Marketing Mentor Mobile Version for the New Advertising Medium

Christmas isn’t far away. But for businesses it is closer than they realise. Christmas marketing and advertising campaigns are already in front of the managers.

The key to Christmas advertising is to find a way to stand out from the rest. Customers are flooded with messages about sales and discounts over the holiday period, but it is up to a business to find a way to break through the noise.

Providing a customer with a text call to action allows a business to send further information direct to their phone. They can then refer to that information when they are looking for the product. The business can then follow that lead up at a later date.

Customers are already busy, and the added pressure of the holiday period means they just don’t have time to stop what they are doing and follow a traditional call to action. Providing a free call number or a website isn’t going to capture the customers over the holiday season. Mobile marketing provides a quick and efficient call to action that a customer can easily follow.

When writing Christmas marketing collateral, businesses need to consider if the traditional call to actions are appropriate in the swiftly changing mobile-dominant world. While customers are constantly exposed to advertising, the Christmas period is an even more hectic time for advertising and customers can easily feel overloaded with messages. Integrating a mobile marketing platform into a marketing strategy ensures that businesses present an easy and efficient way to capture the customer’s holiday attention and the all important Christmas spend.

Take Santa out of the centre of your advertising, and replace it with a cost-effective and efficient way to stand out from the noise of the other advertisers. Integrating mobile marketing will help you stand out from the rest and achieve your Christmas season sales targets.

Visit www.txt2get.com to see how easy it is to integrate text marketing into your holiday marketing campaigns.

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Interacting with customers can be easy with mobile marketing SMS campaigns. It offers customers a chance to win prizes, while companies have the chance to double and triple ad responses.

There are numerous ways SMS keywords can be used, and they can all be easily run using TXT2GET keywords. Australia Post recently placed keywords on items of purchase, while Telstra Shop used a keyword in a series of TV ads. SMS competitions are simple, cost-effective and require minimal manual administration.

Here’s how 2UE, Sydney’s leading talkback radio station, achieved its goal of audience retention, encourage engagement and attracted new listeners through print by running an SMS competition campaign.

2UE gave audiences a chance to win a holiday to Hunter Valley during Food & Wine Month by running the ‘Tim Webster Hunter Valley Escape Competition’. The competition was promoted on live radio and published in 13 national and community Fairfax Media publications.

Listeners were asked to enter this competition by texting the keyword 2UE 954 and their name to 19 33 33. Those who saw the ad in the newspaper were asked to text 2UE and their details to the same number.

2UE used the ability to have multiple keywords to their advantage. The flexibility of multiple keywords allowed 2UE to reach audiences in radio and prnt and still be able to track the source of the audience.

Companies can use multiple keywords and still have all of their responses conveniently streamlined into one system. 2UE was able to determine additional characteristics, behaviors and sources of the audience based on real time response reports.

SMS campaigns are advantageous for the company and consumer. Mobile technology replaces manual administration and the sorting of paper entries. For the customer, the process of entering a competition using SMS is faster and easier than filling out an online entry form.

2UE received more than 1000 entries by the end of the seven day campaign. This is more than double the amount of responses usually generated in short term campaigns.

“We’re very happy. It was interesting to see success of live radio reads and the ability to track immediate responses,” says Rebecca Coleman, 2UE Promotions Manager, “We also gained great insight into both listeners and readers and their habits by being able to see exactly when they responded. People that texted after seeing the newspaper ads did so on the day the newspaper went to print, but also during the following few days.”

This promotional campaign was a success for 2UE. Mobile marketing helped 2UE reach its objectives.

Check out this free trial to see how mobile marketing to could benefit your company.

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Telstra has announced plans to cut internet access of 1.6 million Blackberry and iPhone users. The announcement follows the telco’s loss of millions from customers overspending and failing to pay bills.

An “app cap” will be applied and internet access will be barred from users of smartphones until the next cycle. Telstra is expected to have the cap implemented by the end of this financial year.

Telstra’s chief financial officer, John Stanhope, says the main problem is the “bill shock” that customers experience when they do not expect a large bill.

“It [app cap] stops the charge, but it also stops the service,” Stanhope says.

Customers who use the internet service will be inconvenienced by the mobile internet barring, but businesses with mobile internet advertising will be hit particularly hard by the “app cap”.

Telstra has advised the “app cap” is not expected to affect basic SMS services. SMS has already proved to be a reliable and cost effective way of interacting with customers. Customers now have greater incentive to keep a cap on bills by using SMS rather than mobile internet.

Digital and traditional advertisers are turning to SMS mobile marketing in increasing numbers. The mobile marketing company TXT2GET has been offering advertisers mobile keywords as an alternative form of marketing to retain customers and increase advertising response.

“By using SMS keywords in advertising a marketer can double or triple responses to advertising. It also helps them measure what’s WORKING and what’s not,” says TXT2GET’s Australian Country Manager Andrew Campbell, “Sydney’s talkback radio station 2UE was able to increase audience interaction by using SMS. They asked listeners to enter a competition by texting 2UE to 19 33 33. By the end of their 7-day campaign, over 1000 entries were received, more than double the usual response.”

With Telstra’s internet barring, accessing the internet to visit a website to complete a form will not always be possible. The unaltered SMS service, however, will ensure Telstra’s 1.6 million smartphone customers ability to interact and communicate with companies using TXT2GET keywords.

See how you can use mobile marketing for your own business needs. Try out TXT2GET Free Trial now!

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Businesses work to attract new business, but what about the clients a business already has? The traditional loyalty programmes are a go-to system, but once the information is gathered, are you actually utilising that valuable resource to its full potential?

Mobile marketing allows businesses to send vouchers direct to their customers’ mobile phones. Customers can be sent a rewards newsletter, or be sent a link to a mobile site displaying rewards the customers, alongside a key word and short code. The customer can choose their reward and the information is then sent directly to your customer’s phone. The customer could be sent a simple code, a barcode or even an MMS message. The customer can take that voucher to a participating business and spend the voucher in-store.

The opportunities to develop mobile-based loyalty programmes are significant. Systems can be put in place to send offers directly to a customer’s mobile, and all the customer had to do is reply to accept the offer. SMS messages, links and MMS messages can all be sent to most phones, so the customers can carry a business’s brand with them, no matter where they are.

Old fashioned paper-based loyalty programmes can be time consuming and cost-intensive, making them prohibitive to some businesses and impractical to others. Utilising mobile marketing makes loyalty programmes available to all businesses, no matter what their customer-retention budgets.

The future development of mobile marketing is pointing towards everything happening on a mobile phone. Mobile phones can already be used to pay for goods and services, as tickets on buses and entry to events. The efficient and cost effective system is rewarding early adopters with great results. Those businesses sitting back will soon be left behind.

Remember the importance of your current clients and revitalise your loyalty programme with a shift to a mobile-based system today.

Visit www.txt2get.com to find out how to integrate a Mobile Marketing loyalty programme into your business.

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Parents might not want to think about it quite yet, but marketing managers and advertising executives cannot avoid thoughts of Santa and sleigh bells anymore, Christmas is definitely on its way.

When people think of Christmas they think of gift buying and ringing tills, but while retail might have its busiest time over the holidays, it is not the only area customers are looking to spend money. There is money to be spent across the board, from travel and accommodation, to entertainment for kids of all ages.

While the holiday advertising market is a very noisy one, any business can get involved and attract their share of the consumer spend. The key is to find a way to be heard above the noise. With a constant bombardment of holiday related advertising, the customer can get desensitized to the promises of sales and specials. A business must find a way to stand otu from the rest.

With economic conditions changing all the time, customers are more careful with their money, but it does not mean that they aren’t spending it. Purchases involve more research and looking for the best deal. A mobile marketing campaign allows a customer to have more information about an offer sent directly to their mobile phone. A business can follow this up with a mobile discount voucher and be two steps ahead of the competition that rely on traditional marketing channels.

Mobile technology does not need a new or difficult way of marketing to work, all the same rules still apply, but the ease of mobile marketing makes it the best choice for a hero marketing channel for your holiday marketing. Create your campaign, set your goals and then make sure the mobile marketing call to action is a prominent feature. Not only will your business be taking part in the swift growing mobile market, you will also be in the pockets and handbags of your target consumer throughout the holiday season.

Visit www.txt2get.com to find out more about how your business can stand out from the crowd this holiday period using mobile marketing.

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Holidays are a great time for businesses, increased spending trends, attracting new customers and the all important sales increases. But the holidays present a challenge for ensuring that advertising spends are measurable.

A successful advertising and marketing campaign needs to be measurable and the results have to be able to be reported on. But what brings a customer into your business over the holiday? How can you track if that spend is just from foot traffic, or from your advertising spend?

The holiday period is a stressful and hectic time for business and customers alike. Adding an additional pressure on staff to question customers in an attempt to gather information about what has attracted them to the business isn’t going to be welcomed by either group. So businesses need to find other ways to capture this data. Vouchers are a traditional way to attempt to gather information, but this requires customers to actually read the publication they are in, clip them out and then remember to take them on their shopping trips.

A customer will more often than not be carrying their mobile with them while they shop. Businesses can use this to their advantage by creating a mobile marketing voucher campaign. This voucher can be presented in store and then allow the business to capture the data in their point of sale systems. Creating a mobile marketing campaign is beneficial for both the customers and the business.

When developing your holiday marketing strategies, consider integrating text marketing into your approaches. Developing an attractive mobile voucher that can be sent direct to a customer’s phone and presented in store will ensure that the results of the holiday campaign are measurable.

Visit www.txt2get.com to see how easy it is to integrate text marketing into your holiday marketing campaigns.

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The launch of the iPhone 4 has created a whirlwind of hype over technological developments. With all the hype, it seems some amazing mobile phone developments have been forgotten. Sometimes the most basic innovations are most important because they can be used by everyone.

Even with a large number of iPhone 4 enthusiasts around, not everyone will have access to it. But it remains a fact that most people have access to a basic mobile phone which gives them the ability to SMS.

Mobile Marketing through SMS is not about spamming people with annoying text messages, it is about connecting consumers with brands and products that they want. When you see an ad or a brand that you like, rather than remember a phone number or a website the easiest way to connect is to send an SMS.

A recent example in New Zealand for STA Travel connected this travel brand with their consumers in an instant, interactive and fun way. They received 765 TXT replies in 12 days using Web based SMS.

‘How often have you needed to have a good excuse for the boss or teachers? STA Travel has your back!’ Once TV viewers saw the promotion, they simply texted STA to 244 for excuses to send to their boss.

In 12 days, over 765 TXT replies were received using web-based SMS. From the mobile marketing campaign response reports, the company was able to find out which TV ad slots their audience responded most in.STA Travel overlaid the daily TXT responses with the TV TARP (Target Audience Rating Points) ratings. The TARP ratings are used to price ad slots, and STA Travel was able to decide their marketing strategies from the analysis.

Connecting with the customers can be simple with mobile marketing campaigns. SMS lets you leap over technological divides, reaching those with the latest iPhone 4, the smart phone, and even those with the most basic mobile phone.

Check out this mobile marketing free trial tool. Check out the STA Case Study

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If a client calls a free call number to register their interest and no one is there to answer it, the business is losing a potential sale. Every unanswered call affects a business’s profits.

According to a recent survey by a mobile marketing company, only 30 percent of businesses answered their freecall numbers between 6-8am and 6-8pm, despite having purchased advertising space during these times. Poor planning results in lost sales.

Everyone is busy and time is precious. If a client is interested in an offer, then they will act on it. If the only option is a free call number, then they expect to find out more about the offer when they call. That is a warm lead, but if there is no one answering, then that lead quickly cools off. The client might forget to call back, or lose interest. This equates to lost sales.

By making it easy for a client to register interest in a product or service, an advertiser is taking the opportunity to capture that potential sale, and not lose it to an unanswered call.

A simple and cost-effective way to provide an instant response to a prospect’s interest is to include a text call to action. Text marketing is the most efficient way for prospects to interact with a business. A text can be responded to 24/7 and leads followed up when staff are back the next morning.

The only limit to the text responses that can be set up with a text campaign is the character limit. Text campaigns can be designed to be a simple response right through to a series of interactive texts. A business can create a multi-level registration process, or just more information about the product on offer.

Don’t miss out on sales because no one is there to answer the phones. Make your next marketing campaign feature a text marketing call to action.

Visit www.txt2get.com.au to see how your business can use text marketing in your next advertising campaign.

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A mobile marketing conference held recently in New York discussed how to create long term success with mobile marketing campaigns and how to make the most out of the technology.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Marketplace: Mobile conference panellists discussed what makes campaigns successful and what ingredients are needed to ensure that a mobile marketing campaign delivers results for the business.

The panellists agreed that a mobile marketing campaign needs to be planned and fit the business’s overall marketing strategy. The campaigns need objectives and measurable results. It was decided that it is important for campaigns to have long term goals and strategies, rather than be a series of one-off campaigns.

The experts analysed a large hardware company’s international mobile marketing efforts and concluded that the campaign had all the hallmarks of a successful campaign. The campaign was cohesive and well planned, and was run as a proper marketing campaign, that just happened to be executed in the mobile market.

While short, one-off campaigns have merit and can be a successful way to promote a new product or run a competition, it is important that they are part of an overall long-term strategy. Marketing campaigns require research, clear objectives, strategy, effective tactics and to be evaluated. Mobile marketing campaigns should be treated in the same way.

Mobile marketing campaigns are great for promoting new products and a perfect competition mechanism, but the ease of implementation and cost effectiveness can result in businesses using mobile marketing without planning ahead. To ensure that a business gets the best value for money, the rules that apply to traditional marketing mediums should also apply to mobile marketing.

Integrating a mobile marketing component into a broad overarching media strategy, and having clear goals for the strategy and its components will ensure that a business will get the best value for their advertising spend.

Visit www.txt2get.com.au to see how flexible mobile marketing campaigns can be, and how your business can benefit.

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A recent mobile marketing conference in New York discussed the effectiveness of mobile campaigns and the key to developing a successful campaign.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Marketplace: Mobile conference panellists discussed effective campaigns and how to figure out the right mix for a successful mobile campaign.

The attendees agreed that there is no one size fits all answer to developing a mobile marketing campaign. When developing a new campaign it is important to look at the technology available, the levels of access to mobile technology and how mobile marketing would fit into advertising methodologies in the region. Findings of the conference indicated that it was important to have cohesive campaign goals, but targeted for the local audience.

A closer look at the mobile marketing campaign of a major computer hardware company showed the importance of allowing for the region’s unique characteristics when developing campaigns. The company’s effort in Indonesia paid off with a change of focus. The company moved away from smart phone technology to focus on feature phone technology, the predominant technology in the region. The company managed to maximise their campaign with a closer look at their target audience.

The panellists also discussed the importance of ensuring mobile marketing campaigns were still developed with the rules of basic marketing in mind. Advertisers were reminded that mobile marketing is an effective tool, but only when used correctly.

Panellists advised advertisers to not “just go mobile for mobile’s sake”. Mobile marketing is a powerful and extremely cost effective way to increase interest in a business. But to get the best results from any campaign, it is important to have clear and measurable objectives. To increase the effectiveness of a mobile marketing campaign, it is important to make it a star of the campaign.

A strong mobile marketing presence in a campaign will ensure that a business will reach the highest number of potential clients.

Visit wwwww.txt2get.com.au to learn more about this easy to implement and highly rewarding mobile marketing tool.

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