Clickatell turns prediction into reality

Sending festive greetings over the holiday season might be a century-old tradition, but in recent years, technological developments have given the custom a new twist. For it is at this time of year that mobile networks across the world gear up to send millions of personal SMS greetings - in the UK alone, over 110 million `Happy New Year` SMS`s were sent on January 1, 2004.

But this year, you might notice an increasing number of business-driven messages amongst the personal greetings in your SMS inbox. Be it notifications from your financial services provider, an alert from your home security company, or details pertaining to your travel plans, even when you are relaxing on holiday, the organisations you deal with will still be in touch. The big question is: how relevant in terms of content and timing is their SMS to you?

The irony is that often the sender of the message can`t even answer that question, and despite their best intentions, the recipient is left bemused or even irritated. But Clickatell, a leading international end-to-end mobile messaging provider, believes that 2005 will be the year that businesses begin to find the answers through the fine-tuning of their mobile messaging strategies.

"Looking at the marketplace now, it may seem a bold prediction, but we have a habit of getting these things right," says Pieter de Villiers, Managing Director of Clickatell. "Back when SMS was viewed as just a gimmick, we predicted its business use and built our company on the fact. We then predicted a year ago that 2004 would see the rise of true corporate messaging, and today countless organisations such as banks, insurers, travel service providers and even government departments are rolling out SMS applications as part of their core communication strategies. But it is in 2005 that we will finally see these strategies truly delivering on their promise."

Why has SMS mushroomed into such a vital component of corporate communications? "The reason is the proliferation of cellular phones globally, which makes SMS the most pervasive, cost effective means by which an organisation can communicate one-to-one with the people that really matter to it," points out De Villiers.

"We all know that businesses want to be closer to their customers in order to deliver a better, more personalised service and thereby raise customer retention levels. SMS is an ideal channel that guarantees delivery of a personalised message at minimal cost, and via a low-complexity medium that is easily understood by the recipient."

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It is not surprising then that SMS currently accounts for over 90% of mobile operator`s data revenues, and De Villiers believes that the key to this success has been because SMS takes away from the recipient the actual requirement to initiate contact.

"When an `event` that is relevant in timing to an individual, triggers an SMS that is relevant in content - the message becomes compelling. A notification of my bank balance or of a delayed flight is extremely useful to me, because it alerts me to relevant information timeously, and removes the hassle of me having to go find that information myself," he says.

Yet whilst `push-messaging` is a proven winner, consumers can get too much of a good thing. A flood of messages originating from different companies or separate areas of an organisation can drown out the few messages that really matter to the consumer, leaving them irritated and confused. The key for businesses in getting their messaging strategies perfected in 2005, is in knowing what information to push, when and to whom.

"The fact remains that messaging is a natural extension of how a business interacts with its clients, and mobile messaging is certainly here to stay," concludes De Villiers. "All indicators show that the demand for corporate SMS solutions in 2005 will outstrip that of 2004, but with most companies doing it, getting it right will be the differentiator."