What are SMS Alerts?

James: SMS Alerts is a notification tool of your email status and delivery using SMS (Short Message Service) or text messaging. How this works? If you avail yourself of SMS Alerts services, you will receive a text message on your mobile phone whenever a new email arrives in your inbox. This tool is especially important for highly mobile people who don't have immediate access to a PC. Because SMS alerts are discriminatory, you will only be alerted for emails that you really want.

Heather: Bigfoot SMS Alerts is an advanced form of the basic alerts technology and is designed for maximum flexibility and convenience. Depending on the alerts plan you choose, you have a variety of options to customize which alerts you receive. This alerts tool keeps you posted on your emails status even when your PC is off. For those who need fast and up-to-date connectivity, Bigfoot SMS Alerts is one of the best ways to stay on top of your online communications.

To know more about Bigfoot SMS Alerts, please visit our site or click here.

Send in your questions about our products and services at jamesandheather@bigfoot.com and we'll answer them in the next issues.

Bigfoot Anti-Spam is keeping tabs on current development in the battle against unsolicited emails or spam.

Spam is posing a big threat to the life of the Internet, if nothing could be done to at least control the volume in the next two years. Thus, announced Robert Shaw, an Internet expert with the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The massive proliferation of spam will eventually drive millions of users from the Internet, he said. If governments and software companies could not pull together their spam-fighting efforts, this problem could kill the whole wired world.

Figures say that national economies are losing about $25 billion already due to spam. This could quadruple in amount if the loss of productivity would be factored in.

But how to kill spam before it will kill the Internet? Experts cite legislation and technology as two primary weapons to can spam, phishing and other forms of fraud on the Internet.

In an anti-spam conference in Geneva, Switzerland, net regulators from 60 countries proposed a global and synchronized effort to fight spam and abuse of the Internet. They are proposing that all countries should introduce some form of anti-spam legislation for a start and get support from industry players, such as ISP’s and mobile phone companies offering new email services.

This should be complemented with consumer education for the whole scheme to work out even at the consumers level.

Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution is one with the world in this fight. Its monthly anti-spam newsletter disseminates the latest anti-spam information to Internet users through news reports from around the world, with the aim of educating consumers, providing them with industry updates and pieces of advice from Bigfoot anti-spam experts.

Bigfoot Anti-Spam Solution product manager, Jakeson Angulo, announced recently that Bigfoot will be offering its Anti-Spam Solution to third-party users or users with POP 3 or IMAP accounts. At present, Bigfoot Anti-Spam is currently available to subscribers with Bigfoot email accounts.

To learn more what this is about and how it works, please see separate story in this issue’s Coming Soon section.

Bigfoot Launches New Homepage, Business & Personal Portals

Bigfoot Communications has launched its new Bigfoot Homepage, Business and Personal portals. The new site (www.bigfoot.net) sports a new look and is equipped with better navigation facilities.

In addition, the site divides into two portals – Business Solutions and Personal Solutions – that separate different suites of products geared towards Bigfoot’s different target markets. A separate portal is also devoted to Bigfoot Directories.

Under Business Solutions, Bigfoot offers small and medium businesses its conference call, text messaging services, APIs or gateway services, affiliate program and partnerships/resellerships.

Its email tools – email forwarding, anti-spam solution, and WebMail – are categorized under Personal Solutions along with text messaging and voice services designed for the consumers market.

"We want our clients to view us as proactively fulfilling their needs through superior products and services,” says Joe Mercado, Bigfoot Communications’ Chief Executive Officer. “Whether for personal or business use, we will continue to create solutions for them.”

Companies Discover Business Uses of Text Messaging

In a recent survey released by Mobile Data Association (MDA), more and more businesses have turned to SMS or text messaging technology for its many uses within the business context.

This new form of communication is increasingly being used by companies to stay in touch with their employees and customers.

Companies – from micro to small and medium businesses to enterprises with over 1,000 employees – especially in the United Kingdom, are utilizing and taking advantage of the mobile messaging as a fundamental business tool.

Moreover, business related text messages are currently being sent to colleagues, customers, bosses and suppliers. Personnel from retailing, wholesaling, leisure, travel and transport made up 54% of the total sample size and, retailers and wholesalers, in particular, were found to have higher usage of mobile text messaging for business than for personal communications along with banking, financial and professional services.

In fact, last year, Malaysia Airline launched the first SMS ticket reservation service with hopes of expanding its reach to up to 10 million mobile phone users.

A small time car dealer, according to MDA survey, sends text messages to salesmen while they are traveling with information they have requested. An electrical components distributor uses text messaging to “find where people are, check delivery status or to send product part reference numbers."

Other companies identified future uses of text messaging within organizations among them for customer communication, promotional campaigns, and updating sales force.

Although not a large percentage of the survey sample was found to be making use of PC to mobile texting, still many companies recognize the use of the technology for bulk marketing and sales messages. A distributor of building products said, “We have a large customer base of tradesmen with mobile phones, who are usually on site, PC to mobile phone is the best way to contact them.”

A retailer respondent admits to using PC to mobile texting for bulk messages, change of product details. “It's quicker and written information is much more accurate."

Bigfoot Messaging has harnessed the power of SMS into a powerful application called SMS Manager PRO that allows these companies to send even a single text message to thousands of recipients in an instant straight from the desktop. Companies from around the world are using the SMS Manager PRO to fulfill their PC to mobile phone SMS or text messaging requirements.

Among the biggest users of SMS Manager PRO’s Blast feature include Cebu International School in the Philippines, the International Academy of Film and Television, Inmarsat. Hosting Gate in Qatar, Auto Auctions in the UK, Mobitronix in the United Arab Emirates, Plustelekom in Poland are using SMS Blast for their sales campaigns.

The Bigfoot SMS Manager PRO with its SMS Blast feature can support message sending to up to 30,000 recipients in a click of a mouse.

Users with high-volume SMS communications requirements will find the SMS Manager PRO to be invaluable. Companies with highly mobile field personnel can send information much more efficiently while advertisers and SME's can disseminate product information with minimal time or financial investment compared to conventional advertising.

The option to import external lists is another big plus as this eliminates the need to manually input phone numbers into the SMS Manager Phone Book.

Email Search Is Most Popular Bigfoot Directories Search Tool

An online pop-up survey run by Bigfoot on its Directories site showed that most users of Bigfoot Directories use Email Search to find people, friends, family members, officemates or peers. Out of the total 5,646 responses received, 40% say they use Bigfoot Directories’ Email Search.

Email Search is the tool site visitors can use to look up the email address of the person you want to find by simply typing in the first and last names, the city and state. With the simple information you provided, Bigfoot Directories will then run through its huge database and displays a list of email addresses that match your query. In addition, it allows you to contact the person via the Bigfoot SMS Manager or through Bigfoot Conference Call services for free*.

The Bigfoot Directories survey also revealed that Search People, with about 31% of the total number of votes, is the second most popular search tool that is being used to find information on somebody by checking on the available public records.

Find Friends, on the other hand, got the third highest votes with 16%.

Bigfoot Directories is a service provided by Bigfoot for people to find key contacts, long lost peers, unreachable friends or their dreamboat for a date. Users can also use Bigfoot Directories to look up professionals like lawyers and accountants, or to check for other information like hotels, business addresses and more.

Bigfoot Directories is the right place to find and be found. To find out more about Bigfoot Directories, click here.

*Users have to sign up for the SMS or Conference Call service for the free credits. Click here to find out more.

Bigfoot will soon launch an anti-spam solution for non-Bigfoot clients who are using POP3/IMAP servers. This is powered by the continuously improving Inspector Mails Anti-Spam Software, a front-end Bigfoot Anti-Spam Proxy Server.

“The server works by proxying a connection between the user and their main POP3/IMAP server thus filtering spam while they are in transit to the users' mailbox,” product manager, Jakeson Angulo, explains. “Spam will then be configured to be deleted, or tagged, then filtered away into the users' bulk folder.”

This software will be slated to support standard Email Client Software such as Outlook Express, MS-Outlook, Eudora, etc.

“The currently developed version would not require system administrators to install software locally, but would be provided with a control-panel to add and manage their users,” Mr. Angulo continued.

No monitoring or "training" is required for administrators to get it started. They just have to sign up, and then add users according to their subscription limits.

Subscription would be on a per-mailbox plan.

Raising the Bar for Online Advertising

A new report from eMarketer forecasts 13 percent overall growth in online advertising spending this year over last, to $7.8 billion, coming very close to the all-time-high of $8.1 billion in 2000. That’s about 2.9% of the total media spending on advertising.

In 2003, total online advertising spending amounted to about $6.9 billion.

This report only indicates that more and more businesses are turning to online advertising as an effective alternative to traditional forms of advertising. That’s why many of the large advertising networks are now raising the bar for Web sites trying to generate ad revenue.

Bigfoot Advertising, in catching up with industry trends, will soon be opening up more opportunities for online advertisers. Apart from banner ads, the oldest and most common type of online advertising, Bigfoot Advertising will be offering other advertising services.

Newsletters, for example, also provide a venue for advertising. For higher results, companies may advertise in Bigfoot newsletters that cater to their specific target market. This makes sure that they are reaching the right audience.

For one, Bigfoot In-Step Newsletter is a bi-monthly publication that provides a stream of information about Bigfoot products for Bigfoot subscribers. Because of the hundreds of thousands of impressions it offers, Bigfoot is opening the opportunity to let companies create a good impression on readers through advertorial features under the Featured Partner Section. Bigfoot guarantees premium exposure for whatever companies have to say or sell.

Another way of advertising is by sending out email campaigns. Companies with their own client list can easily do this because they have their own database of clients’ email information. But for those who don’t have their own list can rent another company’s mailing list. Called list rental, advertisers pay for the list of people they can send their email campaigns to. Some say that email list rental is dead, what with the growing spam problem and restrictions on email marketing. However, there are still success stories pointing to the contrary.

Bigfoot maintains a subscriber base of over 3 million spread across several continents. This makes Bigfoot’s opt-in email lists helpful in making the most of companies’ marketing efforts and demographic targeting. Bigfoot will help companies maintain targeted one-on-one communication with customers and prospects in rapid, Internet time, at costs much lower than postal mail.

Acknowledging the growing popularity of SMS or text messaging, a new trend in advertising has also emerged. Companies can now send mobile phone users text messages advertising new product announcements, special offers and discounts. SMS Advertising is seen to make it big especially in mobile phone-dominated areas like Asia and Europe.

Using SMS Manager’s Blast feature, Bigfoot has the capability of sending a single message to thousands of recipients in an instant. It’s a quick and cost-effective way to give advertisers product mileage.

Bigfoot recognizes the rising need for advertising opportunities. That’s why Bigfoot now offers these channels to provide companies with advertising solutions. Bigfoot has been offering third-party advertising for quite a while now and demands have been growing. To meet these demands, Bigfoot will be putting up its new Advertising website to be launched soon.

For more information on Bigfoot Advertising, please contact us at: advertisenow@bigfoot.com