The Mobile Marketing Blog - TellMyCell

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. 

 

​Why Are Some iPhone SMS Messages Blue and Some Green?

 

Own an iPhone and always wondered why some messages in the message app are blue and others green? You’re one of (most likely) many.  

The short answer? Blue messages are those sent or received using Apple’s iMessage technology, while green ones are “traditional” text messages exchanged through Short Messaging Service, or SMS. 

If you’re pondering why you should care about this at all, the answer is yes….and no. Let’s start with SMS.

Any standard SMS text message gets delivered over the same voice networks used for phone calls. In days of yore, carriers were charged by the message, usually 10 to 25 cents per text. A fixed number of messages were bundled into a calling plan, whereas now most plans offer unlimited text messaging.  

Eventually Apple launched iMessage, which looks and performs like standard SMS but relied on cellular or WiFi data networks. This provided freedom from carrier rates for SMS if dealing with a capped plan or similar issue, and also offers a sizable set of messaging features. iMessage makes it possible to do things standard SMS simply cannot, such as send walkie-talkie-style voice messages, check message delivery, and whether someone is currently writing you back or not via three dots appearing below the last sent message.  

However, iMessage only works with other iDevice owners. Using the Messages app to contact Android, Windows Phone, and Blackberry users means an automatic switch to SMS mode, or green instead of blue word bubbles.  

Surprisingly, it’s also possible to “see green” even when communicating with a fellow iPhone user. This occurs when iMessage isn’t activated on your or your recipient’s device, or there’s no data network available. If your phone can still connect to a voice tower, it will automatically return to SMS. 

So what does this all mean? Are there times when it makes sense to opt for one messaging method over the other? Text messages may be small, but picture messages often eat a large chunk of data, so if your service plan features unlimited texting but limited data, you may want to switch off iMessage for SMS. The flip side of this is when communicating with other iPhone users and still only seeing green messages. Request that the other person enable their iMessage service so you may enjoy the numerous benefits of said service.  

Many users don’t even know iMessage is “a thing,” and therefore do not realize it’s not enabled. 

 

How to Text Audio Clips on Android

 

If you’ve ever wanted to say more than a text but less than a call, you’re hardly alone. Luckily it’s now possible to send audio clips through Android phones, allowing you to say what you need to say without typing it out or ending up on the phone for hours.  

Android has made the process quite straightforward, as you either install a third-party app or perform the needed steps through the default Messaging app, with the latter capable of sending and receiving audio clips. 

Let’s take a look at how to text audio clips on Android.

 

Reset

Should Google Hangouts function as your SMS client, you’ll need to reset your Android device to default. Simply open Google Hangouts on your device, swipe right from the left edge on the main window to open the sidebar, and tap Settings. Next tap SMS, then SMS enabled, and finally the Default SMS app. Select Messaging from the clips, and voila! You’re now ready to send audio clips. 

Attach

Attaching audio clips varies a wee bit depending on your device, the Android version you’re using, and which third-party audio recording apps you’ve installed. However, the process is essentially the same. First you’ll open Messaging, then create a new message to a contact. Tap the Paperclip icon, then Record audio (which may say ‘Record voice’ depending on your device), and tap the Record button to record your message. Hit the Stop button when you’ve finished recording your message. 

What happens next, again, depends on your device. For example, the Moto X requires tapping ‘Done’ so the voice message is automatically attached to the SMS message. If using another device, such as the LG G3, you’ll see a list of all the messages you’ve recorded. Select the recording you want to add to your message, then tap the Paperclip button, found to the right of the Play button. This attaches your message. Tap the Send button to send your message on its merry way. 

Wrap-Up

Audio clips are ideal for whenever you want to send a little more than a standard text message but don’t have time for an actual phone call. Simply attach an audio clip to an SMS message, but remember how draining recordings are on your data. If you find your audio clip is really long, do the old-fashioned phone call thing.

The 3 Best Smartwatch Apps of 2014

 

Awear smartwatches are helping people achieve more with less effort. And that, after all, is what everyone wants out of a new gadget. Even if you’ve not jumped on the smartwatch bandwagon yourself, you’re probably aware of the main functions like delivering alerts straight to the wearers wrist. 

What you might not have heard about is the proliferation of smartwatch-specific apps that are being developed at a rate of knots by the global tech community. You can order food, call a cab and keep an eye on your fitness levels, all straight from your watch. If that feels pretty futuristic, consider this: we’re only at the beginning. The wearable tech boom is in its infancy. Think about that as you check out some of these pioneering apps and you can only wonder at what we might achieve in a decade or two.  

Lyft

The rain is bucketing down and you’re stuck outside a restaurant that’s closed for the evening. All your friends have gone home and you don’t even want to get your phone wet to call a car. Simply tap your watch face, swipe up and hit ‘Start’; next, hit the Lyft app and wait for that familiar fuzzy pink mustache to pick you up. All updates on your driver’s progress are delivered directly to the smartwatch. It hasn’t been quite the runaway success of Uber, but Lyft is available in 64 U.S. cities and isn’t going anywhere. If you own a smartwatch, this app comes highly recommended.

Duolingo

Taking much of the stress out of learning a new language, Duolingo uses flashcards to keep you constantly supplied with unfamiliar words whilst balancing that against positive reinforcement for the words you do know. Images and audio work together to help people learn (to date) one of the following languages: Italian, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch. Ideal for honing your skills on the move or in a crowded public place where holding a phone isn’t always practical, this is one of our very favorite smartwatch apps.

The Coffee App

A simple title for a simple messaging app, it orders your contacts according to who you communicate with most frequently. When you want to send a message, tap on a picture of that person and the app will list some of the most common messages you send to that individual. If you’ve had a history of showing up late for meetings, it may say ‘I’m running late’ (or else it’ll list whatever excuses you’ve concocted in the past for said lateness - also very useful!). You can resend or adjust one of those messages, and it’ll even prompt you to choose how late you will be. 

Best of all, the app works on a wide variety of devices, including smartwatches by Samsung, Asus and Motorola. With a few swipes, you can quickly send generic messages that won’t keep you tied up, hunched over a phone for minutes at a time. Simply glance at your wrist and swipe a few times until you’ve got what you need; by using intelligent message hierarchy technology, the app predicts what kinds of message you want to send with an accuracy that can be alarming.

Majority of Cellphones Will Cost Less than $100 by 2020

 

Experts predict the majority of smartphones purchased in 2020 will cost less than $100. Analyst firm Gartner says about 78 percent of global smartphone sales will come from developing countries in 2018, therefore aiding the possibility of smartphones costing less than “one bill” in the next few years.

Vendors have starting latching on to this trend via initiatives such as Google’s Android One. The company has also formed a partnership with Indian handset brands, like Karbonn, in order to create sub-$100 devices using Android reference designs.

Microsoft is trying to get Windows Phone 8 devices closer to the $100 price, and is also offering free versions of Windows to device manufacturers in emerging markets. Mozilla is working on their “ultra-budget” Firefox OS smartphones, while Samsung is tinkering with the launch of Tizen, a line of low-cost smartphones. Cyanogen Inc. has jumped on the bandwagon as well, having distributed its Android ROM on Micromax's new Yu line of smartphones for Indian consumers. India has become the third-largest smartphone market behind China and the United States as of this year’s third quarter, and Strategy Analytics predicts the country’s economic growth will be due to lower-priced smartphones.

China has emerged as the leading LTE handset market in the world, eclipsing the U.S. for the first time in regards to “long-term evolution.”

Network equipment vendor Ericsson foresees considerable smartphone growth by 2020, predicting smartphone subscriptions will reach the 6.1 billion mark—this is compared to today’s 2.7 billion. Smartphone subscriptions are also expected to surpass basic phone subscriptions as of 2016.

As user base in developing markets that want a smartphone and data package continues to grow, Gartner believes high-end shipments to these markets will slow down, since users are likely seeing little value in features offered. 

Increases in subsidies and sponsorships are also predicted, including programs similar to those offered by Opera, a company that provides carriers the opportunity to sell targeted advertising to end-users in exchange for mobile data.

The combination of smartphone growth in developing countries and saturation in developed countries has Gartner estimating that the tablet or smartphone will be the go-to device for all online activities by 2018. 

"The use pattern that has emerged for nearly all consumers, based on device accessibility, is the smartphone first as a device that is carried when mobile, followed by the tablet that is used for longer sessions, with the PC increasingly reserved for more-complex tasks," Van Baker, Gartner research vice president, said in a statement. 

“This behavior will adapt to incorporate wearables as they become widely available for users,” he added. “As voice, gesture and other modalities grow in popularity with consumers, and as content consumption tasks outweigh content creation tasks, this will further move users away from the PC.”

Versatility, easy-of-use, and cost will all factor into the growing mobile market in the next 5 years.

 

SMS Marketing Gives the Underdog a Leg Up During the Holiday Season

 

SMS marketing is an easy, cost-effective method of driving business to your online or brick-and-mortar store, no matter how “small” the store is. While smaller, independent businesses are often eclipsed by major retailers, especially during the holiday season, SMS marketing makes it simple to send exclusive deals, sales alerts, promotions and coupons directly to all customers, all at once. Group SMS gives smaller retailers a leg up on their competition, as one of the reasons to patronize small businesses is the personal service that comes with it. So don’t be deterred or feel overshadowed by larger retail chains, and remember that your business also has something to offer.

 

Direct Communication

While retail giants might use television and newspaper advertisements to announce big sales, a group SMS campaign allows small businesses to send store information and special deals directly to customers. Send alerts about extended store hours, new holiday products, exclusive deals and coupons, and promo codes. Reach targeted demographics by segmenting your text lists, rather than advertising to consumers who aren’t even local.

 

Getting Personal

Creating more personalized SMS campaigns is arguably one of the best marketing strategies for small enterprises to implement. Anticipate and address customer needs, and remember to “keep it exclusive.” Create a VIP feel in your text campaigns in order to remind customers why it’s so important to be a part of your communication lists. In addition to keeping your campaign exclusive and highly useful, remember to “get festive” as well. Thanksgiving and Black Friday mark the beginning of the holiday season, a time of peace and goodwill. So again, ensure your message is on the personal side, and reads as part of a conversation—this is what attracted many customers to your business initially. So keep it up!

 

The Time is Right

Now is the time to execute a mobile marketing strategy if you haven’t already. The holiday shopping season may be a seemingly unending shower of advertisements, but don’t be intimidated. An affordable option beneficial to practically every business in existence, the power of SMS enhances the holiday season and extends well into the new year. You’ll likely have a whole new list of consumers added to your database, and may alert them to sales, promotions, contests, special coupons and more throughout the year. With a little creativity and the power of SMS, you might be amazed at how many more satisfied customers you have when Black Friday rolls around next season.

 

 

5 Elementary Mistakes Made by Mobile Marketers

 

Not every mobile marketing campaign will be the success you’d hoped for. In business, as in life, you win some and lose the rest. Pay close attention to each loss, however, and you’ll start to learn where you went wrong. The more you learn about past mistakes, the fewer you’ll make next time.

If you’re devising your first mobile marketing strategy, you can get a head start on that learning curve by avoiding a few basic but common errors. Be as creative as you like, but avoid the following fundamental faux pas.

 

1) Fail to Optimize Content for Mobile

A mobile marketing campaign should provide quality content. It implies that your brand offers good value to its customers. But there’s little point having compelling content if people can’t easily view it from a mobile device. More than 50% of consumers only read emails on a mobile device, and for many people their smartphone is their primary point of access to the web. That’s why your website must be mobile-optimized.

Some of the culprits of this most basic of mistakes are major brands who really should know better. As recently as last year, Amazon sent a mass email that was not mobile friendly.

 

2) Use MMS Over SMS

Commensurate with mobile optimization, it needs saying all on its own: SMS messaging is the only text message protocol you should be using in a mobile marketing campaign. End of story. Many a company has tried to get clever with rich media messaging. Both Starbucks and Macy’s came unstuck after running MMS campaigns that only appeared as intended on a few devices. Resolution varies widely depending on what kind of phone the recipient has, and a significant minority of people still use older phones incapable of displaying images at all. Keep it simple. Send SMS messages containing links to all the rich content you've created and you can be certain people will see it.

 

3) Omit the Call to Action

A strong call-to-action is an essential element of any successful mobile marketing campaign. If you’re a retailer with a new in-store app you want people to know about, there’s no point waiting for them to visit your website to find out about it – foot traffic in a store won’t go home and do that unless there’s a problem with what they’ve bought. Clearly signpost the availability of the app around the store, and tell consumers why it’s of value to them. Equally, text message campaigns should state what customer x must to do get value y.

 

4) Fail to Tell the World

You might have the greatest special offer in your industry, but without a strong promotional campaign it’s all for nought. For maximum promo penetration, spread the word across multiple channels. Social media, website, SMS messaging, guest blogging, traditional ad buys – leveraging all available touchpoints will yield dramatic results in terms of traffic and, ultimately, sales.

 

5) Make Opting In & Out a Headache

There are two actions you should make as simple as possible for customers: opting in to receive notifications and opting out of them. If there’s a disparity between the two you’ll irritate people and even make them suspicious of your brand. QR codes are a good example of how to waste people’s time – and your budget. Can you be sure everyone in your target market has a QR scanner? Is it convenient for those that do to use it when they see your code? 

Instead of using gimmicks, offer something of real value to consumers who sign up to your contact list. Equally, include a clear link in every communication that allows people to opt out in a single step. People are fickle, chopping and changing brand allegiances as it suits them, so the more user friendly your experience is the likelier they are to return later - even if they’ve opted out. Make them jump through hoops and your brand will be mentally blacklisted.

Six of the Worst Group Text Messages

“Techiquette” is a continual struggle when it comes to email and social media, but what about text messaging? There’s no hitting ‘unsubscribe’ or ‘hide’ when a group chain message is coming through, no matter how annoying it is. Check out six of the most inconsiderate types of group text messages to avoid sending.

 

1. Late-Night Text Chains

It’s not exactly polite to send text chains after 10pm, is it? This particularly applies to weeknights. Trying to go to bed and repeatedly dealing with a buzzy phone is never fun, especially when the subject is hardly life-altering. There’s also time zones to consider—for example, a midnight text in California is a 3am text in New York. Unless it’s a dire emergency, skip the late-night texts. 

2. Big Announcements

Announcing a wedding? A baby? Something else of significance? That’s great—just save it for a phone call, email or individual text message, rather than giving people the “reply all” option. Some may know to change their settings to ‘reply,’ but others blindly ‘reply all’ and send to everyone on the message chain (including people they don’t even know) message after message.

3. Mid-Day Chains

Sure, it may seem like a good idea to send a group text message during the day when you’re bored at work at school, but it’s best to save such texts for after 5pm. You don’t want to annoy friends sitting in meetings or class, or have their phones go off and irritate bosses and professors. And what if recipients are giving presentations or doing other important work-related tasks? There’s a time and place for everything, and midday is not that time for group messaging.

4. Droid-Only

iMessage is only available on--shockingly--iPhones. Droid phone users will therefore not receive group texts, which gets complicated when planning events and the like. Remember, blue text bubbles mean texts are getting sent, while green bubbles indicate at least one group text member uses Android. Also check the top of your screen for “Group MMS” instead of “Group.” Make sure you know who you’re reaching and who you’re not.

5. “Data Killers”

Not every person on your contact list has unlimited data, and videos, Emojis, photos and GIFs consume enormous amounts of data. Rather than forcing friends and family to pay higher phone bills every month, save the data-hungry stuff for social media and similar channels. Everyone can enjoy that funny dog video for free when it’s posted in an email or on Facebook. 

6. The “Cliffhanger”

Another group text message no-no? Sending a mass text about an event or other happening, then failing to respond when everyone asks where it is or what time. If sending a group text, remember to follow up. Don’t be that person who leaves everyone hanging.

 

 

Texts From Beyond the Grave

 

Texts from the dead have become the modern equivalent of phone calls from “beyond the grave. With such calls reported since the late 19th century, scientists from the Colorado Institute for Paranormal Research believe phantom texts are possible. A research team recently analyzed 132 mysterious texts received by friends and family hours, days or months after the phone’s owner passed. In 94 of the cases, the only “reasonable” explanation is that the messages came from, well, you can guess.

“The slang and abbreviations people use when texting are as individualistic as handwriting,” explains lead researcher Dr. Nick Horn. “We were able to confirm with a high degree of certainty that the messages were indeed composed by people who were no longer living.”

One case tells the story of a 19-year-old New Mexico college student who was killed in a head-on collision after an argument with her mother. The mother received a text that read, “Soree mom. 4 giv me,” however the message was sent two hours after the teen was pronounced dead at the hospital.

“There is no possibility that someone else texted the mother as a cruel prank,” Dr. Horn notes. “The phone was recovered from the wreck smashed to bits and melted.” 

 

Sexting From the Great Beyond?

Just because a person is deceased doesn’t mean sexting isn’t a possibility. Researchers tell of a Minnesota resident who received a sexually-explicit message from his departed fiancée, who died of a brain tumor six months prior. At the time of the text, the fiancée’s phone was uncharged, deactivated, and sitting in a kitchen drawer.

“The message invited him to join her in specific physical acts using coded phrases such as ‘play helicopter’ only the two of them understood,” says the expert. “Attached to the text was the blurry image of a nude figure that resembled the deceased fiancée.” Oh boy.

 

Phantom Phone Calls

While the first ghostly text messaging case was reported in 2006 and has steadily risen since then (much like the popularity of texting itself), the phantom phone call phenomenon is nothing new. It’s certainly made for some great ghost stories.

“The first phantom phone call was reported in 1886, just ten years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone,” noted Dr. Horn. Three years after the Titanic sank, an S.O.S from the vessel was received by a Norwegian freighter, the first known ghost Morse Code message. The first fax from the other side was reported in 1987, a few years after the fax machine came into popular use. And emails from the dead began to crop up in the mid-1990s.

“The departed are always trying to communicate with their loved ones and they use the means they were familiar with in life. With every technological advance, the paranormal application trails a little bit behind,” remarks Horn. “We anticipate getting reports on tweets from the dead in the next year or two.”

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, texting from beyond the grave is certainly a creep-worthy topic to stay aware of during Halloween.

And Begin Again: How One-to-One Marketing Came Full Circle Via Mobile

 

The modern face of advertising appears on small screen devices. It streams video directly to the palm of your hand. It can tell where you are and what your preferences are. With sophisticated tools like geo-targeting software and mobile apps, the barriers between consumer and business are being torn down.

This is great news for small businesses. The one man bands and mom n pop businesses of this world have been restored with the power to engage directly with consumers, just like they used to before the mass media age. One-to-one marketing is back in a big way.

This is a revolution in the truest sense. An enterprising sole trader may not literally knock on your door, but you can engage with them directly from your home. The same sense of accountability and transparency exists. You can put a face to the brand, which is something we all crave after decades of faceless corporatism.

The digital rebirth of direct consumer engagement is part of a wider trend. Entrepreneurs are catering for increasingly niche markets, not unlike the sales reps of old, who would visit a few hundred customers over the course of a year, displaying their wares and developing relationships as they went. The advent of mass broadcasting technology, and the proliferation of national print media during the 20^th Century, made an anachronism of the travelling salesman.  In his stead was a culture of grabbing huge market shares – bordering at times on monopolization – via glossy television, radio and magazine commercials. The big guys got bigger, the little guys littler.

As consumers grew more alienated from the people behind their brands, the first cracks in this monolithic corporate culture began to show. Cable television dealt a blow by targeting specialized audiences. Instead of appealing to the broadest market possible, advertisers were reaching fewer people, but with a higher percentage of conversions. Narrowcasting was gradually superseding broadcasting. 

What began with cable television was taken to new heights with the arrival of the internet. On a modest budget, businesses could establish an online presence that allowed them to disseminate different messages to different demographics, ensuring only the most relevant content was seen.

Just when you thought direct marketing couldn’t be refined any further, SMS messaging improved on the web model by only communicating with consumers who had expressed an interest in a company. This development eliminated the millstone around the neck of email marketers: spam. 

Because of the opt-in approach taken by SMS marketers, the text message remains the most trusted form of communication. More than 90% of text messages are opened and read within minutes.

This new, consent-focused iteration of 1:1 marketing is allowing businesses to talk to customers on their own terms. Personalized marketing is back, and it can only be a good thing.