Archive for January, 2009

If you’re trying to reach college or high school students, email is just so yesterday. A full 61% of students never read any email marketing attempts to reach them.  As for the preferred method of communication?  It’s text messaging by a landslide at 37% followed by email (26%), social networking (15%), and instant messaging (11%).

Worldwide mobile messaging revenues in 2008 are projected to be $151 billion.  By 2013,  it will grow to $212 billion.

The recent Pew report shows that 58% of Americans have sent or received a text message, but that figure is much higher when it comes to Hispanics and African Americans.

On a typical day, 31% of Americans use text messaging.  That figure rises to 60% among those under 30.  Clearly, one would think that under 30′s would be the best target for cell phone advertising campaigns.

Accessing the web through a cell phone was done by 65% of Hispanics, 54% of African-Americans, and 70% of users under the age of 30.

The Pew study also concluded for the first time ever that it would be harder for Americans to give up their cell phones than their land line phones.

If you go to our pricing page on 84444.com, you’ll see a secondary option of “Economy Bulk Delivery” of messages to cell phones. 

You might ask yourself: why wouldn’t everybody use this cheaper delivery method?  After all, it’s less than half the price of the traditional text message packages.

The answer is in the technology behind the delivery methods that ultimately effects the look, the cost, and the reliability of that delivery.

Traditional text messaging that you would use if you were to send a text message from you to your friend from your cell phone is known as SMPP, or “short message peer-to-peer protocol.”  These messages are sent through the cell phone carrier’s networks.  There is an intrinsic cost associated with every text message sent via SMPP.

84444.com uses an even more efficient method of delivery, in the SMPP family, called “HTTP delivery.”  This is just as efficient as SMPP delivery, or even more so.  When you launch a text message from the 84444.com web site, it is immediately sent to the carriers for delivery.

This is not the case with SMTP delivery, or “simple mail transfer protocol” delivery.  SMTP is essentially email sent to the cell phone.  At 84444.com, SMTP delivery is branded as Economy Bulk Delivery.

In the case of SMTP, 84444.com attaches the phone number in an email format and sends it to the recipient’s phone.  For example, if you were sending an email to an AT&T cell phone user, you would be sending to phonenumber@txt.att.com).  Check here for a complete list of cell phone carrier email addresses for SMTP delivery.

If you wanted to send an SMPP from your cell phone to a friend, you would simply type his cell phone number in the phone number section and type your text message below.  With SMTP delivery, you could actually send a message from your personal computer’s email to the recipient’s cell phone.

It all sounds good for SMTP until you know that messages sent by SMTP are notoriously slow and may not be delivered at all.  Normal text message delivery by HTTP, known on 84444.com as “Express Delivery,”  is immediate and has priority.  If you are doing an emergency text message alerts program, 84444.com will not permit SMTP delivery; it’s simply not worth the risk for saving a few pennies.

Another problem with SMTP delivery is that it is the method of choice for SPAM due to its lower costs.  It is very easy to see the difference in that an SMTP message has the recipient’s email address at the top.  Therefore, some individuals who have been a victim of cell phone SPAM may delete your message before ever reading it.

There are also legal issues in using the SMTP gateway for business use.  The carriers are clear that SMTP is only permitted for personal use and if the carriers find it is being used for business purposes, the service may be turned off.  Therefore, 84444.com is very careful about what types of messages are permitted on its Economy Bulk Delivery option.

So, now you know.  All text messages are not the same.  It’s up to you to choose the right protocol for your needs.

According to a study by the Mobile Marketing Association called the “2008 Mobile Attitude and Usage Study,” the top mobile marketing categories included:

Text-to-win or voting campaigns: 48 percent

Ringtone downloads: 28 percent

Status alerts: 25 percent

Sales alerts: 24 percent

Mobile coupons: 22 percent

Product information: 21 percent

Mobile customer care: 13 percent

Location-based information: 6 percent