Global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget (NYSE:ET) launched its new MobileConnect application today, providing marketers a cloud-based application to power SMS alerts and mobile marketing messages worldwide.

Available as a standalone application or fully integrated into the ExactTarget Interactive Marketing Hub, MobileConnect is the next generation of ExactTarget’s mobile marketing application and features intuitive message templates, easy-to-use reporting, advanced enterprise management of short/long codes and keywords and cross-channel integration with campaigns across email, social media and the web.

“With the launch of MobileConnect, ExactTarget is democratizing mobile marketing, providing a new approach that makes mobile more accessible and easier to use than ever before,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget co-founder and chief executive officer. “Our revolutionary approach to mobile enables marketers across all segments of the market to easily create and integrate SMS into interactive campaigns across email, social media and the Web – all through an intuitive user interface that serves both beginners and highly technical marketers.”

Key features of ExactTarget MobileConnect include:

• Self-Service Interface: Easy-to-use application provides a wide variety of SMSmessaging templates, real-time tracking, shortcode and longcode management and easy-to-use step-by-step message and campaign creation.
• Cross-Channel Integration: Seamless integration into the Interactive Marketing Hub allows marketers to associate SMS programs with ExactTarget-powered email, social media and Web campaigns to create a single view of each customer’s interactions and message preferences.
• Enterprise-level Scalability: Built on ExactTarget’s FUEL software as a service platform, MobileConnect easily scales to meet enterprise messaging needs from delivering relevant marketing messages to powering highly transactional mission-critical messaging, including real-time data-driven SMS alerts such as travel updates, banking alerts and order confirmations.

Launched at the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in New York City, MobileConnect is generally available to all ExactTarget clients starting today. The application is the next generation of the company’s mobile marketing solution, which debuted in 2007.

“Just as marketers focused on the 30-second spot when consumers flocked to their TVs en masse, now is the time to embrace mobile phones as the next marketing frontier,” wrote Melissa Parrish, senior analyst at Forrester Research, Inc. in the February 2012 report entitled “Mobile Marketing: Three Principles For Success”. “More people own smartphones than ever before, and they’re using them more often too. This makes a mobile marketing strategy crucial for any interactive marketer.”

Nearly 70 percent of U.S. online consumers use text messaging weekly and of those 16 percent have made a purchase after receiving a text (SMS) marketing message, according to ExactTarget’s recent 2012 Channel Preference Survey. The survey of nearly 1,500 consumers also found a quarter of consumers prefer text messaging over all other channels for real-time channel alerts. To download the research, click here.

MobileConnect is the latest interactive marketing application launched by ExactTarget. In the past year, the company has introduced new innovations across its cross-channel interactive marketing suite, including:

• SocialEngage – Provides next generation social media management functionality for Twitter and Facebook with expanded capabilities including outbound editorial workflow, RSS integration, exporting conversations, SSL security and cross-channel integration.
• SocialPages – Provides Facebook page publishing and analytics with integrated real-time engagement features, such as polling and email acquisition.
• Audience Builder – Provides a powerful solution to consolidate, analyze and take action on customer data in real time through an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to create targeted audiences for campaigns across email, mobile, social media and the Web.
• Automation Studio – Provides drag and drop automation to plan and power messages across email, mobile, social or Web campaigns based on consumer behavior, time or custom attributes.

The MobileConnect launch follows the Mobile Marketing Association naming ExactTarget Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kopp to its North America board of directors. MMA, the leading global trade association for the mobile industry, named Kopp to the board alongside experts from leading global companies to help shape the future of mobile marketing.

About ExactTarget

ExactTarget is a leading global provider of email marketing and cross-channel interactive marketing software-as-a-service solutions that empower organizations of all sizes to communicate with their customers through email, mobile, social media and websites. ExactTarget’s powerful suite of integrated applications enable marketers to plan, automate, deliver and optimize data-driven interactive marketing and real-time communications to drive customer engagement, increase sales and improve return on marketing investment. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana with offices across North America and in Europe, South America and Australia, ExactTarget trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ET.” For more information, visit www.ExactTarget.com.

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