In this tough economy it is critical to spend monies to have the biggest return on investment possible. Listed below are some of the main reasons I am still very bullish on SMS for brands.
Text Messaging is available on most phones Adoption rates are increasing More mobile phones than computers Many more reasons and stats than I can list here
Don't take my word for it...Check out this great article from Colin Gibbs from RCR Wireless News - Click Here. Colin states that it is a great investment to look at SMS as a tool for your business and I couldn't agree with him more.
Well it appeared the use of mobile marketing in Super Bowl ads are truly starting to gain traction. I counted three times within ads opportunities to interact with brands via mobile. Based on the fact that there were zero times SMS marketing was used in 2008, I am very pleased with the outcome. I also found it truly encouraging that The United Way used mobile as a medium to garner support through a Super Bowl ad.
I truly believe agencies are beginning to take notice due to impressive numbers of consumers who are interacting over their mobile phone. With consumer adoption of mobile on the rise, I am confident we will see brands and agencies begin to put mobile marketing as part of the overall media mix.
Many times it is extremely hard to concisely talk about how to market in this new digital world we live in. The authors of this article have done a great job of breaking it down on how to start. There are an incredible amount of useful tips including the temptation to use the latest technology to only sell products. If you can utilize these new technologies to get the word out - then your brand ambassadors will help you sell the products for them.
The article is located - http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122884677205091919.html
I wish they would have included a little more about mobile marketing within this article but overall it is a well written and constructed thought process how to bring these new technologies together.
Well just in time for the holiday season, It appears the iPhone has kicked off a real battle amongst the phone makers. You have a new phone out from Samsung, Blackberry, HTC and Sanyo. Each of them working hard to replace the iPhone as the leader within the touch screen space. The question is can they do it? Will the new Blackberry live up to the hype? We will have to wait and see!
Have you tried the new iPhone? Doesn't it appear to make your life a ton easier? If I am a brand marketer how do I use this device to sell more products and services?
This is what I term as the iPhone effect. Marketers desperately trying to figure out how the new iPhone is going to impact their brand. The iPhone provides an easy to use interface along with powerful software to make interacting with consumers easier than ever before. SMS is a snap - Real time updates - GPS capabilities - Ability to upload pictures to an application - all very easy with an iPhone. But isn't there a bigger picture here? What is the bottom line for marketers when it comes to the iPhone? Here are my thoughts for marketers feeling the iPhone effect:
1. The iPhone has raised the bar for mobile marketing. They have sold over a million new 3G phones since its debut. It is not the golden ticket for every brand but will give it the kick every brand marketer needs to move forward with a mobile program.
2. If you have not allotted budget to mobile marketing, I would start now, as your competition probably is. It is critical to begin to understand how consumers want to interact with your brand over their mobile phone. This could be as simple as adding a mobile component to your next marketing campaign or identifying how to utilize mobile messaging to enhance the brand experience through integrated messaging.
Even though the iPhone effect for brands is very powerful, it is still the content which is King for mobile users. Be sure to engage your users with relevant content on a timely basis and they will be loyal mobile advocates for your brand no matter what the device.
The following is an interview with Karen Talavera, an email marketing expert with Synchronocity Marketing.
1) Karen, can you tell me a little bit about your company and what you do? No marketing speak is allowed for this question?
Yes, Synchronicity Marketing can be thought of as a strategic sherpa for marketers transitioning, evolving, and expanding beyond traditional direct marketing channels to new ones. We help companies integrate new communications channels – like email or mobile messaging – into their traditional ones, and avoid the pitfalls in the process. The goal is to help marketers move away from a channel-siloed way of marketing to thinking holistically, so that the whole (constellation of efforts) produces a far more powerful impact than the individual components could on their own.
2) Integration is a pretty common buzzword in your line of work – what does it actually mean, and can you talk about an example where integration actually led to more revenue?
Integration to me means connecting the tools in the toolbox so that the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. It means different marketing channels and tactics work to reinforce and create incremental benefit for one another, rather than each operating in a pigeon-holed fashion. Consumers are multi-media savvy so marketers need to assume their customers will experience their brand in many environments, including some like social media sites (MySpace, Second Life, You Tube) which can’t be entirely controlled. Today there are so many channels, formats, and devices let alone points of presence through which a target audience member can be reached and communicated to that if marketing campaigns are not cross-channel integrated, meaning if we are not helping people “connect the dotsâ€, the alternative is our messages will be hopelessly fragmented and therefore, lost or unintelligible.
Continue reading "Email Marketing Interview With Karen Talavera" »
GIMA has free golf at the Forest Park Golf Course. We're still looking for a few hole sponsors (three in all), so if you want to get in front of the city's fastest growing marketing club (full of interactive marketing professionals), now's the time to join/sponsor/get some free golf.
Something you may not no, we also have a free job board for St Louis interactive jobs.
A personalized phone call from a professional wrestler is not out of the question for some Missouri residents this spring as Adamson used Blast Companies' integrated voice technology to kick off the Missouri Lottery Muscle Up promotion in early April.
As part of the program, Blast Companies created the application that allowed users to create a personalized phone call for friends, family, etc. that featured the name, automobile make, county of residence and Viper's message of the call recipient. The call was then sent via either phone or email to notify the recipient to win a new vehicle as part of the Missouri Lottery promotion. Users put the call together via a website created by Adamson: http://www.callofviper.com.
"Using Blast Companies integrated voice services, we were able to create a fun promotion that not only engaged our target, but also left an impression with call recipients," said Jason Parks, Adamson principal and idea director. "Blast Companies not only provided the technology but also worked with us on all aspects of the promotion, and was integral to its success."
Blast Companies technology also featured real-time reporting that allowed Adamson to view the success of the campaign with the number of calls created and sent on a daily basis.
"The Muscle Up promotion is really a perfect example of our technology in action - with information provided to us, we can create virtually any phone call, email, text message for any promotion," said Chris Torbit, Blast Companies president. "Call of Viper was fun to work on; we are thrilled with its success, and we can't wait to work with Adamson in the future."
I want to interact with my mobile consumers but where do I start?
Having worked with many brands this is the question I get most asked over and over again. “ I don’t have a list of mobile numbers within my database†“Since we do not have a mobile database, where do we begin?†“How do we gather preferences on our clients and provide relevant mobile content to them?â€
These are all incredible questions which companies should be asking mobile application providers. But please understand, Everyone starts at zero. I have said this line many times to help brand managers understand that every brand starts with zero mobile participants. Do you remember when you started with no email addresses? (There was a time when this was the case) What did you do? How did the brand attempt to gather this information? Once your brand got an email address what did you do with it? Here are some tips on my philosophy of creating a successful mobile presence with your brand:
Decide to move forward with a long-term mobile marketing strategy and earmark budget for it. Create mobile campaigns which coincide with your marketing calendar. Use these campaigns to begin to build a long-term mobile database. Have multiple avenues to allow participants to opt-in. These tools should gather preferences and mobile opt-in information. Have a post campaign plan to provide relevant weekly/monthly content to mobile users (True success of a long-term mobile strategy!)
Successful brands who are utilizing mobile marketing within their marketing mix are committed to a long-term strategy. Yes – every brand starts with zero mobile numbers! Mentally please get beyond it! Create a plan to build your mobile database which provides content to users which provides value. Think like a marathon runner and you too will be successful in this channel.
I'm working with a client who sells GPS tracking systems to small businesses. The process is simple - the company advertises, and small businesses with more than 5 vehicles buy a GPS phone and connect it to the software.
The company turns on the software, and like magic, can track the vehicle throughout the day. We were talking about their marketing mix, which includes SEM and SEO, and I asked about e-mails. The Blast Companies store is easy to use, and starting $35 a month, they can send 1000 e-mails out to prospects.
Where do I get the leads from? That's the question.
My first thought was to find a competitor who went out of business, and buy their database. It's a truism that the best clients are those who've bought your service before. Even if they were burned, they represent a group of individuals who saw value in the services you provide. Companies go out of business all the time, usually for reasons not related to the product itself.
Finding a bankrupt, or near-bankrupt competitor and purchasing their leads and database could be the easy way to market your services with a phone and email campaign for thousands less than brand new shiny marketing campaign using print, television and radio.
Think of a failed competitor's database as cold pizza. All it needs is a little reheating to make it a filling and delicious meal.
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