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We're gonna look at an interesting use of text messaging today. You may or may not have heard about a recent scandal in the Italian wine world (if you don't know, Italy experiences food/wine/olive oil scandals with some regularity).
This is what went down:
The Italian government investigated the 2003 vintage [of Brunello] and found that several of the 250 producers in the consortium had adulterated their wines. Brunello can only be produced using 100 percent Sangiovese grapes grown only in a small demarcated area surrounding the village of Montalcino. It then must be aged for two years in oak barrels, and then another four months in bottle, and a Brunello cannot be released until five years after the harvest. With the 2003 vintage, however, it was discovered that some winemakers fraudulently used grapes other than Sangiovese. Over 700,000 cases were impounded, and around 1.3 million liters were eventually stripped of the prestigious denomination of origin.
Brunello doesn't come cheap, so what's a wine consumer to do? Enter the text message:
The producers of Brunello di Montalcino — the coveted and mythologized Tuscan red — announced they would be using mobile phone technology to assure consumers that their very expensive bottles actually contained Brunello di Montalcino. Now, after you plunk down $60 or $80 or $100 for the 2004 vintage, you can send a text message with your bottle’s ID number to the Consorzio del Vino del Brunello di Montalcino. In return you’ll receive a text verifying its history and authenticity.
Read more at The Smart Set.
MediaPost's OnlineMediaDaily ran an article yesterday about opt-in, permission based email campaigns, specifically their delivery rates. The results should give serious pause to every small business relying on mass email campaigns to reach their customers:
Despite minor improvements, about 1-in-5 commercial, permissioned emails still fail to reach consumers' inboxes, according to new research from email and reputation management firm Return Path.
In the second half of 2009, 19.9% such emails never reached consumer inboxes in the United States and Canada -- representing only a slight improvement over the first half of the year when 20.7% such emails missed their target.
You're probably thinking, wait a minute, my email campaign software reports much lower bounce rates. Well, it appears you're not getting the entire picture:
"Many senders believe that their email campaigns are achieving a 95% to 98% delivery rate," said George Bilbrey, co-founder and president of Return Path. However, "senders still do not have the correct data to accurately determine true ROI."
"If senders and ESPs count only their hard bounces as emails that failed to reach consumers, they're not getting an accurate metric as to how many emails actually made it into subscriber inboxes," Bilbrey added. "Ultimately, only emails that reach a subscriber's inbox can be opened, clicked and converted into a loyal and active customer. Remember, sent minus bounce does not equal delivered."
.... Email marketing is important, and its not going away anytime soon. However, when you consider inundated inboxes and spam filters that are blocking up to 20% of legitimate, permission given marketing messages, you need to consider better ways to reach your customers. Text messaging, for Fortune 500 firms and small businesses alike, is increasingly the solution. Learn more about SMS Marketing at TellMyCell. So what can a business owner do about this? SMS Marketing. First, text message marketing messages are strictly opt-in - your customers must give you permission to text them. But, as we've just learned about opt-in emails, permission doesn't seem to be enough anymore. So why is SMS different? Let's go to the one stat that reveals all: Over 90% of text messages are opened. Not 90% of messages are delivered. Over 90% of text messages are opened. What about delivery rates? Every group text message you send via TellMyCell is passed directly to the carriers, who in turn deliver the message to their customers (your clients).
