MESSAGEbuzz was sold to Cellit text marketing review in 2011
MESSAGEbuzz is a self service, web based marketing platform for companies wishing to use the text message or SMS as a way of contacting consumers. This Messagebuzz review provides the Messagebuzz history, as well as a review of the Messagebuzz text marketing products and services.
PLEASE NOTE: On February 18, 2011 MESSAGEbuzz was acquired by Cellit, another leading provider in the moblie marketing industry.
Little information is found about MESSSAGEbuzz both on the web and through their website. Finding information about company founders, President, CEO, etc. and the date the company was founded proved to be unsuccessful. Through the contact page they do list an address in St. Louis MO.
The MESSAGEbuzz website is a bit difficult to navigate because there is not a lot of links or multiple avenues to reach important information. They do have a sitemap which makes the overall navigation much easier although some information is only found through sub-categories with no other way of finding it. MESSAGEbuzz includes a lot of statistics about SMS text messaging (almost all with sources) and also have a clever video with some interviews of potential consumers.
Messagebuzz has two text message marketing plan packages that they offer along with a plan that is designed for specific companies. The two mobile marketing plans consist of:
- Self Service Mobile Marketing
- Messages are 5 cents per message
- 5 keywords
- $99 per month
- $75 set-up fee
- No Limits
- Messages are 4 cents a message
- Unlimited keywords
- $180 per month
- $500 set-up fee
MESSAGEbuzz offers more for companies that wish for a more specialized campaign. The message cost would be 4 cents per message and monthly fees as well as set-up fees are per SMS marketing campaign.
Support for MESSAGEbuzz looks extensive with contact by both phone and email and videos for self service support. The major drawback to the MESSAGEbuzz support is, it’s only offered to the No Limits package and the Self Service package is charged $125 per hour for support.
Overall, MESSAGEbuzz is on the highest side of pricing compared to the many other bulk text messaging companies in the industry. Their plan packages and set-up fees are well above industry average. MESSAGEbuzz states on their pricing page that, “Our pricing table is below, but we would recommend not making your decision based on price alone. Check our Customer Comments before you make your final decision”. We agree in that the cost should not be the decision maker but to be able to overlook the excessively high costs the benefits should reach far beyond what the peers are offering at a much lower cost.
The ease of using the MESSAGEbuzz web based platform would seem to be complicated based off of their website. There are some program issues (contact us page) and some misspellings on the site and the difficulties navigating it lead this belief. Support is a shining spot for Messagebuzz with several ways of accessing it, however, this is more costly dependant upon the SMS marketing package you choose. Unfortunately, the few customer comments are not enough to compensate for the industry high costs and potential time loss and hassles that can occur from the MESSAGEbuzz platform.