REDWOOD CITY, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/16/11 -- Clickatell, the global leader in Personalized Priority Messaging (PPM), today announced the "Festive Retail Guide" to provide retailers with a resource to drive holiday sales through strategic mobile marketing campaigns. Retailers can dramatically improve customer response, retention and reach through easy and effective SMS techniques. Clickatell released the guide as a helpful tool for stores to better market to their customers this holiday season and all year round.

SMS mobile marketing is the leading channel for direct marketing to consumers because it is more affordable than traditional forms of marketing and can be targeted directly to the personal taste of the customer. SMS is capable of reaching 91 percent of the US population and has a higher direct response rate than telemarketing, email and direct mail, according to a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association. In fact, 98 percent of people will open a text message, while email messages are left unread 80 percent of the time, according to Nielsen research.

Clickatell recommends that retailers capitalize on this growing trend with meaningful, targeted and personalized communication to effectively reach customers. For emerging retailers and small to mid-sized businesses, this will prove to be an essential guide to expand their customer base.

The guide also includes details and advice on simple steps retailers can follow to:

• Create and manage a contact distribution list
• Establish customer profiles from their account histories
• Write an effective SMS message
• Measure campaign success
• Use the correct tools to send and receive your SMS messages

"As a global leader specializing in individualized communications, we wanted to share the latest in a series of best practices briefs from the field to make it easier and more cost effective to use SMS campaigns," said Pieter de Villiers, Clickatell's CEO. "The guide helps retailers bring customers through the door by offering deals and discounts straight to their mobile phone."

By introducing low-cost campaign ideas in the guide, SMS messaging can be used by retailers of any size. In the critical and competitive holiday season and beyond, this is a way for brands to stand out from the crowd and build long-lasting relationships.

Clickatell's complimentary retail guide is currently available and details the services they provide through their free or paid services. For more information and to download the guide visit: http://www.clickatell.com/retail2011

About Clickatell, Inc.
Clickatell -- the global leader in Personalized Priority Messaging through all mobile devices -- is the largest Online SMS mobile messaging gateway in the world, covering 869 networks in 223 countries and territories, with the potential to reach 5 billion mobile phone users -- more than 70 percent of the world's population. Clickatell enables simpler, quicker and more verifiable delivery of high-value, just-in-time, individualized communications and associated mobile transactional services. Its carrier-grade mobile messaging solutions have been embraced by more than 13,000 enterprise, government, medium and small business customers and application developers. Founded in South Africa in 2000, Clickatell is based in Redwood City, Calif. To learn more, visit http://www.clickatell.com

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