What Is Mobile Marketing & Why Is It Different?

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Mobile Marketing is, simply put, the practice of extending your marketing efforts to mobile devices.
Today ‘mobile devices’ primarily means mobile phones, including smart phones such as the Blackberry
and the Apple iPhone. In the future we will likely see full-fledged mobile computers, with
persistent connections to the Internet. Such devices will offer a rich media marketing platform.

However, those services are not yet here on a meaningful scale. For example, less than a quarter of
Americans have ever browsed the mobile web And this represents the fundamental conundrum facing your
firm when you consider whether to launch your first mobile marketing campaign. You’ve heard that
mobile marketing is the future of advertising, but just not yet.
Only that’s not the case.
Contrary to what you may have heard, Mobile Marketing is here, and savvy firms, from Fortune 500
companies to small businesses, are already running successful mobile campaigns. SMS Text Messaging
is the key to this puzzle.

Nearly every phone in the United States supports text messaging. Over half of all
Americans have sent or received a text message. The average mobile phone subscriber sends nearly 200
text messages every month. When you look closer, at the prized 18 – 29 demographic, the adoption
rate is even higher, edging toward saturation at 85%. Among those 30 – 49 years old , the adoption
rate is at 65% and climbing So Americans are clearly texting. But what do they think about being marketed to via text message?

In a recent Direct Marketing Association survey, 70% of the sample revealed that they had responded
to a marketing text message. To put this in perspective, the DMA adds that only 30% of those
surveyed responded to a marketing email.

Why are consumers so eager to respond to marketing text messages? The answer reveals the value text
messaging offers to both you and your customers:

It’s Interactive – 21st century marketing is about having a conversation with your customers, rather
than shouting at them. A world saturated with intrusive advertising like spam, pop-ups, and
commercials has overwhelmed consumers. Increasingly, they tune out messages broadcast to a wide
audience, whether by using digital video recorders to skip past commercials, or simply by ignoring
the banner ads on their favorite website.
It’s Personal - Your customers expect you to speak to them, and text messaging allows you to reach
them individually, whenever, wherever, in the palm of their hands. This reach is of value to you the
marketer. It also is of value to your customers. With a few taps of their thumbs they can respond to
whatever message that you have sent them. With text messaging you can build relationships with your
customers.

It’s Immediate – Text Messaging, like Twitter, and Instant Messaging, is blazingly fast. With text
messaging you can communicate with your customers as speedily as they are now accustomed to living.
You can also move quickly. Say you are a winter wear shop and you see that today a snowstorm is on
its way. In less than five minutes you can send a text message to your customers containing a
special offer on hats and gloves.

It’s Trackable – When you send out text messages to your customers you can see, in real time, who
has responded to your message.

It’s New - Although thousands of companies large and small are already marketing to their customers
via text message, the medium is still in its infancy. If you act now, you are letting your customers
know that you are a forward-thinking firm. Your marketing efforts will break through the traditional
clutter.

What Is The Value Proposition?
Mobile Marketing comes in many different flavors. For the vast majority of businesses, we think that
text messaging is the best way to reach your consumers. In order to give you a quick overview of
your options, below we walk you through the forms of mobile marketing other than text messaging that
are available, explaining their pros and cons.

Advertising on the Mobile Web – Many prominent websites now offer custom tailored sites for mobile
phones, via WAP, and specially designed iPhone or Blackberry sites. The problem is, less than a
quarter of Americans use the mobile web. This seriously restricts the reach of your mobile
advertising campaign. Furthermore, when you design a banner ad for the mobile web you need to make
sure that it will display correctly on thousands of different devices, made by over a dozen
different manufacturers.
If your firm does decide to build its own WAP site, you can easily integrate it into your text
messaging campaigns.

Bluetooth/Infrared – In recent years a number of brands have rolled out Bluetooth and infrared
marketing campaigns. In a typical scenario, a street advertisement will offer consumers the
opportunity to receive marketing content wirelessly at the ‘hotspot.’ We have seen such initiatives
from Discovery Channel and Pepsi using New York City bus stop shelters. These campaigns, while
technologically innovative, are rare.

Location Based Advertising – Many mobile phones are equipped with Global Position System receivers.
In a typical scenario, a store may send a special offer to a consumer when they are in the
neighborhood. This technology is growing in popularity overseas, but it is very much in its infancy
in the US.

Multimedia Message Service (MMS) – Most mobile phones support multimedia messages, which can contain
text, sound, images, and even video. The iPhone, notably does not support MMS. The downside to MMS
marketing is that receiving such messages can be costly to consumers. Furthermore, different
networks and different devices conform to differing standards, hindering simple, ubiquitous
campaigns. Successful MMS campaigns are typically run “on-deck,” which means that they confined to a
single carrier. Although running an “on-deck” campaign allows you to leverage the power of MMS by
conforming to a particular carrier’s technology, you are limited to that carrier’s customers

Mobile Search – Marketers familiar with Cost Per Click (CPC) search advertising programs such as
Google AdWords, may be aware that these programs are now available on the mobile web. Extending your
CPC search campaign to the mobile web presents numerous challenges. First, mobile search suffers the
same ‘reach’ drawbacks as mobile advertising. Furthermore, the major cellular carriers hope to keep
searches in house, rather than ceding their users to a mobile search engine; and when consumers
search on their mobile device their intentions are very different than when they are sitting at
their desktop.

Mobile Gaming – Consumers have begun to embrace gaming on their mobile phones. Some firms have begun
to advertise within freely available games. Mobile gaming is certainly popular, but it does not
offer scale. Furthermore, your firm may have difficulty finding suitable placements.
As you can see, all of these marketing formats have serious drawbacks. We would not be surprised to
see them become more viable in the future. For now though, none of them offer the reach, the
simplicity, and the low cost of text messaging.
Now let’s take a look at mobile marketing with text messaging:

You Can Do-It-Yourself – Small and medium businesses that do not have the inclination or the
resources to work with a marketing agency can launch a text messaging campaign in-house using a
simple web-based software/service like Ez Texting. All you need is a web browser and a credit card
to get started.

Text Messaging Is Inexpensive – The cost of text messaging is important to you and your customers
alike. Sending out a mass text messaging campaign is inexpensive (prices as low as a nickle per
message). Receiving text messages comes at a very low price as well: most mobile phone plans include
at least a few hundred messages per month, and additional messages cost only pennies to receive.
Heavy texters – most of whom are concentrated in the 18-35 age group – are likely to have unlimited
message plans.

High Penetration Rate – Half of all Americans are already texting, and even those who don’t text are
almost certain to own a phone that supports text messaging. Over 250 million Americans own a mobile
phone, and nearly all of them are ready to receive your message. No other type of mobile marketing
can match text messaging’s reach.

Begin The Conversation With Text Messaging – Other types of mobile marketing will grow in importance
in the future. If you start text messaging with your customers now, you’ll have the relationship
(and data) in place to reach them in new ways in the future.
How To Start Your Text Message Marketing Campaign In 9 Steps
As this is the Ez Guide to Mobile Marketing with Text Messaging we hate to complicate things, but we
do need to help you understand an important difference between the two common types of text message
marketing campaigns. Don’t worry – the difference is simple, but as you will see, the steps that you
will take to get started will vary based on the type of campaign that you are planning.
There are two types of text messaging campaigns: pull and push. In a push campaign, your firm starts
off with a database of opted in phone numbers. A pull campaign is designed to build a database of
phone numbers for future use.

Pick A Firm – Can they handle volume; do they support all carriers; do they offer easy-to-use
software; do they offer advanced features you may want to use down the road

Target The Customers/Members You Would Like To Reach – The power of marketing with text messages is
that it allows you to reach the customers you want to reach. Figure out who they are before you
design your campaign. (If you are conducting a push campaign, you already have these customers’
phone numbers. If you are launching a pull campaign, you will design the campaign to best reach your
target customers)

Setup A Means To Collect Numbers – There are three ways to collect phone numbers. You can direct
your customers to opt-in by sending a message with your keyword to a short code; you can collect
customer phone numbers using a web widget; or, if you are conducting a push campaign, you can easily
import previously collected phone numbers into your campaign database.

Choose A Keyword – A Keyword is a short word (which may include numbers) that customers send a text
message to, in order to join your list. An example would be: 'Text KEYWORD to SHORTCODE to join our
text messaging list.' When you select a mobile marketing firm to work with, such as Ez Texting,
they will allow you to use their shared Short Code. In Ez Texting’s case this code is 313131 Feel
free to give this a try! Text EZ to the number 313131 and see what happens.
Choose A Good Call To Action (CTA) – You want to offer your customers value in return for joining
your database. A typical CTA might go: Text KEYWORD to SHORTCODE to join our text messaging list and
receive 10 percent off your next purchase at the boutique.

Design Your Promotional Efforts – Your mobile marketing campaign can stand alone, or it can
compliment your existing marketing campaigns.

Keep It Simple! – When you send out a mass message, keep it simple. You have 160 characters. Use
them wisely. And always send a test message to yourself!
Always Allow Your Customers To Opt-Out – When you first text your customers you need to let them
know how to Opt-Out from receiving future text messages. This is usually accomplished by replying
STOP to one of your messages.

Track Your Results – When you run a campaign you are going to collect a lot of data – response
rates, time of day, and other data points. Use that data to design your next campaign and you’ll
achieve even greater ROI!
The Value Of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Mobile Marketing
As we’ve already shown you, Mobile Marketing with text messaging is easy. There are other
advantages, beyond ease of use, to DIY text messaging:

Ease Of Use – A Mobile Marketing package like Ez Texting is simple to use. It is web-based, which
means that there is no software to install. You can check on your campaigns and launch new ones from
any computer with an Internet connection or even directly from your own cell phone.


Cost Effective – Our current economic climate is extremely challenging. There is a good chance that
your customers are spending less. Meanwhile, your competitors are cutting prices, hoping to make
whatever money they can. When you start looking for places to cut corners, your marketing budget
often winds up in the crosshairs. A DIY mobile marketing campaign allows you to keep talking to your
customers without the upfront costs of traditional ad buys. You can’t afford to stop advertising,
and text messaging allows you to eschew expensive, untargeted campaigns in favor of inexpensive,
targeted campaigns. Many Ez Texting clients tell us they were able to cut back on other, more costly
advertising methods once they built an effective database of opt-in customers.

Control – Everyone needs a helping hand every now and then, and a premier mobile marketing firm like
Ez Texting is always there to help you get started and answer your questions. What you don’t need is
an expensive agency to do things you can do yourself, on their terms, instead of your own. Ez
Texting’s software allows you to conceive and send messages on your own. Even more importantly, you
control every dollar that you spend.

Data – When you run your own mobile marketing campaign you control your data. Names, phone numbers,

response rates – whatever data you collect, it is all yours. Do not rely on an agency to provide you
with your data upon request.
Campaigns That Are Uniquely Yours – Instead of allowing an agency to repurpose a cookie-cutter
campaign, with a DIY solution you (or your marketing team) design campaigns that fit what your
company does and what it represents.
Text Message Marketing That Goes Beyond Mere Messages
SMS Text messaging is the most popular and effective form of mobile marketing because it does
exactly what it is supposed to do. You can achieve great ROI doing nothing more than occasionally
texting your customers with notices, reminders and offers. But, as you will see, there is so much
more that you can do. Importantly, for you and for your customers, all of these compelling methods
keep things simple.

Mobile Couponing - Invite customers to text in your keyword to receive instant coupons that they can
display in your store for a discount. In numerous surveys, consumers report that they are especially
open to messages that offer value.

Contests – Commonly referred to as “Text-2-Win”, a mobile contest offers consumers the opportunity
to text in to win a prize. Ez Texting’s software includes built-in contest functionality, allowing
you to randomly select winners or to offer prizes to the first x number of entries. Every person
that texts into the contest will be added to your database of phone numbers

Voting & Trivia - Interacting with consumers often produces the most successful marketing campaigns.
Not only do Voting & Trivia allow customers to put in their two cents on a topic, but you collect
valuable demographic data about your target consumers’ likes, dislikes and personality trends.
Tips & Tricks To Turbo Charge Your Mobile Marketing Campaign
Do-It-Yourself mobile marketing with Ez Texting’s software is simple. That does not mean that our
software isn’t extremely powerful. After spending a few minutes sending out experimental messages,
you’ll be ready to try out some of our advanced features:

Message Forwarding – The messages that your customers send you can be forwarded to your email
address or directly to your own mobile phone. Radio stations use this feature to relay song requests
to DJs. Churches set up forwarding to a cell phone for anonymous prayer requests during church
services.

Send Messages From Your Phone – When you just cannot get to a computer with an Internet connection
you still can send out messages to your database of customers. This is perfect for one-the-go
clients and marketers. Busy working the floor at a convention or a trade show? Send out timely
messages to your clients from your mobile phone.

Message Scheduling –If you know that you want to send out a message at some time in the future, just
enter it into the system, schedule it, and then when the time comes the message will be sent out
automatically.

Web Widget - A fully customizable signup widget allows patrons to join your text messaging database
from any website, email blast, MySpace or Facebook page. This security-enabled widget only
subscribes unique, active cell phone numbers. Simply copy and paste the widget and you are done!
Random Sends – Running a special offer? Only want to hit some of your customers? With a random send
the Ez Texting software will send out messages to x number of random phone numbers in your database.
Application Programming Interface (API) –Generally API is for advanced users only. If you don’t know
what an API is, it is probably best to skip to the next page. Through your Ez Texting account, you
can use our API to integrate the sending and receiving of text messages with your own website or
application. This is helpful for firms with existing platforms, such as doctor’s offices that wish
to add an SMS notification system to their CRM tool.


Look Who’s Texting
As we said in the introduction to this guide, mobile marketing with text messaging is already here.
Businesses large and small are running campaigns this very moment. Last year, SuperStop USA, a gas
station in St. Paul, MN, launched one of our favorite Ez Texting powered mobile marketing campaigns:
SuperStop USA– When gas prices are scheduled to go up, SuperStop USA owner Tony Donatell knows in
advance. He believed that his customers would make it a point to fill up their tanks at his station
if they were alerted in advance of the price increase. What Mr. Donatell needed was a way to quickly
reach his customers with this information.

SuperStop USA found a solution with an Ez Texting powered program called Gas Alerts. To attract
subscribers, the station deployed Point of Purchase (POP) displays featuring their CTA, ranging from
in-store signs at the registers to promotional posters outside at the pumps instructing customers to
text “GAS” to 25827.

Super Stop amassed over 70 subscribers in less than two weeks. They reported a response rate greater
than 20% for each text message blast. The program is still going strong a year later.
The following three campaigns were some of 2008’s most prominent and successful mobile marketing
efforts:

American Idol– A few years ago, the producers of American Idol and AT&T teamed up to allow Idol
viewers to vote on their favorite contestants via SMS. In 2008, fans voted in record numbers,
sending in 78 million text messages. In 2008, AT&T expanded their Idol efforts to include “voting
reminders, trivia, a TXT-n-Win sweepstakes promising the winner $50,000 cash and a trip for two to
the Idol series finale in Los Angeles, and contestant ringtones and video clips featuring outrageous
audition moments.”

President Barack Obama’s 2008 Election Campaign – Political historians will be studying Barack
Obama’s historic campaign for decades to come. There is one thing that everyone already agrees upon
– Obama’s New Media team leveraged the web, social networks, and text messaging in unprecedented
ways to communicate with supporters, recruit donors, and enhance get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts.
Famously, the Obama campaign announced their Vice Presidential selection of Joe Biden to opted in
subscribers via text message. The message went out to 2.9 million mobile phones. The phone numbers
went into the campaign database.
Finally, when Election Day came, supporters received text messages reminding them to vote. This was
much more than a nifty way to end a campaign that exploited text messaging so successfully –
research has found that SMS is more effective than all GOTV methods other than old fashioned door-
to-door canvassing. Canvassing may be more effective at turning out votes, than text messaging, but
it costs nearly 20x as much per recruited vote.

The American Red Cross – The American Red Cross raised $190,000 dollars in 2008 with its Text 2HELP
program. The program is activated during major disasters. According to The Wireless Foundation,
“subscribers of participating wireless carriers can send a text message to "2HELP" (24357)
containing the word "GIVE." A $5 tax-deductible donation will be made to the American Red Cross for
disaster relief efforts. Donations will appear on customers' monthly bills or be debited from a
prepaid account balance.”
In 2008, the Text 2HELP campaign was advertised across various communications channels, and received
its biggest boost when both Presidential candidates called their constituents to action. During the
Republican National Convention, Mike Duncan, the chairman of the RNC, asked convention attendants to
take out their mobile phones and text in a donation. The Obama campaign leveraged their own text messaging campaign to aid the Red Cross, sending their entire database of subscribers a message asking them to text GIVE to 24537 (2HELP).

Excerpt from http://www.articlesbase.com