time interval when the funds are available. Not only the client, but also the bank is warned by the system when there are repeated unsuccessful attempts to use a client’s bank card. The main reason that such a venture could be successful, is because of the availability of the technology. USSD, like SMS, works on all mobile devices, and doesn’t require a particular operating system. It will give a bank client peace of mind that he/ she has an extra layer of security...
by anton | Apr 30, 2014 |
You have worked hard on your mobile marketing campaigns only to find that a great number of your customers replied “Stop” to your SMS messages. Argh! How frustrating! Where did you go wrong? It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or you have been running a business for a long time – rejection is never a good feeling. Neither is presenting the number of opt-outs to your boss if you are the marketing manager. Evaluate your messages and take note of the following. 1. Nobody likes Spam Bombarding people with messages is a fool proof way to lose customers fast. Consumers don’t want to hear from you three times a day or at 02:00 am in the morning. It is best to do your research beforehand and to determine things like: • Is mobile a suitable medium for my particular target market? • How many times a week do my customers want to hear from me? Usually once will suffice. • When is a convenient time for them to receive my messages? 2. Irrelevant messages leads to “Stop” SMS responses Only send mobile marketing material your customers’ way when you actually have something to say – don’t send messages “just because.” If your content is inappropriate, incorrect, unrelated or too lengthy your customers will get irritated and quickly unsubscribe. 3. Your customers didn’t knowingly subscribe to marketing messages Nothing gets a consumer’s blood boiling like receiving unsolicited mobile marketing. Remember, a cell phone is still part of your customer’s personal space and no one likes it when their privacy gets invaded. If you have tricked your customers into...
