Join the International Texting Tour and Win 50 FREE SMS CREDITS from TextMagic! 

If you are not already reveling in SMS technology and absolutely loving it, then you have certainly considered all of the ways text messaging could benefit you on a personal level as well as your business. 

So what's stopping you? Can't find SMS Pricing? Does it seems too complicated to use? Haven't found the Global SMS coverage you need?

Now is your chance to win some FREE mobile magic and see how easy it is to use SMS!

Prizes Up For Grab: 2 packs of 50 SMS credits (wow!) every week during April 2010. 

Contest Rules

To enter the competition, there’re two simple steps:

Step 1: Follow @TextMagic on Twitter.

Step 2: Post a tweet and mention TextMagic with some content from our or blog. Or just re-tweet a @TextMagic’s tweet.

Once you have completed the above steps, you will be automatically entered in to the prize draw. We’ll let you know via DM if you win. Also we will post a tweet with the winners. 

To qualify, your Twitter account must be active for 30 days with no less than 30 followers. We love our fans, but we don't love spam! 

Contest ends April 30, 2010 at midnight (-GMT).

Thank you for participating and good luck! 

Like many business owners these days, Mr. Alan Hopgood, the Southend-On-Sea franchisee of the Kendlebell Personal Telephone Answering Service, is constantly seeking new ways to streamline day-to-day operations in order to save time and money. With over 200 clients using his Kendlebell answering service, Mr. Hopgood needed a way to simplify and secure the process by which clients were notified about their incoming calls and messages.

"The majority of our customers like to receive both an email and a text message to ensure that they aren't missing any crucial communication coming through the Kendlebell answering service," states Mr. Hopgood. "We needed a belt and braces approach that would allow us to send SMS texts and emails simultaneously."

Mr. Hopgood discovered TextMagic while researching his options on the Internet.

"Prior to using TextMagic's Email to SMS service, we had to manually send an email and then re-send the same message by SMS text using 2SMS or BlueSMS. TextMagic has simplified this greatly as we can now relay both types of messages with just one click from our screens. We simply added clients' TextMagic to their list of email addresses."

What surprised you about utilizing SMS messaging as a business tool?

"How easy it was to integrate into our business process. TextMagic also allows clients to reply to our text messages which was not possible using conventional web-based text messaging systems. We have been using the TextMagic service for over 18 months now and we are very pleased with its advantages."

Kendlebell (Southend) Ltd. has been the leader in the telephone answering services field for over 12 years, delivering a level of highly personal service to each and every customer. With over 20 locations, Kendlebell is the single largest provider of Personal Telephone Answering Services in the UK and Ireland. For more information on the Southend-On-Sea location, please visit http://www.take-your-message.co.uk.

More than ever it seems as if everyone is an expert at SMS marketing from the service providers to the advertising agencies who urge you to ride the mobile wave before you lose your competitive advantage forever. Yes, mobile marketing does have huge advantages, but how do you ensure that all of your efforts get customers to open their wallets rather than getting lost in a mobile abyss? The following are some best-practice tips to get you started in the right direction:

1. Target your SMS messages to the right people by making sure they have opted in to your service.

2. Know your customer's history and determine which specific products and services they would be interested in.

3. Make your message personal, such as a birthday wish along with a special discount.

4. Offer a service or product that is valuable. For example:

Payment Reminder

Customer Survey

Invitation to an exclusive event

Mobile Coupon

Appointment Reminder

Important alert such as a smoke alarm reminder service that tells a customer when it's time change the batteries.

5. Make you message short, clean and actionable.

6. Go viral! Create an SMS marketing campaign that is compelling and easy for customers to share with their friends. Better yet, why not incentivize them for referring a friend by integrating an SMS customer loyalty program?

7. Don't overuse the SMS channel. More than once a week can be disruptive and a sure way to get valuable customers to opt-out of future updates.

8. Keep your customers anonymous by never sharing or selling their mobile numbers to other brands.

9. Invest in services like SMS Gateway API and Email to SMS that will save you time and money on your texting campaigns.

The idea of sending a text message without using the tiny keyboard on your mobile can be quite new to you. But the truth is, many people have been using “out-of-the-box” online texting tools as an important piece of their communication pie for many years now. 

“Online text messaging often means coming together around a common passion or activity be it family, travel, sport, advertising or anything else that suits your fancy.”