What Is Mobile Marketing & Why Is It Different?        

Mobile Marketing is, simply put, the practice of extending your marketing efforts to mobile devices. Today ‘mobile devices’ primarily means mobile phones, including smart phones such as the Blackberry Storm and the Apple iPhone. In the future, we will likely see full-fledged mobile computers with broadband Internet connection. Such devices will offer a rich media marketing platform. However, those services are not yet here on a meaningful scale. For example, less than a quarter of Americans have ever browsed the mobile web. Consequently, this represents a fundamental conundrum facing your firm when you consider whether to launch your first Mobile Marketing campaign. You’ve heard that Mobile Marketing is the future of advertising, but just not yet. Only that’s not really the case.

Contrary to what you may have heard, Mobile Marketing is here, and savvy firms, from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, are already running successful mobile campaigns. SMS Text Messaging is the key to this puzzle.

Nearly every phone in the United States supports text messaging. Over half of all Americans have sent or received a text message. The average mobile phone subscriber sends nearly 200 text messages every month. When you look closer, at the prized 18 – 29 demographic, the adoption rate is even higher, edging toward saturation at 85%. Among those 30 – 49 years old, the adoption rate is at 65% and climbing.

So, we Americans are clearly texting. But what do they think about being marketed to via text message? In a recent Direct Marketing Association survey, 70% of the sample revealed that they had responded to a marketing text message. To put this in perspective, the DMA adds that only 30% of those surveyed responded to a marketing email.   TOP OF PAGE

Why are consumers so eager to respond to marketing text messages? The answer reveals the value text messaging offers to both you and your customers:        

It’s Interactive – 21st century marketing is about having a conversation with your customers, rather than shouting at them. A world saturated with intrusive advertising like spam, pop-ups, and commercials has overwhelmed consumers. Increasingly, they tune out messages broadcast to a wide audience, whether by using digital video recorders to skip past commercials, or simply by ignoring the banner ads on their favorite website.
It’s Personal – Your customers expect you to speak to them, and text messaging allows you to reach them individually, whenever, wherever, in the palm of their hands. This reach is of value to you the marketer. It also is of value to your customers. With a few taps of their thumbs they can respond to whatever message that you have sent them. With text messaging you can build relationships with your customers.
It’s Immediate – Text Messaging, like Twitter, and Instant Messaging, is blazingly fast. With text messaging you can communicate with your customers as speedily as they are now accustomed to living. You can also move quickly. Say you are a winter wear shop, and you see that today a snowstorm is on its way. In less than five minutes you can send a text message to your customers containing a special offer on hats and gloves.

It’s Trackable – When you send out text messages to your customers you can see, in real time, who has responded to your message. It’s New - Although thousands of companies large and small are already marketing to their customers via text message, the medium is still in its infancy. If you act now, you are letting your customers know that you are a forward-thinking firm. Your marketing efforts will break through the traditional clutter. TOP OF PAGE

What Is The Value Proposition?        

Mobile Marketing comes in many different flavors. For the vast majority of businesses, we think that text messaging is the best way to reach your consumers. In order to give you a quick overview of your options, below we walk you through the forms of Mobile Marketing, other than text messaging, that are available, explaining their pros and cons.
Advertising on the Mobile Web – Many prominent websites now offer custom tailored sites for mobile phones, via WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), and specially designed iPhone or Blackberry sites. The problem is, less than a quarter of Americans use the mobile web. This seriously restricts the reach of your mobile advertising campaign. Furthermore, when you design a banner ad for the mobile web you need to make sure that it will display correctly on thousands of different devices, made by over a dozen different manufacturers. If your firm does decide to build its own WAP site, you can easily integrate it into your text messaging campaigns.
Bluetooth/Infrared – In recent years a number of brands have rolled out Bluetooth and infrared marketing campaigns. In a typical scenario, a street advertisement will offer consumers the opportunity to receive marketing content wirelessly at the ‘hotspot.’ We have seen such initiatives from Discovery Channel and Pepsi using New York City bus stop shelters. These campaigns, while technologically innovative, are rare.
Location Based Advertising – Many mobile phones are equipped with Global Positioning System receivers. In a typical scenario, a store may send a special offer to a consumer when they are in the neighborhood. This technology is growing in popularity overseas, but it is very much in its infancy in the US.
Multimedia Message Service (MMS) – Most mobile phones support multimedia messages, which can contain text, sound, images, and even video. The iPhone, notably does not support MMS. The downside to MMS marketing is that receiving such messages can be costly to consumers. Furthermore, different networks and different devices conform to differing standards, hindering simple, ubiquitous campaigns. Successful MMS campaigns are typically run “on-deck,” which means that they confined to a single carrier. Although running an “on-deck” campaign allows you to leverage the power of MMS by conforming to a particular carrier’s technology, you are limited to that carrier’s customers.         TOP OF PAGE

Mobile Search – Marketers familiar with Cost Per Click (CPC) search advertising programs such as Google AdWords, may be aware that these programs are now available on the mobile web. Extending your CPC search campaign to the mobile web presents numerous challenges. First, mobile search suffers the same ‘reach’ drawbacks as mobile advertising. Furthermore, the major cellular carriers hope to keep searches in house, rather than ceding their users to a mobile search engine; and when consumers search on their mobile device their intentions are very different than when they are sitting at their desktop.
Mobile Gaming – Consumers have begun to embrace gaming on their mobile phones. Some firms have begun to advertise within freely available games. Mobile gaming is certainly popular, but it does not offer scale. Furthermore, your firm may have difficulty finding suitable placements.
As you can see, all of these marketing formats have serious drawbacks. We would not be surprised to see them become more viable in the future. For now though, none of them offers the reach, the simplicity, and the low cost of text messaging.

Since this is the 77we Guide to Mobile Marketing with Text Messaging, we hate to complicate things, but we do need to help you understand an important difference between the two common types of text message marketing campaigns. Don’t worry – the difference is simple, but as you will see, the steps that you will take to get started will vary based on the type of campaign that you are planning.

There are two types of text messaging campaigns: pull and push. In a push campaign, your firm starts off with a database of ‘Opted-In’ phone numbers. A pull campaign is designed to build a database of phone numbers for future use.        TOP OF PAGE

Pick A Firm –– Can they handle volume; do they support all carriers; do they offer easy-to-use software; do they offer advanced features you may want to use down the road?
Target The Customers/Members You Would Like To Reach – The power of marketing with text messages is that it allows you to reach the customers you want to reach. Figure out who they are before you design your campaign. (If you are conducting a push campaign, you already have these customers’ phone numbers. If you are launching a pull campaign, you will design the campaign to best reach your target customers)
Setup A Means To Collect Numbers – There are three ways to collect phone numbers. You can direct your customers to opt-in by sending a message with your keyword to a short code; you can collect customer phone numbers using a web widget; or, if you are conducting a push campaign, you can easily import previously collected phone numbers into your campaign database.
Choose A Keyword – A Keyword is a short word (which may include numbers) that customers send a text message to, in order to join your list. An example would be: ‘Text KEYWORD to SHORTCODE to join our text messaging list.’ When you select a Mobile Marketing firm to work with, such as 77we Texting, they will allow you to use their shared Short Code. In 77we Texting’s case this code is 48510. Feel free to give this a try! Text 77we to the number 48510 and see what happens.
Choose A Good Call To Action (CTA) – You want to offer your customers value in return for joining your database. A typical CTA might be: Text KEYWORD to SHORTCODE to join our text messaging list and receive 10 percent off your next purchase at the ABC Boutique.
Design Your Promotional Efforts – Your Mobile Marketing campaign can stand alone, or it can complement your existing marketing campaigns.         TOP OF PAGE

Keep It Simple! – When you send out a mass message, keep it simple. You only have 160 characters. Use them wisely. And always send a test message to yourself!
Always Allow Your Customers To Opt-Out – When you first text your customers, you need to let them know how to Opt-Out from receiving future text messages. This is usually accomplished by replying STOP to one of your messages.

When you run a campaign you are going to collect a lot of data – response rates, time of day, and other data points. Use that data to design your next campaign and you’ll achieve even greater ROI!

As we have stated, Mobile Marketing with text messaging is easy. And, there are other advantages beyond ease of use..

Ease Of Use – A Mobile Marketing package like 77we Texting is simple to use. It is web-based, which means that there is no software to install. You can check on your campaigns and launch new ones from any computer with an Internet connection or even directly from your own cell phone.
Cost Effective – Our current economic climate is extremely challenging. There is a good chance that your customers are spending less. Meanwhile, your competitors are cutting prices, hoping to generate whatever revenue they can. When you start looking for places to cut corners, your marketing budget often winds up on “the cutting floor”. A DIY Mobile Marketing campaign allows you to keep talking to your customers without the upfront costs of traditional ad buys. You can’t afford to stop advertising, and text messaging allows you to avoid expensive, untargeted campaigns in favor of inexpensive, targeted campaigns. Many 77we Texting clients tell us they were able to cut back on other, more costly advertising methods once they built an effective database of opt-in customers.

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Control – Everyone needs a helping hand every now and then, and a premier Mobile Marketing firm like 77we Texting is always there to help you get started and answer your questions. 77we Texting’s software allows you to conceive and send messages on your own. Even more importantly, you control every dollar that you spend.

Data – When you run your own Mobile Marketing campaign you control your data. Names, phone numbers, response rates – whatever data you collect, it is all yours. Campaigns That Are Uniquely Yours –With a DIY solution you (or your marketing team) can design campaigns that fit what your company does and what it represents.

Text Message Marketing That Goes Beyond Mere Messages

SMS Text messaging is the most popular and effective form of Mobile Marketing because it does exactly what it is supposed to do. You can achieve great ROI doing nothing more than occasionally texting your customers with notices, reminders and offers. But, as you will see, there is so much more that you can do. Importantly, for you and for your customers, all of these compelling methods keep things simple.

Mobile Couponing – Invite customers to text in your keyword to receive instant coupons that they can display in your store for a discount. In numerous surveys, consumers report that they are especially open to messages that offer value.

Contests – Commonly referred to as “Text-2-Win”, a mobile contest offers consumers the opportunity to text in to win a prize. 77we Texting’s software includes built-in contest functionality, allowing you to randomly select winners or to offer prizes to the first “x” number of entries. Every person that texts into the contest will be added to your database of phone numbers

Voting & Trivia – Interacting with consumers often produces the most successful marketing campaigns. Not only do Voting & Trivia allow customers to put in their two cents on a topic, but you collect valuable demographic data about your target consumers’ likes, dislikes and personality trends.

Message Forwarding – The messages that your customers send you can be forwarded to your email address or directly to your own mobile phone. Radio stations use this feature to relay song requests to DJs. Churches set up forwarding to a cell phone for anonymous prayer requests during church services.
Send Messages From Your Phone – When you just cannot get to a computer with an Internet connection you still can send out messages to your database of customers. This is perfect for one-the-go clients and marketers. Busy working the floor at a convention or a trade show?
Send out timely messages to your clients from your mobile phone. Message Scheduling –If you know that you want to send out a message at some time in the future, just enter it into the system, schedule it, and then when the time comes the message will be sent out automatically.         TOP OF PAGE

Web Widget - A fully customizable signup widget allows patrons to join your text messaging database from any website, email blast, MySpace or Facebook page. This security-enabled widget only subscribes unique, active cell phone numbers. Simply copy and paste the widget and you are done!

Random Sends – Running a special offer? Only want to hit some of your customers? With a random send the 77we Texting software will send out messages to “x” number of random phone numbers in your database.
Application Programming Interface (API) –Generally API is for advanced users only. Through your 77we Texting account, you can use our API to integrate the sending and receiving of text messages with your own website or application. This is helpful for firms with existing platforms, such as doctor’s offices that wish to add an SMS notification system to their CRM tool.
    

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