Clickatell launches CustomXpress
May 03, 2001 Clickatell CustomXpress is the latest in a suite of turnkey SMS communications tools that Clickatell has developed over the past few months. This product enables any site to (within a few minutes) host their own branded message interface on their site. The Interface incorporates SMS and Speedmail (high-velocity e-mail) and is the only such solution globally available. Clickatell has literally had hundreds of registrations without any marketing of the product, due to its viral nature. That particular characteristic stems from Clickatell's first product, Clickatell Messenger, which at one stage had the Cape Town-based company branded as the second largest web-site in Africa, all in an unbelievable three months. CustomXpress forms part of Clickatell's overall strategy and positioning as a turnkey communications provider. One has to physically experience the ease with which your site becomes SMS-enabled in order to fully appreciate what Clickatell has managed to achieve with the product. It takes only a few minutes to have a fully functional SMS tool with the largest global network coverage on any web site – and this includes your own logo and links set up, your own banner, buttons and colours. The turnkey component that Clickatell has incorporated into the product seems to be key to its success. Danie du Toit, Marketing Director of Clickatell, is confident that this sets them even further apart in the niche that Clickatell has created. "There seems to be a need in the market for SMS solutions that are immediate - and Clickatell is the first company to fulfil that need," Du Toit says. "We have had 63,000 registrations from clients so far and the figure is climbing every minute - that means we must be doing something right in positioning the product. We have given SMS to the public, and they are grabbing it with both hands..." Clickatell's aim has from the start been to offer SMS functionality to the web-community - removing the problems that are experienced with integration to SMS gateways completely. "We believe that this is where other companies have failed - they seem to attempt to make connectivity to a gateway as difficult as possible," Pieter de Villiers, MD says. "It can take you months to get connected to a specific gateway - only to find out that you have by then spent massive amounts of money on something which you have not been able to test properly. Clickatell offers solutions which are measurable, right now. Our products are free to test for anyone out there - it's as simple as filling out a form and pressing the button and you have a Messenger more powerful than any other in the world on your site!" CustomXpress has another advantage, in that it is not only a stickiness tool for the site, but also a marketing vehicle. With the dynamic nature of the product, the interface's look and feel can be amended as often as the client feels is necessary. This could prove useful for promoting different products or brand messages in the three brand positions on the interface. The tag at the end of each message (e.g. "Sent from MySite.com") can also be changed on a regular basis. The brand tag offers a powerful source-validated brand-presence opportunity, as the recipient of the message presumably knows and trusts the sender. A message received on an SMS is difficult to miss, and the length restriction (160 characters) makes it the ideal vehicle for branding.
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Press Contact
USA:
Kelly Brieger
US: +1 650 704 1748
EMEA:
Nicola Hunt
SA: +27 21 910 7700
Email: press@clickatell.com
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