Posts Tagged ‘SMS’

New Mobile Advertising Tip for the Travel Industry

March 26th, 2011 No Comments

It’s the time of year when many people look to escape the last of the cold winter or rainy spring by taking a vacation. The natural consumer desire to unwind presents key marketing opportunities to those who work in the travel industry. As reviewed in a previous post, Mobile Marketing is a powerful tool for travel and tourism professionals, because it provides unprecedented levels of communication and the ability to conduct real-time marketing campaigns.

A recent post in Mobile Commerce Daily outlined a great idea for travel pros to integrate mobile into their mix this vacation season. The basic idea is to conduct promotions that utilize a mix of SMS Marketing and e-mail marketing. This potent, two step communication engages consumers with e-mail newsletters or messaging, and then further engages users with a targeted marketing message. This is a powerful mobile marketing tip. Here’s how it works:

A travel agent sends a newsletter to their e-mail opt-in list. The newsletter highlights an exclusive Hawaii vacation package for two at a discounted price. The newsletter includes a link that prompts users to opt-in to their mobile opt-in list in order to be notified when the Hawaii packages are available for sale and when they have been sold out. The next week, customers who have opted in, receive a SMS communication from the travel agent, alerting them that packages are available and that mobile opt-in customers can purchase them at a deeply discounted rate. They click on a link in the text and are taken to a mobile website, where they can purchase the Hawaii package immediately, from their smartphone. When packages are sold out, the opt-in list is sent a text alerting them to the status and urging them to visit the travel agent’s mobile or standard website for more great vacation opportunities.

The above is just one of the many scenarios that an E-Mail/SMS Mobile Advertising campaign provides for travel professionals. The benefits of this type of advertising campaign span beyond an instant boost in sales. The texts that you send will be to a highly qualified audience. They opted in to receive the text, so there is a base of interest. Between the e-mail communication and SMS, customers will have to opt-in twice. This means, they would be doubled opted-in, which means you’re definitely legally compliant. And, you can get a good read on e-mail messaging, texts, and overall promotions that work, using the data gained from this kind of mobile advertising campaign.

For more information about mobile advertising for the Travel Industry and powerful mobile tools for any marketing campaign, visit www.mowbi.com. Or call 1-800-985-9277. E-mail WBouton@mowbi.com or Bill@mowbi.com.

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You Need a Text Club

November 10th, 2010 No Comments

A text club is an opt-in  group of customers who receive promotional texts, reminder texts, and informational text from you. Text Clubs are a great form of mobile marketing, and it is absolutely a function that should be part of your mobile marketing mix.

 Text Clubs are so great because they’re an opted-in list of customers who want to receive promotional texts from you. Text Clubs also present a great opportunity to build lasting relationships with a loyal customer base.

If your business is a retail store, you can put SMS codes with prompts to join your text club for special sales on signage throughout your establishment. Restaurants can take advantage of table top signage by placing table tents that have short code calls to action. You can also build your text club using social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter.  Another idea for building your text club is via a text to win contest. In exchange for signing up to receive promotional texts from you, consumers join your text club in order to enter into a contest. Give something away that’s relevant to your business, and you’ll be on your way to building a strong, targeted text club.

Once you have a text club established, the opportunities for marketing and relationship building are endless. SMS Alerts are a great way to keep your customers up to date with product information, such as low inventory, or an exclusive new shipment. If you’re in the service industry, you can use your Text Club to send your customers alerts on when their next service from you is due. This would work well for a Hair Salon, Auto Mechanic, etc.

Another Text Club marketing idea is to hold a poll or survey. This can give you key insights on how your customers feel about your brand and/or industry. A poll can show you what products or services your customers think are key in your market. They can reveal what products/services your customers are happy with, along with things that they would like to see your company doing. Overall, when you use your Text Club to gain customer opinions, you’re engaging in a two way conversation with your audience, and building a strong and loyal customer base.

Visit www.mowbi.com for powerful Text Club tools for every budget. Or call 1-800-985-9277. E-mail Bill@mowbi.com or Jordan@mowbi.com.

Posted in Mobile Commerce Tags: , , , , ,

More Holiday MCommerce Tips

October 4th, 2010 No Comments

As we enter October and start to close in on the Holiday Season, it’s important for businesses to be in full on planning mode. A couple of weeks ago, we shared some holiday marketing tips for mobile commerce, and in the giving spirit of the impending season, we’d like to share a few more useful pointers. While you enter holiday 2010 planning in full swing, consider these ideas:

Mobile Coupons: This strategy begins with having a firm understanding of your customers along with knowledge of what your hot ticket items are during the holidays. You can use this information to drive in-store and/or web traffic by sending mobile coupons to your opt-in list. This will get inventory moving, and also generate interest and traffic to your store or website. You can also use mobile couponing as a method of building your opt-in list. In exchange for agreeing to receive promotional messaging from your store, customers will receive valuable mobile coupons from you. The holiday season is a key time for using mobile coupons to build your opt-in list, because many consumers are looking for deals around the holidays, therefore, they may be more receptive to offers to join your list in exchange for coupons.

Make Sure it’s Measurable: One of the stregnths of mobile marketing is that it generates extremely trackable results. Make sure to have a solid tracking plan in place, starting with a solid understanding of the metrics you plan on using to measure campaign success. How will you definte success for your various holiday messages? Clicks? Conversion? Click to Call? Before you start planning any creative, be sure to have a concrete strategy for measuring results.  Also, be sure to have a plan for optimizing your message/target opt-in list on the fly as you see results come in. This will require you to monitor results on a daily basis, and really analyze results at the end of each week.

Start Early: 2010 is slated to be a brutally competitive holiday season for retailers. In a recent report published by eMarketer, 42.7% of the consumers who participated in the study  indicated that they are only planning on purchasing items that are on sale this holiday season. While past holiday seasons gave businesses a booststarting on Black Friday and Cyber-Monday, experts now caution retailers/etailers to start marketing as soon as Halloween, as consumers aren’t likely to wait around for deals this season. This means, if you haven’t started planning- get going right NOW and plan on sending your first batch of SMS Messages, Mobile Couponing, etc out by October 31st. Another upside to starting your mobile  holiday campaign early is that you’ll learn about what works as far as messaging and targetting early enough to make changes if needed, and you can optimize your message and offers in time to still make a profit if need be.

For cutting edge  Mobile Marketing solutions that are guaranteed to boost your holiday campaign, visit www.mowbi.com. Or call 1-800-985-9277. E-mail questions and ideas to Bill@mowbi.com or Jordan@mowbi.com

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Great Mobile Marketing Ideas for Traditional Media

June 7th, 2010 No Comments

One of the many excellent aspects of Mobile Marketing is that you can use it to augment your existing marketing mix. Radio, TV, Print, Signage- Mobile Marketing can be used to drive results to campaigns across all channels. The great thing about using mobile marketing to augment your advertising or marketing campaign is that results are measurable immediately. Here are 6 Mobile Marketing Ideas that incorporate traditional media channels. To discuss your unique ideas for marketing your company on a mobile scale give us a call at 800-985-9277 OR e-mail Bill@mowbi.com or Jordan@mowbi.com

Radio- There are exciting ways to integrate mobile marketing using SMS messaging. Radio is especially attractive for mobile marketing because most listeners are off site when they are exposed to your radio message- meaning, they are likely to respond to your call to action via mobile device.  Driving listeners to text or to your mobile site, eliminates the extra step of calling or browsing the net for your website from home.   Make your radio promotions interactive, with text based contests. Drive texts to your mobile commerce website with radio ads . A great way to do this is to offer exclusive coupons, or a text only area for a special sale event. You can present this offer through a radio spot or through a DJ endorsement. Either way, radio and mobile marketing not only compliment each other as far as driving response, but you can also get a read on results immediately.

Television- TV’s relationship with mobile marketingand mobile commerce is growing increasingly interesting. With technological advances and consumer demand, the prospect of mobile television becoming a popular vehicle of TV consumption is not entirely far-fetched. The demand for mobile TV is growing, and when it gains it’s true potential, there will be many implications for advertisers. It will absolutely mean significant changes for those in the Direct Response industry.  This  interesting topic gets a bit off subject for this post, but watch for it in future posts from us. For now, we’ll stick to the basics. For TV, SMS messaging is also a great mobile marketing tool. Programs such as American Idol and entertainment giant MTV are already texting in their programing. Not only can you use texting as part of your call to action in a TV spot; you can also insert your message into programs directly. For instance, American Idol now has voters texting in to place their votes. MTV drives their audience to opinion polls via text. If you’re running a major promotion, a great idea to consider is driving texts. You could also consider hosting a mobile website for audiences to place votes, or opinions about their favorite TV shows.

Print- Perhaps the oldest form of advertising aside from word of mouth, print ads are moving into the 21st century quite gracefully and you should be sure that your print ads are too. You can drive your target audience to text or to your mobile website. A great way to build your opt-in list is to drive your target audience to an exclusive mobile website that gives them access to special events, sales, and promotions. With mobile marketing, you can turn your print ad into an interactive tool to make sales and build a strong opt-in list.

Signage- You can incorporate mobile marketing on billboards or in store displays. Retail big wig, Bloomingdale’s was able to use a text call to action on the window of their Lexington Ave location to drive votes for their new window display. They received hundreds of votes each day, proving that consumers are willing and are ready for this kind of interaction with retailers. You can take this idea even further by driving texts for a contest or special promotion. If hundreds of consumers are willing to text in to vote- imagine how many people would be willing to text for a chance at a prize. Another great example of signage incorporating mobile marketing is Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a non-profit agency that offers services to the homeless and working poor in Austin, Texas. MLF had a billboard sign, with a local homeless man literally standing on the billboard, with the words, “I am Danny. I am Homeless. I am here.” right next to a giant call to action asking viewers to text a designated phone number to donate to Danny. Through this campaign, MLF was able to raise enough money for Danny and his wife to buy a house. Again, this shows that consumers are willing and ready to participate in traditional to mobile media. Billboards can be a great tool for driving texts traffic to your mobile website.

Give us a call to talk about how to incorporate mobile marketing into your traditional marketing mix. Call  800-985-9277 OR e-mail Bill@mowbi.com or Jordan@mowbi.com

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Portland, Maine Uses Text Messaging to Squash Violence

May 29th, 2010 No Comments
chief announces texting plan Portland, Maine Uses Text Messaging to Squash Violence

Text Messaging has new uses

The police chief in Portland, Maine has  found a new use for text messaging. The increasing violence in the Old Port district, had local police and  bar owners questioning to keep overly intoxicated individuals off the streets. They found the answer in technology. Bar Tenders will now use a text messaging program to inform other bars of rowdy, or over intoxicated patrons that may be headed their way.

Here is how it works: A patron at Bar X has been drinking for the past 3 hours and he has become loud, abrasive, and belligerent. The bar tender refuses to serve this patron any more alcohol, and the patron is asked to leave the establishment. As this unruly patron heads to Bar Y, the bar tender or security guard sends a text message to other bars that participate in the texting program (all texts are sent to one designated phone number that all participating bars and the police have access to), warning them about the potentially dangerous customer. This same text messaging system sends a message with the patron’s description to police officers who are patrolling the area. There is even an option to capture the patron’s digital pictures, so police and security know exactly who they are looking for.

This program is called “Text a tip and pic” and Portland police and bar owners are optimistic that this text messaging system will significantly improve safety in the Old Port. Read more about this groundbreaking program here: http://www.pressherald.com/news/to-quash-rowdiness-craig-says-bars-can-send-text-warnings_2010-05-28.html

Text Messaging and the use of mobile devices are becoming more mainstream as we become more comfortable with mobile technology. We can expect to see more innovative uses of SMS or Text Messaging like this in the very near future.

What are some unique ways that youcould be using SMS or Texting? The time to start thinking about it-is NOW. Call us to discuss how texting can fit into your business plan. 800-985-9277 or e-mail Bill@mowbi.com or Jordan@mowbi.com

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Top 5 Text Marketing Tips

May 8th, 2010 No Comments

One of the many excellent options available via Mobile Marketing is Text Marketing, or SMS (short message service). According to the New York Times, 97% of all SMS messages sent to consumers were opened in 2009. 83% of these messages were opened within an hour of being received. Right now is a great time to begin a Text Marketing campaign because the mobile channel is virtually clutter-free and hasn’t be over-run with spammers. Here are the Top 5 tips for running a successful Text Marketing campaign:

1. Choose the right service provider- While Text Marketing is still getting it’s legs, there are industry standards that must be followed. For instance, automated dialers (that hack into national SMS structure and blast messages to thousands of consumers) are to be avoided. Hiring a service that employs this kind of tactic for your business can result in stiff penalties, and could cause you to be blacklisted in the mobile sphere. Text Marketing can be a powerful marketing tool. Put your best foot forward by hiring a reputable company to get your campaign off the ground. Give App Publishing a call at 800-985-9277 or e-mail  jordan@mowbi.com to discuss how we can help you launch a successful mobile marketing campaign.

2. Use Traditional Marketing- You can supplement your Text Marketing campaign using traditional channels such as print, or outdoor signage. Macy’s and drugstore giant CVS both have used print and display ads to drive mobile traffic. When using traditional media to drive texts, be sure to make the call to action extremely clear, with the text displayed prominently. The text number itself should be short, memorable, and one of your mobile keywords.

3. Build Relationships- Don’t use Text Marketing as a one-shot blast and disappear. You’ll miss out on the true opportunities that text marketing presents and you won’t grow your opt in list. Instead, use Text Marketing to build relationships with your customers. Send them valuable coupons, and notices. Armani , a large national retailer was able to effectively intergrate text marketing into their brand identity. Their SMS text information is displayed right next to their name and logo. They send valuable coupons to their opt in list, and they recently had an exclusive sale for their text message customers only. They are using text marketing to build a culture around their brand. This is the kind of relationship building you should be thinking of, when planning your Text Marketing campaign.

4. Always Remain Professional- With  new technology like text marketing and mobile commerce, it can be tempting to tailor messages to a youthful audience. Even if your company’s demo skews younger, do not make the mistake of using slang or teenage texting ”shorthand” (words like, gr8 , 4u, lol, etc). Business’s such as Adidas have found that consumers are wary of text messages that use this kind of language. Your text marketing campaign can be playful and fun (if that messaging works with your audience), but it should always present your company in a professional, legitimate light.

5. Make it Enticing- If you’re using traditional media to drive mobile traffic, or if you’re sending SMS messages out asking for clicks or click-to-calls, it is extremely important to give your audience a compelling reason to take action. The first thing your customer will think when they receive your WXYZ marketing text is WIIFM- What’s In it For Me? The best incentive for most consumers is a free offer. This is often the dance of a successful text marketing campaign- you give the consumer something for free and in exchange, they agree to receive text marketing messages from you (ie, they opt-in). Do not under estimate the power of a free offer. Yes,  joining the opt in list to your favorite local pizza place for sales updates is nice and maybe you’ll get around to doing it next time they text. But if that same pizza place is going to give you  free breadsticks if you opt in NOW and this offer expires at 3pm today- you’re likely to get around to that opt in list a lot more quickly. Just like with any traditional call to action, text marketing messages must have a strong offer. And what do consumers like better than free?

Call us at 800-985-9277 to give your Text Marketing initiatives a strong start. We’d love to discuss your mobile marketing ideas live. Ask how to get your Free Demo- We’ll show you exactly how mobile marketing can increase your company’s bottom line- The demo is absolutely free, so there’s nothing to lose. Call 1-800-985-9277 or e-mail bill@mowbi.com or jordan@mowbi.com.

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