Adam and me back in 2003 ready to conquer the world

On Sunday, Esendex reached 10 years old – if you base it on the incorporation records for the original business.

Like many startup companies the initial years were exceptionally tight and there are many tales from those former years, some of which will be revealed at our 10th birthday party in June.

Esendex has covered a lot of ground since its beginnings in Adam’s attic where we had a few mobiles ziplocked to a PC. Our first work involved sending out triathlon results by SMS (something that’s now become a standard thanks to our clever idea) but other initial work included an “order your bagel by SMS” – this hasn’t caught on!

During the first year there were a few months when we didn’t raise a single invoice. Now we have more than 11,000 customers globally, employ 45 people and have offices in the UK, Australia, Spain and the U.S. We have direct connections to mobile networks globally. And we’re still working with many of our first customers

We’ve seen a similar rate of change in the SMS market. When we initially started, the biggest objection we faced was that “SMS was surely just for kids”. Now SMS is probably the most ubiquitous global communication channel. And whilst the crazy-frog may not have done much for the whole industry, today business SMS has finally come of age: a recent study by Jupiter proposes that Application to Person (A2P) SMS revenues of $70.1 billion will surpass peer to peer traffic by 2016.

Esendex has never been in a stronger position: profitable operations in five countries, traction in the US market, having only launched last year and a array of new projects. It’s not easy to predict how Esendex will look on our 21st birthday but if we evolve only half as much as we have in the last decade, we have an exciting future.

One SMS is much like another, right? So why are everybody’s prices different?

Esendex has never sought to be a least-cost router although we’ve always tried to be competitive. Our pricing policy is based on 4 basic principles:

1. Keep it simple
2. The more you spend, the lower the price
3. The greater your commitment, the lower the price
4. Esendex needs to be a profitable business to offer a viable, long term Business SMS Service. 

Keep it simple

We operate in a number of markets, not just Australia but also the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany and and over the years we have realised that the vast majority of our customers send “local” traffic: Australian customers tend to send within Australia, German customers tend to send within Germany.

We have sufficient volume in each market to offer our customers a “blended” price: we make no distinction between local and international traffic. We do not operate on a credit basis – one SMS – or indeed Voice SMS – can be sent anywhere.

Some destinations cost us a little more, some a little less but we can absorb these variances. Most of our customers find this clarity important.

We also make no charge for delivery receipts, set-up, support or our SDKs.

The more you spend, the lower the price.

Other SMS providers prefer a flatter price profile, ie there is a smaller discount for higher volumes. Some even offer flat pricing regardless of volume.

This can be to our disadvantage in straight price comparisons but we believe that it’s the right thing to do.

When you are doing your own price comparison its worth considering how we’ll compare in the future when your volumes have grown, not just now when you are starting out.

Some of our customers have even chosen to do their testing with the cheapest service they can find and then move over to us once they’ve gone live.

The greater your commitment, the lower the price

We offer 2 basic pricing schemes: Prepaid SMS and our SMS Tracker Tariff.

Our lowest pricing is reserved for those customers who can make a greater commitment to us.

Potential customers sometimes ask why they should pay more if they pay in advance. We ask our Credit customers to commit to us (a minimum spend of just $25 for at least 3 months for our Tracker Tariff) and we feel that we need to reward or incentivise this commitment. And for those customers who can commit to a specific volume each month we’re able to lock in an even better price with a bespoke tariff.

We also believe that it’s in everyone’s interests to enter into a longer term arrangement – we’re still working with almost 75% of our first 100 customers from 2002!

Esendex needs to be a profitable business to offer a viable, long term Business SMS Service.

The SMS market is a competitive one and we’re mindful of this – in fact we’ve just reduced all our prices. But if you are to enter into a long term relationship or are prepurchasing messages you need to know that those messages will still be available when you need them in the future.

Esendex is no start-up. We’ve been profitable for many years and can afford to continue to grow and develop our service.

We also need to be able to afford to deliver your messages via more than one route.

The Mobile Network Operator’s connections fail. If your supplier’s pricing is based on a mark-up on a single route what happens when that route fails? Can they still afford to deliver your message? Esendex can deliver via a minimum of 4 routes into each of its markets and this is absorbed within our pricing.

So is Esendex right for you?

Our pricing works for most – it’s not right for everyone.

However, we are also flexible. If you are delivering to a specific market or have particular constraints or issues we may be able to construct a bespoke tariff.

Give us a call on 1300-764-946 or email sales@esendex.com.au if you’d like to talk through your requirements. ]]> http://www.esendex.com.au/blog/post/our-pricing-policy-explained/feed/ 0 http://www.esendex.com.au/blog/post/still-not-sent-your-christmas-cards-send-an-sms-instead/ http://www.esendex.com.au/blog/post/still-not-sent-your-christmas-cards-send-an-sms-instead/#comments Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:23:16 +0000 Julian http://172.16.1.140/blog/?p=284

The pace is quickening as we all move towards the holiday season and there still seem to be 101 things that need to be done. If you’ve not sent your Christmas cards yet, either on behalf of your business or your personal cards, why not send an SMS instead.

It’s cheaper, quicker and more likely to be read. 

Simply load up your contacts into Web SMS and use the Group Send feature. Or use the Schedule Send feature to time the delivery. If you’ve got staff working at the weekend or on Christmas day itself why not send them a quick thank you.

Of if you use our Email SMS service, browse through your contact list and send an SMS to everyone you’d have sent a card to.

That’s one more think ticked off the To Do list – pass me a mince pie!