Archive for December, 2011

There are three categories of short code programs from a pricing perspective.

• Standard Rate — The consumer is charged standard text messaging fees (usually decremented from their carrier messaging bundle) when participating in the program.  No premium fees are charged.  Standard rate is the type of text messaging offered by 84444.com.
• Premium Rate — The consumer is charged premium fees in addition to standard messaging fees that apply.  You can not run a premium rate text message campaign on 84444.com, but Advanced Telecom Services does not offer Premium SMS services through another short code.
• Free to End User (FTEU) — This is the newest of the short code categories.  With FTEU, the consumer incurs no charges at all for participating in the program.  The carrier waives standard message fees for these programs.  Such programs are currently extremely rare.

 

If you don’t follow the rules, you may be tripping over a federal law and finding yourself with a large legal bill to pay.

There have been over a dozen lawsuits filed in recent years against companies such as Burger King, Jiffy Lube, Timberland, and NASCAR.  The lawsuits are expensive.  Timberland set aside $7 million for  a settlement under which it agreed to pay consumers who received unauthorized text messages $150 each.  Another suit set Simon & Schuster back $175 for everyone who received a new text message about a Stephen King book.

The rules for text message marketing are aligned with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).  That means that you must have a legitimate opt-in from consumers rather than the opt-out that is required for email marketing.

Since the TCPA was passed in 1991, before text messaging was common, laws have been passed that have strengthened the consumer protection elements.  In 2009, the 9th Circuit passed a rule that ruled definitively that sending a text message for marketing purposes is the same as making a phone call.

As a general rule, if a customer follows the rules of the Mobile Marketing Association, he should be within the letter of the law.

84444.com provides a link to the rules established by the Mobile Marketing Association in the footer of the website.

Please consult your own attorney for rules and regulations regarding text message marketing.

When it comes to deciding on a new restaurant, more and more people are turning to the internet and the cell phone. That’s the conclusion of a new study by the Pew Research Center.

And, it simply makes sense.  You are out and about and don’t have time to cook at home.  So, you reach for your cell phone to find a restaurant in your area.  Or, you are still at home and you go on the web to find out where you’d like to eat.

When it comes to the category of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, the study found that 51% of those surveyed rely on the internet as their local guide.  Of those, 38% start out on a search engine, 17% go to specialty sites, and 3% look to social media to find a restaurant choice.

Other media are not faring as well compared to the internet and mobile phone juggernaut.  Just 31% rely on newspapers, broken down by 26% reading the paper copy and 5% reading an online newspaper site.  Word of mouth was important at 23% and 8% relied on local TV.  Radio came in at 3% and mobile marketing for restaurants at 2%.

Of the restaurant information obtained online, 47% of it was accessed via a mobile phone.  Makes a pretty good case for having a mobile website.

 

The history of the new ubiquitous text message is portrayed in this infographic from Advanced Telecom Services.

The Greatest Businessman of All-Time

North Pole –When you think about the greatest businessman of all-time, who comes to mind?

Ford?  Rockefeller?  Bill Gates?  Donald Trump?  Richard Branson?  Mark Zuckerberg?  Steve Jobs?

Give me a break.

The greatest businessman of all time is, without a doubt, Santa Claus.

 

8 Things That Santa Claus Does Better than Donald Trump

Think about it.  Santa’s customers return year after year.  He has a factory that churns out toys 24/7 with little overhead.  He has loyal and long tenured employees that work for near minimum wage.  Of course, there aren’t a lot of jobs in this tough global economy, so imagine how hard it is for vertically challenged elves these days.

Santa Claus has a promotions department that secures prime visibility in crowded malls and gets him grand marshal positions in parades all over the world.  He also has a publicity crew that writes songs, poems, and even produces movies and television shows with him as the star.  His stamina is amazing and there are no performance enhancing drugs in his body, unless you count the chocolate chip cookies!

He’s an advertising genius.  Just watch TV in December and see how many commercials he’s on.  I’ve seen him drinking Coca-Cola for years now and am still amazed how he can balance himself on that Norelco razor after all the junk food he eats!

And talk about customer service.  It’s the best in the world!  No waiting on hold to talk to his telemarketers “Ryan” from Sri Lanka.  He knows what you want, often without your even telling him.

 

The Biggest Mistakes Santa Claus Makes

But, sometimes I think Santa Claus is slipping a bit the past few years.  He hasn’t really embraced html5, social networking, apps, or cloud technology very well.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Greatest Businessman of All-Time

North Pole –When you think about the greatest businessman of all-time, who comes to mind?

Ford?  Rockefeller?  Bill Gates?  Donald Trump?  Richard Branson?  Mark Zuckerberg?  Steve Jobs?

Give me a break.

The greatest businessman of all time is, without a doubt, Santa Claus.

 

8 Things That Santa Claus Does Better than Donald Trump

Think about it.  Santa’s customers return year after year.  He has a factory that churns out toys 24/7 with little overhead.  He has loyal and long tenured employees that work for near minimum wage.  Of course, there aren’t a lot of jobs in this tough global economy, so imagine how hard it is for vertically challenged elves these days.

Santa Claus has a promotions department that secures prime visibility in crowded malls and gets him grand marshal positions in parades all over the world.  He also has a publicity crew that writes songs, poems, and even produces movies and television shows with him as the star.  His stamina is amazing and there are no performance enhancing drugs in his body, unless you count the chocolate chip cookies!

He’s an advertising genius.  Just watch TV in December and see how many commercials he’s on.  I’ve seen him drinking Coca-Cola for years now and am still amazed how he can balance himself on that Norelco razor after all the junk food he eats!

And talk about customer service.  It’s the best in the world!  No waiting on hold to talk to his telemarketers “Ryan” from Sri Lanka.  He knows what you want, often without your even telling him.

 

The Biggest Mistakes Santa Claus Makes

But, sometimes I think Santa Claus is slipping a bit the past few years.  He hasn’t really embraced html5, social networking, apps, or cloud technology very well.

Santa doesn’t own an iPhone or an Android.  He thinks a Blackberry is a health food that he’d never dream of eating.

I think he’s one of only about 15 people in the world that don’t have a Facebook account.  I’m not sure if he knows how to Google anything.  His website isn’t optimized.  I’ve never seen him Tweet.  His Klout score is below 25.

His workers still use basic tools from the pre-Industrial Revolution.  And, they don’t even have worker’s compensation or a decent HMO.

His mode of transportation still involves harnessed livestock that take a treacherous route around the world.

And, don’t tell me one animal with a light bulb on his nose is innovative.  It’s animal cruelty.  Call the ASPCA!

As for knowing when we’re sleeping, even conservatives would admit that’s taking The Patriot Act too far!

His ordering process?  It’s downright archaic.  I mean, who writes letters any more?

 

The Only Thing That Can Save Santa Claus’s Business

What Santa Claus needs is mobile marketing.

Worldwide, 5 trillion text messages are sent each year, but how many of you have ever received one, or sent one, to the North Pole?  Even Verizon can’t hear you now at the North Pole.

Did you know that 18% of those 5 trillion text messages are considered commercial text messages?  Don’t you think text message marketing would be a great way for Santa to get rid of some of his closeout inventory?  I hear there’s a warehouse at the North Pole that still has half a million eight-tracks in it!

Ever see the long lines at the mall with kids wanting to take their picture with Santa Claus?  By the time the kids get up to Santa, they are often crying and that doesn’t make for a great Christmas card photo opp.  Why not provide a Custom QR Code to scan while waiting in line?  Mom could scan it and Santa could entertain the kids with videos and the provide text message reminders to be especially good at this time of year.

Did you ever watch the late news on television on Christmas Eve?  There’s usually some hokey satellite picture of Santa flying over some other country.  In the eastern United States, I think Santa is usually somewhere around Slovakia during our 11 o’clock newscast.

Well, I’m an insomniac and I often stay up late on Christmas Eve multi-tasking on my laptop while watching the History Channel, ESPN, or Skinemax.  I would love to check the app on my iPhone to know when Santa and his reindeer are getting close to my hometown so I can get to bed on time.  If his clever little engineers can’t figure out how to develop an app to track the progress of the flying reindeer, I’m sure Southwest could give them a hand.

Ordering is another issue.  How many of you still have envelopes and stamps in your house?  It’s been so long since I sent a letter that I have no idea how much it even costs to send a letter any more.  How many stamps do you need to send a letter to the North Pole anyway?  It’s not even on the USPS.com web site; I checked.  Plus, there’s the issue of the post office losing your snail mail.  No, that never happens, does it?

By the way Santa, I’m still waiting for the Porsche I asked for last year.  I knew I should have sent my Christmas list by Fed Ex.

With text messages, we could send in our Christmas lists to Santa Claus through a short code, say 72682 (S-A-N-T-A).  With an easy-to-use mobile marketing solution like this, Santa could confirm receipt and even tell you if you’ve been…bad or good.

Maybe that’s what happened to my Porsche.

Bob Bentz is president of Advanced Telecom Services which provides text message marketing, apps development, mobile websites, and custom @BobBentz on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, or hit him up on LinkedIn.  He has a great deal for you.

If you thought that the text message juggernaut had leveled out, think again.  Mike Snider’s story in USA Todayshows a very different story.

In 2009, just 18% of Americans owned a smartphone, but today that number has bolted to 44% that own a smartphone.  Younger Americans are even more likely to own smartphones:

• 65% of 25-34′s own a smartphone.
• 53% of 18-24′s own a smartphone.

Usage of text messaging continues to grow also.  Of mobile phone  users, 81% have sent or received a text message in the past 30 days; in 2009, that number was 75%.

When it comes to texting, women sent an average of 802 in the past 30 days versus just 604 for men.  The numbers from 2009 were 593 and 420.

And, here is Snider’s point as to why texting is replacing talking.

• Women talked for 771 minutes in the past month; that’s down from 861 in 2009.
• Men talked for 605 minutes in the past month; that’s down from 679 in 2009.

That should help alleviate some global warming.

36% of Americans own a smartphone as per third quarter, 2011, according to a ComScore study.  This is opposed to 43% from the Nielsen study.

 

 

When it comes to holiday shopping activity, smartphone users are most likely to use their smartphone to take a picture of a product.

 

by Bob Bentz.

According to a study by AT&T, 34% of business owners are showing interest in using text message marketing in 2012.  Creating mobile apps is of interest to the largest amount of business owners at 43%.

Of all mobile marketing tactics, text message marketing is clearly the most utilized of them.  That likely explains why there is more interest in the development of apps.

AT&T’s findings are based on an online survey in September 2011 of 501 marketing or advertising professionals working at a US-based company with more than 1,000 employees. Respondents held a director or higher title and were personally involved with making or overseeing marketing or advertising program decisions for their company.

 

 

 

 

 

While I love that Pizza Express is using text message marketing, I don’t think it’s the best practice when using mobile coupons to actually require that the user go online to print them out.  In a way, that defeats some of the purpose of always having the mobile coupon on your person since your mobile device is always with you.  Hopefully, Pizza Express is allowing consumer to download the coupon and corresponding bar code and have it scanned from their phone.  Who needs paper anymore?

Watch this video to learn more about a successful case study for mobile marketing for pizza restaurants.