Text Marketing Mobile Call to Action

Image via CrunchBase

Let's face it, it's easy to sign up for a text message marketing service and have your own keyword and a short code for your customers to text into. But that alone won't make you any money and you will be no better off 30 days from now from when you first signed up to start mobile marketing. In order for text marketing to really increase your sales you need to promote your short code and give your customers a reason to text in. Here are the ten easiest ways to promote your text marketing mobile call to action:

1. Add a new post to your Facebook wall. Do this every few days as new messages will gradually push your call to action down the page. You can also send a group message to all of your fans.
2. Send a Tweet out and add "Retweet if you love this." Allow the message to get spread further than just your followers. People who love your business will want to share it with their friends.
3. Tell your customers directly. Have you ever tried to check out at Kohls or another department store? They always ask if you want to sign up for their credit card and save 10% on the spot. Same goes for your mobile marketing campaign. Offer a reward on the spot for signing up. The auto-reply message will display on their phone in seconds after they text your keyword to the shortcode.
4. Add the call to action to your Yelp review. Yelp users only visit an average of three business listing before deciding on a place to spend their money at. Give the readers on Yelp a great reason to visit yours by placing a mobile call to action that puts your offer right on their phone.
5. Place a mobile phone graphic and the call to action on your website. Adding this is an easy way to capture and convert web traffic into real sales. Write a new blog post about your mobile campaign and what type of offers your customers can expect.
6. Make up simple "box toppers," those of you in the pizza business know how powerful these can be to get customers to return to your business. Retail and restaurants should add the mobile call to action on the bottom of receipts or include it on a comment card you hand each visitor.
7. Educate your staff. You can't do it all and the success of any marketing program often rests in their hands. Make sure your staff knows about the text marketing campaign, how it works, how it will benefit them and their excitement when telling customers about it will lead to higher opt-ins.
8. Send an email blast out promoting the new marketing offer and describe the benefit customers will receive for signing up. We have seen businesses that offer something free to the customers on their next visit to grow their mobile database the quickest.
9. Place a sign in your window. This will help capture opt-ins from people not visiting your business and leads to new customers trying you out for the first time. How many times has a coupon or special offer lead you to try a business for the first time? Give people a reason to spend money with you.
10. Integrate into traditional marketing mediums such as newspaper, direct mail, radio or television. Don't go out and start a new campaign in these mediums if they are not part of your regular marketing strategy but if they are, adding the mobile call to action will increase their effectiveness by capturing opt-ins and delivering your offer right to their phone leading to higher redemption rates.

Most of these ways to promote your mobile call to action such as integrating with social media and other Internet sites takes less than an hour. Other methods are equally as simple and only take a little time. Building your list with mobile marketing is mostly hands-off and the results in redemption rates and return on investment are unmatched in marketing today. Take some time in the beginning and your text marketing efforts will pay off for months and years to come.


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• SMS: Mobile Text Message Marketing

SMS: Mobile Text Message Marketing

Advertising advertising (Photo credit: Toban Black)

Marketing is one of the most important things you can do as a business owner. Without a marketing strategy and targeted advertising, many businesses simply do not make it. Many business owners think that simply having a store front or running an ad in the yellow pages is all they need to do and soon realize, it's not that easy.

In today's world, businesses big or small are finding more and more challenges when it comes to traditional marketing strategies. Running an ad in a local publication or paying for a spot in the yellow pages, just doesn't produce the same results they once achieved and are very expensive.

The reason why this is happening is that we are in a rapid changing communication age. With the birth of the Internet and number of internet-ready cellphones expanding globally, the effects on marketing are tremendous and are taking the marketing challenges to a new level. International businesses large or small are facing the same challenges.

The technical requirements associated with setting up a website, understanding social media, creating campaigns that will promote brand and convert traffic into buyers, are all part of the requirements necessary to market a business in today's world. The problem is many business owners need to focus on running the business and do not have the time, can't manage, nor have all the skillset required to create and manage an effective marketing program.

One new marketing method that will have a tremendous impact on businesses globally has to do with mobile text marketing. Mobile text marketing targets cell phone users in a very unique way. Similar to the time when e-mail marketing was brand new, mobile text marketing has a much higher response rate. With response rates at 90% plus, business owners need pay attention and incorporate this strategy into the overall marketing strategy.

There are a lot of reasons for the high response rate in mobile text marketing. Here are a few:

• When a user receives a text message they almost never ignore it due to the alert features on cell phones.
• It's considered more personal than an e-mail because it is used primarily by personal friends and family. So, the user always responds to a new text.
• Most businesses have not yet utilized this strategy so; the opportunity is here right now to be on the cutting edge of this new marketing concept.
• Users do not ignore the messages when received.
• Messages are short and to the point.
• Newer cell phones display the message right on the front of the screen.
• Users almost always have their cell phone on them.
• Cell phones do not require internet access to receive a text.
• Almost every cell phone made today has text messaging built in. 

The most important factor is that cell phone users out number internet users worldwide. With the rapid increase in internet-capable phones, there will also be a proportional increase in a business' ability to market to a cell phone user.

For those who don't know, here is how mobile text marketing works in general. Let's say you want to run a campaign to offer a discount for a product, service, or an event. As a business owner, you would target your existing customer base first. You would offer a coupon or discount, when a user sends a text message from their cell phone to your advertised campaign word. An example of this would look something like the following:

To receive a discount today, text "specialoffer" to 41242

What happens is the customer wants to receive a discount, so they text the word to the number. Then they immediately receive a response back with a promo code or message authorizing a discount. They are also informed they will receive future discount offers and can opt out anytime. Your customers are ok with this since they are already patrons of your business. This process all happens automatically.