According to new reports by CRM Buyer and Aberdeen (http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Dialing-Into-Mobile-Marketing-68201.html), 71% of Best-in-Class companies indicate that mobile marketing is included in their other marketing/media buys. They also report that the technology is now living up to the hype, from SMS to mobile internet. Companies are finding a multitude of reasons to leverage mobile and are finding quantifiable success in each.

So you ask “How are the numbers stacking up?” The report finds that 65% of Best-in-Class companies are satisfied with their mobile marketing ROI and only 40% of Best-in-Class companies are satisfied with their traditional (radio, television, and print) marketing ROI.

We find the same in our firm. We help each of our clients quantify their results every month and continue to work on more productive campaigns. We will help you do exactly the same. Work with a leader in the mobile space and see the low cost/high results marketing you have been looking for.

At Let’s Text Together, we have an executive team with decades of marketing experience (both the selling and planning/buying sides of the desk) in newspaper, television, radio, web, interactive, search, and of course our firm’s specialty, mobile. Contact us today for a free marketing consultation. Check out pricing at our site: www.LetsTextTogether.com

You can’t turn on the TV News without seeing another Christmas Light Switch-on, the latest Holiday Sales figures and getting the general message ‘if you’re not shopping, you’re a loser’.

Holiday Shopping is a profession

All well and good for retailers who spend their whole year gearing up to the holiday in the vein hope that turnouts will be good and spending will make up for previous,lacklustre months. But Christmas shopping is no leisure activity, it is a sport, an obsession, a quest, so how can restaurants and bars take advantage\ of the hustle and bustle of the holidays?

Text Messaging makes the perfect medium to reach frantic consumers as they shop. It is quick, convenient and can be very time sensitive. Buyers are time (must get all the gifts bought and home before I pick the kids up from school), and price  (I just couldnt resist spending a few more dollars on one more thing for little Johnny’s stocking) conscious.

The holiday season also brings out many ‘non-regulars’ who rarely venture downtown, or to the mall. Make sure they can see your text coupon offers proudly on display in a prominent position around your window and encourage them to try you out. This not only gets coupons out the door and brings in qualified leads, it also helps you to start building a database of numbers who are interested in receiving future offers when the post Christmas blues kick in.

Tie in with special events.

Holiday events draw crowds and customers

Santa visits, Carol Singers, Holiday Light Parades – All great ways of attracting extra foot traffic to the vicinity. Why not include these in your message and give your coupon some extra weight. “Harbor Lights Parade Special – Hot Pizza Slices to go – buy 4 slices to go and get free hot chocolate this Friday & Saturday 12/6-12/7. Bryans Slice 212-555-2233″.

Use Time-Sensitive Offers

Professional Christmas Shoppers rarely plan  a lunch break but are more likely to eat and drink ‘on the move’. The right offer at the right time can be just enough to direct themthrough your doors to ‘grab and go’. Try early or late lunch offers, or suggest a mid-morning coffee, using an unbeatable deal as the incentive. “Recharge your batteries. Java Joes Seasonal Coffee and Cake $2.99  10am to 12pm daily exp. 12/12. 212-444-3123″

Empathize

Who are your targets? Provide a variety of offers to interest different market segments and design your message accordingly. ‘Avoid the crowd’ offers, ‘Meet up for a holiday drink’, ‘Dont feel like cooking after a hard day at the mall?’.

Text Message Marketing is quick and easy to set up, which means unlike most holiday marketing, it need not begin in September. Set up your text program now, and get your messages on their way while it still counts.

You can be certain that in one way or another each and every customer will be having a ‘holiday experience’. Whether they are desperately trying to avoid it or immersing themselves in the festivities. Make sure you are a part of it one way or the other.

McDonalds Holiday Shopping Escape

Here at Let’s Text Together we have started to see some very cool m-commerce campaigns happening…and paying for themselves hugely! As always, I try to share some information from sources other than myself and our clients. I read a great article recently on Entrepreneur.com (http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/ecommercesolutions/article203772.html). I especially like this article because it is from a business source, not marketing-specific website.

The articles biggest point was talking about growing e-commerce, specifically through m-commerce. The recommendations were to mobile your website, mobilize your existing customers, and close the deal. We recommend all of our customers build mobile websites as one element of their digital advertising and mobile marketing plans. The number of people using the mobile web is growing every day at a rapid pace; many still predict mobile search to surpass PC search by 2020. Get your website mobile. Then mobilize your current customers to ensure none are lost in the transition. For more great tips…email us and we’ll help you make money where your competitors aren’t, too.

At Let’s Text Together, we have an executive team with decades of marketing experience (both the selling and planning/buying sides of the desk) in newspaper, television, radio, web, interactive, search, and of course our firm’s specialty, mobile. Contact us today for a free marketing consultation. Email us at Sales@LetsTextTogether.com.

The succes of website depends on number  of visitors and its ability to promote the products and services.

To know more about the success parameter Measure website success

Stichting Monkey Business heeft met succes een Bluetooth Marketing campagne ingezet om haar doelen te promoten bij de bezoekers van de beurs Kloos Vintage in de Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam.

Monkey Business heeft als doelstelling om het uitsterven van de Oeran Oetan te voorkomen en om het tropisch regenwoud te beschermen. De laatste circa 6.000 Oeran Oetans dreigen uit te sterven, doordat tropisch regenwoud in hun leefgebieden op Borneo en Sumatra verdwijnt.

De stichting streeft ernaar om in Nederland bewustwording te creëren voor het probleem, mensen ‘monkey proof’ te laten leven en door geld in te zamelen om beschermingsprojecten op Sumatra te financieren.
Monkey Business gebruikt onder ander SMS Marketing om te collecteren. Door MONKEY AAN te SMS-en naar 5757 steun je de stichting met €3,00 per maand.
Monkey Business heeft BNN presentatrice Nicolette Kluijver als ambassadeur.

Tijdens Kloos Vintage 2009 in de Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam had Monkey Business een stand om bewustwording te creëren bij de bezoekers.
Een belangrijk middels om deze bewustwording te creëren was het inzetten van Bluetooth Marketing. Iedereen die ’de gekste modemarkt’ beozcht, ontving een uitnodiging via Bluetooth om een bericht te ontvangen.

Binnen dit Bluetooth bericht werden de kernwaardes van de stichting duidelijk gemaakt.
Het bericht bevatte ook een uitnodiging voor het eindevent van stichting Monkey Business in restaurant Fifteen.

There was a fantastic article recently posted on the Mobile Marketing Magazine website (http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/2009/10/sms-is-best-survey-finds.html). By no means do we feel mobile and email cannibalize each other. In fact, we encourage all of our clients to use both (although not with the same company) because they reach different consumers.

Forrester Consulting conducted the survey. They polled 312 marketing decision-makers and 760 internet users in August 2009. The findings were that 74% of marketers said they preferred to use SMS messaging as a marketing tool, while 44% of consumers said they would rather receive product information, etc. via SMS campaigns versus any other channel.

The study also concluded that UK companies are the best at harnessing multi-channel promotions to build a relationship with customers. What does this mean to Joe and Jan American Business Owner? That the playing field is wide open! We have already helped many of our clients step far in front of the competition.

SMS Marketing is becoming ever more affordable! Visit us at www.LetsTextTogether.com to learn more about affordable and custom mobile marketing campaigns from one of the leading mobile marketing boutique firms. Also feel free to email us directly at sales@letstexttogether.com with any questions.

There was a fantastic article recently posted on the Mobile Marketing Magazine website (http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/2009/10/sms-is-best-survey-finds.html). By no means do we feel mobile and email cannibalize each other. In fact, we encourage all of our clients to use both (although not with the same company) because they reach different consumers.

Forrester Consulting conducted the survey. They polled 312 marketing decision-makers and 760 internet users in August 2009. The findings were that 74% of marketers said they preferred to use SMS messaging as a marketing tool, while 44% of consumers said they would rather receive product information, etc. via SMS campaigns versus any other channel.

The study also concluded that UK companies are the best at harnessing multi-channel promotions to build a relationship with customers. What does this mean to Joe and Jan American Business Owner? That the playing field is wide open! We have already helped many of our clients step far in front of the competition.

Let us help you by starting with a free, no-strings-attached marketing consultation. Visit us at www.BallyhooMobile.com to learn more about affordable and custom mobile marketing campaigns from one of the leading mobile marketing boutique firms. Also feel free to email us directly at sales@ballyhoomobile.com with any questions.

Mobile marketing is affordable, effective and one of the best CRM tools available, but businesses need to be careful when choosing a service provider.  Here are two types of companies to avoid:

1. Traditional media groups who are now selling SMS marketing.  Traditional media groups have been bleeding for 3 years now and they are adding as many new digital services to make up for lost revenue. 

Problem #1 is that your SMS campaign will be combo-ed with a traditional media buy.  Why?  Because the cost of SMS is so inexpensive that the media group will not make a profit if they switch you from your radio campaign, or outdoor campaign, to an SMS campaign.  Your SMS campaign will be part of your traditional campaign. 

So, what happens when you don’t advertise, stop your campaign, or change media partners?  Who owns the database?  In most cases the media group owns the database and as long as you are spending money on their traditional products things are fine.   But if you want to stop, or only use your sms campaign, they will force your hand to advertise, or pull sms database. 

Problem #2 – customer service and product knowledge. Again this goes back to the media group making a profit.  All the sales reps will be forced to “pitch the new product” but 85-90% of their revenue comes from their core product.  Here’s the standard pitch for 2010, “last year Mrs. advertiser you spent $2,500 a month with us.  This year if you spend $2,800 I will include this sms campaign which will include X number of messages, etc, etc … .”

Your typical media sales rep makes 15% on the advertising you place so there is little incentive for them to continue sell, manage and understand the sms component, which in this example (this is a real offer by the way from a radio station) is $45 a month commission.  They would much rather sell more $2,500/month campaigns ($375 commission per month), which is a good decision on their part, but might leave you in a lurch.

2. Ad based or ad shared SMS companies.  In this case your business signs up for a SMS campaign but when your customers text in they are added to a larger database to receive text offers from 3rd parties.  Your customers will now receive your offers and national offers from 3rd parties. 

The SMS companies who offer this service will tell you “we don’t send 3rd party ads, we send ‘news upates’ … and then we sell the last 40 character spaces to a sponsor.”

They will also use a very low price to convince you.  They can offer a lower price because they are reselling your database to a 3rd party.  The price might be attractive but (a) your clients will opt-out when they receive this un-solicated ad and they’ll remember that you sent to them and (b) SMS text message campaigns are so inexpensive it’s not worth trying to save a few more pennies by selling out your customer.

So, what’ s the goods news and the sms text messaging solution? 

1. The good news is if you find yourself in this situation you can transfer your database over to McCormick Mobile Media, as long as all of the customers came from an approved opt-in program.  Once the numbers are uploaded then we manage the database, send out offers, and/or add your text offer message to whichever media you choose.

2. With McCormick Mobile Media – you own your database.  You can download it, back up a copy, send out offers or alerts, and if you ever stop you get a copy of the database.  It’s our job to win your business month after month, which is why we offer month to month contracts.

3. Mobile is all we do!  No one knows mobile better than us and we can show you how to increase traffic and sales with SMS text messaging and the mobile web. 

We also have Text 2 Win software (hold a constest!), Text 2 Vote (hold a live survey!), awesome Keyword management software, custom API services, mobile web site solutions, micro-sites and much more.  For more info http://www.mccormickmobilemedia.com.

Today’s cap is of the Google AdMob purchase. I can assume almost everyone involved with selling advertising has read about this and is either excited (if they benefit from mobile) or scared (if they could lose share to mobile). It is the business owners and marketing directors who should take note of the implications. Google’s investment shows many things; most notably that mobile is not a flash in the pan. Mobile is an industry that is cost-effective, showing results, and only just getting started.

Many mobile industry sites have written stories, so to read one from another point of view I have the link here to the Business Week article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2009/tc2009119_588360.htm

At Let’s Text Together we keep a focus on offering all the most requested mobile capabilities and having some of the absolutely most affordable rates available. Furthermore, we can help in all 50 states. Our firm’s specialty is mobile and we have countless success stories to prove it. It’s important to work with a company that specializes in mobile. Email us and we’ll prove it with a free marketing consultation: Sales@LetsTextTogether.com

One of my prevailing themes on The Lunch Pail is untangling marketer confusion within the very broad topic of "mobile marketing."

“Twitter is text messages, right? And since it’s free, I think we should dip our toe in the ‘mobile marketing’ waters here first. If it works, maybe we’ll consider creating a budget for opt-in SMS marketing.”

The misconception is simply that Twitter is a viable replacement for opt-in SMS text message marketing. Or, that the benefits of “free” far outweigh the potential benefits of anything you have to pay for.
However, please consider two very critical areas where Twitter falls short as an SMS-marketing replacement (even if it is free, for now):

Twitter is not mobile marketing

Some Twitter users leverage their mobile devices, enabling tweets to be forwarded to their mobile devices as SMS. But many do not. And if they are receiving SMS text messages from Twitter it may be for select members only – primarily close friends. On the other side of the spectrum, a group of followers may be following one business’ tweets in addition to hundreds of other brands and marketers with all of the tweets stacking up in a web queue. So, for all of those followers, how many are receiving and reading marketing messages at the intended time and place? In a lot of circumstances, tweeting will not classify as mobile marketing either in the technical sense of being accessed on a mobile device, or in the spirit of mobile marketing which is designed to leverage timeliness and location to make a marketing impact.

Twitter is not database or direct digital marketing

Twitter is not database marketing and please do not let anyone argue that it is. Twitter followers do not represent a marketing database in any respect, not like the opt-in database of mobile phone numbers you can gain with savvy SMS marketing. Twitter followers are fans and perhaps loyalists, but they are not individually addressable in a scalable way. Marketers are unable to gather additional data points such as a location, product preference, or purchase history and layer these attributes to create more comprehensive follower profiles. Marketers cannot segment and target your tweets based on these attributes, as is possible with SMS marketing. Marketers cannot personalize in any scalable way. Marketers cannot insert dynamic text in a message, or have the user click thru to a personalized mobile web page with a targeted offer or generate a unique barcode for in-store redemption, or track an individual user’s preferences, activity, and behavior.

Twitter, and any form of social media, definitely has a role in a direct digital marketing tactical plan. However, marketers must be diligent about understanding that different roles exist for different applications.

Let’s compare how these benefits break down.

SMS is more targeted, timely, and provides a broad array of useful, automated, interactive touchpoints:

• Timely and targeted offers drive purchases, move foot traffic, and influence purchase decisions at the point of sale.
• Provide helpful information on-demand by using Web services and APIs hat query online applications for information like store locations or shipping status notifications.

Twitter can support promotional messaging and drive foot traffic, but is excellent for achieving larger branding, positioning and PR goals:

• Help establish key terms and positioning points for the business with hashtags, tapping into the power of trending topics and searches.
• Build a network of fans, loyalists, and advocates who help distribute a message through the social network. ReTweets!
• Twitter is a better channel for establishing and honing a brand personality because of the highly social, discussion-based nature of the application.

While Twitter definitely has a place in a tactical game plan, please do not fall victim to the misconception that opt-in SMS text message marketing is somehow obsolete.

Bryce recently published a white paper called, Making Sense of Mobile Marketing. Download it for free! Read his new follow up article to the Making Sense series called Making Sense of Mobile Tagging.

It’s a known fact that mobile marketing, text marketing, sms marketing, and social networking reaches the younger demographics. A recent study published by eMarketer.com showed which activities, out of email, text, TV, phone calls, magazines, social networking, and visiting websites they would be least willing to give up.

I was expecting to see text messaging be one of the things college students would least likely give up and, of course, it was. But I was very surprised to see social networking so far down the list. Email and text messaging clearly remain supreme in importance and desire. So why is this important?

This reinforces my longtime opinion that people who viewed texting as a fad were very far off base. I think text messaging has actually brought people back to the letter-writing days of actually thinking about the message being written and sent. When someone writes an email, it is entirely too easy to spill garbage on to a page and hit “send” without a second thought. As with everything, when marketers started using this technology they of course put too much information with too little importance…now we see email marketing open rates around a horrible eight percent.

However, when you’re limited to a smaller number of characters you tend to focus on exactly what you want to convey and nothing more. This keeps your message relevant and efficient for friends, family, co-workers, or whomever you are texting. Likewise, when analyzed on marketing level this keeps marketers doing the same thing. And that is why we see text open rates over 98 percent.

At Let’s Text Together we keep a focus on offering all the most requested mobile capabilities and having some of the absolutely most affordable rates available. Furthermore, we can help in all 50 states. Our firm’s specialty is mobile and we have countless success stories to prove it. It’s important to work with a company that specializes in mobile. Email us and we’ll prove it with a free marketing consultation: Sales@LetsTextTogether.com

It’s a known fact that mobile marketing, text marketing, sms marketing, and social networking reaches the younger demographics. A recent study published by eMarketer.com showed which activities, out of email, text, TV, phone calls, magazines, social networking, and visiting websites they would be least willing to give up.

I was expecting to see text messaging be one of the things college students would least likely give up and, of course, it was. But I was very surprised to see social networking so far down the list. Email and text messaging clearly remain supreme in importance and desire. So why is this important?

This reinforces my longtime opinion that people who viewed texting as a fad were very far off base. I think text messaging has actually brought people back to the letter-writing days of actually thinking about the message being written and sent. When someone writes an email, it is entirely too easy to spill garbage on to a page and hit “send” without a second thought. As with everything, when marketers started using this technology they of course put too much information with too little importance…now we see email marketing open rates around a horrible eight percent.

However, when you’re limited to a smaller number of characters you tend to focus on exactly what you want to convey and nothing more. This keeps your message relevant and efficient for friends, family, co-workers, or whomever you are texting. Likewise, when analyzed on marketing level this keeps marketers doing the same thing. And that is why we see text open rates over 98 percent.

At Ballyhoo Mobile Marketing, Inc. we create custom mobile strategies for businesses of all size and we operate in all 50 states. Our firm’s specialty is mobile and we have countless success stories to prove it. It’s important to work with a company that specializes in mobile. Email us and we’ll prove it with a free marketing consultation: Sales@BallyhooMobile.com

In enako velja seveda tudi za mobilne telefone. Nielsen je objavil raziskavo uporabe mobilnih telefonov in oglasnih sporočil na njih v ZDA. 16 % ljudi, ki piše SMS sporočila, vsak mesec zasledi oglasno sporočilo na svojem mobilniku. Najbolj verjetno pa je, da se bodo na SMS oglaševanje prijavljali najstniki, saj so tudi največji pisci SMS sporočil. Kar 35 % najstnikov (med 13 in 17 let) namreč pravi, da na svoj mobilnik prejme vsaj eno oglasno sporočilo mesečno. Malo nižji, vendar še vedno visok odstotek (23-24 %), pa dosegajo Afroameričani. Med uporabniki SMS sporočil, ki se spomnijo oglasov na svojem mobilniku, jih 45 % zatrjuje, da so na oglasno sporočilo tudi reagirali.

Zakaj tako visoki odstotki? Ker so SMS sporočila tista sporočila, ki jih vedno preberemo. Nikoli jih ne brišemo preden jih ne preberemo. Za tržnike pa to seveda predstavlja veliko priložnost, po drugi strani pa tudi obvezo, da s svojimi oglasnimi sporočili ne pretiravajo in s tem povzročijo odpor uporabnika do tovrstnega oglaševanja. Zato morajo tržniki na SMS gledati kot na priložnost za vzpostavljanje odnosa s svojimi uporabniki na nov in unikaten način. Mobilni marketing ima potencial množičnega medija, vendar zahteva personaliziranost. Mobilni marketing je, bolj kot katerikoli drugi medij danes, tako enostaven kot pogovor.

I was pulling out of my office building when I saw smoke from slightly beyond I could see. I was worried, but had no way to know what had happened without taking a heavy detour and risking getting into trouble in the process. That is when it struck me. How great it would be if we had a service that pings me (SMS/email/automated call - I can choose the mode) when there are incidents, in or around where I’m, that could affect me. Since, it is mobile based, it can identify where I’m and really make the service local as well as real-time. Now, the company offering the service can define what warrants a warning SMS (nice name, huh?).

One potential candidate who can offer this service could be – Insurance companies. Why? One, it aligns well with their business model - life/safety of people that they need to pay for and secondly, it will be highly valued by customers. Heck, they can even offer it for free/with a small yearly addition to the premium, just for the sake of differentiation!!! What say? I still remember the unfortunate bomb blast incidents in Bangalore more than a year ago. I was indoors and got to know what happened, what if I was outside? The only way I would know is if by chance someone I knew was watching TV or listening to the radio or browsing the internet at that time and what are the odds of that? Let us take opt-in marketing to a new level and create services that add meaning to the life of people, not just spam!

Recently we’ve worked with several clients planning trade shows across many different industries. This seems to be a quickly evolving trend with brands who have booths at trade shows. The mobile marketing element lends a new level of success in many regards.
First, the brand can get people involved via text either through in-store signage or implementation with traditional advertising. For example, “Coming to the 2010 Auto Show next weekend? Text HUMMER to 12345 and get free gas card!” When someone texts in, the message they get back reads something like “Hi! Bring this message by the Hummer booth (#747) and get a free $10 gas card!” At many trade shows booths blend together; this offers an individual way to stand out and builds a database of people to contact (yes, some interested in free gas, but certainly others open to investigating Hummer).
Second, brands can adopt a brand new way for people to take information with them. Often, trade show or event attendees will stuff their bag with flyers and pamphlets and, at best, mindlessly flip through them once home. Now, if attendees were able to stuff their bag with everyone else’s information but have yours on their cell phone, don’t you think you might stand out? From what we’ve seen, you do!

Marvin K. Brown Cadillac in San Diego did a great job. Read the full article about what they did here: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/2507.html

We love creating success for businesses and we can help you to! Visit us at www.LetsTextTogether.com or email us at Sales@LetsTextTogether.com for a free mobile marketing consultation.

This mission of this blog is to discuss great examples and changes in the mobile marketing landscape. We will discuss mobile marketing success stories, sms marketing campaigns, twitter versus mobile analysis, mobile coupon and twitter analysis, social marketing strategy, and free marketing advice.

It’s interesting to see that SMS marketing is becoming pretty common place these days. On Friday I received two marketing messages from restaurant’s that I’d been to.

What was interesting is that I didn’t specifically opt-in to receive messages, and I hadn’t been to either place for a year. It’s always suprising when you receive a marketing message on your phone so long after the event. In terms of the UK regulations (PEC regulations), it is quite acceptable and counts as a ’soft opt-in’.

I make it clear to many of my clients that if you are intending to use your customer’s mobile numbers then you should make it very clear to them. Perhaps a message shortly after using their service to say something along the lines of ‘We will send you occassional offers etc … to opt-out ..’.

The good thing about both of these campaigns is that there was a clear offer. One was a discount and the other was for free champagne. Interstingly, the first restaurant sent the message twice and the second sent their offer by email in response to my SMS. Neither of these are particularly satisfactory. If I receive a marketing message on my mobile then I want to be able to get the offer/redemption through my mobile!

Globe has announced in full page ads the following effective until end of December 30, 2009 with international texts for 5 pesos per send.  It should be noted that SUN has a 1 peso international texting offer and with Chikka and Yahoo free texting from overseas and 2.5 peso to reply from Philippines.

In 21 octombrie, 250 de marketeri au participat la cel mai nou eveniment de marketing lansat pe piata, Conferinta Internationala „Marketing in Direct”, realizata de agentia More than Pub. Prezentarile si workshopurile care au alcatuit agenda evenimentului au urmarit consolidarea cunostintelor in domeniul Marketingului Direct, printr-o abordare “back to basics”.

MAI MULT

A recent study released from Boston was conducted nationwide and polled 81 chief marketing officers and senior marketing professionals who are directly responsible for handling digital advertising.
Among findings, the study noted that social media is currently the biggest let down in terms of results; the respondents of the study found that results from their social marketing are not meeting expectations. Nonetheless, many are continuing to increase their digital budgets, encompassing search, mobile, and social. In fact, a vast majority said they were willing to cut traditional spending (such as print) to keep from cutting back on new media.

We found two things to be the most important advice to be taken from this survey:

1. The study respondents agreed that much new media (mainly social) is being done with no strategy. Now, I have written on this topic several times, as you can see in blogs below. Let a new media firm help you strategize your new media tactics and make them work for you!
2. The respondents said the best step to take is to work with a new media agency who has a full 360-degree understanding of marketing. This way, they can help you blend new media with your traditional; this is what we at Ballyhoo Mobile advise our clients to do everyday. We help them do it and they reap the benefits.

At Let’s Text Together, we have an executive team with decades of marketing experience (both the selling and planning/buying sides of the desk) in newspaper, television, radio, web, interactive, search, and of course our firm’s specialty, mobile. Contact us today for a free marketing consultation. Email us at Sales@LetsTextTogether.com.

This blog’s focus is to cover the direction, growth, and strategy of text message marketing, sms marketing, mms marketing, mobile internet, methods for free marketing and free marketing consulting, and the evolution of the mobile marketing industry.

Consumers are much more likely to respond to an ad using text messaging than visiting a website.

Hospital marketers have learned to add a web-based call to action to their ads. It has become fairly typical. But is there a better way to get results?

Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium advertised its new Fantase aquatic show with television ads on the 4 major networks. The ads featured a contest in which the viewers could register to win a hotel stay and VIP seats for the show’s premiere. The ads directed viewers to a website to register.  The one exception was one ad, which gave viewers the option to enter the contest by sending a text message.

The amazing results according to Mobile Marketer.com were that the call to action using SMS generated 325% more entries than the web based call to action. 52% of entries were via text message even though that option was only given on 25% of the television ads. 

The experiment indicated consumers are much more likely to respond by texting than by visiting a website. The reasons texting is more effective is because:

• Texting is easier
• Texting is more immediate-real time
• A text number is easier to remember than a web address.
• Texting takes less time
• Mobile phones are almost always with the consumer.

For ads that have a call to action, hospital marketers should consider if texting could be used. If so, the Shedd Aquarium experience would indicate the response could significantly improve. 90% of all mobile phones in the U.S. are SMS capable and texting started outpacing voice calls as early as 2007. The frequent use of texting demands that marketers explore how to use it to increase the number of responses and get more immediate response.

It’s an opportunity that cannot be ignored. Why expect a consumer to go to a website to respond to an ad when it can be as easy as punching 5 numbers on the cell phone which is sitting nearby?