WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY E-MAILS?
Posted by Phil Robinson
Wednesday 3rd March 2010 at 09:28
You've just done an analysis of your latest e-mail campaign and discovered that your conversion rate has plummeted yet again. It leaves all marketers asking the same question. You've written the perfect sales letter and everything seems to be right with the message, but you still can't get a decent response rate.
It is not surprising when you think about it though, how many e-mails do you read every day? If you're anything like 98% of the population you will delete almost every e-mail without reading any more than the first few lines.
The poor response rate from e-mail advertising campaigns has led many direct copywriters back to snail mail. Of course, that's no real sure fire method either. Think of all the junk mail you get at home now, it would be fairly safe bet that most, if not all of it, ends up in the garbage.
So, if you're looking for the most modern up-to-date alternative marketing campaign, imagine how you'll feel when you orchestrate a successful strategy that can instantly target over 40 million people in the UK, instantly.
SMS marketing offers you this and a heck of a lot more. On average, text messages are read within a few minutes so you can create an instant impact.
The very fact that you're reading this means that you are looking for alternative and let's face it, sooner or later you're going to take advantage of the benefits that SMS broadcasting can bring to your business today.
Just take a look at what you can do:
- Generate subscriptions
- Send call to action messages
- Send special offers with Mobile coupons
- Use touch screen technology to interact with your customers
And that's just for starters
One of the reasons SMS marketing works so well is that there was hardly anything in greater demand than easy, understandable, information about really important things. Time poor consumers these days want to get the important information fast. If you can give them the lowdown on any subject quickly and directly, if they're ready to buy they'll do it right there and then.
It's like an information version of fast food, except that the most modern technology allows you to personalise your campaign with tokens such as first name, last name or city. The pulling power this generates a leisure to become a mobile marketer in minutes.
One of the best things about mounting a mobile marketing campaign is that you don't have to spend an arm and a leg. Most companies will allow you a free trial, or you can design a test campaign that sends messages to as little as 1000 mobiles for a very reasonable price. You can dip your toe in the water and test results before you commit yourself to full campaign.
If you find a marketing campaign that meets your needs it's easy to expand and extend it as far as you want, and you can even build up a valuable database for future use. So when all is said and done and you want to get the real information you are looking for take the quiz at http://www.thetextworks.com/
Tags: Email marketing failed, Sms versus email
TEXT WORKS - THE GREENER MARKETING COMPANY
Posted by Phil Robinson
Tuesday 2nd March 2010 at 11:08
With every passing year it seems our environmental awareness increases and the ongoing efforts to reduce our carbon footprint as individuals and businesses are improved by innovation and technology.
Globally governments are discussing carbon fixing strategies such as nurturing and encouraging the growth of Phytoplankton. Another clever invention to reduce the worlds carbon levels is the production of thousands of artificial trees that simulate the same carbon cycle of trees, fixing the carbon permanently. More experimental attempts include pushing air through sandstone on a huge scale to lock the carbon within the rock forever.
We at the Text Works believe that being green is essential in this day and age and have started implementing some simple and manageable ways to reduce our companies carbon footprint. For instance we are part of the national cycle to work scheme and even supply our employees with bikes on request. The remaining staff either walk or take public transport to get in.
If you have any suggestions or ideas to make our company even greener we would love to hear them get in touch with support any time.
Tags: Cycle to work, Green sms
SMS GIVES YOU WINGS!
Posted by Phil Robinson
Tuesday 23rd February 2010 at 15:40
Imagine a world where the weather takes a turn for the worse, the snow is falling and the wind is rising. Your phone buzzes, you reach for it and open a text message saying "WARNING: Extreme weather is heading your way! We advise you take cover for the remainder of this evening." How could you achieve this? Why is being that helpful good business? Being this customer conscious is priceless and conventional marketing could achieve this at a high price. I'm writing today to tell you its possible with just SMS text message marketing and at a fraction of traditional marketing costs.
Firstly I want to tell you I dislike nothing more than receiving random text messages that have nothing to do with me and are a complete waste of my precious time. I don't agree with spam advertising and they just don't have to do it! What I am going to show you today will mean you can achieve a huge conversion rate by contacting hundreds not thousands of prospects.
Text messages that present the solution to a consumers problem will be received positively nine times out of ten. People need guidance to be motivated so deliver the solution they have always wanted or need today and you will win a customer and maybe even a couple referral sales. I cannot repeat this enough, make sure they want your message before you send it.
A final note on the SMS technology - it is the best direct consumer marketing method because their mobile is always with them and the amount of messages read exceeds any other technology.
WHAT DO THEY WANT?
Before I go into the finer details of SMS marketing its worth figuring out what your business model can offer as an incentive to receive future messages and to get them opted into your campaign in the first place.
News and information - if you have content that will benefit your target audience why not promote a free SMS alert service through your website or any other existing promotional channels.
Incentives and rewards - competitions are very popular and loyalty schemes are rare but always receive a high response rate. You could offer them free drinks, software or even phone credit top ups. Anything your business can do to invite prospects to enter your campaign.
Fame and exposure - if you have a website or publish media why not use your readers thirst for fame to your advantage. Offer an SMS entry to a competition through your media channels punting an opportunity to "text the editor" or send in the "picture of the week". Publish their content freely and this will create an incentive for others to get involved.
TAKE YOUR TIME...
This is not going to work if your expectations are to convert a lead to a sale in a week or even a month. In fact some of the most powerful results have happened over the course of six months or so.
At the beginning keep giving them small rewards and updates, don't promote ANYTHING at first. Make sure they become accustomed with your messages and don't be afraid of only texting them once a month, daily texts will only achieve an quick user opt out from your campaigns.
Once you know they are willing and they have entered at least one of your SMS competitions or services you can start to include them in profiling and promotional messages. But wait! If you are thinking at this point I can start sending them all of my promotions - don't. Only send them one quality promotion that is as relevant to their needs as you can. At this time you may well know where they live, what campaigns they have entered and their age. Derive from this the most likely service they will be interested in and send them a message promoting a one of discount or special offer.
Really, and I cannot remind you enough, be gentle in everything you do - woo them don't hit them over the head with a promotional hammer. Get to know your prospects and help them selflessly. Gain their trust up until the point you are sure you understand what would make their life complete and deliver it to them. Convenience, trust and relevance will guarantee high conversion rates and at the cost of a couple of SMS's you can't go wrong.
The most successful customers failed miserably on their first attempt, learned from their mistakes and implemented appropriate changes into their future campaigns. Trial and error are key to long term repeat success.
Good luck and as always if you have any questions get in touch with an account manager.
Tags: Appropriate SMS messages, Reaching new leads
HOW DO YOU SEND AN SMS FROM A PC?
Posted by Phil Robinson
Saturday 20th February 2010 at 08:59
Some providers insist you install their software or allow access to your network for integration. The Text Works offers a very different service. All of our services are available online here are just a few things you can do with our high powered texting services:
- Send bulk SMS broadcasts - sending lots of text messages to lots of mobiles in one batch
- SMS loyalty schemes
- SMS vouchers for your business
- Opinion poles
- SMS alerts and reminders
- Generate new leads - use our automated profiling and incentive campaigns to attract, get to know and target potential customers
- And the list goes on...
For a full details of our services visit our SMS services page.
Tags: Send text messages from a computer
HOW CAN WEBSITES SEND SMS MESSAGES?
Posted by Phil Robinson
Friday 19th February 2010 at 08:59
Using our SMS gateway API.
No matter what programming experience you have or what language you are using our systems allow you to easily create your own campaign and plug it into your website seamlessly.
Visit our text messaging software page for more information.
Tags: Send texts through a website
WHERE TO SEND SMS ONLINE FREE?
Posted by Phil Robinson
Thursday 18th February 2010 at 08:59
We do offer an introductory free trial for mobile marketers using SMS but none of our services are completely free forever.
Our service best suites small to medium businesses who are trying to use the simplicity and accessibility of SMS to reach their prospects, existing customers and draw brand attention.
If this is right for your business why not view our SMS marketing prices page for more information.
Tags: Send text messages on the internet
I WANT TO START MY OWN BULK SMS PROVIDER WEBSITE SERVICE?
Posted by Phil Robinson
Wednesday 17th February 2010 at 09:20
I am pleased to tell you that we our SMS web interface allows you to create your own SMS business and even take payments on line through our white label SMS payment gateway.
Because we have worked with various types of businesses spanning various industries our interface has grown to accommodate any type of mobile marketing campaign. You can resell our services as if they were yours.
If you are interested why not get in touch with an account manager or view our mobile marketing prices and specifications page.
Tags: Start your own SMS service
CAN YOU SEND SMS FROM YOUR COMPUTER TO A MOBILE?
Posted by Phil Robinson
Tuesday 16th February 2010 at 09:11
In short yes you can. However, if you are trying to find a website to send text messages to your friends The Text Works is NOT for you.
Our SMS computer to mobile service is designed for small to medium businesses who want to send bulk SMS broadcasts or set up two way SMS campaigns.
I recommend you visit our mobile marketing prices page; if you want to test our service visit our mobile marketing introductory trial page.
Tags: Send messages from computer to mobile
SMS MOBILE MARKETING FOR MEDIA BUSINESSES
Posted by Nick Taylor
Friday 8th January 2010 at 17:03
Presently, media organisations such as radio stations, publishers, and TV stations use premium SMS as a way to generate revenue through audience participation, typically voting - think X-factor, Strictly, I'm a Celebrity... and who could blame them. With X-factor recently receiving 10m votes for the 2009 final, it's certainly lucrative. One issue that's always surrounded premium rate competitions is the uncertainty over cost to the audience. Wouldn't it be good if we could still have audience participation and make money for the organiser without it costing the audience an arm and leg? I think we can achieve this, but through a slightly different model - let me explain.
Lets pretend I'm a publisher producing a monthly magazine about the latest Computer Games, chances are my audience is primarily interested in new game releases, Consoles, news, and gaming peripherals. Secondary interests could range from Personal computers, gadgets, and general technology. Proof of this is the type of advertising in the magazine relating to these types of product. Now, once the reader has finished reading the magazine, how else can you contact them with advertising relating to them? SMS of course! If the reader has entered a competition, voted, or contacted the editor via an SMS campaign, you have a direct route to market back out to that reader with details on a product relevant to them.
To insure you have plenty of numbers to promote to, make entry to your call to action campaigns as cheap as possible to the end user, or charge a nominal value to cover operating costs, for example 25p. I spoke to the marketing director of a publishing firm this afternoon who agreed that in a few years, this will most likely be the approach taken by all publishers.
Now, sending the promotional messages. Media agencies, advertising firms, and brands are currently willing to pay up to 20 pence per message to send marketing messages or redeemable vouchers (think colour WAP vouchers, Web redeemable unique voucher codes). With the cost of sending free messages via such interfaces as The Text Works as low as 4 pence per message, you could be looking at a profit of 16 pence for every message sent. This starts to look interesting when you manage to build a list of 10,000 customers!
Let's look at an example. I'm a video game retailer looking to drive footfall to my store upon the release of a new computer game. The computer game company is set to run some high profile magazine, tv, and radio ads to drive sales. To cash in on this publicity, I need to drive potential customers to my chain of stores to buy the game.
I can do this by (1) broadcasting to my existing database of customers, or (2) working in conjunction with another company that already has a list of relevant numbers, providing of course they have permission (or opt in). The second option is where the publisher of computer game titles will make their money by charging me a per number rate for each mobile lead to which I will send my offer - providing of course they've built a mobile database!
Tags: Media mobile marketing
TEXT MARKETING - WHAT IS IT?
Posted by Nick Taylor
Friday 8th January 2010 at 16:01
Text marketing, or text message marketing as its more commonly know, is the process of contacting existing or potential customers with a marketing message contained within a text message. As a rule, marketing messages should only be sent to customers that have opted in to receive information by SMS, this could be a soft or hard opt in.
A soft opt in usually means that a customer has entered a related campaign, where the small print states something along the lines of "by entering this campaign you agree to receive future relevant offers from us or relevant third parties". A hard opt in asks the user to implicitly opt in by sending a message requesting permission to send future marketing messages.
Traditional forms of marketing, such as print, billboard, TV, and Radio can make use of mobile call to actions for customers to register an interest in the advertised product. This usually takes the form of call to action such as "Text KEYWORD to SHORTCODE to find out more!". Other forms of call-to-action can include competitions, texting pictures, sending views, or voting.
If you add a text response to any form of advertising, around 50 per cent of respondents will choose to make their initial contact by text if you give them the choice consistently - the key word here being consistency. Text Marketing will have the highest success rate if you target your customers with timely, relevant offers.
I recently helped plan and organise a broadcast on behalf of a music magazine. Previously, the magazine had run one or two SMS based competitions per month as a way to increase interaction with readers, and of course build a valuable customer database of mobile phone numbers. A targeted broadcast message was sent to all entrants from all campaigns, detailing a special offer on a music event which matched the profile of the magazine readers. What was the uptake? An incredible 25% - try getting that from any other form of marketing!
Tags: Text marketing explained, What is text marketing
SOCIAL NETWORKING AND SMS
Posted by Phil Robinson
Monday 4th January 2010 at 09:41
Social networking on-line entails using a web 2.0 website to build a reputation and contact list through regular contact and participation. Social media sites are unique in that they allow their users to freely mingle and interact over vast distances with little to no constraints. Social media sites include Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. These three major players have monopolised the micro blogging, viral applications and contact building concepts being closely followed by various other websites of a similar nature.
Using business text messaging or bulk SMS as part of the social networking platforms is incredibly difficult because of the cost to the user versus the free on-line alternatives of communication.
Twitter has managed to include one way text messaging enabling their users to add micro blogs via text message. None of the social networks have fully realised the potential behind two way messaging, but as the competitive edge thins will they be forced to diversify their service offerings.
The future of social networking sites is unclear especially when you consider that the cost of maintenance and traffic to power these social realms is increasingly expensive and the profit sought from advertising has been tentative of late. The advertising element of Facebook shows that they are trying to monetise their services through advertising, why not offer an SMS mobile marketing service for businesses and professionals?
Its a great way to leverage social media especially when you consider a number of Internet marketers already have a formidable profile of contacts with targeted promotions, services and products being delivered direct to their wall or inbox.
Its amazing that they haven't considered allowing the ability to send SMS messages to contact, it is more instant and personal than the social networks and, if the profiling is accurate, the message will drive interest and draw brand attention. The long tail of SMS mobile marketing is always a sale, but its still one of the best ways to get your brand noticed.
Tags: Monetising social media, Social networks and SMS
WISHING ALL OUR READERS A MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Posted by Phil Robinson
Wednesday 23rd December 2009 at 16:05
Whether or not you celebrate Christmas The Text Works team wish you all a happy holiday and a happy new year.
We hope 2010 will be prosperous, and there might even be a few special offers coming your way (hint hint).
Tags: Christmas
NHL SMS CASE STUDY
Posted by Phil Robinson
Monday 21st December 2009 at 11:30
In essence this is a text message based NHL hockey game. Using a call to action, including a short code and keyword, participants can select a defender and attacker to compete in a virtual hockey stand off.
The strategy behind this SMS initiative was to engage fans building their familiarity with players identities and building interest in the competitive potential of one on one hockey stand off's.
As an added bonus participants were encouraged to tune into radio and television broadcasts. Fans can check the leader boards, rules and individual scores through mobile web pages.
To date close to 2400 fans have participated with a whopping 145,000 text messages sent so far.
Why not take a look at our business text messaging page and see how you can reach your customers and improve product attention today.
Tags: NHL SMS campaign
HARDWARE STORE SENDS TARGETTED SMS
Posted by Phil Robinson
Monday 21st December 2009 at 10:11
A US franchise have successfully implemented a targeted SMS campaign. Using sms to send weather related promotional text messages to increase customer attention and brand identity.
The targeted promotions included recomendations and warning about extreme weather conditions - such as frozen rain, flooding and heat waves.
The text message recipients received a discount SMS coupon and other promotions instantly useable at their local Ace hardware outlet.
The offers also varied depending on the ZIP code; some areas suffered from icy conditions - so offering a discount anti freeze or salt for public walkways and roads.
The personalised SMS made people feel that the hardware suppliers understood them coupled with non product related SMS advice and tips dealing with the extreme conditions.
Tags: Targeted promotions, Weather related SMS
USING MOBILE MARKETING TO MOTIVATE YOUR SALES TEAM WITH STAFF INCENTIVE SCHEMES
Posted by Nick Taylor
Friday 18th December 2009 at 12:11
In the current economic climate what should retailers, business owners and sales managers be thinking with 2010 fast approaching? Primarily, generating more sales! The best way to achieve this is through staff incentive schemes, and one delivery mechanism for incentive schemes set to take off next year will be SMS.
Here's the theory... staff register to take part in an SMS sales incentive scheme by texting a keyword followed by their name, or employment number for example. Upon making a sale that qualifies for the scheme, they are given a unique code to text to determine their reward. A random reward is chosen and a confirmation sent back to the employee. At the same time, an email is sent to a fulfillment company to send the reward. In most cases, the process can be completely automated by use of e-vouchers as rewards.
Asda used SMS to increase take-up of its share incentive sharesave scheme to enable staff to join via SMS text message, in order to boost employee participation levels. Mike Hazelgrave, reward manager, said: "Around 97% of our colleagues have mobile phones, so we are definitely hoping that this boosts take-up of the scheme." In this case, Asda did well to recognize that the most widely used communication tool its staff used on a regular basis was the mobile phone!
Text-to-win campaigns have also been used in the past to incentivise retail sales staff to push products in store. Upon completion of a successful sale, the sales assistant is given a text to win code which enters them into a prize draw. Platforms such as The Text Works allow you to setup and monitor campaigns, confirm winners, re promote to the sales staff, and update teams on targets. This is also a great method to use for field based sales staff, keeping up momentum on the move.
Using SMS for your business incentive scheme has a number of advantages over tradition methods. It's easy and quick to setup, its affordable, it's scalable to the size of your organization and participants, and most importantly it's a new and fresh way to incentivise your staff to help drive sales in 2010.
Tags: Mobile marketing incentive schemes, Motivate staff with SMS
SMS TO THE RESCUE
Posted by Phil Robinson
Tuesday 15th December 2009 at 09:47
SMS is being used as part of a new initiative to improve the supply of anti-malarial drugs in Tanzania's most remote regions. The 'SMS for Life' combines SMS campaigns with complex website tracking systems to monitor and distribute the medicine.
IBM and Vodafone visited various Tanzanian health institutions and decided to test the scheme over a 5 month period. 135 villages and over a million people benefited from the MatSoft system which sends automated SMS alerts prompting them to check drugs supplies on a weekly basis.
Peter Ward from IBM was quoted as saying "This is an example of a truly innovative solution helping solve a humanitarian problem." He went on to reveal "After spending time on the ground, we created a project plan, developed the application with Vodafone and Novartis and established the best way to deliver the pilot, working with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health. We expect other countries will also be able to benefit in the future."
Tags: Anti-malaria, IBM, SMS aid, Vodafone
LOCATION BASED MARKETING
Posted by Phil Robinson
Tuesday 15th December 2009 at 09:35
SMS mobile marketing is the best geotargeting medium available to marketers in 2009. The cost is measurable and you can guarantee to reach 99.9% of your targeted audience.
Whatever your reasons for targeting people within a given location you should always make sure they are opted in before sending any promotions. The following should make you more appealing to a specific geographical audience:
- SMS Coupons - great for retail promotions
- Mobile web sites - Google and Bing are investing heavily in mobile Internet search, are you?
- Text for a download - Either sent via email or WAP push
The major location based marketers are usually bricks and mortar businesses trying to drive prospects to their physical location. If you are looking to improve your on-line presence or drive traffic to your website use SMS promotions with WAP links to spark interest and offer rewards for their traffic.
Tags: Geographical SMS, Location based marketing
CHRISTMAS TIME SMS
Posted by Phil Robinson
Monday 14th December 2009 at 09:38
As the holiday season approaches it seems that a substantial amount of marketers are levering new and diverse marketing techniques including:
- Viral marketing
- Web 2.0 branding
- Interactive billboards
- and SMS mobile marketing
So how can you market with SMS and not contribute to the spammers of Christmas past?
The best recommendation we can make is give them something in exchange for permission to promote your brand or service. It's easy at this time of year to give away gifts or opportunities to win seasonal prizes such as hampers, toys and shopping vouchers. Football tickets at Christmas do not sell because it is out of season, so the more relevant and timely the better your response will be.
Whatever you do consider your audience first, your message second and your end goal last. If your attitude is what can I give them to get something back you've nailed the Christmas marketing spirit.
Tags: Holiday season marketing, Sms for christmas
MOBILE MARKETING - HOW IT CAN WORK FOR YOU
Posted by Phil Robinson
Friday 11th December 2009 at 14:03
SMS mobile marketing really IS for everyone. To prove this I will briefly illustrate how some business models that have NOT considered SMS mobile marketing might achieve instant and long tail responses.
Travel agents
Who is it for?
Anyone who offers a Business to Customer service allowing prospects to research and book holidays, flights or experience breaks.
What can SMS do?
- Book tickets for flights, cruises and coaches
- Send ticket confirmations
- Hotel bookings
- SMS Holiday check list
How does SMS achieve this?
- Ticket booking - they can either text a shortcode, for example 87474, or reply to one of your promotional text messages with their destination and travel dates
- Ticket confirmations - a text message will be sent out confirming or declining their request applying instant feedback for a better all round service
- Hotel Booking - our service will convert their request into an instant email sent to a given address
- Holiday check list - timely reminders dependant on their journey, for instance inoculations, passport, currency and any other useful information
Retailers
Small to medium enterprises within the retail industry can use SMS in and outside of their stores for customer interactivity and brand promotions.
How its done
- Display keywords and shortcodes on product shelving, Point of Sale or other promotional material in store
- Offer discounts and information as an incentive to text into your campaigns
- Profile their shopping habits based on their SMS interactions (our system does this automatically)
- Send them a text message clearly stating how they can opt out at any time
- Start promoting supplier and third party products to your remaining users
Technical firms
Whether its web, telecommunication or computer related, SMS alerts can save you time and money.
- Hardware failure alerts straight to your engineers
- Allow text messages from customers reporting issues
Our SMS gateway API is easy to use and reliable. In house developers can easily implement this solution and send messages instantly.
Public safety and awareness
Weather warnings, defence related information, health and safety problems all can be sent to local residents, subscribers or emergency services. This is a great use of SMS, the instant delivery and response capabilities could save lives and inconvenience.
Financial services
This is most applicable to banks, debt collectors and insurance brokers.
- Send out large withdrawal and balance alerts
- Allow customers to request SMS mini statements
- Chase outstanding debts with SMS - if it is delivered they have no excuses
- Inform customers of their claim progress
More importantly SMS interactions and alerts are not restricted to any type of message flow. The trigger to start, continue or stop SMS mobile marketing campaigns can be anything you have set up or we can track.
How your campaigns work is up to you, our support team will walk you through WHAT our systems can achieve and anything more specialist will be dealt with by our on-site UK technical team. With The Text Works you really do have the power to innovate and interact like never before.
Tags: How mobile marketing works, Mobile marketing
LEON'S RESTAURANT SERVES UP APP, SMS ALERTS TO REACH CONSUMERS
Posted by Phil Robinson
Thursday 10th December 2009 at 17:30
A Tulsa based restaurant and sports bar have added a mobile marketing campaign to their local advertising mix. Leon's is based on the Restless Ribbon in Tulsa, USA and have found recent success with the text messaging promotions and notifications technology.
Shortcodes and Keywords
Using a short code and keyword visitors can sign up to receive SMS alerts, news and special offers wherever they are. The bar owner, Mr Lewis, said the campaign will continue to generate repeat business through informative and involving SMS messages. Another way they could use this service to generate revenue would be to convince local brewing businesses to promote their brands through their SMS subscription list.
Why use SMS?
Mr Lewis said "I want to reach my customers where they are... They can be shopping, working, attending a kid's sporting event, at the park or working out and still have access to my message on their phone." Mobile marketing is all about determining what they want, how you should promote it to a given audience and delivering that promotion at a given time.
Tags: Leon's Tulsa, Pub SMS promotions
NEW YORK ALERTS US TO SMS
Posted by Phil Robinson
Monday 7th December 2009 at 12:49
The NYSEMO, New York State Emergency Management Office, have set up an SMS service for New Yorkers to receive appropriate hazard alerts and notifications. Through the SMS web interface New York public sector staff can set up emergency alerts and private notifications for New Yorkers. It is claimed the service will help raise public awareness and obtain vital information for the emergency and local government services.
The service received 4.7 million subscribers with 2.3 million opting in to receive related promotional messages. The opt in population covers 64 college campuses and the the New York City University network. The subscription is free and allows subscribers to register one or more mobile devices to receive alerts and notifications.
The alert systems is said to include major road closures, weather warnings and state recommendations with regard to public safety, as well as notification for local governments and universities.
British government bodies could learn a lot from New York's modernisation, local governments could offer a text message support channel and subscriptions for public announcements.
Tags: New York and SMS, SMS public alerts, Text message hazard notifications
NUMORO UNO FOR SMS PREVIEWS
Posted by Phil Robinson
Friday 4th December 2009 at 10:05
Numo's SMS preview application has achieved 600,000 new registrations in the last two months. The application displays a preview of SMS messages of any inbound text messages.
The app is targeting Android and Symbian mobile devices, it is free and remains one of the most popular download at app stores. The app is available for download from Numo's website.
For those who are using SMS as a marketing tool this is not bad news - I promise! The previews, lets call them snippets, are just like a search engine result. The opening to your SMS message can give it context and appeal. So design you messages with this in mind, experiment with this application - for instance do attached images appear in the preview?
Developments and obstructions to existing strategies can be turned to your advantage and don't forget the iPhone allows SMS preview by default anyway, so make the first 8 words an encouragement to open the entire message.
Tags: Android, Numo application, SMS preview, Symbian
POSITIVE WEB SURVEY RESULTS FOR T-MOBILE
Posted by Phil Robinson
Thursday 3rd December 2009 at 15:37
Some really great news for T-Mobile recently as their mobile website has been ranked No.1 for the second year running. Global reviews announced T-Mobile the best of its assessed mobile phone websites this week.
Mobile web design is still the under dog
Mobile web is still largely an untapped lead generation resource - so does this mean their success will be short lived, who knows. Another interesting factor derived from the Global reviews findings is that the mobile web development is not keeping pace with the vast growth and evolution of mobile related offerings.
With Google and Yahoo looking to dominate search for the mobile web will T-Mobile and similar industry leaders be able to rely on their mobile websites being a real web referral? Only time will tell.
The criteria
The survey measured user experience on the T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone, 3, Virgin, O2, Carphone Warehouse and Tesco mobile websites for a reasonable cross section analysis of the industries services.
They assessed each mobile service provider using the following criteria:
- content and tools
- customer support
- prospective customer information
- purchasing process
- site utility
The results
T-Mobile received a total score of 66%, O2 were a close second with 61% - an improvement on last years results. Vodafone are still in third position with 59%. I think all companies could invest in mobile web optimisation and facilitation - the question is can you afford to miss out on mobile?
Tags: Global reviews, T-mobile, Web survey
GREAT AMERICAN SMS CASE STUDY
Posted by Phil Robinson
Thursday 3rd December 2009 at 15:20
Great American Country (GAC) recently set up a series of on-air SMS mobile marketing campaigns designed to generate interesting and increase attendance to the CMA music festival awards.
American Idol guest appearance increased opt in rate
GAC TV promotions targeted country and music fans including a guest appearance from the "American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood encouraging an increased user opt in rate. The promotions were aired twice an hour through their TV channel.
34,000 mobile points of contact and 3,000 promotional opt ins
The results speak for themselves; they have achieved a high level of interest and a targeted demographic of interested mobile device users for future promotions and viral concepts. SMS mobile marketing still remains the most measurable, timely and user friendly marketing medium.
Tags: American Idol, Carrie Underwood, Great American Country TV case study
LITTLE CAESARS SMS CAMPAIGN
Posted by Phil Robinson
Wednesday 2nd December 2009 at 08:51
Little Caesars - Oklahoma, used sms to drive awareness of their in restaurant Curious George live show and provide highly measurable promotion for their brand.
They used specific TV placements to target individuals with a mobile sweepstake, SMS was perfect because it was instant and highly accessible for the user.
As an added bonus they also achieved a double opt in effect allowing little Caesers to promote future in house shows and other points of interest.
Their opt in rate was approximately 50 percent which is incredible for a first attempt at mobile marketing, don't be discouraged by any low results on your first attempt - the slightest change to a campaign can double your opt in rate.
This is another great example of television promotions and SMS interactivity forming a very strong symbiosis with this instantly interactive technology.
Tags: Curious George, Little Caesers, SMS and television
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