How to start up with text message marketing

It is predicted that within a couple of years, mobile marketing would take the place of social media.

Though mobile marketing exists in different forms like mobile gaming, mobile apps, mobile web

marketing and Bluetooth options, mobile marketing via SMS always has a special recognition, since it is

the only means of marketing that is user friendly. SMS is everywhere and people who do not know to

send a text message are rarely found. SMS is the standard feature available on all mobile devices and it

is highly capable of getting people addicted to it. This supremacy of SMS has made several agencies to

use SMS technology for their marketing purposes.

Business marketers use SMS in two chief ways. The primary approach is sending messages in bulk to a

large set of mobile subscribers about your services and products. This is the typical means of mobile

marketing, whereas the other way of sending SMS is via short codes. With the short code method, an

end-user is able to "opt-in" to a campaign that the business has set up. So, the end-user texts a word

into the short code and will receive a message from the business owner. On using these two ways in

different combinations, you could promote your business by earning more number of customers.

One could easily incorporate the benefits of SMS into your marketing efforts. You can achieve this by

following certain key factors. Text for info is a service that lets people to interact with you by means of a

mobile phone. For this, your part is to send a message including a common info about your service with

your contact number. If people are interested in your service, they might contact you on that number.

Next method can be customer follow-up, by which you can thank the customers who have made a

purchase. You can also message them saying the extra features and add-on offers for the product they

have purchased. Coupons are also an equally important marketing strategy that grabs the immediate

attention of your customers. An easiest way to circulate the news about your offers and coupons is via

SMS. Short code messages like “grab a coupon” are generally preferred for this purpose.

Another important means to enhance your marketing business via mobile is by using the members-only

concept. In this way, only the subscribers are able to interact with you. ‘Limited time specials’ is yet

another method followed up to keep the mobile subscribers by responding to your message. Since you

provide special offers within a limited time, most of the people react to those messages which thereby

boost up your services. Event Buzz and contests are few other best ideas for marketing via SMS. Hence

this is the apt time for marketing through text messages.

Blunders made in a mobile marketing campaign

Mobile marketing also called as cell phone marketing, has become a marketing trend in recent days. In

less than 20 years, mobile phones have gone from being a dream luxury item to a very familiar

appliance. Being aware of the importance of mobiles in today’s world, several companies are using

mobile phones for marketing their products and services. Both large scale and small scale companies

throughout the world are getting benefitted with these mobile marketing techniques. However, most of

the business owners get trapped in the midst of a mobile marketing campaign, due to some blunders

they commit on it. Below described are a few mistakes made in a mobile marketing campaign.

The major mistake committed by most of the business owners, when using mobile marketing methods

is, failing to target their customers. While sending a message to a huge number of people, make sure

that, you are sending that message to the right set of people. Text marketing campaigns let you to use

specific demographic and behavioral information in your database to target messages to a specific group

of consumers at specific times. Targeting helps in making your message highly relevant to consumers

and thereby making your business likely successful. Hence, ensure that you use the power of mobile

marketing to its full potential by creating highly targeted and relevant content for your consumers.

Another important blunder made while using a mobile marketing technique is, failing to comply with

legal acts both nationally and internationally. In the US the CAN-SPAM Act 2003 and the Telephone

Consumer Protection Act of 1991 regulates the sending of commercial text messages. Failing to comply

with these acts result in severe financial penalties and offenders. Therefore, compliance is one of the

major business issues that need to be measured when running a mobile marketing campaign. By

complying with the legislation, one can avoid heavy fines, public opposition and a damaged brand.

Ensure that your text marketing provider is aware of the legislation and compliance issues.

Many companies make a mistake by marketing messages that add no value to the consumer’s life. These

constant messages about unrelated new products or the very old same services might irritate your

customers which eventually grind down your long term relationship with them. In case, if you prefer to

send such irrelevant messages, make sure your customer is benefited to it at least to some extent. This

can be achieved by offering some free services. And finally, the major mistake lies in considering mobile

marketing as a single way communication. Most of the business owners do not recognize that it is a two-

way communication. Until and unless you use mobile marketing campaigns to bring alive your

interaction with customers, it is hard to succeed your business with this technique.

Promoting Business via Mobile Marketing – The Actual Process

Mobile marketing as the name tells is a way of marketing using mobile phones. It makes use of the text

messaging technology that is SMS (Short Messaging Service) also called as wireless messaging, mobile

messaging or alphanumeric paging. Nowadays not only the big ones, even 90% of the small companies

have become aware of it and have started using mobile marketing techniques to promote their

business. As the mobile marketing service is affordable to both small and large scale companies, the

impact it has created among the people is very huge. So, why don’t you try promoting your business via

mobile marketing techniques? Here are a few tips for any individual who wishes to flourish in this field.

Do not add your customers’ cell phone numbers directly to your mobile marketing database. First of all,

you need to get permission for doing so. You can do this by letting your customers to text your keyword

to your short code. The customers need to confirm their subscription by responding to your request, say

yes or no. Once they give a response, you can add their mobile phone numbers to your mobile

marketing database. It is important to cover yourself legally while getting into this mobile marketing

process. If you attempt to use any illegal techniques, then you would have to face severe consequences,

since this is a matter of dealing huge number of customers. Make your customers to know that they do

not want to pay the possible message charges. Also, say them that at some instant they might have to

pay some standard rates.

While including short codes into the message composition, keep in mind that you can comprise only 160

characters. Therefore, it is better to use short cuts that are applicable for text messaging. For example,

use number “4” instead of “for” and “2” for “to”. With this, you can save characters. On using a

dedicated short code, you can make people to recognize it and respond to your messages. This can be a

bit pricey, since you are buying it legally in particular for your company, and in case if some other

company shares the same code, then you can file illegal offense on them. It is a wise option to capture

only the first name of your subscriber and make sure that the mobile marketing platform you use, allows

you to personalize your messages. It is hard to save your character count in most cases if you include

your subscriber’s full name. Every now and then, ask your audience to invite their friends if they like

your service and also include opt-in instructions.

Small Business and SMS marketing

SMS marketing is a very successful means of communication as a wide range of customers can be

reached anywhere through their mobile phones. A current analysis regarding SMS marketing shows that

95% of the marketing messages are read which proves how efficient they are compared to the

conventional marketing methods. Text messaging has also become a part of fashionable television

programs such as The Apprentice and The American Idol. SMS marketing also plays a vital role in

creating publicity for various game shows and award functions. With this rapid increase in demand for

mobile marketing methods, many small business owners throughout the world have started using SMS

marketing techniques to enhance their business. They feel SMS marketing as a direct, personal and

reliable means of producing incomparable exposure to their products. Nowadays we also see SMS

marketing being used in the major sporting events in the name of trivia contests, puzzle and interactive

voting games.

You might now ask yourself, what a small business would do with mobile marketing. For this, the small

business owner needs to build a permission-based marketing campaign to reach their customers directly

on their cell phones. If you run a small business say a healthcare operation, services business,

restaurant, cafe, retail store, or anything similar to that, then developing your own application might

seem to be much hard. In such a case, you can try to work out a deal with companies that already have

experienced a considerable growth with mobile marketing techniques. Most of the popular mobile

phone applications allow ad placements, by which your business can get some exposure. Listing your

local business on Google Maps and Yelp can get your business viewed by significant number of users via

mobile phones.

Just like email marketing, SMS marketing also involves lead generation, relationship building, value

adding and of course, selling. With SMS marketing, you certainly don’t want to try sending dozens of

customer texts from your phone directly. The technique works out by sending text messages to as many

cell phone numbers as you want directly from the web. It truly takes less than five minutes to set up and

send promotional messages to a few customers. Social media platforms like Face book and Twitter have

their mobile version of their sites as well as mobile applications that have direct or indirect relationships

with them. Hence it is very much important to make sure that your business or company website is

mobile-friendly.

Mobile Marketing Software – Why is it used?

Mobile phones have now reached the place that consumers can never even survive without. With the

considerable growth of SMS text messaging and mobile devices, mobile marketing techniques have

gained immense popularity among both large and small scale businesses. Most of the companies and

organizations have started taking advantage of this exciting new medium in several ways. There are a

number of ways to promote a business via mobile marketing. Among them, the well renowned

technique is the SMS marketing. SMS marketing is the rapidly growing marketing technique that is

widely available to a broad range of customers. However, sending SMS to a bulk number of customers is

hard when it comes to usual mobile messaging methods. It is not simply possible to send messages to

each customer every now and then. Mobile marketing software is used particularly for this purpose of

sending bulk messages to bulk customers.

SMS marketing is a direct, personal and effective marketing medium that produces unparalleled

exposure to your products and services. With a mobile marketing software tool, you can send bulk SMS

text messages from your mobile device to other mobile devices in a single click. Mobile marketing

software usually comes in several types and prices. The text messaging software are helpful in sending

personalized SMS, event alert and notifications, season greetings, invitation, promotional campaigns,

contacting employees, job alerts and more. Mobile marketing software has shown great effectiveness in

delivering messages to consumers. You can forward SMS messages to business partners and customers,

with the help of this software and can also use the service for international business marketing.

Several mobile marketing software tools have been developed to provide marketers the ability to switch

a smooth and efficient marketing technique. They also handle the routing, management and delivery of

SMS messages and offer an easy way to create mobile marketing campaigns through a specially

designed web application. There are also few mobile marketing software that provide access via

internet. With this, you can send thousands of SMS easily from computer and receive incoming SMS into

the computer. Such software does not rely on Internet SMS gateway and requires no registration. You

can manage your contact list for different marketing campaigns into project files with grouping support.

By this, you can send personalized SMS content to each recipient by inserting data from the phonebook

automatically. The software also supports the feature of composing the SMS in many different

languages. There is also SMS message broadcasting software for e-marketing. This allows you to send

marketing and advertising SMS and receive response SMS from the computer.

Who are all involved in a Mobile Marketing campaign?

Sending targeted and opt-in text messages is the hot new way followed by most of the companies to

engage with their prospects and customers. Any business can execute SMS campaigns, with complete

SMS tracking and SMS reporting to reach their subscribers whenever they’re available no matter where

they are. However, many marketers are overwhelmed by the technologies and terminology that fall

under mobile. The reason behind this is, most of the marketers are not fully familiar with the mobile

marketing techniques. Mobile marketing is now-a-days going up in popularity than ever before. Here

mobiles play the entire role in advertising a company’s product or service. You need to initially develop a

way that is going to attract the attention of individuals, no matter where they are.

If you are planning to use mobile devices for advertising, then it would be the best decision you make.

You can easily send over an SMS to every client you have in your database. By this, you can alert

everyone about your new service and product at the very same time. Mobile marketing is considered to

be a great way to keep your employees up to date with the latest developments that are going on in

your company. Instead of wasting time by sending direct mails and letters, it is a wise choice to send

instant messages to customers via mobiles and thereby improve the product awareness and

productivity.

A successful mobile marketing campaign involves three individuals playing the major mobile operator

roles. Among them, the most important one is the enabler. Any advertiser interested in media would

require reach. If and only if a number of people understand the media and how to use it, the reach is

achieved. For making this happen, it is much important that the operators strive hard to set common

commercial and technical standards. Setting understandable data traffic business models and format

standards is equally important for the continued development of the industry. The next much significant

role goes to advertisers. They play their part as early adopter, showing what is possible in mobile

marketing and allocating budgets for it. Media owners take the final role. The contribution of media

owners is necessary to drive mobile marketing and advertising forward. However, all these three

individuals need to work together towards a common goal in order to make the mobile marketing

technique a successful one.

Text Message Marketing Things you got to know

Text message marketing is considered to be the most effective, direct and personal marketing tool in

today’s business. On comparing to direct mail and traditional advertising, text message marketing is

much cheaper and memorable too. Text message marketing involves sending bulk SMS, promotional

and marketing text messages to customers and is incredibly simple to use. Many companies consider

text message marketing as a perfect replacement for both online and offline marketing. Text message

marketing is a permission based type of marketing, which means that before sending a marketing

message to a customer, the company must have initiated the relationship with that person to receive

messages. Customers can stop receiving messages with words like STOP or END, so that the company

can take out the person’s phone number from their text message list.

Text message marketing technique is incredibly simple to use and no additional software is required.

With this technique, you would have to pay only for the messages you need and there are no additional

charges. Text message marketing campaigns can be done via either a short code or long code depending

upon the volume of messages and types of advertising the company would use. It has been estimated

that 97% of all text messages are opened. The major benefit of using text message marketing technique

is it is easy to use. Since the system is fully automated, only a very less time is consumed. Text message

marketing is entirely web based and is non-spam. Another advantage of using this technique is it is

personalized and addressed to receiver by name. The information that is requested on message is

relevant to the receiver and hence the system is individualized. It allows a two way dialogue from

business to consumer with customer reply capability making it possible for companies to gather

important demographic and psychographic information from willing consumers.

A business or organization can use text message marketing for any number of reasons. You can send

messages to your customers about offers and promotions you provide. You can also provide

product/services updates to your customers. Businesses also use customer’s phone numbers to increase

repeat business and drive traffic to business during slow periods. You can also use this text message

marketing technique to attract new customers. Text message marketing is usually send for promoting

SMS coupons, reminders, product specials, new product announcements and store events. The

messages would be reached only to customers who are open to text marketing.

Mobile Marketing Info that Business Owners need to know

We are now in a world where internet revolution is slowly getting replaced by mobiles. Mobile

marketing techniques really emerged when mobile telecommunication and internet started to converge.

Mobile phones, being considered as 7th mass media have opened a wider horizon to the internet more

due to its natural and social aspects. There are several benefits that come with mobile phones, which

cannot be replicated by the other six mass media. The major reason for using mobile phones as a

marketing source is the one and only personal mass media that is permanently carried. Individuals

constantly have their mobile phones operational and hence any message would be delivered at the very

instant it has been sent. Another best feature with mobiles is they have a built-in payment mechanism

and is available at the point of creative inspiration. Mobiles have the most accurate audience

measurement. They also capture the social context of media consumption.

Mobiles have finally started to deliver their promises to the advertisers. Some of mobile sense

marketers have started taking the advantage of mobile phones to carry out their marketing mix in

mobile. Use of mobile phone as a mass media might end up only for advertising promotion. Mobile

marketing is generally biased toward advertising and promotion. Here are a few information that

business owners need to know about mobile marketing. Initially, you need to learn the basics of mobile

marketing. Jumping into the field without having any idea on it is the major blunder any business owner

commits. Having a good knowledge about mobile marketing is extremely important requirement and

regulation. You also need to read case studies and examples of mobile marketing. This helps to see what

other businesses are doing in the mobile space. This also gets your ideas flowing on what to do with

your business. Another way is that you can subscribe to as many text messages campaigns as you can

find.

Make a clear cut decision on what you want to offer to your customers. It can be text messaging, mobile

website development, mobile coupons on demand, mobile advertising, mobile marketing strategy or a

combination of all these. Ensure that the type you choose is apt for your business. Evolve consumer

relationships through text marketing mobile loyalty programs that are used to stay connected to

consumers. Filling last minute open appointments and promoting special event sales is a wise decision.

With this, you manage all campaign components through a user friendly web based content

management system.

What actually is Mobile Marketing?

“Mobile Marketing” is nothing but using mobile as the medium for marketing communication purposes.

It can also be described as the distribution of messages through wireless networks. The Mobile

Marketing Association (MMA) defines Mobile Marketing as, “the use of wireless media in a cross-media

marketing communications program as an integrated content delivery and direct responsive vehicle.”

This implies that, mobile marketing includes channels with more number of media outlets and not a

single marketing channel.

With a mobile marketing practice, an organization could communicate and get hold of their clients in a

relevant manner by means of a mobile device or network. An interactive wireless media provides

customers with time and location sensitive, which thereby generates value for all its stakeholders. The

most significant and primary factor for the success of mobile marketing, lies in the proper integration of

mobile portion with digital media elements and other traditional elements.

Mobile Marketing is achieved by anyone of the following five means: Mobile marketing via SMS, mobile

marketing via MMS, mobile marketing through infrared, mobile marketing via Bluetooth, in-game

mobile marketing and mobile web marketing. With a Short Message Service (SMS), an organization

could get connected to its audience. Here they promote their business through SMS, on enabling the

user to send short codes, thereby giving a response. MMS mobile marketing practice includes image

slideshows, text, audio and video options. Color screened model mobiles, which are commonly available

now-a-days has this feature of sending and receiving MMS messages.

With a mobile web marketing practice, a brand can advertise its web pages, which could also be used as

the means for customer engagement. The mobile marketing association has put forward certain

guidelines and standards, which brings out the format for presentations and ads that a brand uses for

promoting their web pages. As per those guidelines mobile content providers are supposed to sell their

advertising placements via web pages.

Next is in-game mobile marketing, where mobile games are used for engaging customers. This can also

be referred as “adver gaming”. In addition to casual games, it also includes richer games like interactive

real-time 3D games, massive multi-player games and social networking games.

Mobile Marketing via Bluetooth offers a content management system with Bluetooth distribution

function. Though Bluetooth technology enables wireless transmission for a specific distance, it has

higher transfer speeds and radio-based technology which is free of cost. Another special advantage of

using this Bluetooth facility is that it offers a permission based system. The last type of mobile marketing

is via infrared, which is the oldest form of mobile marketing. It includes the transfer of only a limited

form of data by means of infrared.

Mobile Marketing in Canada

Is there an exact term to describe a marketing strategy in a portable approach? If yes, then the name

would be obviously “Mobile Marketing”. It is nothing but the distribution of promotional and advertising

messages to customers by means of wireless networks. As per the current custom, there would merely

be a single person in North America, who doesn’t own a mobile device. Having a mobile these days has

become a habit in our daily living. Knowing the need for mobiles in our day-to-day life, several

organizations and agencies started to use it for marketing purposes. This is how mobile marketing

technique got its existence.

Though North America holds top ranking in mobile marketing, Canada doesn’t have a full-fledged

involvement in this field. Canada being the world’s second largest country spends almost more than $19

billion per year for marketing purposes. But among this $19 billion, only $5 million is spent each year on

mobile marketing and advertising. The very same $5 million is spent by a single marketing company in

the US. This doesn’t mean that, there are a few numbers of mobile users in Canada. Comparing to US,

Canada also has equal number of mobile users, texting more than 20 billion times per year. It is also

estimated that about four million Canadians use mobile web more than once in a week. You may now

raise the question, “then what would not have let mobile marketing techniques to flourish in Canada?”

The reason for this holdup is recession. Due to this, the economic conditions prevailed in Canada two

years back, affected the marketing industry to its extreme.

As a consequence of this recession, no funding was provided for new ventures. Also, several marketing

jobs were disconnected, which thereby forced agencies to deal with an extensive cut. Though the

conditions are economically getting better in Canada at present, initiatives to promote mobile marketing

approaches are rarely found. There is no agency or brand to take initiative steps in marketing and

advertising via mobile devices. Recession cannot be said as the only reason for this. It is also quite

factual that, the significant scheme of mobile marketing has not been truly accepted in Canada yet. The

agencies and brand managers in Canada usually hesitate to begin with a new concept and this is the

reason why most of the Canadians are not aware of the mobile marketing techniques.

Once you face success in this mobile marketing field, then you would certainly recognize it as the best

way for marketing your products and services. But until and unless you take the risk of launching this

technique, it is tough for anyone to attain success in mobile marketing field, particularly in a country like

Canada.

Boost your small business with Mobile Marketing techniques

Over the past few years, mobile has taken its role as the massive device taking the entire world into its

control. It is considered as the preeminent medium to advertise and promote any kind of business.

Mobile marketing enables organizations to interact and communicate with their customers by means of

a mobile device or network. Mobile marketing technique is expected to reach dominant levels faster

than any other medium. Now-a-days the most preferred way of communication is mobile

communication. It is estimated averagely that around 4 billion text messages are send and received

daily. Mobile marketing via text messaging generally includes permission based or opt-in approaches.

You may now think, whether this mobile marketing approach could workout for a small business. A

small business is a privately owned business with less number of employees, which thereby serves you

with a relatively low income. It might be a bakery, hairdresser, beauty parlor, restaurant or anything

similar to these. If you own a small business, then there is nothing for you to concern about bringing

mobile marketing medium to your business. Now-a-days even a common man owns a mobile and by

means of mobile marketing you can enhance any kind of business. To begin with, make a deal with

companies or organizations that have experience and powers in mobile world. Get hold of persons who

have influence with mobile companies. You can also go through several online sites that give a vast idea

on the different mobile agencies and the rates they fix for each means of marketing. The rates may

depend on whether the mobile marketing is via SMS, MMS, Bluetooth, infrared or any other approach.

You could select the one that suits your business.

In case if you own a small business say a restaurant, then initially create a website for your business,

saying the features and services that your restaurant provides. For creating a website you no need to

afford a single buck, since there several softwares are available for this purpose. With this, search

engines like Google would take care of the job. They enhance your business by displaying your site at

their result pages and thereby serve you with significant number of users. Since most of the people use

mobile internet, it is easy for them to gain knowledge about your small business. Google Maps is

typically meant to provide info about the business in a particular area. It is preferable to create a mobile

friendly site.

The next way to promote your small business is by means of mobile advertising networks. By allowing ad

placements, your small business could get a wide exposure. Several social media platforms like twitter

and Facebook are allowed free access via mobiles. There are a lot of people accessing these pages

through mobile. Hence on creating your own accounts in these social media sites, people in your area

would get to know about your services and products.

How to enhance mobile marketing techniques in Canada?

A mobile device has always been a personal thing close to our heart rather than PCs. The way of

messaging and downloading applications are easy on a mobile. All these features have paid a way for

mobiles to reach the peaks of existing media. Almost all the developed and developing nations are on

track with these mobile marketing techniques. But as far as Canada is concerned, the case is entirely

different. Though the country spends $19 billion for marketing purposes, among them only $5 million is

spent for mobile marketing per year. There are several factors that make us to conclude that, “Canada is

inactive in mobile marketing”. Instead of searching for those reasons, let us find the ways to promote

mobile marketing techniques in Canada.

If you wish to promote your business via mobile marketing, then the primary thing you need to

accomplish is, bringing awareness among the people, about the merits of mobile. Generally Canadian

technologists and mobile providers do not evangelize the merits of mobile, when a person purchases

one. In order to carry out any media initiative, the foremost thing you require is a mobile. Canadians are

very much confused about the role of mobile in marketing field, and they still have belief, only in other

marketing technologies like email and social media. Hence a proper campaign describing the merits of

mobile marketing technique must be organized throughout the country. Ensure that people come to

know about the benefits of mobile marketing, on comparing with email and other marketing means.

It is also true that, the conversation is clear and secure on a mobile when compared to other sources.

Nothing else other than a mobile could reach the media at the earliest. There are a huge number of

mobile phone subscribers existing currently and each one could simply deliver millions of messages

within a single moment. This means that, on marketing via mobiles, your business could reach millions

of customers within seconds. But most of the Canadian agencies are highly concerned about the cost

they need to afford for this process, rather than understanding the significance of each interaction.

Spending a considerable amount on mobile marketing techniques is far better than spending small

amount on hopeless marketing technologies.

The next vital thing you need to accomplish is broadcasting the message about mobile services, and how

marketing agencies use it. Canadian marketers must realize the benefits of using mobile for marketing

activities. Each marketer should come forward in taking a risk on launching the mobile marketing

technique, at least within a small area. To begin with, hire a mobile agency and market your products

and services to a minor set of consumers. Once you attain a success with it, you can enhance your

business by increasing the number of consumers shortly. You must also be conscious of the budget you

allocate in mobile marketing techniques. Ensure that you deliver messages to the right customers who

give you hope.