Esendex: Going Beyond Conventional Marketing with SMS

Even though Esendex encourages self-service, if clients contact the help-desk, it is only a three-option IVR service before speaking to a real person. As Van Zuylekom expresses, Esendex isn’t an empty vessel where clients go online and buy SMS messages, the firm provides the same type of service regardless of the amount that a client spends on buying these SMS services. Esendex works with them to make business communication better—which reflects around the core values of passion, innovation, ownership, and integrity.

Although the company was originally built around SMS, it has since added a lot more products, owing to the customers’ rising interest in multi-channel options, for SMS, SMS surveys, voice or email, or mobile landing pages. SMS is the ideal call to action and Esendex has the ability to combine four SMS together increasing the character limit to 612. That said, it is still limited and the text only nature is not designed for extensive instructions. This proved to be the major reason for Esendex’s decision to move away from just being an SMS provider and focus on providing business communication. As a result, the firm has added a whole range of new products to its portfolio to make sure that it is always able to support customers.

Esendex facilitates mobile journeys that can be triggered by links embedded in emails or SMS. They improve customer engagement by removing any distractions and difficulties by emulating app-like circumstances on micro-web pages. For simple single-purpose call to action campaign, the firm’s tastefully designed SMS landing pages would be more suited. When the SMS recipients click on the URL, they are taken to a mobile-first landing page where they can take the required action. During the recent Black Friday campaign, a pizzeria client employed Esendex’s landing page solution to differentiate itself from the myriad of other SMS offers that were being sent out to customers. The SMS was designed to be viewed on a smartphone with call-to-action buttons to drive customer engagement. The SMS exploited the preview feature that Apple and Android devices have introduced when links are included at the beginning or end of the messages. As a result, the pizza shop was inundated with orders and was almost unable to fulfill all that came through. This is what Esendex is aiming for— taking traditional channels and making them better by incorporating features from smartphone manufacturers.

Esendex was recently acquired by a leading technology investor that owns a number of SMS companies, a move that drastically increased its global reach. The firm is constantly looking for ways to find the next effective communication channels and has invested heavily in IP messaging and Rich Communication Services (RCS) to move ahead in that direction.