Marketing for your business need not be expensive. With the widespread use of mobile phones and sms messaging services, a new form of marketing, called web-based sms marketing, is becoming the rage in the marketing arena. I still can't understand why most business owners are not capitalizing on what web-based sms marketing provides to a business. In this very competitive world, it is extremely important to understand the use of SMS as a marketing tool and its impact to your business' bottomline. This article intends to enlighten the business owners on the advantages of deploying web-based sms marketing to propel your business to new heights.

Web-based SMS Marketing is faster and can go farther than the speeding bullet
Just a few years ago, the Internet, thru SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click) marketing, was the fastest  way to penetrate any market. With web-based SMS marketing, this has changed the playing field. No form of marketing can beat web-based SMS marketing in terms of faster delivery and quick feedback. This is understandable since most people carry their cellphones wherever they go. But this is not the case with computers and Internet. The penetration, based on studies, are in also favor of web-based SMS marketing since cellphone owners outnumber computer owners.

Web-based SMS marketing gets responded to better than any marketing methodology
Due to the nature of receiving SMS messages, one must click and open the message first before the recipient can determine if he/she wants to delete the message or not. Once opened, the marketing message has been sent across and the marketing campaign is already considered a success. As a result, web-based SMS marketing is getting higher response rates than email marketing or the traditional face-to-face marketing. In email marketing, the recipient gets to review the subject and a high percentage of these emails remained unread or get deleted.

Web-based SMS Marketing is the perfect tool for instant, direct, fast marketing
Web based SMS marketing allows for quick sending of marketing messages in a timely manner. For example, business owners can schedule sending text messages at 10am or before dinner. Except for email, no other marketing technology can do this.

Web-based SMS Marketing is one of the cheapest ways to reach your target market
Because it is web-based, the cost of conducting a marketing campaign thru web-based SMS marketing is cheaper than most marketing methodologies. One message can be sent at less than 10 cents. With Google Adwords, the minimum bid per click is 10 cents and if you don't manage your PPC marketing well, it can go as high as $5-10 per click.

Web-based SMS Marketing is highly personalised, interactive and has an immediate impact. It shortens your time to market significantly so your clients get your message in time. Aside from these advantages, web-based SMS marketing is very cost-effective and is experiencing high response rates. As smart business owner, you just cannot ignore including web-based SMS marketing in your marketing mix. Web-based SMS Marketing is a great arsenal and an effective tool for lead generation and product/service promotion.

The history of SMS messaging started in the 1980s when telecommunication experts started discussing the technical specifications of sending short messages between mobile phones thru a network. This would be known later as GSM services.

These technical discussions culminated in the sending of the first ever SMS message over Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on December 3, 1992. It was said that Neil Papworth, an engineer of Airwide Solutions, sent the first SMS message from his personal computer to Richard Jarvis of Vodafone. The message was a short and sweet "Merry Christmas".

This initial success was later followed in the succeeding year with the successful deployment of SMS messaging services in Norway and UK. In its early history, SMS messaging growth was very slow as GSM customers were only sending 0.4 messsages per month on the average. The reasons for the slow growth were: billing fraud, inefficient charging setups, and non-existent interoperability among the telecom networks.

When these initial problems were addressed, and with the efficient implementation of pre-payment schemes, SMS messaging usage took off in the year 1999. The teenagers were credited as early adopters of SMS messaging followed by adults and business people.

It was now all history, SMS messaging was said to be the triumph of the consumer. What started as a technology used only for alerting a mobile user of a stored voice mail or a technical applications such as telemetry, SMS messaging is now used by all segments of the society.

The high learning curve in using the SMS messaging services spurred a new form of SMS communication which gave rise to abbreviations and acronyms to save time in typing the messages over a small keyboard. Curiously, most of these abbreviations are understood by the majority of the population.

Today, SMS messaging is not only a part of GSM but also available on other networks like 3G. Unlike in its infancy years, SMS now is being used in a wide range of applications: from ringing tones, to information services, American Idol voting, and even fortune telling. Recently, businesses started using SMS broadcasting thru the Internet for its marketing campaigns. Using web-based SMS providers like www.clearsms.com, business owners must have recognized the advantages of SMS over other mode of communications. SMS messaging offers the fastest form of transmission; it can reach areas unreachable by voice services; and at minimal costs.

In its 15-year history, SMS messaging has gone far and wide and deep. Commercially, SMS is a massive industry worth over 80 billion dollars globally. In the coming years, we should see other applications of SMS messaging especially in the areas of business development and marketing. When that happens, make sure your business is not left behind.

SMS texting shortcuts are abbreviations or acronyms that people use to send sms text messages easier and faster. It is not uncommon to receive a text message without a single English word in it. If you are new to text messaging or have been texting for quite some time, it is adviseable that you at least understand the most common SMS text message shortcuts to avoid potential misunderstanding and confusion with people you regularly exchange text messages.

To begin with, you have to recognize first the one-letter SMS shortcuts:

b - be
4 - for
c - see
d - the
i - I
2 - to
n - in or and
u - you
y - why

From the list above, you could form other meanings like CU for "see you" or 4U for "for you". The one-letter SMS shortcuts are universally used and it would be safe to assume that everyone who is texting understands its meanings.

With that out of the way, we now focus on two- and three-letter text messaging shortcuts:

add - address
asl - age, sex, location
b4 - before
b4n or bfn - bye for now
brb - be right back
btw - by the way
cr8 - create
cu - see you
cud - could
coz or cuz - because
cya - see ya
dat - that
d8 - date
dl - download
ez - easy
faq - frequently asked questions
fon - phone
fyi - for your information
g2g or gtg - got to go
gr8 - great
ic - I see
k - ok
l8r - later
lol - laughing out loud
msg - message
np - no problem
omg - oh my gosh
pls - please
ppl - people
thx or tnx - thanks
ty - thank you
u2 - you too
w8 - wait

There are common four- and five-letter SMS text shortcuts but as it gets longer, the chance of it being misunderstood also increases. Except for very common four- and five-letter shortcuts, I would refrain from using shortcuts longer than 4 letters. Some of most common longer shortcuts are:

asap - as soon as possible
imho - in my humble opinion
ruok - are you ok?
cul8r - see you later
2moro - tomorrow

I seldom send text message shortcuts that are 5 or 6 letters long. You maybe comfortable using longer text shortcuts but think also about your recipient, will he/she understand what you mean? It is better to stick with the shorter shortcuts so you won't be misunderstood. For example, don't use shortcuts like:

rotfwtime - rolling on the floow with tears in my eyes
dltbbb - don't let the bed bugs bite
nalopkt - not a lot of people know that (I certainly don't know that)

Keep in mind that using SMS shortcuts could result to misunderstanding and confusion if the receiver is not aware of the meaning of the shortcuts. You can avoid this risk by sticking to shorter shortcuts and using only shortcuts that make general sense to you. Heed this advise and you should be OK.

Free SMS Texting services are everywhere these days. It seems like every week a new online SMS texting service appears to get a share of the SMS market. This sector has become VERY competitive over the past few years. Here are some of the things that you need to know before you engage the services of free online SMS texting.

Free SMS texting, as the name implies, is a free service for sending SMS messages thru your PC and your Internet connection. The main reason why this service is very attractive to most businesses is because it eliminates the cost factor in sending text messages. It is free and you don't have to pay anything, ever.

Sending SMS messages from your PC, also, has the added advantage of quickly composing the text messages to your recipients because it is definitely a lot faster to type your messages from your PC keyboard than from the tiny keyboard of your mobile phone.

But having it free has its disadvantages. Not all SMS text messages are actually free. Some service providers charge the recipient some fees for receiving the message. If you are using a free SMS texting service for your business, make sure your partners or clients are not being charged for receiving your text messages.

Almost all free SMS texting providers require you to register to avail of their free texting services. Once you register your own mobile phone number and the mobile phone numbers of your clients, you get spammed SMS messages regularly. You can just imagine how frustrating it can be for you and your clients to receive spam messages.

These free SMS services also do not provide for sending bulk SMS messages. Even if some of them spam your mobile phones, they don't want their services abused by other spammers as well. If you are sending a promotional message to 1000 clients, using a free SMS service will take you ages.

Finally, free SMS texting sites, are often overloaded so your messages get delayed or remained undelivered. If you have a critical announcement to make, you don't want to take the risk of your messages not being received by your clients.

So, there you have it. Now that you've been given the highs and lows of free SMS texting, the next step is up to you. For businesses serious enough to reach new heights thru the use of SMS texting, taking the free option to SMS texting may not be the best choice for you. Take this information and make the best choice on your next texting campaign.

"Thumbs down for text messages - they are officially addictive. - The Telegraph

"Scandinavian treated in clinic for SMS addiction" - The Register

The number of texting addicts is on the rise. A internet therapy center in Scandinavia has treated around 60 addicts since 1998 and this number is believed to be under reported.

Asia has not been spared either. According to Telecoms Korea, 3 out of 10 Korean high school students who carry mobile phones are reported to be addicted to mobile phones. The report also added, a big 21% of 270 high school students carrying cell phones responded that they feel anxious when their handsets are not in their hands and 8% of them said that they feel very frustrated without mobile phones. 10% of the respondents already reported of pain in the shoulder or wrist. This is repetitive strain injury - pressing small keyboards of cell phones causes poor blood circulation and pain in the shoulder.

The immediate effect of sms text addiction, called by some as compulsive text messaging, is repetitive strain injury. This dries out the lubricating fluid between tendons of your hands, shoulders and wrists. Those exhibiting this type of addiction are also prone to depression, anxiousness and sleep disorder, aside from the monetary effects to the person and his/her family.

Many people affected by this technology addiction are still on their denial stage claiming there is no such thing as sms texting addiction. In the early days of marijuana and cocaine, addiction also went unrecognized until people realized they were addicted into it and it was already too late for them to respond rationally.

Why are people quick to look down on alcoholics or drug addicts, but then go out and spend 12 hours in Internet chatrooms?  Compulsive text messaging are sending people to clinics for treating their technology addictions. And this number is rising.

The World Health Organization has defined addiction as a pathological relationship with a mood-altering substance or experience that has life damaging consequences. So this means an addiction need not be with a mood-altering substance like marijuana or alcohol but it could also be an experience or an activity like Internet chatting or SMS text messaging.

People should start getting serious about this malady. Somebody close to you may be into it but you refuse to recognize that it exists. Learn to recognize the common signs like denial, tolerance, withdrawal, obsession, compulsion, and isolation. These signs are common symptoms in almost all addictions.

Daily, we've seen new SMS applications introduced into the market. The market for SMS texting is getting more lucrative intended to make people absorb as much of this technology in their daily lives. The more SMS texting becomes a part of us, the more addicting it will become, the more problems we will have to deal with in the future. Simply, treat technology as a tool and never an extension of our lives. As long as we keep on that perspective, chances of being manipulated by these latest gadgets, gizmos and applications will be slim.

SMS, or text messaging, is constantly evolving. There is a wide array of SMS services available, ranging from transferring funds, utility payments, sending love notes, receiving your daily horoscope, and a lot more. Text messaging is proving to be very lucrative and this resulted to stiff competition among the telecom companies. This free market competition benefited most of us since it rewarded us with more widespread SMS text messaging platforms and applications.

But have you tried sending bulk SMS thru your cellphone? If you were the coach of a basketball team, and you need to announce the next practice schedule, you will first create a group list in your cellphone, then retrieve each player's mobile number from the phonebook and store it into the newly created group. Of course, this is manageable for 12 players. No sweat here.

Let us take another scenario. You are the Club President for a dog training club in your city and you have 50 members. All of their numbers are recorded in your phonebook. If you need to invite them to attend a dog show, you just create a group list, retrieve each member's number from the phonebook and store it into the newly created group. Sending bulk SMS to 50 members will take a little bit of time. This task, though not extremely difficult, takes a bit of effort to complete.

Let us take our example to a grander scale. You are the owner of a Montessori School and you need to send bulk SMS to the parents and teachers of an impending storm scheduled to hit the land by the next morning. If there were 350 parents and teachers, it will take you some time to do that. If on another occasion, you only need to send to the 230 parents excluding the teachers, you will create another group and extract the relevant numbers again. Sending bulk SMS thru the cellphone is proving too burdensome as the number of mobile phones increases.

Text messages do not always have to be sent from mobile phones. A variety of options are available to the sender. Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger have options to send messages to cell phones, all for free. There are also web-based applications, like Google Send to Phone, which allow you to send SMS messages to mobile phones in the U.S., but these are not designed to send bulk SMS. Again, most of these sites provide free SMS services.

If you have a need to send bulk sms to a group of people regularly, then your only option is to go for web-based bulk sms providers. Aside from being cheaper than sending messages from the cell phone, SMS transmissions are extremely fast and reliable. Add into it the facility to import mobile phone numbers from a text file and its scheduling function, subscribers get maximum flexibility and ease of use. Since the computer keyboard is definitely faster than the cellphone keypad, you get to accomplish tasks quicker, simpler and easier.

Technology is constantly evolving, that is for sure, especially in the field of SMS technology. Next time, when you need to send bulk SMS to your friends to play team sports, think about how simple it would be to use a web-based system to do the job faster and cheaper. To get a free trial of ClearSMS bulk messaging, sign-up at http://www.clearsms.net/clearsms/signup.cfm.

SMS is the acronym for "Short Message Service" which, generally, involves receiving and sending messages to mobile handsets or cellphones. It can be noted that SMS has an extremely high consumer adoption rates but relatively low in the business arena. Why are businesses very slow in using SMS technology for their marketing campaigns? What are the drawbacks of SMS marketing, and how can businesses eliminate these drawbacks to increase its chances of a successful SMS marketing? It is the intention of this article to answer the above questions.

Drawback # 1 - SMS Marketing Message limited by the 160-character limit

With 160 characters for one text message, marketers find it very challenging to fit in their marketing messages into that space. There is just not much space to get the message across. With this limitation, most marketers resort to spreading their message into two or more text messages to go beyond the 160-character limit. This is not an elegant solution because consumers will have the inconvenience of receiving two or more text messages and, probably, reading those messages in reverse order.

Solution #1 - Abbreviate Words/Phrases in SMS Message

Use abbreviations to shorten SMS messages: l8r is later, luv is love, b4 is before, thx is thanks. It is also perfectly acceptable to use the general acronyms of common Internet phrases like fyi for "for your information", cc for "carbon copy", dl for "download", eta for "expected time of arrival", msg for "message", etc.

Drawback#2 - Pure text-based SMS Message is often misunderstood

Because of the 160-character restriction, SMS messages, if not properly written, can be misunderstood by your potential customers. Unlike voice or face-to-face interactions, SMS messages lack the emotion, intensity or emphasis so people can clearly understand what you were saying.

Solution #2 - Be direct to the point with your SMS Marketing Message

Avoid sending phrases with double-meanings or abbreviating words that results to another idea. The SMS message has to be clear, exact and concise to avoid being misinterpreted. Don't be too wordy and just be direct to the point.

Drawback #3 - SMS Marketing Messages are often mistaken as spam

People treat mobile communication as very personal. Intruding with unwanted SMS messages is going to receive negative responses from potential customers. Unlike email, mobile phones have no spam filters. People receive all kinds of SMS messages and it is impossible for them to stop these incoming messages. As a marketer, utmost care has to be exerted to ensure intrusions like this are not done.

Solution #3 - SMS Marketing should be permission-based

SMS marketing should be permission-based, meaningful and relevant. Make it clear to your recipient that he/she agrees to receive information thru SMS by offering customers an incentive for submitting their personal information into your SMS database and giving your customers value over time thru SMS. Don't just spam customers with offers, hard sell messages, and the likes.

Drawback #4 - SMS Marketing Messages are often mistaken as scams

Recently, there is also an increase in fraudulent text messages going around. Remember the Nigerian scam circulating around the Net thru emails. The SMS world had its fair share of scams too. There are text messages asking people to call a certain number and when people called this number, they were charged per minute for the calls. Don't have this impression in your SMS marketing campaigns. Because your business is a legitimate one doesn't mean people will get to trust your business right away.

Solution #4 - SMS Messages should specify who the message is coming from

Commercial communications must be clear from the outset and marketers should specify in their message who the message is coming from. Make the impression that you are a legitimate business with business address, telephone number or website. There is no need to fit in all that information in a 160-character message. You can point them to a business website or a phone number and make sure when your potential customer arrives in your website or calls you on the phone, you project that professionalism in your interactions with your customers.

SMS is a very cost-effective and high-response-rate marketing medium. It will help you achieve your business goals of acquiring new customers, retaining existing customers, selling and marketing your products, increasing loyalty to your products or services, and making people aware of your brand. The above business goals can only be achieved when the drawbacks of SMS marketing are properly addressed and, possibly, eliminated.

Sending SMS thru mobile phones have become part of our daily lives so that it becomes unimaginable for someone not to use it on a day-to-day basis. It only costs around 10 cents to send a SMS but if you add it up, the cost mounts up. Looking for alternatives, people soon discovered many websites offering SMS sending for free. can the business world embrace this concept of sending free SMS? This article will explore free SMS sending and its impact to your business.

How can these websites offer something free SMS world-wide? There is definitely a cost in operating a technological service and this cost is shouldered by advertisers. Usually, the freely sent SMS comes to your mobile phones bundled with a message from an advertiser. If the advertiser competes with your business and you happen to use the free SMS sending service to make your marketing campaigns, the results can be damaging to your business. Even if the advertiser is not within your niche unrelated to your business, it will look informal and you will not be getting serious considerations from your potential clients.

In addition, since the SMS service is freely sent, more users tend to subscribe to the service and it will get to a point when messages get delayed or never sent at all due to overloading of the network. Don't also expect website owners to upgrade their network when they are providing their service for free. This scenario will affect your business marketing campaigns and its success rate will be low. You get what you pay for, so to speak. Or you get what you never paid for.

Finally, most of the SMS services out there do not provide for bulk messaging or sending broadcast messages. This is naturally understandable as the service is free, they don't want to encourage spammers from abusing their service. Imagine if you need to send to 1000 clients using a free SMS service. You get something free, but you lose your valuable time that could have been used for more fruitful endeavors.

As you can probably tell by now, even the above are just some of the reasons why I wouldn't subscribe to a free SMS service for my business. Having it free to send SMS is fine for personal reasons at times, but for companies serious about their business, a paid SMS service, with its technology and enterprise-class delivery engines and a system designed for bulk SMS messaging from scratch, is the way to go. Don't leave your business to chance. I wouldn't subscribe to something free at the expense of failing in the most critical part of my business, my marketing campaigns.