SMS Marketing Case Studies

1. Brand: United Colours of Benetton

SMS Scheme: shop for 3999 and get free hamper of 999 exclusive @ UCB stores

Target Audience : A + category of aged 18 to 28 , HNI, High end car owners , Income wise , Students, Premium Credit and debit card holders

Geography wise Tier 1 : Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata

Volume: 1 CR

Response rate 8% : 8lac Footfall in stores

2. Brand: Arrow ( Arvind brands )

SMS Scheme: EOSS for Arrow with sale up to 50%

Target Audience : A + category of aged between 26 to 38 Male , HNI, High end car owners ,Frequent Flyers , Premium Credit and debit card holders, Corporate segment

Geography wise Tier 1 : Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata

Geography wise Tier 2 : Ahmadabad, Jaipur, Lucknow , Chandigarh, Indore , Pune , Gurgaon , Bhubaneswar , Baroda

Volume: 2 CR

Response Rate 5% : 10 lac Foot Fall in stores

3. Brand : Levis ( Denizen)

SMS Scheme: Buy 1 get 1 free form Levis Denizen

Target Audience: A B + category aged between 18 to 35 , Students , Credit and debit card holders, Income wise

Geography wise Tier 1 : Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata

Geography wise Tier 2 : Ahmadabad, Jaipur, Lucknow , Chandigarh, Indore , Pune , Gurgaon , Bhubaneswar , Baroda ,Nagpur

Volume: 5 CR

Response rate: 50 lac Footfall in stores

Don't be fooled by New Fake SMS Companies‏

This is for your kind information that we found many new as well as few established companies are selling SMS & Voice Calls at very low cost which is below than the industry standard, as you are well aware about the termination charges ( 5ps + Tax ) levied by TRAI w.e.f Oct 25^th 2011 on every promotional messages. In this regard we would like to reveal the exact trap behind these companies…

How these companies are selling at low rates

Delivery Cut Off System : If you brought 1 lakh SMS at 4 paisa and when you shoot 1 lakh SMS they will submit only 30,000 (or less) to the SMSC for delivery and update fake delivery reports in this scenario your average price per SMS comes to 13 Ps  

Pushing SMS through Transactional Gateway : Many companies were scrubbing DND numbers and pushing through Transactional Route but which is now strictly blocked by all operators.

These companies are also providing free demo account where SMS will be delivered instantly but when you start pushing SMS in bulk you will come to know the catch.

In this regard we humbly request you to please stay away from those companies and don’t compare them with us as we are distinctly ahead from them and always committed to provide industry best service and support with competitive pricing.

Ensuring Best Service & Support Always !

For More Detail Visit www.smsgatewayhub.com or Mail US at : Support@smsgatewayhub.com

Pre-paid Airtel customers to get detailed bills now

New Delhi, Feb 13, 2012,(IANS)

 Following the Indian telecom regulator's instructions, Bharti Airtel Monday launched an online self-care service to provide its pre-paid mobile customers details of their account including bills.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had last month asked operators to ensure that subscribers are informed every time an amount is deducted from their account for different services adding that they should be provided a detailed bill for a price not exceeding Rs.50.

The operators were given a deadline of 45 days. "'Prepaid My Account' is a simple, secure and convenient way for Airtel prepaid mobile customers to access a whole host of functionalities including checking balance, recharging, starting or stopping VAS services (value added services) etc," Airtel, the first firm to come up with this service, said in a statement.

"Airtel prepaid mobile customers can visit the new self care website to receive and activate customized offers on 'My Airtel, My Offer’ (MAMO), view tariff and top up options, request for the itemized bill and more," it added.

Customers can also view last 5 recharge details. So far, there was no regulatory guideline to provide pre-paid customers itemised bills who had no record of their calls and other services.

For More Detail Visit www.smsgatewayhub.com

What is SMS Mobile marketing, Importance of SMS Mobile marketing

What is SMS Mobile marketing, Importance of SMS Mobile marketing, Role of SMS Mobile marketing in Business and Sales Development, SMS Mobile marketing Future Growth, SMS Mobile marketing Revolution in India, SMS Mobile marketing Benefits

Did you know that you are accustomed to do with your computer or laptop can be done via a mobile phone? You may have heard about the utility of a mobile phone today, making it easier for people to communicate. That’s why it was so popular, both for consumers and merchants. If you plan properly, traders over time can make millions of people in a short time and consumers, however, receive a product essential to the right when you want. In fact, Mobile SMS Marketing to increase demand that all companies.
So how Mobile Marketing really effective? Easy. Mobile Marketing via SMS is trying to communicate with your target customers directly to your mobile. He was the marketing for you, because customers take the message directly from the phone can read receipt.
Studies have shown that, in response to text messages, most consumers are faster than in the ad is sent by email or through traditional forms of advertising.
Now we must think about how you can include text and now marketing marketing message. Just follow these simple steps to get there.
Step 1: Assess your company, allowing the analysis of the free market, where you can use SMS mobile marketing. It is important that even before the start of the campaign, it is necessary to understand how marketing messages can help your business so they can work.
Step 2: So you want a mobile marketing application, it may go well with the overall marketing plan. You should set goals so you can keep everything together and start a successful campaign by SMS.
Step 3: Apply the appropriate marketing message. So how are you? Make sure all materials needed for the campaign is available. You can loan and then you can develop a message to send.
After all steps are followed, you’re ready to take your business to new levels.


For More Detail Visit http://www.smsgatewayhub.com/

TRAI Mulls Tariff Regulation For Voice Calls, Mobile Data Usage

Telecom regulator has noted absence of effective competition despite multiple operators in each service area.

 

 

The Indian telecom regulator has floated a consultation paper for reviewing existing tariff policy which may see the mobile service and data usage service on the mobile, to be brought under regulation. Such a move could stump telecom operators’ ongoing efforts to raise tariffs while providing cheaper data usage for consumers that may boost mobile Internet business.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked stakeholders to send their comments by February 24 and counter comments by March 2, on the need for a change in present regulatory framework for telecom tariff fixation. The consultation paper seeks to gather views on what should be the basis for tariff regulation, if at all; would such a regulation affect the ability of the telecom service providers to introduce innovative tariff plans and whether the current tariff for data services is competitive and reasonable enough.
It also wants to know the factors that impact competition in data services in the market; the possible measures to enhance competition for availability of data services at affordable tariff and whether TRAI should regulate tariff for data services by way of fixing ceiling tariff to protect the interest of the consumers.
Mobile Tariff:
The telecom regulator has noted that between March 1999 and September 2011, the average out going voice tariff has been falling but the rate of decline appears to be leveling off. The entry of new operators in 2008 led to more competition in the form of reduced tariff, including introduction of innovative tariff plans such as per second billing, both from new entrants and old operators.
However, despite existence of the new entrants, by the end of December 2011, it is seen that the subscriber base of new operators remains less than 7.5 per cent and the top six incumbent operators enjoy the market share of more than 80 per cent in terms of subscriber base. “This indicates absence of effective competition despite presence of multiple operators in each service area,” TRAI noted.
From July and August 2011, some of the telecom service providers uniformly hiked prepaid tariff in many service areas. The nature of revision revealed that increase in tariff has taken place from 1 paise per second to 1.2 paise per second and from 50 paise/minute to 60 paise per minute for mobile to mobile calls.
Similarly, from 1.2 paise per second to 1.5 paise per second and from 60 paise per minute to 90 paise per minute for mobile to fixed line calls. Further, tariff validity for concessional tariff rates, which was generally 12 months, has been reduced to 6 months.
“On examination of tariff revision, it was observed that the increase in tariff by six service providers has been more or less uniform and almost simultaneous for all the tariff elements, across the service providers. The level of tariff increase affected by the telecom access providers as well as the timing of such hike points towards the possible prevalence of coordinated price activity behind the increase in tariffs,” according to TRAI.
It added that in the past two months, a few service providers have implemented a similar hike in respect of tariff plans offered to post-paid subscribers as well. It also pointed out that media reports suggest further hike in mobile tariff is expected soon.
The regulator noted the arguments of the telecom firms to justify the increase in tariffs: increase in operating costs due to inflationary trends and rising rate of interests, increase in network operating costs due to higher costs of power and fuel, decline in revenue and return on capital employed (ROCE) and higher cost of customer acquisition, etc.; constraints in spectrum availability and higher spectrum usage charge and microwave charges levied by the government; roll out obligations for 3G services and increase in cost of regulatory/security compliance, etc.
Data Usage Tariff:
With introduction of low cost handsets having capabilities of enabling the telecom subscribers to use data services, there is an increasing trend in usage of data services. This has boosted proliferation of mobile applications in terms of m-education, m-health, m-commerce, m-banking, m-governance, etc. In such a scenario, data services will no longer be perceived as a service meant for high-end subscribers, rather it will be viewed as a basic service.
TRAI has pointed out: “Notwithstanding certain variations across all the service providers, it is observed that tariff for data service is very high.”
It has added that in almost all the cases, the default tariff for data services post free usage is as high as Rs 10,485 per GB, on the basis of pulse rate of 10kb per 10p. There are, however, two service providers providing data services at comparatively lower rates( @ Rs 256/GB and @ Rs 1,048/GB respectively).
“Such a high variation in tariff for data services cannot be justified on the basis of underlying cost for provision of these services,” according to TRAI.
The telecom regulator has added that in a number of cases, after the free data usage is over, the default rates for data services are extremely high vis-à-vis the per GB rate for such services up to a pre-specified usage of data services. “Since a consumer does not know when exactly he has crossed the usage limit, this can lead to billing shocks to the subscribers in case they breach the usage limit provided under the tariff plan/package adopted by them,” said TRAI in the consultation paper.

For More Detail Visit www.smsgatewayhub.com

SMS Marketing Among Top Mobile Marketing Trends In 2012

 
SMS is here to Stay!
If you think SMS text messaging is not a viable strategy for marketing, you may need to think again and think different. To say that SMS text message market is growing rapidly may be an understatement. The great news for SMS marketing companies is that SMS text will continue to thrive in the coming year. The surge in mobile SMS marketing is nothing short being called phenomenal. Don’t just take my word for it. Consider a few startling global SMS statistics:

Mobile Marketing Statistics 2011
• There are more people using mobile devices than toothbrushes
• 6.9 billion SMS were sent in 2011 across the globe
• That figure is projected to rise to 8 trillion in 2012
• 83% of U.S. adults are mobile phone owners
• A third of them prefer text message over a phone call
• Every second urban Indian acknowledges receiving a marketing SMS
• 37% of Indians receive ringtones, wallpapers or game SMS from businesses
• 95% of Text Messages are Read within 4 Minutes
• Only 6% of marketing emails are responded to
• SMS campaigns on the other hand have a response rate of 45%
In other words, SMS messaging has a higher response rate as a means of direct communication than telemarketing, email, or direct post mails.

The SMS text message market means more fertile ground for businesses to experiment with catchy text messages and enticing offers. Here’s to happy SMS text messages marketing in 2012!

Want to send bulk SMS for marketing your business? Call SMSGATEWAYHUB.COM @ 090394 48000 to know in details.

Connect With Students via SMS Marketing

SMS Solutions for Education Industry

1. 90% of SMS messages get read within half an hour of receiving. If educational institutes incorporate SMS for students into their marketing strategy, they can ensure important information is read by students promptly or without fail.
2. Mobile phones are one of the most closely held belongings today. And people often consider SMS as personal means of communication. With SMS marketing college management can connect on a one-to-one and very personal basis with the students which is not possible with bulletins, intercom or plain assembly announcements.
3. Phone numbers are important student data which can be stored in school/college database. This student data can not only be monitored in real time via an online reporting dashboard but also be used for future interaction with students, even after they pass out of the college or university.
4. With SMS marketing it is possible for college management to connect with students’ parents or guardians. It has common today for both parents and children to carry mobile phones to keep in touch. Educational institutes can use the power of text messaging to contact parents, local guardian and students and convey information in an extremely time sensitive manner.
5. School SMS system can be used to broadcast a variety of information to students including:
• Emergency alerts such as school lockdowns
• Registrations, Admission, Event notifications
• Class cancellations
• Alerts to parents in case of student falling sick or meeting with accidents
• Alerts to parents for delayed or rerouted school buses
• Notifications on off days due to weather conditions
Availing of bulk SMS services, schools and universities can create student database or lists organized by class, section, grade or batch. Using group SMS service it is possible to instantly send targeted mass broadcast messages to the relevant group.

Schools Universities & Educational SMS

Schools, colleges, institutes or coachings need not beat around the bush anymore. SMS marketing solutions for education industry allow for great flexibility, versatility and convenience in reaching out to the student base. With SMS services provider it is possible to send bulk SMS to Indore students, broadcast engineering student SMS or commerce student SMS and ensure timeliness of information delivery.
SMS and students gel together a lot. Online SMS service can provide schools and colleges with an immediate, reliable and cost-effective method to reach students instantly.

Want to send bulk SMS for marketing your business? Call SMSGATEWAYHUB @ 09039448000 to know in details. or Visit : www.smsgatewayhub.com

2G scam: Supreme Court verdict cancelling 122 telecom licences leaves foreign investors shocked

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: The Supreme Court has cancelled 122 licences awarded by former telecom minister A Raja, a ruling hailed by anti-corruption campaigners but one that left investors, banks and vendors fretting about the prospect of billions of dollars going down the drain.

As shell-shocked mobile operators affected by the judgement scrambled to pick up the pieces and lawyers pored over the ramifications of the order; the government hailed the verdict, hoping to draw a line under an is sue that has scarred it badly and come to define its second term in office.

The order, which was scathing in its depiction of the conduct of telecom policy in 2007-08, could nonetheless result in a multi-billion-dollar bonanza for a cash-strapped government, as 540 MHz of spectrum could become available for allocation through a public auction mandated by the court.

But foreign investors, notably Norway's Telenor and Russia's Sistema, reacted with shock, claiming they had only followed government policies in place at the time. Both operators had entered India through joint ventures with companies that had been awarded licences by Raja, who is currently behind bars facing trial in a related case.

"The licences granted to the private respondents (companies) on or after Jan 10, 2008... and subsequent allocation of spectrum to the licensees are declared illegal and are quashed," said a bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly. "I am only doing my job," Justice Ganguly, who retired on Thursday, told ET NOW. The opposition BJP seized upon the ruling to lash out at the government, with Arun Jaitley, the party's leader in Rajya Sabha, describing it as a monumental fraud.

But the apex court's verdict, at least in the short term, could dent investor confidence, analysts said, as it would strengthen the perception that government policies could be easily overturned by the courts. "Telenor Group has already invested over Rs 6,100 crore in equity and over Rs 8,000 crore in corporate guarantees as a foreign investor that trusts a licence stamped by the Government of India. We urge the government to ensure that a foreign investor that had nothing to do with these processes is not harmed," Telenor said in a statement.

First-come-first-serve policy struck down

"We look to the government to arrive at a fair outcome," Telenor said.

But speaking at a press conference, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal held out little hope for foreign investors. "Protection of interests is not the function of the government. Any party that feels aggrieved can approach the courts," Sibal said.

Sibal, the only government minister to go public on a day the dominant narrative on numerous television channels was that the UPA government had once again been 'indicted' by the courts for corruption, put up a brave face on the debacle, saying the ruling had brought clarity to the sector as the court had specified that spectrum could only be allocated though the auction route. The wider market took the ruling in its stride with the BSE Sensex rising 131 points, or 0.7%.

The judges directed sector regulator Trai to come up with recommendations within two months for issuing licences and auctioning spectrum. The telecom operators whose licences had been cancelled could keep operating for four months, the court ruled, while Trai and the government carried out the groundwork for issuing new licences. "As per the orders, within four months, Trai will prepare guidelines for auction of spectrum that will be available after this cancellation," said Sibal. Some commentators found the ruling problematic. "Auction is often good policy but the idea that democratic government cannot choose another (policy) for all resources even if transparent is problematic. Indictment of the UPA and politics apart, the 2G judgement is constitutionally problematic," Pratap Bhanu Mehta, president, Centre for Policy Research, said on Twitter, the microblogging site. Two aspects of the court's ruling could come under close examination in the coming days from constitutional experts. The court appeared to have found the "first-come-first-served" policy unconstitutional. But first-come-first-served was the basis of government policy in many sectors such as mining, ministers pointed out, so the implication of the judgement could be far-reaching. The judges also said they had not ruled on licences issued between October 2003 and January 2008 under the first-come-first-served policy as the companies that had received the permits were not party to the court proceedings. But the logic could endanger licences of incumbent operators such as Bharti, Vodafone and RCOM, which otherwise could benefit from the exit of the newer operator. The Bharti scrip ended up nearly 7%. "The only reason why all licences since 2003 may not have been cancelled was that the operators were not party to the case," Sibal said.  For More Detail Visit www.smsgatewayhub.com

Bulk SMS Marketing Tips

Tip #1: Buy in bulk if you’re a regular
Buying bulk quantities of SMS Messages can save you big bucks. I guess this is obvious, but a look at the prices on your favourite bulk SMS provider will confirm how true this is — so think before you buy..
If you’re going to be sending SMS messages to small groups, but regularly, buy in bulk. Think of your overall SMS needsfor, say, 3 or 6 months or maybe even a year, if you’re serious about SMS marketing, in order to cut costs dramatically.
Tip #2: Be careful about the encoding
The SMS protocol has support for different SMS message encodings. The most common is GSM , but there is also UCS-2 support.. In short, GSM contains only a number of characters, while UCS-2 supports practically every language out there.
If GSM doesn’t cover your needs, beware because the character limit drops in UCS-2 from 160 characters per SMS to 70 characters per SMS!
So make sure you’re informed – or you might end up getting charged for double the amount of SMS messages you meant to send!
Tip #3: Did you know what ‘concatenation’ is?
Concatenation is an option some Bulk SMS providersoffer — others don’t, and others have it set as default.
Without it, if you send an SMS that’s over 160 chars (if it’s on the GSM encoding) your ‘one’ SMS will get delivered as two separate SMS messages on the consumers mobile phone. Be sure your bulk SMS provider offers this option, if you will often be sending messages that exceed the limit.
Tip #4: Remember to include contact details
Given the nature of my profession, I register my mobile phone number in all sorts of places. As a result I get sent loads of texts from various SMS marketing campaigns. Once in a while there’s a text that I find interesting, so at that point I need a way to participate, either by sending an SMS, or by calling a number.
The problem is I have seen too many of these texts without full contact details so I can choose what suits me best.
This is really important when the SMS being sent is acall-to-action, or if the consumer might have aquestion or require clarifications.
For example, restaurants often send me promotional SMS messages, but in case I want to participate I want more than just the phone number they usually give me. Why not also have the website, so I can visit it directly from my phone, or also have the ability to text back to participate/book a table/etc ?
Tip #5: Get your date and time right
Another common pitfall clients often make are (small) mistakes in the date and time for events in their SMS messages. It’s very unfortunate because the whole point of their SMS is to promote the event, and they get that wrong.
I know it sounds silly, but I see it happen… They focus too much on the rest of the SMS message, so much so, that they neglect to check their dates are right.
Tip #6: Don’t send at inappropriate times
How annoying is it when your phone rings just as you’re dozing off? Well, believe it or not (or should I say admit it or not!?), there’s marketers out there that make the mistake of sending out their promotional SMS at times when their audience would rather not be disturned.
Ok, I know that when dealing with a wide audience, for which you don’t know all that much, it might be difficult to come to a safe conclusion about the most appropriate time to communicate with them. Still, there are some general rules to follow about times that apply to the general public.
In general, don’t contact them:
Tip #7: Time-critical SMS/Guaranteed delivery options
If your messages MUST reach their recipient, or if it is essential they are deliveredwithin seconds, you can buy this sort of Quality of Service from most SMS providers.
Beware though; this comes at a cost. This type of SMS messages is quite expensive when compared to normal SMS, and that’s not all.
Guaranteed delivery, might imply that some of your recipients will receive their SMS more than once. This is because of the approach (most) SMS providers take. If the SMS is delayed for some reason (e.g. poor signal),they will re-send the message, until they get back a delivery report saying it’s been delivered.
In short, guaranteed delivery will ensure your SMS is delivered, just as long as you don’t mind some of your recipients getting it twice.
Think what’s more important, because some of them might complain about this sort of thing… but then again others might complain if they don’t get it! If you don’t want to have to choose try to find a bulk SMS provider that will guarantee you both (in writing )..
Tip #8: Run your SMS text through a spell checker
This is, again, simple, yet sometimes overlooked. Quickly pass your text through a spell checker to ensure you don’t get any embarassing comments, because this sort of thing can hurt your campaign and your own (or your business) image. Do you really want a politician who either can’t spell or just isn’t bothered to pass the SMS through a spell checker? (the second’s far far worse for me cause it shows poor professionalism, while making spelling mistakes isn’t that big a deal for me)
Tip #9: Send a test SMS
Once you’ve prepared your SMS in your favourite Bulk SMS software, or website, and you’re ready to press that big red ‘SEND’ button… STOP!
Now is the time to take a second and send the message to your own mobile phone first, to make sure it comes up ok. Then, because, to be honest, we’re not very fair judges of our own work, send it to a friend or colleague who hasn’t seen it yet, and see how they react / ask them what they think. When you get the green light from them, you’re good to go!
Tip #10: Check delivery reports to remove consistently failing numbers
Most websites that do bulk SMS, offer delivery reports, so that you are able to tell which of your recipients your SMS has been delivered to. Obviously this is a great feature in itself, but you should put it to use as well.
Don’t just look at the list and think cool, most of my messages are getting delivered… Keep a separate list of the failing recipients over a couple of iterations and erase them from your list, so that you save yourself the extra credit.
Sounds trivial, I know, but I wouldn’t be bringing it up if I didn’t know some of you don’t do it.

For More Detail visit www.smsgatewayhub.com