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Easyquote to offer SMS marketing quotes
Wednesday, October 03 2001
by Andrew McLindon


Business-to-business Web site Easyquote.ie has launched a service enabling Irish
businesses to get quotes from SMS marketers. 

The service, which Easyquote.ie claims is a first for Ireland, allows customers
to request quotes for SMS marketing services via the company's Web site for free.
At the moment, the service has only two suppliers - Dataconversion Direct and
Abtran, but Easyquote told ElectricNews.Net that it expected additional suppliers
to come on-board over the next couple of weeks.



According to Barney Joyce, director, Easyquote.ie, the service will prove popular
among businesses because SMS marketing is an emerging arena and as such
businesses may have difficulty sourcing potential suppliers. 

 

Joyce, who has a background in marketing, added that he believed that SMS
marketing would become an increasingly popular way to market to consumers despite
some analysts' misgivings about whether people will tolerate being bombarded by
SMS ads and marketing messages. 

 

"There is an extremely delicate balance that has to be maintained with SMS
marketing between opt-in and targeting, but if done properly it is a very
cost-effective great way to get to the market you want to," he remarked. 



Joyce's view is backed up by a recent survey in Sweden carried out by Netsurvey
and UK mobile marketing company, Mediatude. The survey showed that 76 percent of
5,000 respondents believed SMS information services added value, even with
advertising, and fifty-two percent said they would recommend advertising-financed
SMS services to others. Also, nearly 30 percent of respondents to the  survey
said that the advertising made them interested in the campaign offer, and 18
percent said that since receiving an SMS advert, they had actively searched for
more information.



Easyquote.ie is an independent gateway that gives businesses the opportunity to
receive multiple quotes from a variety of suppliers covering a range of
industries including direct marketing, print, telecoms, freight and Internet
services.  



Launched in September, 2000, the company said that it now has close to 400 member
companies. Businesses pay a flat yearly fee to be listed on the site.
Easyquote.ie splits the country into nine regions (i.e. south west, north
midlands, north east) and the size of the fee depends on how many of regions a
company wants to be listed in. 

According to Joyce, it has received requests for business worth around EUR5
million through its system since its launch. He added that the company expects to
post a "modest" profit before the end of the year. 



Easyquote can be found at HREF="http://www.easyquote.ie">http://www.easyquote.ie