Last June we added a post about the upcoming launch of the SMS My Customers 2-way SMS Gateway. We have just spoken to the sites owners and they have told us that it is going gangbusters!

Nick Goritsas from SMS My Customers has told us that they have a  load of customers and to date their feedback is all positive. They have signed resellers and have added a whole pile of features to the SMS Gateway and have a lot more new features being rolled out in the next few months.

If you are currently a subscriber of any other Australian SMS Gateways you owe it to yourself to check this one out SMS My Customers. If you are currently a reseller of other SMS Gateways then it might be time for you to jump on board.

Having trouble convincing the powers that be within your organisation that you should be using SMS as part of your daily customer operations?

It might be an idea to show them this recent data provided by The World Bank. If they still need convincing after seeing the data then don’t despair as they probably won’t be in their job(s) for too much longer!

Mobile cellular telephone subscriptions are subscriptions to a public mobile telephone service using cellular technology, which provide access to the public switched telephone network. Post-paid and prepaid subscriptions are included.

This is the Short Table of Popular Countries

Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report World Bank estimates and the International Telecommunication Union.

This is the Long Table of All Countries With Available Data

Source: International Telecommunication Union, World Telecommunication Development Report World Bank estimates and the International Telecommunication Union.

CellTrust is pleased to provide a free 30 day trial evaluation of the CellTrust 2-way SecureSMS and standard SMS Gateway to Australian & New Zealand businesses.

During your 30 day evaluation you will receive

• Free Access to the Gateway for your tests
• Free Access to the mobile marketing tools and modules
• Free SMS, email and voice credits to test all the channels
• Free access to SDK and libraries
• Free access to the modules with built-in features
• Free support on CellTrust Forums to answer your questions
• Free messages, full gateway access and technical support

Click here to access the 30 day trial evaluation application form

People are becoming more and more dependent on their mobile devices and personal computers. Ask a lot of people and they will tell you that they just can’t see themselves living without mobile phones. We’ve even seen research that says a lot of people are more scared of losing their mobile phone they are of losing their wallet. It comes as no surprise that many businesses big and small are now incorporating mobile marketing in to their advertising campaigns.

Not that long ago retailers were the first to recognise the potential benefit of mobile devices for sending promotional information and interacting with loyal customers and for the creation of new clients. But now even politicians, many online businesses and even non-profit organisations are realising the importance of mobile technology when it comes to best marketing practice.

Lots of mobile marketing tools that are now available to advertisers, marketers and companies in general. Popular tools include SMS Alerts, SMS Contests, SMS Voting, and lots of different premium SMS content delivery applications. Something else that is beginning to be used by of many advertisers, marketers, politicians, online businesses and non-profit organisations is the SMS Gateway. Mobile messaging gateways allow people to compose and send mobile messages from the web site of a server or a provider, some of the better ones such as the CellTrust SMS Gateway even allow for the building of two way conversations and application logic in to SMS marketing or advertising campaigns. There are lots of independent companies providing free message gateways but for long term benefits companies and businesses should really consider using an SMS Gateway that offers the following key features.

• Create and manage huge lists
• Create groups and assign list members to a group or groups
• Custom tailored responses
• Management of lots of messages
• Global coverage with one integration
• Secure SMS for guaranteed and secure delivery
• Subscription Module allowing for opt-in & opt-out subscribers from your advertising and marketing programs
• Template Module to predefine and personalise messages
• Campaign Module to set up campaigns, organise user data, and send auto-responses and more
• Reporting Module to track message status once a message has been sent
• Account Module to manage your gateway online, set credit alerts and push URLs
• Coupon Module to generate random coupons and integrate it to your applications using an API
• Multimodal Module to convert SMS to email, voice or vice versa

In the beginning public SMS gateways were used for personal reasons. Individuals used such gateways to send messages to their friends and family for free without using pagers or SMS enabled mobile phones. Although you could use these portals for your business or organisation the problem with public gateways is that they are not very secure. Messages as well as your lists and groups could potentially be exposed to hacking, third party viewing and a whole range of other security threats. If you want to protect your business and if you care about private data belonging to your customers it is best to  make use of a reputable service provider when it comes to your mobile marketing or mobile advertising campaign.

CellTrust offers an SMS Gateway as well as other tools including Secure SMS, shared short code and a host of other short code solutions. As part of your overall mobile marketing strategy these are things you need. Other must haves that you need to look for when selecting an SMS message gateway provider are security measures, and value for money. When all is said and done you don’t have to choose the most expensive service, but you should be keeping an eye on using the service that best suits the needs and security of your company or organisation as well the service that best suits the needs and security of your customer.

Scottsdale, Arizona – April 15, 2008 – CellTrust® Corporation , the leading secure mobile information management and delivery provider, and MarketTools, the award-winning on-demand market research provider (www.markettools.com), will be in full force at Ad Tech San Francisco, taking place April 15-17 at the Moscone Center. The companies will be co-presenting a case study in the first Mobile Pavilion, which will take place throughout the event, about successful ways for brands and companies to leverage the mobile channel for marketing purposes. As mobile marketing gains momentum on a global scale, one challenge remains the same in every region: how to develop an effective marketing strategy and measure both effectiveness and return on investment (ROI).

CellTrust, an award-winning contender in the mobile security space with its Global SecureSMS Gateway™, provides financial, marketing, governmental and other sectors the confidence that messages are safe from over-the-air pirating and that they reach the intended user. CellTrust’s SecureSMS informs senders when a recipient receives the text message and then again when the message is opened. Combined with CellTrust’s SMS Gateway Suite of reporting and analytic features, CellTrust’s SecureSMS gives E-marketers a definitive baseline for calculating campaign ROI. Security, delivery assurance and measuring ROI are some of the issues E-marketers at Ad Tech will be examining this week in San Francisco.

MarketTools pioneered mobile market research with its MarketTools Mobile™ and Zoomerang Anywhere™ research tools. MarketTools leverages the growing ubiquity of mobile phones and the expanding capabilities of the wireless web to deliver surveys directly to consumers worldwide on their mobile phones or via SMS at the point of sale to allow the capture of real-time market feedback. With the ease of integration of the CellTrust Global Gateway API and the state of market readiness of the CellTrust SMS Gateway Suite, MarketTools was able to bring Zoomerang Anywhere quickly to market.

“Partnering with CellTrust has helped MarketTools revolutionize the consumer research market with Zoomerang Anywhere,” said Kirk Hendrickson, director of product management for Zoomerang and Mobile Products at MarketTools. “As a result, we are able to deliver surveys to consumers ‘in the moment,’ harnessing the excitement and responsiveness of mobile users in real time. With the addition of CellTrust to our mobile solutions, MarketTools is able to effectively and securely capture consumer opinion directly through their mobile phones at the exact time they are experiencing the product, event or promotion, helping to ensure the most accurate consumer feedback.” “CellTrust has developed its SecureSMS Gateway to help companies like MarketTools and others have confidence that mobile marketing programs can be successful and secure. CellTrust Secure SMS takes the guess work out of measuring the success of mobile marketing and calculating ROI. You know exactly when they receive the message and exactly what time they opened it,” said CellTrust CEO, Sean Moshir.

About MarketTools

MarketTools is the defining provider of on-demand market research, giving companies and individuals the ability to continuously understand their target customers through innovative approaches based on advanced technology, research expertise, global market reach and an online panel community of more than 2.5 million individuals worldwide. Through Zoomerang™, the pioneer in online surveys, MarketTools provides the leading self-service platform and services for fast feedback. MarketTools’ full range of research applications and services provide organizations–from small businesses and non-profits to Fortune 500 companies–with unique access to their target markets to uncover unmet needs, reduce time to market and capture market share. MarketTools is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and European headquarters in London. For more information, please visit: www.markettools.com.

About CellTrust Corporation

CellTrust is a leading provider of secure mobile messaging and applications. CellTrust’s patent pending Secure SMS Gateway™ featuring the SecureSMS™ Appliance and a suite of mobile applications provide advanced secure mobile messaging and information management solutions across 200+ countries and over 700 carriers. CellTrust ensures the secure and trusted exchange of information on mobile devices to the financial services, healthcare, government, education, energy, information technology, marketing, and travel, among other global industries. For more information about CellTrust’s Global, African, North American and Australian operations: www.celltrust.com, www.africa.celltrust.com, www.celltrust.com.au.

Media Contact

Kirsten Woodard or Yasmin Ezaby
Global Results Comms (GRC) for CellTrust
+1 949-681-8122 or +1 949-502-6760
kwoodard@globalresultspr.com or yezabi@globalresultspr.com

©2008 CellTrust Corporation. All rights reserved. CellTrust, the CellTrust logo, and the CellTrust product names and logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of CellTrust Corporation. In addition, other companies’ names and products mentioned in this document, if any, may be either registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective owners.