Posts Tagged ‘Marketing Strategy’

SMS Marketing in the Smartphone Era

Monday, August 30th, 2010

What’s in your pocket right now: an Android, Blackberry or iPhone? The smartphone war of Android verses iPhone verses Blackberry is really heating up this summer with some strong opinions on all ends of the court. But no matter which phone triumphs, one thing is for sure: Americans like their smartphones. Like no other time before, customers are literally becoming obsessed with their phones and all the features they provide. There’s mobile banking, mobile video, mobile social networking, facechat, apps, SMS and the list goes on. Smartphones, in turn, have shown to be hugely profitable for wireless providers, manufactures, app designers and mobile business. For mobile marketing especially, smartphones and the American fixation with these devices are providing major benefits.

People are now on their phones more than ever before. Customers doing their personal and business related activities from various locations but all on a single device. Knowing that people are likely to be spending a majority of their time on their smartphone gives marketers a perfect place to promote. There’s no guessing as to which day a customer will see your ad now. You can be almost certain they’ll see it the same day, if not the same hour, that you send it. SMS becomes especially powerful as it sends an alert to customers telling them a message has arrived. There’s no need to catch customer’s attention because the phone does it for you! Mobile has become a more central channel of communication in the customer’s everyday life. Knowing where customers are spending much of their time is invaluable to marketers. Smartphones have created a phenomenon where marketers have a good idea as to where they should send a message that’s almost guaranteed to be read.

Smartphones also come with features that benefit mobile marketers. If a company sells a product online, there’s now no delay in time to when the customer finds out about the product, through an SMS, and when they can actually see and purchase that product. Text messages can easily be sent with a hyperlink option that provides customers a direct route to a company’s website. And thanks to smartphones, the Internet is a click away at anytime in any location! In the fast-paced world we live in, there’s nothing better than when a simple message can lead directly to a sale. But company websites aren’t everything these days. Now leads can be generated from simply getting customers to go to your Facebook or Twitter, or to your Wordpress page to read your blog. Top downloaded smartphone apps are almost always social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Sending a text message to a smartphone allows the customer to see your message and then immediately log onto their social network and join your page or chat about you. Smartphones, and the apps they offer, have opened new doors to going viral with mobile marketing and social media.

The best part is that smartphone users are eager to use their phone more! People are fascinated with smartphones and after spending a good amount of a paycheck to purchase a device and plan they want to get the most out of their phone. A receptive audience is always key to a widely successful marketing strategy. You can’t produce enthusiasm about watching TV or listening to a radio ad, they way you can about using a smartphone. Smartphones have made mobile “cool” and produced an audience of eager customers.

For any type of marketing you do, it’s always most profitable when you have a clear target market and an eager audience. Smartphone have given marketers the chance at a one-way conversation with customers on a proven channel. If you’re not already using mobile as part of your marketing plan, it’s time to get in on the smartphone action. Contact Text Ripple today to learn more about SMS marketing to your smartphone customers.

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Posted in Marketing Strategy, Mobile Trends, SMS Text Messaging | No Comments »

Text Ripple Case Study: Dave’s Automotive Group

Monday, August 16th, 2010

At Text Ripple, we take pride in our client’s accomplishments as much as our own. A successful marketing plan is a win-win for all of us! One of our recent clientele success stories comes from Dave’s Automotive Group, an automotive dealer group based out of Michigan. Within the first week of Text Ripple working with Dave’s Automotive Group, customers were actively texting for information. Within only a month, the entire program had paid for itself! Here’s how Text Ripple mobile marketing worked for Dave’s Automotive Group.

As with any dealership, Dave’s Automotive Group was looking for the best way to make contact with potential customers and eventually sell as many vehicles as possible. To accomplish this, the dealership needed a way to interact with customers at times that worked best for these individuals. Casey Caldwall, used car manager for Dave’s Automotive Group, had continually noticed that after business hours were when shoppers often approached the lot. In prior years, the company had conducted a study on after hour shoppers and found some surprising results. Within the timeframe of a seven day test, 58 shoppers passed by after hours. Even more exciting, 39 of the 58 shoppers actually stepped out of their vehicles to browse the car lot. With so much activity happening after hours, Dave’s Automotive Group simply needed a way to connect with customers, even when no sales people were physically present.

Enter: Text Ripple text message marketing. When Text Ripple came on board with Dave’s Automotive Group, we were able to offer exactly what the dealership was looking for. Implementing a mobile lead generation plan would allow for virtual engagement with customers in a way that easily fit into the current marketing system. Text message marketing is ideal for dealerships such as Dave’s Automotive Group because it gives customers a clear message, or call to action, and allows the information offered back to be relevant and valued. For Dave’s Automotive Group, Text Ripple mobile marketing would prove to be invaluable as it provided a way to not only please the customer, but furthermore a way to gather and supply cell phone numbers of interested shoppers back to dealers anytime of the day.

The Text Ripple mobile marketing strategy for Dave’s Automotive Group was a breeze to put into place and operate. The target market was already identified as interested shoppers, narrowed down especially to those after hours. To reach this audience, each car on the lot was labeled with a unique window tag. The tags had a simple call to action, offering shoppers the option to text a code, which was specific to each vehicle, to the short code 411669. In return, shoppers received immediate information about the vehicle they were looking at such as price, mileage, payment and other quick facts. The return message also included the option to send a hyperlink with up to five photographs for quick vehicle views on browser-capable mobile phones.

Once in place, Dave’s Automotive Group’s mobile lead generation strategy offers benefits for both the dealers and the customers. The text message marketing system certainly does not replace a sales representative, but does provide a way to offer customers something extra when they show interest in a particular vehicle. In return, the dealer receives a text message and email with the interested customer’s cell phone number to focus sales initiatives. Both the dealer and customer save time and energy by narrowing down future sales discussions to the particular vehicle the customer shows interest in.

For Dave’s Automotive Group, the payoff was well worth the investment. Not only did requests come in the first week and the system had paid for itself the first month, but also it continues to attract interest and work successfully today. Dave himself can proudly admit his investment with Text Ripple for mobile marketing, specifically mobile lead generation, has delivered the highest ROI of any advertising in the dealership’s history! If you have ever thought about mobile marketing, the time is now to integrate mobile into your overall strategy. To achieve successful results like Dave’s Automotive Group, contact Text Ripple today for all of your mobile marketing needs.

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Posted in Automotive, Mobile Lead Generation, SMS Text Messaging | No Comments »

SMS Mobile Marketing Trends of 2010

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Text message marketing is huge this year and it’s only getting bigger. Since January, we have seen some impressive improvements in how SMS works in the marketing sector. Not only is text message marketing more widely used, it’s much more acknowledged as a channel that will have a permanent place in the marketing field. As we look ahead at finishing out the second half of this year with a bang, it’s important to look at some of the most notable trends in SMS marketing. Here are eight trends in text message mobile marketing we have seen and can expect to see more of in 2010:

1. It’s the year of “Text to”…everything! We are seeing increasing amounts of marketing and advertising done completely via SMS. Not only is there text to win, there’s text to vote, text to give, and most importantly text to learn. Text to vote has become part of our culture as participatory Americans. As American idol and other mainstream television shows capitalize on contests in which the audience texts their vote to a short code, Americans are becoming more and more comfortable with texting as a way to interact with media. Mass entry into contests took on a whole new meaning with text to vote when popular media outlets started making text to vote their only voting channel. Text to give was also a huge phenomenon that saw success with Haiti and other disaster relief efforts. Americans find it easy and convenient to contribute to a good cause when the only effort it requires is to text a simple word or number to a short code. Text to learn is one of the more novel categories that saw a huge popularity boost this year. Americans no longer only use flyers, postcards, business cards or any other traditional media to get information. Now we learn by texting a number to a short code and instantly receive the information we desire. This is especially apparent in the real estate market where texting a simple number to a short code provides quick and timely information about the property a customer is directly looking at. There’s no need to go home and take time out of your day to research details of a property. Text to learn has allowed us to gain knowledge about what we want, when and where we want it. In terms of marketing, the ease and comfort Americans increasingly find with “Text to…” makes mobile marketing much more accepted and validated.

2. Mobile browsing has become second nature. The days of reliance on computer systems as the only source of unlimited knowledge has taken on a new direction. Now browsing is not only possible from mobile phones, it’s popular too! It’s estimated that 95% of all phones sold by the end of 2010 will have browser capability. With access to information so readily available, new doors of mobile marketing are opened up. Now when a customer receives a promotional text about a product or service, the customer no longer has to wait until they get to a computer to look into the promotion. Bulk SMS messages can instantly be acted upon. What’s more, links to websites and discount coupons can easily be sent via text message. There’s nothing easier than providing a opted-in text service where customers are given text messages that they only need to touch once on their touch screen phone to be brought to the checkout webpage. Retail marketers specifically are definitely taking advantage of browser capable phones by speeding up shopping and purchase processes.

3. Along with mobile search comes the height of the smartphone wars. Andoid, iPhone, Blackberry… oh my! Throughout 2010 the smartphone competition did and will continue to dominate technology news and media. Smartphone apps will come and go but the hype around the newest and coolest phone will remain. For marketers, this slight American obsession with the best phone offers huge benefits. With Americans constantly moving towards new technology, mobile phone popularity leads to an acceptance of mobile marketing. In fact, all advertising for new smartphones in and of itself actually promotes the idea of mobile marketing. With so much time now spent on our new mobile phones, its only natural that marketing go directly to these phones where people are. Once Americans are completely comfortable with the idea of mobile phones capable of almost anything they could think of, advertising and marketing on mobile phones will not only be accepted, it will be expected.

4. While apps will entertain you, SMS will engage you. With smartphones comes the inevitable argument of using apps for mobile marketing. While apps are great for entertainment, such as the Angry Birds app, or engagement, such as the Facebook app, they will mainly serve one purpose. Apps will continue to be great for a specific need, question or purpose, but beyond that, they will dwindle in importance. Currently 99% of all apps are only used once. And because marketing requires a progressive relationship, marketers cannot begin to format a marketing campaign with an app that is likely to be downloaded and used one time. The majority of apps will have a shortened lifespan of a one-time download, one-time use and, ultimately, one-time deletion. By the end of 2010, the industry will see a move from apps vs. SMS to apps for specific purposes and SMS for mass promotion. Smartphone apps will continue to be exciting and attract attention, but the marketing industry will focus more on conventional SMS for promotional needs.

5. Get ready to see SMS integrated into all forms of traditional and non-traditional media. There has and will continue to be a huge increase in traditional media outlets such as radio, television and movies sporting SMS opt-in promotions. Everything from television commercials and movie previews, to billboard and postcards will begin to integrate promotional SMS ads. Digital will catch on too with more and more banner and Internet ads hosting promotional SMS opt-ins. The stretch will even go as far as the non-traditional locations such as pizza boxes and sport drink cans. And to keep it within the community, smaller outlets such as local television and radio stations will incorporate SMS as well. The opportunity to opt-in will be everywhere you look and in turn the amount of people who opt-in to mobile alerts will dramatically increase. As a result, traditional advertising and marketing firms will begin to consider mobile marketing not an option, but instead a necessity in all future strategies. Much like a website has became a necessity to every company’s marketing strategy in the past ten years, mobile will begin to become a must-have for every company’s marketing plan this year.

6. SMS will take on new frontiers. Text message marketing will begin to incorporate new aspects of information and engagement into their text alerts. For example, companies promoting health, such as a nutrition bar or gym, would start to offer opt-in, “stop smoking” texts to coincide with their product or service. Promotion will remain the backbone of the entire SMS campaign, but personalized benefits to opting-in will begin to show up. This will be partially due to the enjoyment people tend to have with a system that meets their individual needs, such as to stop smoking, and also due to the increase in bulk SMS all together. With more SMS campaigns available, companies will have to find ways to stand out in their text alerts to attract and maintain customers. As with any product or service, personalize it, and you will attract more customers. Marketers will progressively incorporate personalization into SMS promotional marketing endevors by the end of 2010.

7. Expect an even more major shift to mobile social engagement. We’ve seen social networking take off this year and the mobile platform is no exception. As social media marketing becomes integrated into regular marketing strategies, the need for social and mobile to connect will be undeniable. We will begin to see how social media is a natural counterpart to text message marketing. Bulk SMS can be sent to customers promoting a company’s Facebook, Twitter or blog. And vice versa, text club members can be gained with a promotional mobile opt-ins on social network sites. When exciting events or campaigns take place, social network sites and mobile alerts act as multichannel streams providing ways to promote this information. Unlike any other time in marketing history, the focus will shift to engaging customers by using the best possible channels: mobile with social media.

8. SMS will be seen as the smart way to market. As our country slowly begins to pull up out of financial struggle, companies will stick to affordable marketing to promote their product or service. Because text message marketing provides such a high return from a low-cost service, it’s popularity will greatly expand. In fact, text message marketing is currently the least expensive form of direct marketing available. Costly commercials and campaigns will take a backseat for the rest of the year as affordable text message marketing comes into play. What’s more, text message marketing gets the “O.K” by the environmental community. With an increased focus on staying “green” and helping to protect our world, SMS marketing gets public approval by environmental standards. Text message marketing provides a paperless, smart way to market and stay green. Mobile coupons are only sent out to those who opt-in and are waste free. The printing costs alone that are eliminated with text message marketing make it an eco-friendly way to market. Low costs, high returns and staying green will continue to make SMS the only way to truly market smart.

As technology continues to progress, the way we market will as well. Text message marketing has a natural place in today’s world of constant advancement and personalization. Keeping up to date with current trends in mobile marketing allows companies and marketers to make better decisions as to how best to promote products and services. If your company isn’t already integrating mobile into your marketing strategy it’s time to get in on the action before you get left behind. For more information about personalized mobile marketing for your product or service contact Text Ripple, a trendsetting leader in text message marketing solutions.

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Marketing to Teens through Bulk SMS

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

It’s 10PM, do you know where your kids are? No matter where they are, there’s a good chance they’re sending a text message. Text messaging has become a favorite among teens as a way to communicate, interact and entertain. Teens are just as dependent on their phones as adults and are especially intrigued by text messaging. Mobile phones, in turn, provide a uniquely personal channel to market through and are especially useful when marketing to teens. With such an abundance of teen activity happening in the mobile sphere, it’s hard to overlook the opportunity available for text message marketing. If you want to reach teens, reach them where they already thrive: texting on their mobile phone.

By the numbers, teens are using their phones for texting more than you may think. A Pew report found that teens use text messaging as the primary mode of communication. This means they are more likely to text than make a phone call, chat online or even converse face to face. Other Pew studies have highlighted the prevalence of teen texting. Of the 75% of teens, ages twelve to seventeen, who have mobile phones, 72% text. Furthermore, 54% of teens text daily, and one in three teens send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 per month. On average, a teen male sends about 30 and a female sends about 80 text messages per day. Seeing as text messaging is such a common way to communicate, it’s only natural that marketers begin to look at mobile as a platform for reaching teens.

Teens are an ideal market for text message marketing. They already understand the channel and can easily relate to messages in text format. Text message marketing does not require the teen learn any new skills to grasp the message but rather it is something teens already utilize everyday and are comfortable with. In fact, teens have adapted so well to SMS that parents and other adults have had to also adapt to SMS just to interact with their teens. Additionally, text messages are favorable to teens. They already use text messaging as a primary means of communication and thus bulk text messages go right to where they already are. There is no requirement that they be online or in front of a TV or billboard.

Text message marketing also gives teens the chance to engage. Text messages such as bulk SMS promotional coupons can easily be forwarded to others. One teen may get a text message about a great deal at a local restaurant. That teen may be inspired to forward that message to friends as a possible place to go out to that weekend. Each individual who receives the forwarded text is given a chance to take advantage of a great deal while also learning about the text message list the original teen has opted in to. Others may decide to opt in and join the list as well so they always have the most up to date information about great deals at the restaurant. In this way, text message marketing has given these teens access to the inside deals about a local restaurant, saving them money. And thanks to viral marketing through forwarding of the text, the restaurant has accomplished promotional marketing and will gain new and more loyal customers. It’s a win-win for both parties!

If teens are not already part of your target audience, they should be. Most teens are fortunate enough to spend for only one person: themselves. In turn, any marketing aimed at teens influences the consumer directly. With much of their money as personal spending money, ads and coupons become much more valuable. When a bulk SMS is sent to a teen’s personal phone, they can relate because the product or service is about them individually. These messages are also more likely to be remembered and utilized because they are only the messages that the individual teen has opted in to receive. There is no process of sorting through hundreds of messages to find one they want such as there is with television and Internet ads. The message is unique to the teen and personalized for their self-disclosed spending habits.

With back-to-school season fast approaching the time is now to enact bulk SMS into your marketing strategy. The average cost for sending kids back to school is around $1,000 for high school students. Teens know what they want and know that back-to-school is the time to get it for themselves or from their parents. The National Retailers Association estimates that this year alone the average family will increase their back-to-school spending by 10.5%. National chains such as JCPenney have caught on and are already using mobile marketing to attract back-to-school shoppers. JCPenney has a huge back-to-school campaign entitled “New Look. New You!” in which teens can opt-in to receive weekly bulk SMS about fashionable clothes and styles. By marketing teen clothing directly to teens they have a much better chance at increasing sales this year.

Any marketing strategy is about successfully getting your message to the customer. When the customer is a teen, the message can be difficult to convey if you don’t know the right channel to use. Mobile is where teens are and where they are most likely to listen. Text message marketing allows you to talk to teens rather than at or down to them, which allows for increased ROI. When marketing a product or service to a teen audience, market through a channel where they already are at and are comfortable. For best results, market teen products and services though bulk SMS and a mobile marketing company, such as Text Ripple, to successfully reach teen customers.

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More than Apps, SMS Still Rules Mobile Marketing

Monday, July 12th, 2010

With new and improved smartphones coming to the market this year, it’s hard to overlook the huge focus on mobile applications that has developed. Applications, or apps, are great for providing information, education and entertainment. However when it comes to mobile marketing, SMS remains the most powerful force. Whether or not you have an app, text message marketing needs to be the main part of your mobile marketing strategy for a variety of reasons.

Apps have network and device limitations.

First and foremost, apps have many limitations. They are not only confined to the network a customer is on, such as 3G or 4G, they are limited to the specific phone. This means your company would need to develop both an iPhone app and a separate Android app to reach, at the very most, less than 20% of mobile phone users. Then pricing comes into play. Development for multiple apps specific to each phone cuts into your marketing budget before the app is even released. And to be released, the app must first be approved. After it has been released your company must put a price on the app. Is it practical to make your app free to download after you have paid to have it created? That’s another budgeting question specific to your marketing strategy.

App store competition is tough.

Your app is then further limited because it is competing against over 225,000 other apps that may be highly rated and easier to find. Marketing your app can be a timely and costly aspect in and of itself. According to Nelson, gaming apps are the most common iPhone apps to download after Facebook. Additionally, only 1.4% of apps are used 90 days after being downloaded. Without being used, your app does no good just sitting on a customer’s mobile home screen. Strategy Analytics reported that only 4-6 mobile apps are actually used on a consistent basis. Finally, you lose stability over the path your app takes once it is available for download. Your app will always be open for others to rate, which is out of your control. Bad reviews for any reason could lead to a marketing app failure.

SMS is a common, familiar mobile feature.

On the other hand, SMS is like the app that everyone already has. Today 95% of cell phone contracts have text messaging built into the plan, making SMS much more widely accepted. In fact, smartphone users, the ones that would potentially be using a marketing app, only represent less than a third of all mobile phone users in the U.S. Unlike apps, text messages are easy to understand. They provide a quick way to receive information. In the fast pace world we live in, the quicker and easier information is to interpret, the better. Just like with Twitter, the word limit for text messages is actually an advantage because it dictates that messages be simplified so customers can absorb the information quickly.

SMS is direct and personal.

Another advantage is that text messaging is an always-on medium. Apps have to be opened to provide information requiring a customer’s time and energy. With text messages you don’t make the customer click on an app, instead you come to where the user already is – at their cell phone home screen. And because it is a personal message sent directly to a customer, there is no cluttering of your message with distracting advertisements. Text messages themselves are regulated strictly to avoid spamming activity. The more personal your marketing is, the better it will be received and acted upon. Finally text messages have technical reliability. They won’t crash the way many apps can which makes your company and marketing message appear much more reliable.

When it comes to mobile marketing, texting is here to stay. Apps may have features that are desirable to those looking for something specific such as a recipe or mobile game, but these individuals aren’t necessarily going to download a mobile app to support your marketing campaign. Make sure your marking strategy covers all the basics and includes mobile marketing with text messaging. Learn more about the benefits of text message marketing and how influential SMS can be for your company by contacting Text Ripple for your mobile marketing needs.

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Eight Features Customers Value in a Mobile Campaign

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Text message campaigns are successful for many reasons. Sometimes success is due to a popular campaign idea or a responsive group of text club members. Other times success is generated from the type of messages being sent. The best times are when a campaign just seems to click with your target audience. The text messages excite your customers and ROI soars far above what was first imagined. In order to execute a mobile campaign that generates these types of results, its imperative to turn the tables around and look at mobile marketing from the consumer’s point of view. To be successful, one must know their audience. And in the consumer audience today, the demand is out there! Earlier this year, a study from Dialogue Communications found that nearly 70% of mobile users actually want more SMS alerts. When it comes to mobile marketing, you need to have an understanding of your customers and what they are looking for in SMS to understand what they expect from your mobile campaign. If you please the customer, results are sure to follow. Consider these eight features customers look for in a mobile campaign:

· Benefits. First and foremost, a customer is engaging with your mobile campaign because there are clear, personal benefits. Without perceivable benefits in sight, there would be no reason for a customer to give your campaign the time of day, much less engage and respond to it. When obvious advantages are provided, customers are more likely to stop and consider what your campaign has to offer. Excite your audience with details of your campaign that offer favorable features. Explain how your campaign will enhance your customer’s life or accommodate their needs. If you can, create hype about your campaign that makes a customer want to join in. Once they have joined, keep them engaged and interested by continually putting their benefits in clear view.

· Convenience. Customers want more SMS because they see the convenience text messaging offers. With a mobile campaign, you are going to where the customer already is, which makes engagement easy. SMS allows you to send alerts, without making your audience sit down to a computer to read the message. Text messages allow customers to view messages on the go and then save them for later use. Because it is short and to the point, a text message does not interfere with a customer’s day. What it can do is alert the customer to relevant happenings in your campaign that the customer could choose to engage in. Allow your customers to go on with their busy life, and use text messages to interact and help them make informed choices. When a communication method is perceived as handy and appropriate, the audience is more likely to respond.

· Immediacy. In addition to convenience, customers want to have what they want when they want it. The quicker you can provide a customer with something, the more useful it is to them. Typically an individual will assume by the time they sit down to read a mass e-mail, they haven’t been the first to hear the information. Often times, individuals will disregard much of what they read in an e-mail due to the lack of immediacy. Text messaging allows you the unique ability to connect with customers right away. Information about what is happening now is more important as it is happening than it is an hour from now. And because SMS allows you to reach a customer anywhere at anytime, there’s no reason not to notify customers as events are happening. The timelier you are with your SMS alerts, the more positive feedback you will receive.

· Reliability. As with any customer relationship, the relationship you have with your text club members relies on their confidence in your ability to meet their needs. It’s necessary that your text messages be stable and accurate. When you advertise the opportunity for customers to be text club members, you are offering your audience peace of mind. Although we live in an information society, we are becoming a culture that chooses others to choose for us. Provide your customers relevant information at times when it will benefit them most. In this way, you create trust with your text club members not only that your mobile campaign is valuable, but more importantly that each text message you send is worth their while to read.

· Value. Your mobile campaign is special and those who support you should get something special in return. Reward your customers by offering them added value and discount offers. Everyone likes to read a text that offers a little something extra. Besides the fact that you are directly marketing your service or good, you make the customer happy. Each campaign will differ in the amount of goods or services your company is willing to offer however every little bit helps. Even if you simply alert your customers to an event you’re attending where there will happen to be a bargain or discount, you are still offering a deal. Customers need to be reminded every once in a while about the benefits being a text club member provides and deals are a great way to do this. Whenever you can put the word “FREE” into one of your SMS alerts, it’s going to have a favorable response.

· Rapport. Foster a sense of meaningful connection to your text club members. Everyone wants to matter and personal text messages are a great way to let customers know that they do. Unlike TV and radio ads, text messages are sent to a person’s individual number. And these days, e-mail is cluttered by so much junk mail that individuals create separate e-mail accounts to differentiate the meaningful from the spam. With SMS, you have a chance to connect to a customer at a location in their life that remains constant: their cell phone number. Make the most of this personal connection by sending text messages that are unique. People tend to get excited when they receive a text message. Use this excitement by sending text messages to make the customer feel like they are part of something exclusive. Customer loyalty to your company will strengthen the better the relationship you create through text messages in your mobile campaign.

· Relevant Content. When you are reaching customers directly at their personal phone number, there’s a fine line between useful and irrelevant information. It’s important to not miss-use the opportunity text messaging provides by sending information that is of no use to your text club member. When you stick to practical content it engages, informs and/or entertains your customer. Adhere to content that accomplishes one of these three goals and your message will be happily received. If you start texting information that is pointless to your customer, your messages will not be liked or respected. Maintain your reputation by sending your customers relevant text messages about your campaign.

· Control. Text messages are so personal that individuals need to have a sense of control over what is coming in to their phone. Unlike e-mail where spam messages are frowned upon, unwanted text messages are simply unacceptable. Likewise, if you send messages to an individual unwilling to participate in your mobile campaign, your message will not be acknowledged and your time will have been wasted. One of the best features of a Text Ripple mobile campaign is that participants have a completely controlled, spam-free experience. Customers do not have to worry about receiving unwanted messages at any time, which leads to a high rate of customer satisfaction. Giving your text club members assurance that they have control over incoming text messages is a surefire way to keep customers interested and maintain successful relationships.

Mobile campaigns are excellent ways to engage an audience and generate a high ROI if properly performed. With studies showing increased demand for text message alerts there’s no reason to run another campaign that doesn’t include mobile. Incorporate these strategies into your next mobile campaign and you’re sure to see exceptional results. For more information about running your own successful mobile campaign contact Text Ripple, a national leader in mobile marketing.

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Using Social Media to Enhance your Mobile Marketing

Monday, June 28th, 2010

Remember when Facebook went mobile? That wasn’t just a coincidence. Mobile technology and social media are natural counterparts to each other. And when it comes to mobile marketing, social networks are valuable tools to incorporate into any successful campaign. When defined, social networks are simply online environments that allow individuals to connect and interact with each other through a variety of means. Similarly, this definition is the backbone of any type of marketing campaign: to interact and connect. Mobile marketing with text messaging gives companies the ability to directly reach an unprecedented audience. Even if customers do not have smart phones, they do have cell phones that receive texts messages. And unlike e-mails or inbox messages, text messages are usually read within five minutes. Social networks act as additional channels to reach customers. While social media marketing will not replace your mobile marketing it can be used on the side to connect and interact. If you’re still using Facebook and other social networks strictly for personal use, there’s much you’re overlooking.

Comparatively, social media marketing and mobile marketing are not that different when used for business purposes, although they do reach audiences in different ways. Social media marketing is strictly limited to the online environment. To market with social networks requires an individual have access to a computer or other Internet capable device, and that social networks are accessed often. On the other hand, mobile marketing can reach anyone at anytime, regardless of an individual’s technology. Text message marketing allows companies to market to a wider audience consisting of all individuals with a cell phone, not just those with a smart phone. Currently, less than a third of all cell phone users have smart phones. Mobile marketing with text messages provides a way to reach smart phone and non-smart phone users alike. Mobile marketing connects companies to customers much like social networks, but does so when and where social networks cannot. Both forms of marketing increase the frequency of customer interaction and ultimately, company sales. Social networks and text messages both offer ways to connect with customers and increase brand loyalty, which leads to high rates of customer satisfaction. Additionally, they both allow companies to offer added value to customers through special promotions, discounts and contests. Most importantly, social networks and text messages allow companies to market in a way which thrives on trust building and references via a one-to-many interaction. When you figure it takes just one tweet or one text to reach many audiences, they are both appealing options for improved CRM.

Of course, how companies interact with customers on social networks will differ from the text messages they send. Social media marketing heavily relies on a sense of intimacy customers feel with a product or company they follow. This type of marketing requires conversational interaction with followers - more of a talking “with” rather than “at” interaction. In social media marketing, your company must have personality to be attractive to followers. A company that shows its openness and personality through humor or other character building techniques establishes trust with their followers. This trust, in return, results in conversions. And when working with a social network as large as Facebook, with over 400 million users and growing, these trusting followers are invaluable. Ultimately, keeping customers “in the circle” of your company through social media marketing produces customer loyalty.

Text message marketing is more memorable. Text messages are sent to a customer’s personal phone number rather than posted on a public wall. In this way, text message marketing can make your customers feel as though they are your friends. The closer connection customers feel to your company, the more loyal and active they will be for it. No commercial or banner ad will make a customer feel special the way a text message will. Also, the opportunity to connect with SMS is not limited to the online world and thus has no time and place restrictions. No matter what time of day or the place a customer is at, text message marketing can always be used to immediately connect. But just like social media marketing, text messages provide excellent ways to remind a customer they are part of a select group and fuel a sense of connection to your company.

There are definite advantages to using social media as an extension of your Text Ripple mobile services. Both forms of marketing rely on a developed database of members. One of the best places to find database members is where they currently are: on social networks. Once you have accumulated a substantial number of followers on Twitter and Facebook, you already have a great target audience for a Text Ripple mobile text club. Then, while employing mobile marketing strategies, you may occasionally send an SMS reminding and encouraging your text club members to follow you on your social networks, especially at times when you are conducting an exciting SMS campaign or other marketing offer. It’s ideal to promote interactivity over the two channels to keep followers interested. Fundamentally, the more followers your company has, online or mobile members, the more effective your mobile marketing campaign is likely to be.

Viral marketing becomes easier than ever when using social media along with mobile marketing. People who use Facebook on a mobile device are actually twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users. The multiple connection platforms of mobile and online make it easy for viral marketing to prosper, turning followers into marketers and accumulating customers for your company. In fact, viral marketing happens naturally on social network sites. The average user currently creates 70 pieces of content on Facebook each month and is connected to 60 pages, groups and events at any given time. Or take Twitter where 55 million tweets are sent out every day with over half concerning a status update or personal conversation. And as viral marketing works, the more your company interacts on social networks and mobile devices, the more likely your content is to be shared by others through a Facebook “Like”, a Twitter “re-tweet” or a forwarded text message. Once again, the two forms of marketing are collaborated and customers can interact on multiple levels.

The best part is that both forms of marketing require relatively little cost. Text message marketing is the most inexpensive form of direct marketing available. And although it has the lowest cost, it shows time after time to be the most cost effective. On the other hand, social media marketing is essentially free, done on an open platform. The only cost your company endures is committing the same time and energy to your social media marketing as you would any other type.

The selected qualities each form of marketing brings to the table, makes social media a worthwhile medium to incorporate into your mobile marketing strategy. Marketing is about connecting and the more ways a customer is given to connect with your company, the more lucrative your company will be. Every connection you have, whether it be a text club member, Twitter follower or Facebook fan, we see as your next potential customer. To get the most for your time and money consider using social media as an enhancement of your Text Ripple mobile marketing.

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