IMImobile SA has launched a new commercial messaging service, MiniMailers, a rich media messaging solution that is delivered directly to a consumer’s messaging inbox.
MiniMailers has been successfully trialed with some of South Africa’s largest banks who were impressed with MiniMailer’s functionality, particularly for sending digital bank statements.
Similar to Email, MiniMailers messages allow for the use of imagery, rich media and can be personalised for individual customers. The advantage of sending large volumes of customer communications for corporate enterprises through MiniMailers are lower distribution costs, significantly higher open rates and delivery attempts, including delivery reports, far more successful than email.
The content delivered through MiniMailers is not reduced to the size of the receiving user’s mobile phone or screen. The content is sent to the user’s mobile messaging inbox where consumers can zoom and enlarge content as if it were a standard email message.
MiniMailers capitalises on the current gap in the market between email and MMS-based customer communications.
In addition, the service is designed for local market conditions where a limited number of consumers are connected to the Internet via laptops and desktops.
Devon Meerholz, chief creative officer at IMImobile SA, comments: “Customer communications are now being designed specifically for mobile-first environments and I anticipate that consumers in South African will increasingly start to receive messages from businesses that stand out from regular text-based messages. MiniMailer messages deliver greater levels of customer interaction due to their rich media content, interactive display as well as being highly personalised.
“South Africa is very much a mobile-first market which means the majority of consumers never check their email on personal computers, with over 75% of all website traffic originating from mobile devices. MiniMailers are designed to offer businesses all the functionality of a bulk email but displayed interactively as a message on the consumer’s mobile device,” he adds.