Email and SMS from one platform set to assist marketers

21 Oct 2014

TotalSend has launched SMS and email sending via a single channel. This multi-channel platform allows TotalSend to assist marketers who are increasingly looking to connect with customers on mobile devices. The company says it will save customers up to 40% by consolidating email and SMS onto one easy-to-use platform.

Email and SMS from one platform set to assist marketers

Until recently, marketing and transactional emails and SMS' have been serviced by specialist companies providing only one of the two channels. This meant that marketers had to deal with two suppliers for bulk communications, resulting in fragmented reporting and increased work to be legally complaint with the Electronic Communications Act (ECA) and, more recently, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI). Not to mention losing out on economies of scale by having all messaging requirements met by a single service provider.

Features

The launch of TotalSend's multi-channel email and SMS platform gives businesses and marketers the following:

Economies of scale: Many companies pay large margins to separate suppliers for both bulk email and SMS. According to TotalSend's GM, Duncan Land: "By consolidating these channels and costs into a single platform, TotalSend is able to offer companies a revised pricing structure that will cut messaging costs by an expected 30% to 40%."

Better business intelligence: As well as multi-channel message delivery, a unified platform brings all customer insights into a single data management platform. This means businesses can access consolidated and comprehensive reports with the click of a button - saving the time and hassle of trying to integrate multiple reporting systems

Become POPI compliant: Most South African businesses are aware of POPI: The Protection of Personal Information Bill, which was introduced on 26 November, 2013. In a nutshell, it's there to prevent the negligent disclosure of personal information. Once the Act comes in to play, businesses will have one year to comply with the new regulations.

Dealing with one POPI-compliant suppler from the start will save on costly legal evaluations and remove the expense of implementing systems to collate SMS and email unsubscribes internally.

The Total Send platform can handle: unsubscribes; compliance certification; and security requirements;

Operational efficiency and time saving: The biggest benefit of the working off of a single platform solution is the operational efficiency gained and time saved. Contact lists are managed in one place and can be moved between channels with a single click, reporting can be consolidated and manual processes such as uploads only have to be done once;

Talk to customers on the channel of their choice: Intelligent automation of multi-channel campaigns and transactional messaging ensures a single campaign can reach a customer through the channel he prefers, reducing the amount of 'noise', or unwanted communications, which is a primary reason for customers ignoring future communications; and

Management made easy: TotalSend's SMS application allows marketers to design an SMS template, schedule delivery and track campaigns and lists, with clear reporting on delivery rates, devices, clicks and unsubscribes. Marketers can also have social conversations in their campaigns, include web links, and manage your contacts, replies and opt-outs seamlessly.