Choosing SMS software

We advertise 3 key products on the home page plus a solution just for software developers generally referred to as an API.

As all of the solutions allow you to send text messages, what’s the difference between them and which one is applicable to you?

Textburst

The key advantage of textburst is it’s accessible from the internet, in your web browser, it’s like hotmail or google mail but instead of sending emails it sends text messages.

As an internet based application it can provide more functionality and allow you to take full control over your text message campaign.

It’s ideal for bulk SMS marketing because you can upload and manage multiple, and large groups of contacts. That means by segregating your database by e.g. interest, age or gender you can now target and tailor SMS messages specifically to that group.

You can also merge information into each text message so you can personalise it to the individual recipient. Like mail merging in a Word document. This is ideal if you want to increase response rates or make the customer feel like they are receiving a more personal communication.

The other key difference with textburst is the ability to schedule large SMS sends. This means you can develop a marketing message and send it out at a time where it will have the most impact. The thing about text messaging is that customers receive and read messages instantly so timing your message to perfection will yield much better results, and this might be at a time when you’re not at a PC. That’s where scheduling comes in.

You can also view a list of scheduled sends and cancel them if appropriate.

Textburst is also ideal for keeping in touch with staff, and in particular for business continuity SMS. The frequent reality of a business continuity situation is you’re not going to be able to get into the office. With textburst being internet based you don’t need to, it can be accessed from any internet enabled PC, be it at home, an internet cafe or from a Smartphone.

Outlook Mobile Service

Sometimes called OMS, this is actually your email package Microsoft Outlook 2007 or later version. When Microsoft launched Outlook 2007 they included the ability to send SMS text messages. And just like email, for which you need an email address from an email provider, you need an SMS provider. That’s where we come in.

With Outlook 2007 you are simply using functions and buttons provided to you by Microsoft, instead of clicking the “New Email” button you click the “New SMS” button. The compose SMS screen looks very similar to the email screen, and settings are all in the usual Microsoft menus, this means, assuming you already use Outlook then you’re already familiar with how it works and you’re not going to have any usability issues.

The most obvious advantage of using Outlook for text messaging is that it utilises all the information already in Microsoft Outlook contact list. This is great for small businesses that use this list as their primary database of contact information, and using a single database avoids duplication and margin for error.

The other distinct advantage is its links to the existing Microsoft Outlook calendars. You can have text message reminders sent to your mobile phone in advance of meetings or even a daily summary first thing in the morning. This is great functionality for those who’re regularly out of the office and need reminders of where to be, and when.

The final piece of the jigsaw is email notifications via SMS. This feature allows you to configure a rule that means when an email comes in that meets the requirements e.g. from a certain person or containing certain information then you’ll get an immediate text message notification. Perfect for that important email, perhaps notification of a contract win!

For advanced Outlook users if you combine Outlook Mobile Service with business contact manager you can make the functionality work well for text message marketing.

Email to SMS

Don’t be confused with Outlook Mobile service working from your email package. Email to SMS is different.

Email to SMS works from any email application what so ever, no exceptions. That’s the advantage; the disadvantage is it only comes with very basic functionality, although this suits most people.

Basically, just proceed as if you were sending an email but instead of entering an email address you type in their mobile number followed by @message-platform.com.

The email is sent directly to mediaburst and we convert the message content into an SMS and send it via the mobile networks. It all happens in a split second.

Email to SMS is often used by software developers to customise existing applications. For example, if you have software that can trigger an email when an event happens, if the email is sent to the email to SMS service then it’s be converted to SMS and delivered to your mobile handset.

So rather than receive the email you can now receive a text message and cover the possibility that you may not be at your PC when the event is triggered.

Typical examples of this in operation is, completion of website forms, appointment software, and server monitoring software.

SMS API

API stands for Application Protocol Interface, if you don’t know what it means, don’t worry, it’s not for you it’s for techies, software developers.

With an API you can connect your application to the mobile networks, if you want to send SMS messages from your application then this is what you need.

Integrate your application using XML SMS SMPP, HTTP SMS or SOAP SMS.

Summary

Although our applications are based around the principle functionality of sending SMS text messages, which application you chose depends very much on what software you already have and what is most convenient for you to use.

But as always, if your not clear or need any more information then get in touch.

If you want to read more then you could read our SMS Marketing Tips.

We also produced a self explanatory page entitled 10 things to do with SMS.