Implementing a Mobile Marketing strategy

SMS Marketing: is the first step for a successful Mobile Marketing initiative.

Find a Vanity Short Code. This is one of the first over looked elements of SMS Marketing campaigns.  Vanity codes have a higher redemption rate than non-vanity codes by more than 50%.  Vanity Short Codes are easy to remember and are visibly appealing.

Create interaction with your consumers not interruptions.   Only deliver message that have value about your product or services.  The quickest way to stain your brand is with mobile spam.  People opt-in to your brand because they are interested in your service or product.  Generate results with incentives and deals, not information they already know.  They love your brand! This is why they opted-in.  Don’t devalue their SMS experience with your brand by sending daily junk messages.

Interaction with SMS coupons and SMS games  keep the Mobile Marketing campaign fresh with users.  Voting, Polls, Text2Wins and Trivia can keep your brand exciting and new.  SMS Subscribers will talk about your SMS campaign and before you know it your will have 1000’s of mobile subscribers.

Go viral!  We first utilized viral messages with a small company called Waveland Bowl.  The FWD a friend message strategy generated a 200% ROI in the first week of their Mobile Marketing campaign.  Send messages that have bait…  Messages that include incentives for users to forward to a friend or create subscribers.  Forward to 100 people for a chance to win a free one year pass for bowling. You can double your SMS subscription data base in one message.

Many of us are familiar with President Obama’s success utilizing mobile text message marketing when he was blasting out campaign updates to nearly 3 million subscribers.  However, brands have seen great results as well engaging consumers with their products and services.  Coca Cola boasts over a million subscribers that use text message marketing to engage with the My Coke rewards program.  Coca Cola is not alone as Ashley Furniture, Jiffy Lube, Papa Johns, Subway, Best Buy, Village Inn, Arby’s and many other brands are successfully implementing text message marketing campaigns.

Engaging prospects or consumers and subscribing them to your mobile marketing program is just the beginning.  You can continue to deliver consumer friendly ads and wireless marketing by creating creative campaigns of interest to your target audience followed up with incentives for that consumer to engage with you products or services.  Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort in Oregon opt-ed in the subscriber database by providing consumers weather condition updates at the resort.  For many consumers in the area this is a valuable service and information.  Once consumers were opt-ed in to the mobile marketing program the resort sent mobile coupons for discounts to drive increased business.

It is also important to keep in mind that kids and teens are no longer the only active audience for text message marketing. 47% of those utilizing the My Coke rewards mobile program were 35 and older.  This bodes well for text message and mobile marketing as it seems audiences that are typically engaged in traditional marketing channels are welcoming a new experience and opportunity to engage with brands, products, and services.  The Nielsen Company reported at the end of 2008 those 45 and younger are now sending more text messages a month (236) than making phone calls (223).  This isn’t an anomaly, this is the growing trend and year after year text message usage and engagement continues to grow exponentially across all age demographics.

So, does text message marketing work?  You better believe it.  Text message marketing is a great place for your business to reach consumers.  Mobile web, apps, and media are certainly becoming more relevant as billions of dollars are being spent in mobile infrastructure upgrades each year to handle the huge appetite for mobile in the U.S. but text message marketing is already widely adopted.  3 billion texts are sent a day in the U.S. alone.  What is your mobile marketing strategy?

WHAMmobile is a Houston, TX based mobile marketing company and technology firm.

Different solutions utilizing Wireless Marketing

#1 Wireless Marketing Solution: What is SMS Marketing?

SMS Marketing or sometimes referred to as Text Message Marketing is the process of a prospect or consumer sending a text message to a short code for information, text to win promotions, voting, trivia, coupons, text interaction and customized messaging catered for specific businesses and their needs.

Pros: Today 99% of Wireless devices have the ability to receive and send a text message.  The short code activity for SMS Marketing has increased almost 1000% in the past 3 years and is steadily growing.  SMS marketing is the most cost effective wireless marketing solution.  The ROI on a simple SMS Marketing Campaign can give you a instant 50% return within the first couple months.  The best SMS Mobile Marketing Companies can put together a marketing strategy that can increase your web traffic, store traffic, or audience participation with a cost as low as $69.99 up to $10,000 a month depending on your usage rates and campaign.  SMS Marketing is a great solution for all business regardless of you company size, or brand.

Cons: Dedicated Short Codes can be very expensive.  So if you want a specific branded name like Text: Pizza Hut To: 444888 you may not find a shared short code provider with that exact keyword.   So your option would be to use a generic keyword like Pizza4U or NYPizza.  If you feel the need to have a branded keyword you may have to buy a dedicated short code with a minimum cost of $1,500.00 a month.  You should always check a short code provider like WHAMmobile first.  You will be surprised at some of the available keywords that can save you thousands.

#2 Wireless Marketing Solution: What is Mobile Web?

Mobile Websites or mobile broadband usage has increase 5000% within the last two years according to AT&T.  I will say that without a doubt SMS Marketing Is The NOW! But Mobile Web is the future.  Mobile Web is formatted website to fit wireless devices for easy navigation and usability while on the go or not by a computer.

Pros:   Restaurants, retail services, sports teams, real estate, automotive companies and about 100 more specific businesses should and if they don’t already need mobile web.  Why Mobile Web? So many of your consumers are on the go… or not by a computer 100% of the day.  People now searching terms like Pizza “Zip Code”, or shoes “City”, or Home for Sale “Area” utilizing their wireless mobile devices.  If your company is not in the mobile web space you are leaving money on the table.  Your visibility increases 10% just by having mobile website indexed within the Google mobile search emgine and up to 25% if you connect mobile web to a SMS Marketing campaign.  “Based on a 10 mobile marketing campaign study by WHAMmobile”

Cons: Because Mobile Web only works with people who have a data plan on their cell phone,  Wireless Web Marketing is limited to about 76% of the current cell phone subscribers.  Mobile web can be inexpensive. The cost for a local mobile website for a one or two page website is a one time cost of $200-$250 according to WHAMmobile.  But a complex e-commerce or a multiple page site can very expensive with full development costs reaching the high thousands.

#3 Wireless Marketing Solution: What is an iPhone App?

iPhone applications have boomed in the past 2 years.  Currently over 7,500 applications created for the iPhone and their users.  There is a great return when building an iPhone app and it is the fact that if you offer high quality and popular services or products you can charge the consumer to download your app.  This is the most user friendly experience for a prospect and bring generates a large amount of eye-candy for your business.

It’s a sleeping giant,” said Kraft’s Mr. Kaczmarek. According to AdMob metrics, for example, iPod Touch users download 16.4 free apps and two paid apps per month; the average iPhone user downloads 7.6 free and 2.6 paid apps.

Pros: You can charge $1.00 – $9.99 for your app and generate great revenue if you have an extremely popular brand or product.  People download apps and check them frequently because it is so easy to just touch a button and get updates from your favorite topics or services.  iPhone users are as crazy as MAC users so they will probably never purchase any other type of phone.  Apple breeds loyalty!   Your business can be found through the app store on their wireless device by category, topic, or keywords.  You will not have to spend extra expenses to market or advertise your application; Apple will help you advertise within their store.

Cons: Expensive!  You can have a third party developer build you an app for about $1,000.00’s.  But one bad iphone app review and you can trash it and take a lose.  People listen to the reviews.  If you want a great user experience high download rates, and the app to stay on the phone and not be deleted.  Your looking at start up costs that range from $50,000 – $100,000 dollars development.  If you look hard enough you may find a freelance programmer that could start at $10,000.00 for decent quality but you will not get a guarantee upon finished product.

The second con is that only iphone users can enjoy the application.  If you want to target the masses you won’t.  So if you don’t have a big brand like Ford or a great product i.e. Real Estate or Automotive.  This might not give you the best ROI if your a small business.

#4 Wireless Marketing Solution: What is Bluetooth?

Bluetooth wireless marketing is giving a business the ability to inject a SMS message to a cell phone users wireless device when walking by their business or a specific location.

Pros:  Instant information to you prospects about your service or product via bluetooth.  The costumer will  receive the message at real time an have a high chance on acting on specific promos if standing right beside the location of the service or product.

Cons:  Not all cell phones have the ability to use bluetooth technology and a lot of the phones that have the ability turn their bluetooth off for the reason privacy and spam.  A lot of people look down on bluetooth wireless marketing and say it is a form of spam.  That being said some customers will act on promos but some customer will be annoyed or even complain about their privacy or being spammed by your brand.  Bluetooth is a really cool wireless technology, but SMS has a opt-in process and generates a more qualified prospect.  Example: If a single MAN walks by a purse store and receives a text message coupon about purses… this could be annoying or unwanted.

Note: I think bluetooth is excellent for events like football games, or concerts, because you have qualified people within a confined space.

#5 Wireless Marketing Solution: Creative Wireless Campaign

To be successful in any of the wireless marketing solution you company to have a creative vision, expert management and care of you Mobile Marketing Campaigns. Finding a Mobile Marketing Company that will be ethical and motivated to give you high usage and results is necessary to generate high success.  Their are hundreds of companies popping up around the industry make sure you pick one you would like to represent your brand.

Here are some questions you might want to ask before deciding on your companies mobile marketing representative.

WHAMmobile: Wireless Marketing Solutions
Wireless Marketing Clients
Shortcodes
SMS Marketing
Mobile Website | iphone applications
Mobile Marketing Costs
Our Wireless Marketing Company
Wireless Branding

Find a Wireless Solution speak with a mobile marketing professional.

Houston Marketing Company

Not all iPhone Apps are created equal.

I am not going to get into the details on whether or not you should develop an iPhone application for your business. I do not know your business well enough to make this recommendation, however I would be happy to consult with you and your team. I am writing this today because I think there is a misconception on what is involved in developing a successful iPhone app and the investment necessary to have a positive impact in your business. I do think it is important to consider that not all apps are created equally. As I mentioned, due to the ever increasing number of apps, we receive many inquiries about app development. I think Apple’s ad campaigns have brain washed us to think that downloading an app to an iPhone is simple and inexpensive therefore developing an app should be as well. This is not the case. It it important to keep in mind that many more iPhone Apps have a 3 star (out of 5) or less user rating than those that have a 3 star or higher rating. I see more and more of these plug and play websites that offer iPhone app solutions at bargain basement prices that are trying to lure us into our desires to build an iPhone app. I won’t hold back when I tell you that these solutions are absolute garbage. These solutions do not provide any valuable research into your brand, products, or service therefore research gathering, requirement planning, or process documentation is not included in your price. They do not understand your business, marketing, advertising, and sales initiatives nor do they care to. They see a market to turn and burn applications but are not delivering you a quality app that is sure to get destroyed by user ratings and ulitmately never downloaded.

Be Prepared to Invest your business.

So, I have totally trashed the guys that aren’t doing anything for you except taking your money and giving you garbage in return, what is my solution? It is simple, be prepared to invest in your business.

iPhone app development projects vary broadly in scope and pricing but I think you will find that a reputable mobile marketing company or software development company might make you raise your eyebrows a bit when they mention the price if are exploring this possibility for the first time. If you simply “want” an iPhone app and don’t have a plan surrounding it’s release, marketing, etc., save your money because users will bash it, no one will download it, and you once that happens your app will never be revived unless you continue to allocate resources for ongoing development. One of the great things about iPhone applications is that you have 75,000 case studies to research.

Find out what your competitors are doing and more importantly do a
user review analysis of applications that are within your industry.
Find out what users like, what they don’t like. After all, apps live and die by the opinion and engagement of the consumer. Do the homework, gather the information, formulate a plan, document everything, develop, don’t forget the marketing/advertising plan surrounding the app, deploy and enjoy.

WHAMmobile is a Houston, TX based mobile marketing company and technology firm that has the experience and desire to assist you with mobilizing your business.

Matthew Whitney
President / CEO

WHAMmobile
5773 Woodway, Suite 180
Houston, TX 77057
866 942-6839

CTIA conventions are quite possibly the most entertaining conventions/trade shows I attend. Mobile technology and mobile marketing companies are all the buzz these days replacing their predecessor, that thing I call the “interweb”. The industry is “hot”. Those that make it up are young, energetic, full of brilliant ideas, and building mobile marketing companies and technology firms that are shaping the way we communicate, interact with advertising, and engage with media. If James Bond is your hero and new technology found in movies like Minority Report get your motor running, then CTIA is the place to be. You will find the coolest hand held gadgets and mobile devices to monstrous cell phone tower hardware and receivers. If your signal isn’t overloaded, pull yourself away from the trade-show aisles, and get the scoop on mobile marketing and the wireless industry from keynote speakers such as, CTIA CEO, Hall of Fame wide receiver, all around cool guy, (and fellow Oklahoman), Steve Largent.

So now that the show is over and the euphoria of watching broadcast television or 3-D holographs on a phone is waning, what useful information did we pack in our suitcases. Well, simply put, the industry continues to grow and mobile marketing companies are experiencing increased revenues over last year, even in a down economy. That economy may be partly to blame as to why mobile marketing hasn’t taken off like a rocket escaping the atmosphere. However, mobile marketing continues to grow like the opening of an AC/DC concert, a rhythmic bass-line that increases in frequency and volume with each beat. SMS text message marketing continues to be a proven way for brands and companies to reach their audience. These brands and companies are cautiously entering the space and slowly reallocating more and more of their budgets for mobile marketing. Mobile marketing companies and brands are ever evolving their message to consumers as they have found the message needs to be exciting, not lame, and tailored to their desires to trigger engagement.

What’s the biggest hang up mobile marketing companies are experiencing for a mass uptake in mobile? In past years mobile marketing companies were continually nipping at the heels of the carriers as they were charged with squelching and controlling content that could be delivered to consumers. This was indeed happening, but in their defense, the carriers were only trying to set forth guidelines and protect the end user from vague paid subscription services. This year the industry has “straightened up” so to speak and the carriers weren’t mentioned singularly as obstacles to growth. The handset makers, brands and ad agencies themselves, and general lack of awareness are stifling the envisioned explosion of mass mobile uptake by consumers. Ultimately third party technology companies and mobile marketing companies will determine how advertising is delivered in the mobile space.

So where is the industry? As always, the industry is an exciting place and has experienced substantial progress from last year. As the CEO of a mobile marketing company, I love going to work everyday! Revenues are increasing however the anticipated profits will come when an improved economy finds us and more importantly, when the brands, agencies, and even small businesses become more familiar with mobile marketing and how they can effectively implement it within an ongoing strategy to reach their targets.

Matthew Whitney
President / CEO
WHAMmobile

What exactly is a short code anyway?

If you haven’t seen these 4, 5, and 6 digit numbers bouncing across your TV screen, heard them radiating from your speakers, or seen them plastered on billboards as you wizz by, well…quite honestly, you don’t get out too much. It’s obvious these codes are everywhere as mobile marketing is a booming industry even in the midst of a challenging economy. So, what exactly are they and how do you get one?

Here comes a bit of telecom tech talk. Don’t be afraid, it’s not that complicated.

A short code is a short number, sometimes referred to as a short telephone number, which can be used to address SMS (short message service, ie text message) or MMS (multimedia message service, ie ringtones, downloads, etc.) from a mobile phone. Globally short codes vary from 3 to 6 digits but in the U.S. we primarily use 4, 5, and 6 digits. 4 digit short codes are largely reserved for carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, etc). These 4 digit codes are specific to a carrier and will only work on a specific carrier network. 5 and 6 digit short codes are most often used by aggregators such as MX Telecom and content providers such as WHAMmobile. These codes are certified on behalf of content providers by the carriers and used to deliver content from the provider cross-carrier.

Short Codes are leased via the CSCA (Common Short Code Administration). Cost for leasing a code is either $500/mo or $1000/ mo. The $1000/mo variety is called a vanity code because you choose the sequence of the 5 or 6 digit numbers from available codes. Non vanity codes, the $500/mo variety, are automatically assigned to you by the CSCA.

Examples of a vanity code: 444888, 555999, 12345

Examples of a non-vanity code: 76398, 23681, 795024

Once a code is leased it must then be certified by the carriers to deliver content across their network. To be honest the certification process can be a bit daunting and I encourage all to utilize a top tier aggregator or content provider to assist you. There will be an additional investment for certification usually starting at $2000, but again, I encourage all to utilize telecom professionals that understand this process.

Lastly, there is the issue of connectivity. It is important to note that once a code is leased and certified you must be connected to the carriers via an aggregator and additional ongoing investment is necessary. Monthly connectivity costs vary widely from aggregators and content providers based on the type of service(s) you want to offer.

So, in a nutshell, what can you expect? To manage a short code you will need to:

1. Lease it from the CSCA
2. Certifiy it with the carriers
3. Connect it to carrier networks via an aggregator or content provider

Wow, that seems like too much effort and investment. If that is what you are thinking, you are still in luck. Most all content providers have certified, cross-carrier short codes that you can utilize in your business. WHAMmobile and many other reputable content providers have helped countless businesses both big and small enter into the mobile age. Whether you need an affordable basic business package or a specific custom application there is a solution for you. Join the revolution and mobilize your business today.

Matthew Whitney
President / CEO

They Replied YES, Now What?

Very often I hear the following, “oh yes, we do texting”, which immediately tells me that mobile marketing was most likely on a check list of initiatives to be crossed off for the year. When this is the case the initiative has poor, if any strategy, prospects are not being reached, and tens’ to hundreds’ of thousands of opt-in subscribers are starving for some attention. We utilize many resources to glean this opt-in list, now that we have it, what do we do?

Honor that space

The first thing I always tell WHAMmobile clients when building mobile marketing strategy is this, “Remember, you and I have a mobile phone in our pocket, purse, or backpack and the last thing we want it to become is a spam device”. So, we have a responsiblity to those we are reaching to honor this very coveted, private space. There are many statistics, and I have made some interesting observations myself, about the demographics of mobile users and the frequency in which mobile marketing should occur. We will dive into the demographic conversation on another day. The bottom line is this, we have a responsibility when reaching our users, prospects, opt-ins. If we do not honor that space they will simply ignore us, or for those of us that “do texting”, they will simply reply STOP and we have to start from scratch to reach them again.

It isn’t all about the numbers anymore

I think it very important to consider the traditional, quantitative CPM model of advertising and marketing is changing because consumers are more and more given the opportunity to choose how they will participate with our message. Mobile marketing is introducing a qualitative one to one interaction between our brand, product, or services and our prospect. I often use this analogy when discussing mobile and ask this question; “what is more valuable to us as marketers, an online, print, or outdoor ad that 1000 people might be able to tell you what the predominant color of the ad and nothing else, or 1 person interacting with your brand on their mobile device?”

What’s the game plan

As I mentioned earlier, so very often we find businesses sticking their toe in the water and not committing when it comes to mobile marketing. Any good coach is not only going to show up to the game, but have a solid game plan, the right players to execute, and ulitmately be a winner.  Don’t be scared, mobile isn’t that new anymore even though it may be new to your business. WHAMmobile and many other reputable mobile marketing companies have done hundreds of thousands of mobile marketing campaigns and we are here to help you navigate a new marketing and advertising channel. We know what works and what does not. The most important thing is to plan and invest in the strategy. All mobile companies can set-up a mobile campaign. Be sure and work with the mobile marketing companies that want to integrate mobile into your business and can offer sound strategy on how do to so. Who do we want to reach today, tomorrow, and next year? Once we reach them how do we continue to engage them creatively while we “honor that space” in turn increasing their engagement with our brands, products, and services?

The plug

WHAMmobile is a Houston, TX based mobile marketing and technology firm, yes their is more in Houston than energy. We have been fortunate to work with 1000’s of clients over the years. Whether you a Mom and Pop or a fortune 500 media giant we have worked with them all and have a strategy for you.

Matthew Whitney
President / CEO
WHAMmobile

Ask yourself this one question, and we will see if mobile is right for your business.  Do I advertise?  If your answer is yes Mobile Marketing will help tremendously.  Mobile Advertising will impact two important parts of your marketing and advertising mix.  First it will enhance all of your current media.  Placing a text code on you print, billboard, TV and within your radio ads will let your track your media, and perform ongoing marketing to people after their initial impression with your current media.  Second it will generate huge amounts of money for your business.  The current trend is with every message sent to a user there is a 10% redemption rate. A great example is show when a local pizza eatery placed a text code on a billboard and issued up to 5000 SMS coupon.  The pizza company redeemed 2587 SMS text coupons in their first six months.  This return cost them about 289.99 a month.  If they made only 1 dollar per visit they would have cleared $2587.00.  This is a nice return for a local pizza restaurant.

One FREE hour of COZMIC bowling for up to 5 people at WAVELAND BOWL tonight from 7:00PM until midnight with this text message.  FWD to friends.

This simple autoreponder generated a 200% traffic increase turning his slowest night of the week into his busiest night at Waveland Bowl.  He uses a in store promotion between each bowling lane with the call to action “GET FREE BOWLING”

Text: Bowling
To: 444888

In 1 month his mobile club exceeded 200+ people and in his first broadcast he had 10 groups and up to 75 people redeem their SMS text coupon.

Small Businesses like Waveland are making a big impact using SMS technologies and mobile marketing to stay competitive with large corporations.

Visit: WHAMmobile for your SMS Marketing Solution