One of the advantages of signing up with an SMS gateway provider like MessageMedia is that you can send all of your text messages online. Sending text messages online is fast, efficient, easy and cost-effective. For businesses, the ability to send an SMS from your computer offers a very powerful solution for a number of communication issues.

Benefits of sending messages online

• It’s fast. Typing a message on a keyboard is much faster and easier than laboriously typing out messages on your mobile phone letter by letter. Once online you can upload your contacts into a database so that you can quickly and easily sort your message recipient list or target audience.
• It’s efficient. Send messages instantly or schedule them for when you want them delivered. Sending messages online is great for marketing and bulk message sends, because you can send thousands of messages instantaneously.
• It’s easy. Send messages anywhere, anytime. All you need is an internet connection or access to your email. Message sending can also be automated and embedded into your business processes and systems.
• It’s designed for business. You can generate real time reports, check that messages are delivered using delivery receipts, and view a complete history of messages sent and received.

Sending messages online is also much cheaper than sending them directly from your mobile phone.

Ways that you can send online

There are a few different ways that messages can be sent online; the best product will depend on your business needs and the text message application.

• In your email software: Email to SMS allows you to send and receive text messages from your email program, such as Outlook or Lotus Notes.
• On the web: Web-based SMS allows you to send and receive text messages from any computer with web access. It’s easy to set up and no additional software is required.
• Within your software: With APIs, an SMS gateway is embedded into your existing systems or CRM allowing you to integrate and automate sending and receiving text messages.

Two-way SMS

When you send an SMS online, you can still receive responses from the people to whom you sent the message: this is called two-way SMS. Responses are threaded to the message they relate to so that you can see conversations at a glance. Operators like MessageMedia correlate replies to the original message no matter which network is used to send the message or reply. Responses come back to you in the same way they were sent. For example, if the SMS was sent via email, the response will come back to your email inbox, or if it was sent via a business application, the response will come back to the application.