Do you watch Mad Men? In his pitch to Kodak, anti-hero Don Draper has this to say: “technology is a glittering lure. But there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash.” 

"Around and around and back home again." Photo courtesy of AMC TV.

Among a myriad of social utilities, gadgets, Web 2.0 madness, SMS or Text Messaging is still one of the best ways to stay connected with people. Why? Maybe because it is straightforward, quick and easy to use. On the other hand, there’s some sort of intimacy in sending and receiving a text message – it can put a smile on the face of a friend or loved one.

As an ecosystem, text massaging has its own milestones, breakthroughs, new insights and fresh perspectives. We’ve heard many good stories from members of the TextMagic Community about how SMS messaging tools helps them do their jobs better, share information and inform friends and family about important events. 

Still, no matter how beneficial text messaging might be, sending an SMS can be a daunting task for some people. Many are not yet aware of the potential of texting, associating it only with old-fashioned, phone-to-phone ways of using it.

Let’s look at some of the reasons why you may need to become a more advanced SMS user. 

Reason 1: Save time pressing mobile phone keys. Using an online text messaging tool is certainly much more efficient than trying to type a message on a mobile phone keypad. A PC keyboard is definitely easier to use for older generations than a small mobile keypad. So for someone who hates normal text messaging (especially predictive text) it makes text messages bearable.

Reason 2: Organize text messages in a way you like. The one issue with traditional SMS is that messages often do not have any intelligent formatting. For example, spaces and paragraphs are not used. When sending them over the Web or using a piece of software it is possible to give messages a professional and fun look, Moreover, you can organize your SMS correspondence into threaded conversations and save them on your computer.

Reason 3: Use SMS as a reliable means of texting from and to overseas. You work offshore on oil rigs in Norway where you are not allowed to take mobile phones. What’s more, all gadgets have to be stored at the heliport. Or you are serving in Afghanistan as an interpreter with the Northern Alliance. Or, maybe, your son is studying at a UK university with subsequent travels in Australia and the Far East.  

Under such circumstances, in order to keep in contact with your friends and family, an online text messaging tool can be more convenient than other forms of communication, sometimes the only one. Also the time difference can make it awkward to make a phone call or use an IM software programs.

Reason 4: Use texting from areas with no phone or coverage. It can be a lifesaver when you found yourself in a part of the world where you could not get mobile phone reception but had Internet access and needed to communicate with others at home without the expense of phoning from a public phone booth using a phone card (sometimes, the only other option).

Reason 5: Make last-minute changes with no hassle. You can use online SMS tools to communicate efficiently with your colleagues and clients when last minute changes are needed. This is really invaluable for the UK's changeable weather conditions and for teachers who need to amend or cancel classes at schools and so need to let large numbers of people know.

Reason 6: Notify customers of the various stages of order processing. As an owner of a web-store, online texting is ideal for sending dispatch notifications to buyers, for example, of your eBay items. This not only makes your communications appear professional, but prevents your registered number being seen and potentially exploited.

Reason 7: Enjoy privacy and protect your personal information. The technology allows each outcoming and incoming text to be only between you and your recipients. So you’ll be able to create a communications track using a secure website or software program.

Reason 8: Provide a better customer service when bookings arrive. Online texting helps travel companies to be alerted promptly when bookings arrive. Therefore your response time could be virtually immediate, allowing you to provide a better customer service.

SMS or Text Messaging tools can be integrated into your booking system in no time. Plus, as they extremely easy to use, there is nothing to maintain about them, apart from topping it up once in a while.

Reason 9: Programmer or system administrator? Use SMS HTTP or SMTP API as a better alternative. Let’s assume you’re concerned about controlling your server room temperature. And here’s the challenge: temperatures of the server room are logged by a temperature logging system. The temperature logging system generates an email when temperatures are too high. However, the emails are not read regularly. 

Here's a neat solution. The SMS Gateway technology allows the email to be transformed to SMS by a special Email to SMS program. And so SMS will enable you to respond on time to prevent overheating of the server room and control your server room temperature. (For more details, check out our recent article SMS Keeps Customers Safe).

Reason 10: Marketing Agency? Find new revenue channels. Adding bulk SMS capabilities to your agency’s service offering will increase revenue, reduce costs and so open up new opportunities for your clients. Having Text Messaging Solutions as a key part of the messaging mix, can also help optimize your clients marketing investments and gives you the power need during this recession to show how your agency can offer short-term results and long-term value. 

Summary 

Remember Don Draper’s words about "a deeper bond to a product"? What do you think about online text messaging as a product? Does it touch you in some way? Feel free to comment below or let’s talk on Twitter! 

 

"Nostalgia. It's delicate but potent. Switch it on.” Photo courtesy of AMC TV.

Safelincs Fire Safety Products is typical of the kind of business that has thrived in the era of mobile communications. Safelincs, the UK’s largest online fire safety company, uses technology to reach and stay in touch with customers throughout the UK and beyond.

Recently, the Safelincs team has started to use TextMagic's SMS gateway API to stay in touch with customers. But the firm isn't taking the traditional SMS marketing route. Instead, it is using text messaging as part of a free reminder service. Safelincs' IT Manager explains:

"As well as being a profit-making business, Safelincs is also strongly ethical – we have a real commitment to saving people’s lives through fire safety. We support the Government’s Fire Kills campaign, and we do a great deal to keep people aware and informed of fire safety issues.

"As a part of that strand of the business, we’ve recently set up a free SMS reminder service for customers who want to keep their smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors working. All they have to do is sign up on the website, and we send them a reminder when they need to test their alarms, replace batteries and so on."

The  Safelincs team has used the TextMagic SMS gateway API to integrate text messaging into the company website. Customers fill out a simple form, stating their mobile number and the type of reminder they require. The API handles the rest.

How difficult did the developers find it to integrate the TextMagic SMS gateway API and get started with automated text messaging?

"Not difficult at all. We’d been keen to integrate SMS into the site for a while, and we spent some time shopping around different service providers. We settled on TextMagic because it seemed to offer a flexible API and the best combination of service, reliability and pricing.

"Integrating with the API was very easy indeed. We had one small glitch which was resolved really quickly, and we managed to get the service up, running and tested without even buying any SMS credits – the 20 free credits we received on sign up were enough to test the whole thing."

And would Safelincs recommend TextMagic to other businesses?

"Definitely. Integrating SMS into a website sounds like it needs a lot of complex work, but it didn’t at all – I think it wound up taking a day’s development time and some very standard coding skills. We’ve had no problems whatsoever, and we hope to be using TextMagic to text our subscribers for a long time to come."

Interested in how automated text messages can help your business? Learn more about out SMS gateway API.

 
As an oil exploration worker carrying out Seismic surveys around the world, TextMagic customer, Mr. Phillip's career takes him out to sea for long periods of time and often without any mobile signals. In early 2007, while conducting a survey off the coast of Tanzania, Mr. Phillips found that keeping touch with friends and relatives was extremely challenging as well as nerve-wracking at the thought of not being able to communicate in the case of an emergency. Without a mobile signal, the lapse in time it took for a loved one to arrive home and login to their email account was critical.

The search for a reliable SMS solution.

In May of 2007, Mr. Phillips took his search online for a reliable SMS service that would allow him to send text messages from a remote area without a mobile signal. His search brought him to various types of services and after some thorough research, decided that the Textmagic Email to SMS service was the best solution. The service required no software installation and provided the technology that allowed SMS communications to be sent and received within seconds. Responses to Mr. Phillips' urgent messages could come straight to his personal email account.

"I utilize TextMagic whenever I am on-board ship. Often times it's weekly and TextMagic has become invaluable when I need to contact a person urgently."

- Mr. Phillips, TextMagic Customer, United Kingdom

Are you experiencing similar challenges to your text messaging? We invite you to explore our many SMS products designed to meet all of your personal AND business communication needs.

Mobile phones have become the dominant mode of communication around the world and have introduced a broad spectrum of new ways in which people interact with eachother. Nowadays, companies can capture their targeted audience in a matter of seconds and friends can send urgent messages to eachother while on the road. But an often overlooked advantage of SMS technology is the efficiency in communication that it has brought to people with disabilities. For a hearing impaired person, SMS offers a way to communicate accurately and quickly and has subsequently become the most popular mobile solution for this demographic. And layering a service like TextMagic's Email to SMS can enhance the solution by allowing consumers to create longer, more emotional texts.

As it turns out, SMS has also improved communications for people with disabilities other than hearing. In a recent post by news commentator, Patricia E. Bauer, she sites how a mother in the U.S. reported that texting has allowed her autistic son to communicate effectively for the first time ever. The fact that SMS could open the doors of communication and be more than just a convenient mobile tool validates the TextMagic business model. In a survey conducted over the last two months to TextMagic customers, we came across several visually impaired people who have incorporated our service into their everyday communication. We tend to take the physical ability to text for granted, however, it is extremely challenging for someone visually impaired to compose a text message on a tiny mobile keypad. Almost impossible to create one that is precise.

Prior to discovering the Email to SMS service, TetxMagic customer, Philip Congreave, had little success with text messaging.  "I used to try sending messages on my mobile but it was a very tedious process and very frustrating. Using TextMagic is similar to using an email program with Inbox, Outbox and Sent Items Folders and a Send/ Receive facility. Being able to use a full keyboard makes composing very easy."  Mr. Congreave suggested using TextMagic with a screen-reading program such as Thunder which reads the words in the edit window aloud.

We invite you to learn more ways SMS is helping people with disabilities connect in a whole new way and to share your own experiences.