The Mobile Marketing Blog - TellMyCell

Creating a Time Limited Text Message

 

Time limited offers remain one of the most effective marketing tools on the planet. Consumers just can’t resist acting on exclusivity and the chance to snap up something they want before it’s gone. That’s why you see this marketing technique used across the board, from TV and radio to print ads and product displays - and now on mobile via text message marketing.

If you’re looking for a way to grab more attention with your mobile marketing strategy, here’s how to create time limited text message offers that really deliver.

 

What’s Your Time Limit?

For maximum impact, you want to get the the balance just right between:

 

• A time limit that’s short enough to get customers excited and create a feeling of urgency.

 

• A time limit that’s practical, making sure you give customers enough time to actually visit your business in person or online to use the promotion on offer.

 

The type of offer and the sector you operate in will help you determine the right kind of timescale for your customers. For online businesses, time limits can be as short as ‘For Today Only!’, as it’s quick and easy for people to hop online and visit your site. For businesses like restaurants, giving a day or two’s notice gives people time to plan and book.

 

Mobile is Different - Mobile is Fast

When people get an offer via text, they act fast. With high open and read rates, text message marketing makes it easy for customers to act on offers immediately. This means you need to think about your mobile time limited offers differently from offers placed in print ads, for example. The immediacy of SMS is perfect for last-minute deals - but if your time limit is too long it makes it all too easy for customers to forget all about it.

Crafting Your Message

You have limited space, 160 characters, so make your call to action short and sweet. Recipients typically only need to know a maximum of three things:

 

• Your offer
• Its time limit
• How customers redeem it

 

‘2-for-1 mains this Wednesday’ or ‘Free online shipping for the next 48 hours!’ keeps things short, direct and delivers all the info you need. You want to avoid people having to scroll down through your message reading lots of text. Time limited offers are designed to grab attention, and short, punchy texts do this best.

 

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The Dos & Don’ts of Using Humor in Your Text Marketing Campaign

 

Incorporating humor into your text marketing efforts can help you grab attention and engage more with your audience. It’s also a great way for your brand to show some personality, helping it stand out from the crowd. A surprising, new and funny campaign can attract a whole new audience and increase your subscriber numbers too.

But get the wording or the topic wrong and you run the risk of alienating or even offending your subscribers.

 

If you’re keen to add some funny to your next text marketing campaign, here are some simple dos and don’ts to help you get it right.

Choose Your Topic

What do you want to joke about? Choosing a subject that directly relates to your brand will help your text marketing campaign achieve more impact. You might want to avoid sensitive areas like politics and religion, which run the risk of alienating or offending some of your subscribers. Food, fashion, law, retail - whatever your business, joke about your own area of expertise.

 

Lighten Up

You want to keep your funny text campaigns lighthearted and clean. Forget the toilet humor or anything rude or brash, as if you misjudge this it could lead to some offended subscribers and damage to your brand. Stick to simple jokes, plays on words, and make the most of puns - they’re a great way to raise a smile through the written communication of SMS messaging.

Make It Snappy

Remember you only have 160 characters to get them laughing. This means keeping your jokes, puns or phrases short. Forget overly long, multiple messages, which will only cost more to send. Get to the punchline fast with some succinct, snappy copy. This is where puns work really well, allowing you to get a laugh simply, through language.

Don’t Forget Your Brand Voice

Your brand’s tone of voice needs to be strong and consistent across all of your marketing channels, and this includes your text marketing campaigns, whether they’re humorous or not. Putting on a sudden change to a dry, sarcastic tone when the rest of your marketing has always been upbeat is only going to confuse your subscribers. Think about a funny tone that fits, and focus on lighthearted humor, which has wider appeal, rather than negative or sarcastic humor that can leave some people cold.

4 Ways Mom & Pop Stores Can Use Mobile Marketing

 

There is nothing quite as special as a mom and pop store in the sea of capitalism. It is no easy feat to stay afloat when there are huge establishments taking over cities, but mom and pop shops offer a unique experience that cannot be found in large chains—genuine connection. Text messaging also offers a unique personal connection. Therefore, it makes sense for mom and pop stores to use mobile marketing too.  

Here are four ways you can stick it to the big guys and reap the rewards of valuable sales and loyal customers:

 

Alerts & Reminders

A way to get customers excited about joining your text marketing list is by offering alerts and reminders about events, inventory and availability, new items and services, or sales. Let your customers get the inside scoop so that they feel intimately involved with your brand and feel important to your store.  

 

Lovable Customer Service

Customer service is paramount for mom and pop shops. Many people cringe their way through corporate-owned shops because the experience may feel stale and rather generic. For that reason, many prefer to only interact with small businesses. When customers enter mom and pop stores, they want to feel like they are part of the family so use text messaging for greater cohesion. Although you can make a great impression during your physical interaction with customers, sending a follow-up question after a purchase can show you genuinely care about their satisfaction. Also, allow customers to reach you via text when they need assistance with purchasing something from you or with a purchase they made.

 

Individualized Coupons

The beauty of mom and pop stores is that you are able to interact with individuals and actually remember the encounters. Show your customers that their presence and business is acknowledged by creating customized coupons. If your customer has a habit of purchasing a certain item or if a customer endlessly gawks at an item they can't quite afford at the moment, offer a small discount on the item through a mobile coupon. This will help generate brand loyalty.

 

Personalized Messages

To keep your store a favorite amongst customers, develop your own creative strategy for personally reaching customers through texts. For example, if your brand is witty, send a funny text directed to a customer once a month or more. Or if you have a store that values community, gather data on what causes your customer supports, then send out inspirational quotes or links to events supporting the cause once a month. 

 

More and More Research Tells Us Millennials Can’t Do Without Text

Many recent studies into the preferences and habits of millennials found that they are more engaged with mobile technology than any other group. They also delivered some important insights about the ways in which millennials use smartphones.

Some 500 young people, surveyed by Retale, responded to a series of questions about mobile usage; the research found that 94% of millennials regularly use geo-location technology, and 84% say they act on push notifications. Nearly two thirds use their smartphones to look for coupons or discounts for immediate use, while a third use them to research product information for later purchase.

Whatever they use their mobile device for, the very presence of the device on or near their person is non-negotiable. Zogby reports that 87% of millennials are never without their phone, and 80% start their day by reaching for their device.

Another piece of research - from the OpenMarket - reveals that 76% of millennials would rather sacrifice phone calls than text messaging, citing convenience as the reason. But most interesting to mobile marketers is the fact that millennials would rather receive text messages for business transactions, including payment and appointment reminders, and special promotions. 

Furthermore, a Gallup poll surveyed 18 to 29 year olds and found monthly texting rates have more than doubled in the last two years.

And still the number of phone calls made by this demographic continues to decline. According to the Zogby research, 4/5 of young people spend at least two hours per day on their phone. Yet hardly any of them use it to make calls. For older generations, this may be hard to understand, but there are a few factors at play:

 

• Many young people view phone calls as intrusive and presumptuous, putting expectations on the recipient of the call to drop everything they’re doing and pay attention to the caller. Texting eliminates this problem because it doesn’t require a real-time response. 
• Privacy is not something millennials care too much about. They’ve been giving up personal details and consent regarding how their data is shared since they can remember, all in exchange for the convenience of increasingly sophisticated technology. The notion that you would mind companies knowing what you’re talking about is an alien one, and thus no bar to sending reams of your most personal information into the digital ether.
• Texting does away with a lot of the niceties of a phone call, while maximizing the useful information. If you need to simply find out where you’re meeting people for a night out, an address can be stated in a text message - a message that’s also a hyperlink to the map of the location which you can plan the best route to with GPS, all while checking out the menu as you walk. If a millennial texts such a request to their friend, a phone call returned would be annoying!

 

This understanding of what phones are for is so radically different to what baby boomers and - for their childhood at least - Gen Y-ers used them for, it can be difficult to get your head around. But seeing the smartphone from the perspective of young people will help you craft a more effective mobile marketing campaign. Hope we’ve helped!

Clear Majority of Millennials Respond to Push Notifications

A recent study into the preferences of millennials found that, unsurprisingly, they are the most highly engaged group when it comes to mobile technology. The research provides yet more evidence that any forward-thinking marketing campaign must take this demographic seriously. 

Among the key findings:

 

• 94% of millennials regularly use apps with geo-location technology, with both Android and Apple users equally keen on such tools
• A majority of millennials (84%) say they act on push notifications, with men responding at a slightly higher rate than women, and more iPhone users (92%) responding to push notifications than Android owners
• In terms of the kinds of information millennials are looking for, 61% like coupons or discounts for immediate use; 35% prefer to receive the latest product information; only 16% of respondents said they used mobile devices for ‘in-store guidance’

 

The 500 millennials surveyed also described the circumstances in which they would not respond to a push notification. The most common reasons were: lack of relevance (39%); intrusiveness (34%); receiving too many notifications (25%) and a lack of attractive deals.

As esoteric as they can appear, these studies provide crucial information to the modern business. Millennials now outnumber baby boomers, and their buying power is at an all-time high. Even with a slower economy and higher cost of living than their parents enjoyed, one can reasonably expect millennials to continue increasing their financial clout. Right now, the median income for those at the younger end of the demographic (ie born in the 90s) is around $25,000; thirtysomethings towards the top of the range earn double that. With 23% having a bachelor’s degree or higher, millennials are the most highly educated generation in history. 

The study - conducted by Retale - is just one fraction of the market research honing in on millennials, and how to predict and capitalize on their preferences and habits. Research from Zogby corroborates the suggestion that millennials are more wedded to their mobile device than any other group, with 87% reporting that their phone ‘never leaves their side’ and 80% claiming the first thing they do in the morning is to reach for their smartphone. Around 78% said they spend at least two hours per day on their phone. 

 

The 2016 Effective Mobile Marketing Awards

These days, there’s an award ceremony for just about everything—mobile marketing included. 

Honoring the men, women, and collaborative teams that conceptualize and deliver the most compelling media via mobile, this year’s Effective Mobile Marketing Awards will be held in London, on Nov. 17, 2016. 

Big brands and unknown startups alike will toast one another at this gala-style celebration produced by the industry’s leading publication and mobile authority, Mobile Marketing Magazine. 

 

An International Celebration 

This is the sixth year that the publication will produce the anticipated awards ceremony, covering more than 36 categories of all things mobile, including services like Most Effective Publisher Offering; products like Most Effective In-Car App; and mobile marketing campaigns such as Most Effective Brand Campaign. 

With such broad categories, it’s no wonder that a wide range of mobile marketers gather each year to compete for recognition among their peers. 

Notable winners from last year’s awards include Audi, winner of Most Effective Brand; Start-up of the Year went to UsherU, and Most Effective Mobile First Solution went to Domino’s Pizza and Future Platforms.

The event also serves as a valuable networking opportunity. David Murphy, editorial director and co-founder of Dot Media, is the brainchild behind Mobile Marketing Magazine, founded in 2005, and the awards ceremony.

Murphy also manages the magazine’s speaker program and other mobile marketing events, like the Mobile Marketing Summits. He presented several of the awards at last year’s awards ceremony, and will likely be a big part of this year’s event. 

 

How to Enter 

The entry process has been streamlined this year, thanks in part to a new awards portal system, where you can now submit entries and supporting materials with an account that allows you to stop and start your application process as need be. 

The entry period is open now through August 5. Early bird applicants will receive a discount if they submit their applications before July 22. The cost to enter is £175 per entry, per category.

This year, the awards show has launched a People’s Choice Awards Category, in which the industry picks the shortlist and the winners. 

A new crop of judges has been selected for this year’s awards show as well, including industry leaders like Elaine Smith, head of digital product management at House of Fraser, and Glynn Pegler, CEO of Culture Group.

For mobile marketers, and digital media players of all backgrounds, this annual event showcases a year’s work in vivid color, and recognizes many of the people involved in prolific mobile campaigns. Brands usually get the credit for viral media, but this awards show lets the minds behind the campaigns take center stage. 

FordPass App Promises 'Mobility Solutions' That Go Beyond Cars

Ford is entering the mobile technology ring with the launch of a new app. The company announced the FordPass mobile app in January of this year at the North American International Auto Show. The app is designed to help people get “from here to there,” whether by Ford vehicle, public transportation, ride-sharing or rent-a-bike service, or another car. There’s even a parking assistance feature. 

 

A ‘Marketplace for Mobility Solutions’

The idea behind the FordPass app is to provide consumers with “a marketplace for mobility solutions.” Spokespeople for the renowned vehicle brand note that while the core business concerns selling vehicles, the whole industry is shifting to serve consumers’ general mobility needs. This includes consumers who don’t always require a vehicle to go from “here to there.” 

Vehicle sharing is increasingly commonplace, a fact that Ford recognizes. The company is subsequently crafting a “whole ecosystem” that extends beyond standard vehicle buying and current customers to include non-Ford owners. 

 

What the App Does

FordPass revolves around the ‘My Vehicles’ feature that lets drivers add their cars and trucks and review basic model details, such as when the vehicle was purchased, current fuel level, color, and how many miles it has. Product recalls are also included if necessary. This may be accomplished by scanning a vehicle’s barcode. 

In addition to providing useful vehicle information, the mobile app functions as an extra key capable of remotely locking and unlocking the vehicle and starting the engine. However, this feature is only usable on cars with modern functionalities, such as the 2017 Ford Escape. The feature is indicative of things to come, as key access is one of the biggest issues currently surrounding car-sharing. 

Other app features include parking assistance, which allows drivers to take photos of where they parked and save related maps. The app offers a number of features, but Ford is hoping to create one app to rule them all rather than sticking drivers with multiple car apps. 

 

Loyalty Program

Ford wants not only to maintain its existing client base, but also to attract new customers through a loyalty program. The program will launch later this year in the U.S. and is set to be the brand’s first-ever “global loyalty scheme.” Points are accrued by buying a Ford vehicle, scheduling a car share or parking space through the app, and filling up on gas at a partnered BP garage, among other things. These points are redeemed to provide free oil changes, free winter check with new windshield wipers, and essentially anything else available through FordPass. 

The vehicle brand is (obviously) hoping for great success with the mobile app, as it aims to be the “Apple of the mobility world.” 

 

Local Mobile Marketing Tactics for SMBs

Small businesses have the most to gain from local mobile marketing. As it becomes harder to compete for consumer attention, the mobile frontier offers greater opportunity; but it can also be intimidating for local business owners more familiar with traditional marketing tactics. However, the mobile tipping point is upon us, and a delay of better tactics due to unfamiliarity is an excuse, not an option. If you’re a local business owner, mobile marketing is the best way to stay competitive. 

Here are a few effective local mobile marketing tactics that you can implement today:

 

The Mobile Experience 

Optimization: this is a word you’re probably very familiar with by now. We optimize retail space, employee productivity, and even websites — but have you optimized your customers’ mobile experiences? 

The reason you should care about this is because mobile use exceeds regular desktop activity—your customers are on their phones more than they are on a computer. Is your website mobile responsive? In other words, does it reconfigure to make sense on a tiny smartphone screen? Users who struggle to navigate a bad mobile website are more likely to give up on their purposes, whether they’re looking for information or trying to make a purchase.

Your customers’ journeys will often begin on mobile devices; be there to capture that experience and optimize it every step of the way. 

 

Mobile Communications 

The mobile experience means that users are generally going to be on their phones when they reach out to a business, but that’s also true in reverse—the communications you send to your customers will also likely be received on mobile devices. Email and SMS messaging are two very popular mobile communication channels. To be effective, these communications must be interpreted for mobile. 

For example, open-and-read rates of text messages are about 90 percent, so it’s worthwhile targeting customers through SMS. To craft an effective SMS message, try to keep the message as short as possible, provide a value to your customers (discount, special offer), and make the follow up action (usually a link) accessible and easy to follow. 

Similarly, emails on mobile should have some structural variances that enable mobile users to read and take action. For example, use a larger font and a single column layout. Keep the content brief and make sure the call-to-action is clear and actionable. 

 

Social On-the-Go

Another thing people do almost exclusively on mobile these days is use social media. Part of your mobile marketing campaign should involve getting in front of your customers in the mobile spaces they frequent most. For many, this means implementing mobile tactics that make sense on social media. 

Some tactical examples include regularly posting short, relevant content with attention-grabbing topics. You should also encourage customers to share their pictures, reviews, and ideas within your brand’s social community. Engagement is invaluable. Use your page metrics to adjust settings, improve content ideas, and reach more potential customers. Local pages enjoy 5 times more reach than their larger corporate competitors, as well as 8 times more engagement from each fan reached. This is largely due to a shift in consumer behavior, which favors smaller businesses and local production. 

Small businesses can use each of these local mobile tactics to their advantages and succeed in a competitive market. 

 

 

TCPA: What Your Business Needs to Know (TMC)

Bulk text messaging is a useful addition to any mobile marketing strategy - but there are rules and regulations to be understood before deploying this powerful technology. Understanding telephony law is crucial if you don’t want to be hit with a lawsuit.

The power of a text blast lies in the way SMS messaging is consumed. Most text messages are opened and read within minutes of receipt, and it remains a highly personalized, spam free medium. The ability to deliver tailored brand messages direct to consumer’s palms is attractive to businesses in practically any industry. 

To continue reaping the manifold benefits of bulk text messaging without the headache of costly legal action, it’s important to understand what the law says:

 

Text Blasts and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) requires commercial interests to gain consent before sending text messages to an individual’s phone or other mobile device (when the legislation first passed it related only to landline telephony, but was updated in 2012 to reflect the growing commercial use of bulk text messaging as a marketing tool). 

The TCPA is a Federal law. It prohibits unsolicited calls and tex messages, with anyone found in breach of the law facing up to $1500 in statutory damages for each violation. If you step on the wrong side of the law during a text blast campaign, it could be very expensive indeed. Bear in mind also that recipients of unsolicited text messages are not required by the law to prove any harm was done - the damages apply irrespective.

It’s easy to see how falling afoul of the TCPA could ruin a business. Even small businesses are now running bulk text messaging campaigns in which thousands of messages are sent. The costs are appealingly low compared with other forms of advertising - providing the campaign abides by the law. Take a wrong step and it would be a financial disaster.

If you’re thinking about sending a text blast to promote your business, make sure you’re TCPA compliant before setting up a campaign. Failure to do so could result in a very expensive settlement. To protect your business, acquaint yourself with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act before you embark on any bulk text messaging campaign.

10 Mobile Marketing Predictions for the New Year

The time to ring in the New Year is fast approaching, resulting in plenty of mobile marketing predictions for 2016. The world is increasingly a mobile-centric place, so what’s likely to happen to this essential industry in the coming months? 

 

1) Apps in the Mainstream

Apps are increasingly the choice advertising avenue for many brands, and have replaced more “traditional” marketing means. Marketers are set to provide more utility and value within their apps, which will become the go-to in regards to customer loyalty and rewards, engagement, and the purchase of goods and services. Management of billing and payments via apps is becoming more commonplace as well. Brands pander to the independent shopper, the jet setter, and the otherwise-very-busy consumer interested in getting what he wants and needs quickly.

 

2) Ad Unit Evolution

Popular ad units are predicted to evolve seriously in 2016. The user experience is in the forefront of advertiser and publisher minds, causing them to push for more native ad placements. Such ads are less annoying and disruptive to consumers. The days of the one-banner-to-rule-them-all approach are coming to a close, as advertisers will instead focus on options that better match the medium. Users are subsequently engaged rather than distracted. 

 

3) More Fun With Beacons

Beacons and other location-based advertising strategies will continue to grow and thrive in 2016. A Google Eddystone study noted that 85 percent of the top 100 retailers are set to adopt beacon technology by the end of the New Year, with beacons also set to influence some $4 billion of U.S. retail sales. 

 

4) Personalized Messages

Marketers now have the chance to craft the highly personalized messages they want, thanks to data and real-time technologies. Next-generation platforms make it easy for marketers to learn from disparate data sources, pair them with real-time mobile signals—including those for movement and location—and create incredibly personalized “mobile moments” consumers are sure to enjoy. 

 

5) Meaningful Mobile Commerce

The New Year is expected to be the year mobile commerce gets its shot. According to eMarketer , m-commerce sales will increase by 32 percent in 2016, which is much faster than e-commerce. 

 

6) Mobile Budget Increase

The influence mobile is having on this year’s holiday shopping season is paving the way for a huge shift in focus. Forrester Research predicts mobile as the fastest-growing of the digital channels, and suggests brands will use mobile to create “big, hairy, audacious goals.” Evidence of this transition began all the way back in 2014, when Hilton announced a $500 million investment in mobile technologies. 

 

7) Cross Device Tracking and Targeting

The cross device tracking market needs a leader. This means advertisers should use their first-party data in conjunction with third-party data sources to create a comprehensive approach for cross-device tracking and targeting. Working with ad platforms that offer DMP capabilities expedites the process. 

 

8) Mobile-Informed Predictive Decisions

The aforementioned burgeoning importance of location and movement data in “predicting the next best offer” means brands will likely leverage their mobile signals to  “sharpen targeting and create look-alike models to reach similar consumers in other digital channels with hyper-relevant offers.” Machine learning allows for further optimization of big data over time.

 

9) Less Ad Blocking Concern

Advertisers won’t be as intimidated by ad blocking as they used to be. Why? The mobile web doesn’t affect in-app campaigns. 

 

10) Transparency in Programmatic Advertising

Advertisers and publishers alike are calling for greater programmatic advertising transparency. Publishers require improved access to data to determine what ads and companies are the most successful, while advertisers want to know what they’re paying for and obtain that coveted return on investment.