The Mobile Marketing Blog - TellMyCell

Scotiabank Enhances Their Revenue Stream Through SMS Alerts

Scotiabank, one of Canada’s largest banks, has launched a customized email and and SMS alert service to gain an advantage over other leading banks. For a nominal monthly fee of $1.50, Scotiabank customers have the ability to create more than 15 alerts related to their account, security and more.

“Scotiabank has a range of ways to reach out to customers, and they decided to provide proactive notification as well,” said Christy Murfitt, senior manager of solutions marketing at Nuance, Boston. “We provide fully automated and personalized notifications driven by business rules within the organization."

To read the entire article, click here.

To learn more about mobile marketing, visit TellMyCell.

New Trends Due To The Popularity Of The Mobile Phone

In recent polls, people have said that they would rather lose their wallets than their mobile phones. And now, with numerous smart phones on the market, people can do just about anything with the click of a few buttons. Here are some new growing trends due to the popularity of mobile phones.

1-Bargain Hunting: “Bargain hunting has become extremely popular with apps like RedLaser that allow users to scan product bar codes and discover its various prices at different retailers.”
2-Mobile Ticketing: “Mobile ticketing transactions are expected to exceed $100 billion world wide by 2012, according to a study released this month by Juniper Research.”
3-Marketing: “Text message marketing, where customers opt-in to receive news about deals or offer coupons, has been a widely adopted practice as it’s a direct way to engage with consumers that has a high likelihood of being read.”

Want to learn about more mobile trends? Read the entire article here.

To learn about mobile marketing, visit TellMyCell.

SMS Marketing Campaigns: How To Succeed

TellMyCell empowers anyone -- from Fortune 500 Marketing Directors to small business owners -- to easily and affordably run SMS marketing campaigns. If you don't already have a TellMyCell account, you can open one now (it's totally free to try the service out). We're proud to offer a do-it-yourself service that is powerful, flexible, and dead simple to use. That said, if you're new to SMS marketing the lingo can be discouraging - which is why we've put together our easy-to-read ten minute guide, SMS Marketing With Keywords. Our guide to SMS marketing with Keywords will have you marketing like a pro in ten minutes flat:

• Learn about Keywords
• Learn about Short Codes
• Learn how to integrate Keywords, Short Codes & Text Messaging to quickly and inexpensively launch SMS marketing campaigns using TellMyCell.

Want to learn more? Learn how to run successful SMS Marketing Campaigns using Keywords on Short Codes now.

JCPenney's New Marketing Technique

JCPenney is embracing new technological trends with their "New Look. New Year. Who Knew!" back-to-school campaign. They created an iPhone  application which allows teens to upload their own looks and to vote on their favorite outfits. For those teens without iPhones, they can opt to receive text messages which allows them to view the newest styles from the tip of their fingers.

“Through our mobile marketing initiatives, we able to reach teens where they are and provide them exciting, media-rich, interactive content that allows them to explore and discover the JCPenney brand,” said Kate Coultas, a spokeswoman at JCPenney

To learn more about this new marketing approach click here

Want to learn more about mobile marketing for retail? Visit TellMyCell

Mobile Phones As Loyalty Cards. Mobile Couponing Here We Come.

We’d like to draw your attention to an article published in the New York Times yesterday about the rise of using mobile phones as electronic loyalty cards. Companies like Loopt, CardStar, and CardBank are using scannable bar codes as a way to store loyalty cards in smart phones. Mobile coupons in the form of text messages are and continue to be extremely popular; this concept is being elevated by these start-ups to “turn existing customers into better ones.”

Learn more at The New York Times

Memo To Marketers: Texting Is Best Medium To Reach Teens

Mobile Marketer reports on the results of a recent survey by ChaCha - teens and young adults were asked how they like to communicate. If you're relying on email, well, you're in big trouble:

The company polled about 1,500 teens and young adults on their favorite way to communicate. Sixty-eight percent responded that they prefer SMS, as opposed to 10 percent who chose mobile calls, 9 percent who opted for Facebook, 3 percent selected instant messaging and 0.3 percent liked email.

If you haven't launched your first SMS marketing campaign, maybe now would be a good team to learn a bit more :)

Read more about the study @ Mobile Marketer.

SMS Marketing For Retail

What can mobile marketing do for your brick and mortar shop? Mobile marketing through SMS text messaging allows you to build loyalty and increase sales by directly communicating with your customers.

So what can you do with SMS Marketing? Check out some popular ideas:

• Hold a private sale for loyal customers. Send out 10 or 1,000 messages in seconds alerting them.
• Offer mobile coupons - Show this text for 20% off your next purchase.
• Run contests to entice customers to join your text message marketing list.

Learn more @ TellMyCell, or click here to start your free trial.

Watch Our 5 Minute Video To Learn About SMS Marketing

New to SMS Marketing? Ready to learn? Not interested in reading a paper? Want to see how you can launch your first SMS marketing today? Watch our guide to TellMyCell's service and you'll be marketing like a pro in five minutes flat.

Ready to get started? See our plans & pricing and start your FREE trial.

The Five Minute SMS Marketing Primer

By now you’ve heard about mobile marketing, and if you’re reading this you probably want to know how you can use mobile marketing to benefit your business. Is it difficult? Is it expensive? What exactly is mobile marketing?

We’re going to look at SMS marketing, also known as text message marketing. We’ll explain its place in the world of mobile marketing, its advantages, its costs, and how you can launch your business’ first SMS marketing campaign today – in five minutes flat.

What is Mobile Marketing? Let’s go straight to the source, The Mobile Marketing Association: Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.

Now let’s translate that into plain English: Mobile marketing is a way for you to connect with your customers (and potential ones) on their mobile phones.

How Can I Market To My Customers On Their Mobile Phone? There are a few different forms of mobile marketing. There’s mobile search, which is search advertising on a mobile web browser, ads on the mobile web, Bluetooth ads that communicate with your phone, and apps (think downloadable iPhone or Android programs). And then there is SMS, better known as text messaging.

Why Is SMS Marketing The Best Form Of Mobile Marketing? SMS Marketing has three advantages that dramatically set it apart from all other forms of SMS Marketing:

1. Broadest Reach & Familiarity: Nearly every phone in the United States supports text messaging. Americans sent well over 1 trillion text messages last year. They love text messaging. All other forms of mobile marketing are growing rapidly, but they can only reach selected groups of your customers.
2. Cost: Hiring an app developer is expensive. Buying mobile display ads is a major commitment. Bluetooth requires the lease or purchase of physical hardware. Contrast that to text messaging. Many SMS Marketing services allow you to get started for free. A successful campaign for a small business can be launched for less than $50. As for consumers, most either have an unlimited texting plan, or at least one that comes with a couple hundred text messages every month. If not, messages only cost a few pennies. 
3. Ease: Simple yet powerful software like TellMyCell’s SMS Marketing service is easy enough for anyone to use. Signup in 60 seconds. Login. Add some contacts. Type your message. Click send. Want to build a customer list? Rent a keyword on a shared short code.

How Do Keywords & Short Codes Work: A short code is a special 5 or 6 digit phone number. It is a unique number that anyone can send a text messages to. Short codes are at the heart of SMS Marketing.

A Keyword is a unique phrase that a consumer can use to interact with you via a short code. A Keyword is unique to its short code. This means that you might see the same Keyword used on different short codes. Short codes are nearly universal in the United States. So, a short code can power a relatively inexpensive national marketing campaign. Keywords work when they are paired with a short code. A customer will use their mobile phone to send a text message to a short code. The best way to understand how keywords work with short codes is to try it yourself. From your mobile phone, text the word Joes to 88202. In this example, Joes is a Keyword, and 88202 is the shared short code.

How Do I Get Started? Head over to TellMyCell to check out our plans and pricing. Signup is free and takes 60 seconds. Your account comes loaded with ten credits so you can try it for yourself. Got more questions? Get in touch with us.

Bulk SMS Marketing For Nightlife

If you're involved in the world of nightlife -- whether you're an owner, promoter, or manager -- you know that text messaging has changed the way you do business...don't you? If not, you're handing your competitors a major advantage. So what can bulk SMS do for nightlife?

SMS marketing campaigns are easy to deploy, and are affordable for the smallest of marketing budgets. TellMyCell provides the same enterprise-class text messaging services to both small businesses and national chains.

• Neighborhood bars text message daily specials to their customers.
• Restaurants quickly communicate with employees to offer shifts.
• Nightclubs build loyalty by collecting patron phone numbers and offering VIP access.

Learn more about SMS Marketing for nightlife @ TellMyCell. Open a free account in 60 seconds.