SMS marketing is most effective in South Africa

Using snail mail is slow, costly and unreliable. It is for this reason, added to the fact that South Africa has more than 100% cellular penetration that Doug Mattheus of Nashua Mobile believes that SMS marketing is the best.

Companies that need to reach a large base of customers and suppliers at a low cost should consider adding bulk SMS to their marketing and communications mix. That’s according to Doug Mattheus, marketing director at Nashua Mobile.

Says Mattheus: “Sending customers marketing messages, alerts or reminders by post is costly, slow and unreliable. In a country with more than 100% cellular penetration, the most cost effective and easiest way to reach your customers is on their cellphones.””

Through a solution like the Nashua Mobile SMS Gateway, users have access to simplified bulk SMS solutions via a web portal, web service or Microsoft Outlook integration. It allows you to unify, manage and automate business communications through a single process, and even makes it simple for users to send SMS and fax messages directly from their Outlook clients using software plug-ins.

Mattheus says that apart from cost and reach, SMS has a wide range of benefits for organisations when used as a communications tool. It is a versatile platform, suitable for a wide range of applications, from alerting customers that an account payment is due through to marketing a product or sending a time-critical internal notice to employees working in the field.

It is also a bi-directional medium that allows users to reply if appropriate as soon as they receive a company’s message. Messages can also be personalised to customers. And reporting functionality provides accurate delivery data so that one knows that one’s customers received the messages.

Mattheus says that companies must ensure that they have gained explicit permission from each customer they plan to reach via SMS to do so to remain in line with the WASPA Code of Conduct ‚ The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) of which Nashua Mobile is a member.

“”SMS is an ideal way to cut down on the labour and costs of communicating with a large base of employees or customers. It’s a reliable and cost-effective way to reach your audience with timely messages that few companies can afford to overlook,”” concludes Mattheus.

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