# Zamano and Bulk SMS



## ondeball (19 Oct 2011)

Has anyone been using these guys for their own business?

I have a growing list of subscribed users that I need to contact cheaply - more than my monthly allowance will allow me to online for free.

I've been looking at a few different services and I'm torn between Zamano and a few others like Puca and Essendex. 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

**** I posted this in the incorrect forum yesterday and have moved it to here today as this seems to be the correct place to seek advice like this.*


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## overdraftman (19 Oct 2011)

I looked into it before but it wasn't viable for my business in the end, we shut up shop before there was a chance to use it.

The best thing you can do is contact the providers (all of them) and see what kind of deal they can offer you. It might be worth paying a little more to get a better level of report.


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## Jimbobp (19 Oct 2011)

I use sendmode to contact clients and find it works well. They allow you to set up templates which helps speed things up.


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## ondeball (19 Oct 2011)

I was talking to them before I was in touch with Zamano. How much does the whole templates thing speed things up by?


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## Complainer (19 Oct 2011)

I used Adikat for staying in touch with folk on a community project last year - it seemed to be the best of the bunch at that time.


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## iwantmore (20 Oct 2011)

There loads of options if you just do a Google search. 

If you go directly your mobile operator your account manager may be able to point you in the correct direction as well.

I sat down and did my business plan last year and managed to come up with a few different way for mobile marketing to help me out and I was able to get my account manager to sort out a complete package for me.

Google any company that you're planning on doing business as well as there are always a few people who have been burned and it's no harm in doing a little bit of your own research as well.


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## tradingplace (20 Oct 2011)

Zamano throws up some interesting results when you type them into Google. But in fairness it all seems to be about Zamano and premium text stuff from a few years ago rather than anyone having a grievance based on working with them as a partner.

I've found Bulk SMS to be an ineffective way of doing business through the small retail outlet that I'm running. I use two or three different free gateways but it does take up a good bit more of my time.


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## ondeball (21 Oct 2011)

They're putting a package together for me.

In other news post in other forums can lead to interesting e-mails from Indian companies offering to do the service at a fraction of the cost. 

I don't even know how they got hold of my e-mail address.


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## Jimbobp (21 Oct 2011)

Well it stops you having to rewrite the same text over & over again so is a major time saver. The system also holds a copy of the text for verification purposes. We find it useful but it depends on what your trading at I suppose.


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## cashregister (24 Oct 2011)

Jimbobp said:


> Well it stops you having to rewrite the same text over & over again so is a major time saver. The system also holds a copy of the text for verification purposes. We find it useful but it depends on what your trading at I suppose.



I like the templates as well and I'm not sure if it's something that Zamano offers.

What kind of security are they looking for everytime you log in? I'm wary of letting any of my staff have access to the system, or even other people at the same level of management (I'm not the owner clearly).

I always think it's better to have one, or two at most, people controlling a system like this to keep the company voice consistent - and some people just suck at writing anything as well.


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## overdraftman (24 Oct 2011)

See they a link to their product page there now as well ondeball - it's amazing how a thread on here can lead you to wasting some time on Google searches!

I see one for [broken link removed] and [broken link removed].

There's loads more links for Puca, clickatell, txtrepublic as well. Must be a reasonably profitable service provision to get into. 

I may skulk away and see if I can get into it!


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## ondeball (24 Oct 2011)

overdraftman said:


> See they a link to their product page there now as well ondeball - it's amazing how a thread on here can lead you to wasting some time on Google searches!
> 
> I see one for [broken link removed] and [broken link removed].
> 
> ...



Yeah those are the links I use to find Zamano as well.

I'm actually surprised at the range of companies offering this service in Ireland. I always assumed that if this was something that you wanted to do right then the only thing to do was go direct to the mobile operators - could not have been any more wrong in fairness.


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## tradingplace (26 Oct 2011)

overdraftman said:


> See they a link to their product page there now as well ondeball - it's amazing how a thread on here can lead you to wasting some time on Google searches!
> 
> I see one for Bulk SMS Gateway and SMS Aggregation Gateway.
> 
> ...



Let me know when you have something set up! 

The one thing I've found with most of these companies, including Zamano, is that they are looking at what is convenient from a provider point of view. There's little consideration of what the client really need. Templates are good but there are times when a more bespoke system would help. 

The couple of companies I was in contact with want you to adapt an existing system to your work practice rather that set up their system to suit your work needs.


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## Complainer (26 Oct 2011)

tradingplace said:


> The couple of companies I was in contact with want you to adapt an existing system to your work practice rather that set up their system to suit your work needs.


That's a fairly standard model with any off-the-shelf IT system. If you want the luxury of a system designed to suit your own particular needs, then you have to pay a high price to build and maintain your system. If you go with an off-the-shelf system at a much reduced price, a bit of flexibility in your own processes will go a long way.


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## iwantmore (26 Oct 2011)

tradingplace said:


> Let me know when you have something set up!
> 
> The one thing I've found with most of these companies, including Zamano, is that they are looking at what is convenient from a provider point of view.



What are you actually looking for then? It sounds like you need something very specific and if that's the case you're gonna to be, as Complainer says, paying a higher premium to get better results.


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## tradingplace (26 Oct 2011)

Complainer said:


> That's a fairly standard model with any off-the-shelf IT system. If you want the luxury of a system designed to suit your own particular needs, then you have to pay a high price to build and maintain your system. If you go with an off-the-shelf system at a much reduced price, a bit of flexibility in your own processes will go a long way.



I hadn't thought of it like that at all Complainer. I suppose it might be worth the extra investment in getting the exact system that I want in place with decent reports as well.

I suppose I should just do up a wish list for the ideal system and take it from there. Back to the drawing board.


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## tradingplace (26 Oct 2011)

iwantmore said:


> What are you actually looking for then? It sounds like you need something very specific and if that's the case you're gonna to be, as Complainer says, paying a higher premium to get better results.



Think you could be  right. Have you done any business with a provider that works like this?


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## Complainer (26 Oct 2011)

tradingplace said:


> I hadn't thought of it like that at all Complainer. I suppose it might be worth the extra investment in getting the exact system that I want in place with decent reports as well.
> 
> I suppose I should just do up a wish list for the ideal system and take it from there. Back to the drawing board.



It's always good to have a clear understanding of your requirements - your wish list. This will help you in evaluating various solutions and finding the best fit to your needs. Good off-the-shelf systems will have good facilities for customising the tool to your needs.

For texting systems, look for the facility to vary the 'sender id' of outgoing messages, and easy import/export facilities. Look for the facility to capture replies and responses and make them available online.


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## iwantmore (26 Oct 2011)

tradingplace said:


> Think you could be  right. Have you done any business with a provider that works like this?



No but I have a friend who was looking into this.

I'll see what I can find out for you sure.


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## tradingplace (26 Oct 2011)

Complainer said:


> It's always good to have a clear understanding of your requirements - your wish list. This will help you in evaluating various solutions and finding the best fit to your needs. Good off-the-shelf systems will have good facilities for customising the tool to your needs.
> 
> For texting systems, look for the facility to vary the 'sender id' of outgoing messages, and easy import/export facilities. Look for the facility to capture replies and responses and make them available online.



Nice one, thanks complainer.

I think I'll get on to Zamano and Puca and see what they can do with my wish list - both of those things will be added now.


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## ondeball (27 Oct 2011)

I went looking after reading all of your comments above and found a pricing structure from one company [broken link removed].

It all seems reasonable enough if it's reliable enough.


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## Complainer (27 Oct 2011)

Here's another provider - haven't used them myself

http://silverarm.ie/info_sms-marketing-php-mysql-ireland-silverarm-dublin.php


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## goosebump (18 Nov 2011)

I've used all of them. Puca is an Irish operation and is a joke. Zamano is UK based and has an Irish operation, which is also technically poor. I eventually found my way to Esendex, and they have been fine so far.


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## ondeball (21 Nov 2011)

Lot of my colleagues had mentioned Esendex as well.

I suppose it boils down to personal preference vs cost effectiveness vs customer at the end of the day.


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## tradingplace (22 Nov 2011)

Complainer said:


> Here's another provider - haven't used them myself



Good God that's a dire layout for the website.

Doesn't fill you full of confidence that they'll be able to run a decent bespoke service.


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## iwantmore (24 Nov 2011)

I've been doinn a little bit more looking into this and I foudna few useful links with tips to follow and what to avoid in picking a service provider. They're mostly non-industry so there's decent points as to what you might want to look for in a provider like Zamano.

mobile-marketing-blog.net/2010/02/bulk-sms-marketing-tips.html
hughspear.com/blog/bulk-sms/


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## directdebit (24 Nov 2011)

iwantmore said:


> I've been doinn a little bit more looking into this and I foudna few useful links with tips to follow and what to avoid in picking a service provider. They're mostly non-industry so there's decent points as to what you might want to look for in a provider like Zamano.
> 
> mobile-marketing-blog.net/2010/02/bulk-sms-marketing-tips.html
> hughspear.com/blog/bulk-sms/



You can rest assured that some of those Blogs are either being written by an industry rep or at the very least the comments are loaded with individuals trying to push their own product.


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## tradingplace (25 Nov 2011)

directdebit said:


> You can rest assured that some of those Blogs are either being written by an industry rep or at the very least the comments are loaded with individuals trying to push their own product.



Yeah I was thinking that as well. There's very little you can trust on the blogs these days and sometimes you're as well just go to the internal blog of the company and see what they have to say for themselves. Ignore the comments though as they're most likely from internal members of staff as well.

Why a cynical online reader I've become!

I got replies from both Puca and Zamano. It seems like the latter is a bigger operation but the former has a more effective onlin presence. I'm going to sit down and see which of the two I'm go to give some business to over the weekend.


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## ondeball (25 Nov 2011)

*Zamano v Puca*



tradingplace said:


> Yeah I was thinking that as well. There's very little you can trust on the blogs these days and sometimes you're as well just go to the internal blog of the company and see what they have to say for themselves. Ignore the comments though as they're most likely from internal members of staff as well.
> 
> Why a cynical online reader I've become!
> 
> I got replies from both Puca and Zamano. It seems like the latter is a bigger operation but the former has a more effective onlin presence. I'm going to sit down and see which of the two I'm go to give some business to over the weekend.



Interesting. Make sure you return and say either who you opted for (if that's permitted) or what governed your decision in the end.


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## tradingplace (28 Nov 2011)

ondeball said:


> Interesting. Make sure you return and say either who you opted for (if that's permitted) or what governed your decision in the end.



Ok I suppose that I shouldn't really say who I opted for as it probably breaks some rules or guidelines.

I broke it down as follows.

Provider A had a nice looking product that could be tailored to my needs and was reasonably cost effective.

Provider B was able to provide the same but we a better network of customer service available.

I'm going with B solely for the fact that, in my experience, there is no substitute for having a good customer service when dealing with mobile operations.


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## ondeball (29 Nov 2011)

tradingplace said:


> Ok I suppose that I shouldn't really say who I opted for as it probably breaks some rules or guidelines.
> 
> I broke it down as follows.
> 
> ...



So there was no huge difference in the costs?

Did you look into getting a limit put in for the subscription that you could end up paying each month or any other limiter like that?


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## tradingplace (30 Nov 2011)

ondeball said:


> So there was no huge difference in the costs?
> 
> Did you look into getting a limit put in for the subscription that you could end up paying each month or any other limiter like that?



No, To be honest I think, given the number of subscribers that I hope to have, that if we were to get into a position where the costs were high then our turnover in revenue would more than justify persevering with the service despite the costs involved.

We're lucky enough to be in an industry that isn't affected by the recession.


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## directdebit (1 Dec 2011)

tradingplace said:


> No, To be honest I think, given the number of subscribers that I hope to have, that if we were to get into a position where the costs were high then our turnover in revenue would more than justify persevering with the service despite the costs involved.
> 
> We're lucky enough to be in an industry that isn't affected by the recession.



What is this magic industry that you speak of?

I've been thinking of trying to actually get into the Premium SMS business as it seems that all you need is to act as a middleman between content providers and service providers with a strong technical team and you stand to make some serious money.

Plenty of logistics to sort out and lots of investment need but def worth a shot I think.


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## ondeball (7 Dec 2011)

tradingplace said:


> No, To be honest I think, given the number of subscribers that I hope to have, that if we were to get into a position where the costs were high then our turnover in revenue would more than justify persevering with the service despite the costs involved.
> 
> We're lucky enough to be in an industry that isn't affected by the recession.



That's fair enough. And I presume you'll have access to track metrics and the like?

I've been trying to brush up on my analytical skills in this regards and it's no fun at the beginning but becomes an obsession after a while.


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## tradingplace (12 Dec 2011)

ondeball said:


> That's fair enough. And I presume you'll have access to track metrics and the like?
> 
> I've been trying to brush up on my analytical skills in this regards and it's no fun at the beginning but becomes an obsession after a while.



Yeah reports are made available so I can track everything and cut off any service that I don't want.

I expect to become as addicted to this as I am at logging on to LinkedIn to see whose been viewing my account and company page, at least this will be a little more productive though.


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