Posts Tagged "Text Messaging"

For companies that offer SMS alerting capabilities (including Interactive Mediums) and their customers, results like those cited in this January 29, 2010 MobileMarketingWatch.com post are proof positive of the value of text messaging:

“…a pilot SMS reminder solution…ended with unprecedented results – saving Kaiser nearly $150 per appointment and over $275,000 at a single clinic.”

Efficiencies and costs savings were at the heart of the value in this example, which is apparently driving consumer acceptance of text message alerts – the post’s title is after all, “Survey: Consumers Want SMS Alerts.”  The study was conducted in the U.K., but you can expect similar attitudes prevail in the U.S.

While these numbers are impressive, I would argue that marketers need to keep their eyes on the top line/revenue growth “yin” to the cost savings/efficiencies “yang” offered by text messaging.  That’s the theme behind the diagram included in line with this post.

As marketers in any segment – healthcare or otherwise – approach the mobile channel, they have a variety of options for getting started, as we have previously discussed around mapping strategy to the mobile channel.

Many organizations will approach text messaging from a non-marketing perspective, which can yield impressive cost savings and efficiencies among an entire customer base – which tends to be dominated by customers served at a loss or break-even.  Thus the utility of text messaging as a cost saver.

Those companies that leverage mobile marketing techniques in a parallel fashion to target the revenue side of business should experience even greater results by increasing the pool of highest value customers – the 20 or so percent which generate the greatest value, be it profits or revenue.  The key to unlocking that added value is employing mobile engagement techniques such as promotions and others that call consumers to action.

The title of this article today on DMNews.com titled, “Marketers still missing opportunities with loyalty programs: Survey” immediately brought to mind this recent post of ours, as well as the answer to the missing component: mobile engagement.

The article doesn’t call this out per se, but does strongly imply that engaging in-store strategies such as SMS text message promotions are an absolute necessity to address the potential threat to retailers offered by comparison enabled mobile shoppers:

“…when it comes to consumers, nearly 65% acquired information about the programs in retail environments at the point of sale, compared to only 2.8% who did so on social media networks.”

The article is based on results of a study released today by the Chief Marketing Officer Council and conducted by IBM and Ricoh.  Its key finding is that although marketers are focusing spend on social networks to communicate loyalty programs, consumers are unreceptive to this channel as opposed to strong calls to action in and around the point of sale.

A similar focus on email marketing is also cited as a disconnect between marketer priories and consumer preferences.  Speaking of preferences, relevancy is found to be at the core of effective loyalty programs regardless of how an offer is delivered.  Certainly, data is crucial to developing targeted offers, the kind of which can be efficiently collected also via text message programs such as customer surveys.

Marketers need to as well be aware that even relevant offers may struggle against the tide of comparison shopping enabled consumers expected to change the retail landscape this year and beyond.  Successful retailers will build relevancy into their loyalty programs, but also recognize that engagement strategies such as SMS text message promotions advertised in store can prevent customers from leaving for better deals, addressing key challenges threatening to make loyalty a mythical concept.

With mobile application investments set to escalate this year, along with an already huge diversity of apps available for the iPhone, promotion and marketing will take center stage in ensuring these investments pay off.  That’s the implication of this article today on eMarketer.com, titled “Mobile to fare better than social.”

“According to DM2PRO and Quattro, 15% of advertisers and agencies spent more than 60% of their app budgets on promotion in 2009, but more than one-third spent less than 5%.  Promotional budgets will need to increase along with overall investment for apps to find their way to users.”

Marketers would be wise to consider the immediacy of text messaging to communicate mobile application availability and directly link consumers to download and install it.  Consider the ease by which signage in store can point customers to a text interaction that includes a direct link to download the application.  Convenience is key to entice consumers to take action and matching their behavior (out and about) with a device in hand is a recipe for success.

At the same time, marketers have the chance to create or build upon their opt in database of mobile subscribers, and learn more about them using engagement techniques like surveys and others that collect information about mobile consumers (like their zip codes or product preferences).  This data can in turn be used to segment the mobile audience in ways aligned with unique offers and calls to action.

Standing out from the crowd is already key to app success, so hoping your effort is discovered in the App Store can no longer be considered an effective strategy to ensuring ROI.  I say “App Store,” because the article points to the iPhone as the platform of choice for the time being, well ahead of Android and others.  Remember, when it comes to budgeting for the promotion of your application, among the most effective means to do so is to connect consumers with your app via creative use of text messaging programs.

This post today on MobileMarketingWatch.com cites a Business Week article in which the Apple honcho bluntly describes his view of the utility offered by current mobile advertising formats.  He also apparently sees this as an opportunity for Apple to innovate and ultimately dominate the mobile ad medium, even in the face of online ad champ Google and its mobile focus.  We have speculated as much here.

Just the other day we blogged about the hype around mobile advertising created by recent acquisitions.  We’ve also covered issues surrounding mobile ad metrics.

We’re keeping close tabs on developments in this area for our customers so they understand where to prioritize mobile advertising alongside their broader customer engagement charters inclusive of SMS text messaging, mobile optimized websites, smartphone applications and social media.

An integrated approach to mobile channel marketing – akin to creating more effective mobile ads – is an innovation which greatly increases the likelihood your mobile marketing efforts won’t suck.

Nowhere else was the popularity of the iPhone as a marketing platform on display than at the National Retail Federation’s 99th Annual Convention this week in New York.  So says this article posted today on RetailWire.com titled, “Apple Hits the NRF Show Floor, Sort of” (registration required).

Both attendees and exhibitors alike were apparently personally armed with the devices and reportedly had either iPhone apps already in the market or were preparing them.  Large technology vendors in attendance also had iPhone apps to talk about, from Oracle and Sterling Commerce to Intel.  Funny that Apple itself was absent.

The observations reported in the article highlight just how powerful a marketing platform the iPhone has become yet retailers should not forget about text messaging as an effective mobile marketing method that can reach almost any mobile phone user.  Although applications are popular, engagement via text messaging is being used by retailers to overcome challenges around loyalty and comparison shopping behavior.

The best strategy is a balanced one considering the impact but lower reach of a rich smartphone application as opposed to the almost universal reach offered by SMS text messaging, especially those facilitating promotions such as sweepstakes and contests.  Targeting the mobile customer experience first, then determining the blend of approaches to achieve your goals is becoming the standard of excellence for successful mobile marketers.

As if it were not hard enough for marketers to know where to begin with respect to mobile marketing, companies like SnapTag and JagTag are creating confusion around one of the most talked about mobile applications: bar codes.

This January 7, 2009 post on MobileMarketingWatch.com describes an offering by a new company called JagTag that offers a very similar service to SnapTag (which we blogged about here back in October of 2009).

These services appeal to marketer’s fears about the limited reach of smartphones capable of reading bar codes.  This is due to the somewhat real issue of handsets often needing special software to interpret the codes.  When marketers think about bar codes on mobile devices, they should break down the options as follows:

• As a coupon delivery and redeeming method.
• As a replacement for plastic cards (like your grocery store loyalty or video store cards).
• As a means of communicating information and/or pointing consumers to rich mobile interactions.

What Jag and Snap Tags do is imply that by using relatively ubiquitous MMS-enabled camera phones, consumers can be called to action as follows: take a picture of a code, send it via MMS, then receive of something of value – pointers to websites, a text message, offer, coupon code, etc.

I fail to see how this adds value to an interaction in the mobile channel versus even more common SMS text messaging.  The only case I can identify is when a brand wants to create an arguably fun activity for a consumer whereby they have a chance to use the camera feature/MMS sending capability of their phone.  That is a very weak scenario in my view.

We recently blogged about research into the challenges facing marketers tasked with generating loyalty for their brands. Based on that research alone, marketers face significant barriers creating loyalty programs that have a chance of succeeding. Fixating on creating a loyalty club, issuing cards to customers with points awarded based on purchases redeemable for discounts is not the right place to begin.

Instead, marketers need to consider ways of driving consumption of their products across all kinds of customers, be they classified loyal or not, in the most efficient manner available. SMS text message sweepstakes contests promoted at and around the point of sale, and offering many rewards versus one, are a proven tactic that could be packaged and presented to customers as a loyalty program.

Such promotions can be executed quickly and largely in “hands off” mode for the marketer when using a mobile campaign management system like that offered by Interactive Mediums. That benefit came to mind as I came across additional research into customer loyalty that underscores the importance of an effective engagement strategy, more so than one designed to create “loyal” customers, who many in fact be a mythical concept. Consider the following from an article titled, “The 30 major factors behind a successful customer loyalty programme,” from TheWiseMarketer.com (registration required):

Focus on data value, not just repeat business: “The smarter operators used loyalty programmes not to buy repeat visits but to garner information from their customers in order to learn more about them: who their most profitable and least profitable customers were, what they wanted, and what changes or offerings would be most likely to make them truly loyal.”

Spend more time on engagement strategy, less on selling to customers you don’t want: “In Philip Kotler’s version of a Pareto Principle chart, the top 20% of customers generate 80% of the profits, while the bottom 30% of customers eat up 50% of the profits that the others produce.”

Paradoxically, attempting to sell to past customers is a distracting exercise: “Customer win-back expert Michael Lowenstein (of Harris Interactive) says that the success rate in approaching ‘lost’ customers can be three to four times as high as it is when prospecting for new customers. For example, the rate for converting prospects might typically be 5%, while that for reactivating inactive customers might be as high as 15% – 20%.”

These are just three of 30 different points, but were especially notable given the fit with mobile marketing tactics such as sweepstakes promotions. Interactive Mediums’ Customer Engagement Platform has powered effective promotions for many marketers who didn’t likely approach the project with the facts in hand regarding loyalty.

Marketers yet to embrace mobile marketing tactics such as sweepstakes as part of a broader engagement strategy need to get started now; because if you don’t your competition will, making it that much harder to break through the engagement barrier.

Today on MobileMarketer.com Interactive Mediums client Budweiser was featured for their strategic and creative efforts to target customers in the mobile channel.  During the summer of 2009, the company targeted the mobile customer experience to great effect, blending a Smartphone application, mobile website and interactive SMS text message promotion.

In 2006, Budweiser partnered with Interactive Mediums to power a similar SMS text message sweepstakes at the point of sale.  As both established and smaller brands alike take their initial steps into mobile marketing, sweepstakes are a proven approach to engaging customers in the mobile channel to drive sales, improve loyalty or build a brand.  As 2010 is about to open, marketers and promotional services providers in any discipline – branding, demand creation, or loyalty – owe it to their companies and clients to investigate this powerful promotional tactic as part of their plans.

Budweiser’s news is especially timely given recent posts about why mobile sweepstakes and contests are an absolute necessity for brand engagement and best practices for executing winning promotions.

Today we were featured in an article on MobileMarketer.com titled, “9 steps for SMS marketing.”  The piece addresses common questions we’ve come across from marketing leaders around how mobile marketing — and specifically text messaging — fits into the marketing mix.  I also wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the launch of our Guide to Mobile Experience Solutions as well as recent posts that speak similarly to a Chief Marketer’s concerns:

• Does Relevance Indicate Mobile’s Superior ROI?
• Are Mobile Marketing Providers Paying a Price for their Early Success?
• Others See the Light: Mobile is About the Experience, Not the Device
• Should Mobile Outperform Email as a Marketing Channel?
• Getting CMOs to Turn their Frowns Upside Down Key to Mobile Marketing’s Future

The other day I came across a July 2009 report titled, “SMS Marketing: Direct Route to Consumer Engagement” from a firm called Opus Research.  The paper contains a lot of useful ideas on marketing applications of SMS text messaging, including actual examples.

Notable was a reference similar to one made this past week during MobileMarketer.com’s webinar, “Mobile Marketing in 2010: Up, Down or Flat? Experts Offer Strategic Advice for Campaign Planning and Management.”  During this live discussion one of the panelists mentioned a practical application of SMS text messaging was as both a call to action and media buy effectiveness measurement tool.  The very same is described in the analyst report this way:

“Beyond customer acquisition short codes allow marketers to ‘close the loop’ between ads, media and the point of sale.  Given these advantages, we expect short codes begin to replace (or supplement) URLs in most traditional media ads.”

Such applications are a great way to prove the value of SMS text messaging as a step toward taking greater advantage of the channel to develop customer relationships.  Segmenting media buys by text keyword allows responses to be tracked by dollars invested in different mediums.  ROI — as a function of response rate and cost — thus can be calculated and the results should inform a more efficiently allocated media spend in the future.

Ironically, the report also cites the example of Wetseal using a text promotion as a means of building a loyalty program database.  We highlighted the retailer in this recent post due to its expanded mobile strategy inclusive of text messaging, mobile applications and mobile web – the mobile customer experience.

If not already, marketers and their trusted agency partners should have plans for taking advantage of mobile in 2010.  Getting started by proving the value of text as a media buy measurement device is a logical way toward realizing the even greater benefits of targeting customers at the point of device.