The Mobile Marketing Blog - TellMyCell

SMS Marketing Q&A: What Are Mobile Coupons

TellMyCell has been powering SMS marketing campaigns for over six years - and over those years we've been asked hundreds of questions. We recently updated out website with a new set of Frequently Asked Questions, which is a great resource if you want to learn the basics of text messaging and mobile marketing. What we're going to do in our new Q&A series is go a little deeper. So, with that out of the way, let's get to it.

Question: What Are Mobile Coupons?

A mobile coupon is exactly what you'd expect - a coupon that's stored on a mobile phone, rather than being printed on a piece of paper. So what can a consumer do with a mobile coupon? The same things that they've been use printed coupons for – to receive discounts, rebates, etc. on products and services. So, as you can see, the concept of a mobile coupon is pretty straightforward.

There are two ways to send out mobile coupons. They each have their pros and cons.

Mobile Barcodes - Create a barcode, using a standard format, and then get that barcode in your customers' hands. Mobile barcodes offer deep tracking. Unfortanately there are many standards for barcodes, and even more standards for barcodes on mobile phones. As if that wasn't complicated enough, most phones don't support any (let alone many) of these formats out of the box. Offering your customers a mobile coupon is a great way to build brand loyalty and spur sales; requiring them to download an iPhone/BlackBerry/Android app (assuming they have one of those phones) to receive your coupon is not so great.

Mobile Coupons As Text Messages - Text messaging based mobile-coupons offer nearly universal reach. Americans send 4 billion text messages every day. They love text messages, they're familiar with text messages, and most importantly, there's no learning curve/software hassles if your mobile coupon arrives in the form of a text message.

What's the catch? You can’t track text message coupons with the same depth as you can track barcode images. Text messaging certainly offers tracking, just not with the same depth, automation, and precision of a mobile barcodes. Of course all the data in the world isn't useful if the majority of your customers can't receive your coupon. The decision between barcodes and text messages is one that every business has to weigh. In the future we expect barcodes to standardize and spread, but for now, the downsides are far greater than the upsides.

So how does a consumer redeem a mobile coupon sent as a text message? Sticking to our theme of exactly what you would expect, the consumer pulls out their phone, opens the text message, and shows it to the retailer.

Want to get started with mobile coupons? Check out the SMS Marketing page @ TellMyCell or click here to view pricing and signup in seconds.

SMS Marketing Q&A: How Do I Send A Text Blast?

Today we're starting a new series, SMS Marketing Q&As. This is the first post.

TellMyCell has been powering SMS marketing campaigns for over six years - and over those years we've been asked hundreds of questions. We recently updated out website with a new set of Frequently Asked Questions, which is a great resource if you want to learn the basics of text messaging and mobile marketing. What we're going to do in our new Q&A series is go a little deeper. So, with that out of the way, let's get to it.

Question: How Do I Send A Text Blast?

First let's address the definition of a text blast. A text blast is synonym for a mass text message. What's a mass text message? A single text message that your company or organization sends out to a list of contacts - 10 people, 10,000 people, or in the case of The Obama Campaign's VP announcement, about 3 million people.

A mass text message or a bulk text message is the common way of referring to such a message...so where did the term text blast come from? That's a question for a linguistics expert, but we're pretty sure that the phrase originated among email marketers who are in the business of sending out email blasts.

So, back the question...How Do I Send A Text Blast? There are two ways to send a text blast. If you've got an unlimited text messaging plan, a phone with a massive list of contacts (which supports sending text messages to multiple recipients, and a whole lot of patience, you could send out the message using your phone. If you're sending your text message to ten people who are personal contacts, this approach might make sense. For an SMS Marketing campaign this just isn't going to work. This is where an SMS marketing platform that provides text blasting services excels. 

Sending a Text Blast using an SMS Marketing service such as TellMyCell is fast, simple, and affordable. Here's how it works:

1. Sign up for an account. You can pay as you go, or you can choose a monthly plan.
2. Choose your recipients. Got a list of opted-in contacts? Upload them. Otherwise we offer a full set of tools to build up your list of contacts.
3. Type your message - not on your mobile phone, but using our simple web interface.
4. Click Send.

Your message will be delivered to all of your contacts within minutes. If your contacts respond, we'll automatically deliver them to your account Inbox, or if you like we can forward them to your email or mobile phone.

So let's review:

• A text blast is a text message sent to multiple recipients.
• You can send a text blast using TellMyCell's easy, affordable SMS marketing platform.
• You'll save time and money, using our web-based interface.

Check out our text blasting information center to learn more about our service, or sign up for a free, no obligation trial.