O2 Media, a division of Telefónica Ireland that specialises in mobile marketing, has launched Communicate, a new service for small to medium-sized businesses to create, send and manage texts and emails.
The cloud-based messaging service lets businesses create targeted texts or emails, providing a CRM tool to manage it all. With the Communicate CRM, users can import a database and use fields such as ‘name’, ‘appointment date’ or ‘location’ to personalise messages, which can be sent to individuals or groups.
“It takes 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email but only 90 seconds for a text message,” said Fintan Lonergan, managing director of O2 Media, quoting research from CTIA. “Since we piloted the service we are also finding a broad range of instances where businesses need to communicate with their stores or staff, whether on-site or off-site, in a low-cost and effective manner.”
Messages can be scheduled through the CRM and replies come directly to the platform inbox, or can be forwarded to a specified email address. Users can also track and re-use old messages and use Communicate to record online communications.
The service provides businesses with a solution for communication with staff, customers or other groups. A free entry-level service allows for storage of up to 250 contacts, and this can be upgraded for a monthly fee. Users pay per message sent – for O2 customers, this will be added to their phone bills, while others will have to pay via credit card.
