Archive for the ‘Mobile Marketing Tips’ Category

One of the great things about text message marketing is that you can reach your customers when they are most likely to buy.  That’s why Subway does all of its text messages with us at 11:30 am when its opt-in customers in the office or out on the work site are starting to get hungry for lunch.

A quick look at the statistics below show that dining for breakfast and lunch is far more impulsive than dinner.  I’d say the same for items like ice cream, yogurt, and other snacks which tend to be even more of an impulse buy.

Eating out for dinner is more of an event and consumers do tend to plan such events out earlier than their lunch and breakfast plans.

While there’s no exact time that is best to send a text message for a restaurants, I’m going with 11:30 am for lunches and 4:30 pm for dinners.  The greater the cost of the restaurant, the earlier I’d send it for dinners.  Experiment with different times and different offers and see what works best for your restaurant.

Given the popularity of mobile and restaurants, it’s important that you make the right decision on the best time to text.

 

If you are debating whether you need a mobile website or not, just check out these facts and you should be assured that it’s time to get one.

One added benefit of having a mobile website is that you will rank higher in Google if you have one.  If consumers have a good user experience when visiting, you’ll get more return visits and less bounces.  All this leads to higher rankings for your mobile site…and more business for you.

Image from Google 2012 study demonstrating mobile searcher preferences

Super Bowl Sunday requires some serious flour power at pizza restaurants across America.

The National Restaurant Association said that 55% of Super Bowl viewers order food from restaurants and 65% of them pick pizza.  For most pizza restaurants, that means that Super Bowl Sunday will mean twice as many pizzas as their next biggest day of the year.

Last year, Pizza Hut and Domino’s sold 2 million and 1.2 million pizzas respectively on the day of the biggest game of the year. Papa John’s sold more than 1 million pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday topping its 940,000 that it sold on Super Bowl Sunday in 2010.

Papa John’s Gives Away Free Pizza on Coin Flip

This year, however, Papa John’s has cooked up a new promotion in an attempt to top 2011’s sales.  If you go to the Papa John’s website, you can choose the outcome of the coin toss if you are a member of Papa John’s Rewards.  If the majority of Americans choose the outcome of the coin toss prior to the start of the Super Bowl, Papa John’s will give away one large one-topping pizza plus a two-liter Pepsi MAX to its Papa John’s Rewards members.

If you like to gamble based on historical outcomes, this is not the best place to do so.  In the first 45 Super Bowls, heads holds a slim 23-22 lead so it must be the year for tails, right?  Interestingly, the NFC team has won the coin toss for 14 consecutive years.

A coin flip that matches the choice of the fans is going to mean that Papa John’s employees are going to be flipping a lot more free pizzas in February.  And, Papa John’s hopes that its Rewards members will be flipping out if they win.

Despite the potential cost of the free food, Papa John’s online promotion and television commercials starring Peyton Manning and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis are helping it build its database of email addresses and mobile phone numbers.  A mushrooming database for email and mobile marketing is the result of savvy efforts such as this.

Private Stores Playbook for Pizza Sales

But, it isn’t just the large pizza chains who are trying to earn a larger slice of the super-size Super Bowl pie.  Local pizza restaurants like Main Line Pizza in Wayne, Pennsylvania, are also getting into the act.  Last year, single location store Main Line Pizza offered a Super Bowl party platter via its text message marketing and received an 11% return rate.

“That blew me away,” said Robert Saionz, owner of Main Line Pizza.

“It has been very effective,” said Jennifer Saionz who handles the marketing for Main Line Pizza and creates the text message promotions.

Jennifer said that the 84444.com text message marketing company that it uses has packages as low as $45 per month for up to 1000 text messages, thus making mobile marketing the most inexpensive advertising that it does.

Main Line Pizza builds its database through store-front signage, stickers on its pizza boxes, and by offering an immediate 10% discount for any new customer that opts-in to its database and shows the text message.

Taking Action on Super Bowl Pizza Sales

Super Sunday is the biggest day of the year for many things: hours spent watching television; dollars wagered; pizza sales.  While it’s probably too late for your restaurant to purchase a $3 million spot in the Super Bowl, there’s still time to set up a text message marketing promotion to have a spectacular Super Sunday in pizza pie sales.

 

Text message marketing by radio stations has been a big part of our business at Advanced Telecom Services and 84444.com. That’s why Radio Ink magazine asked us to pen an article about the types of text messages that radio stations use.

Read the article in Radio Ink about radio text message marketing by Advanced Telecom Services’ president Bob Bentz.

Reaching her requires an opt-in

Text message marketing is just one element of the mobile marketing pie.

Sure, there are sexier forms of mobile marketing like apps.  Smartphone users love apps and when they are well done, they can offer some cool and crafty features.  Apps can also keep consumers coming back for more.

It is the ubiquity of text messaging that makes it such a powerful element in the mobile marketing universe.  In addition to having a mobile optimized web site, businesses need to offer text message marketing.

Text message marketing is an inexpensive way to reach consumers with any kind of mobile phone in a way that is immediate and time-sensitive.

Text messaging is a great way to promote immediacy to your message.  You can reach the consumer when he or she is most likely to buy.  A restaurant, for example, can send a text message at 11:30 am just when people are starting to get hungry at work.

Building a Database for Text Message Marketing

But, the key to any text message marketing program is the opt-in.  Obtaining the opt-in from a consumer is the heavy lifting part and the most daunting part of text message marketing.

“We often get people calling our office and wanting to send a text message to all of the citizens in Chicago, for example,” said Bob Bentz, president of Advanced Telecom Services.  ”But you need to obtain a bonafied opt-in before you send anybody a promotional text message.”

Once you get an opt-in, usually through an interactive text message promotion, you can send broadcast text messages to that consumer in the future.  A legitimate opt-in can also be created via other means.  Advanced Telecom Services, for example, provides a widget for companies to insert on its web site to obtain an opt-in.  When the consumer opts-in via the widget, the consumer information is transferred directly to the 84444.com do-it-yourself text message marketing web site.

“The open rate for text alerts is extremely high,” said Neil Strother of ABI Research.  ”If you can get enough phone numbers and set them up on text alerts, it can be very effective, but you need to send a limited number out to ensure that they are relevant.”

At 84444.com, we continue to tell our customers of the importance of using embedded links in their text message marketing reply and broadcast messages.  An embedded link is nothing more than including a URL in the text message.  When an embedded link is used, the consumer with a smartphone can simply touch it to access the content; if he has a feature phone, he will need to go out on the mobile web to obtain the content contained within the URL.

If there was ever any doubt that a lead from a mobile web site was of higher quality than one to an internet web site, check out the statistics on click through rates from mobile sites versus internet sites.  Unfortunately, banner ads on traditional internet web sites are becoming increasingly invisible.

Entertainment seems to work best when the marketer promotes on a mobile web site.

performed worse.

Are you a member of a text message service and don’t want to receive the messages any more?  It’s easy to unsubscribe.  Just reply with STOP and you’ll no longer be part of the database.  This work for both premium SMS and standard rate services like those offered here on 84444.com.

One of the great things about our 84444.com platform is that it automatically removes your subscriber if they reply with one of the keywords like STOP.  This makes it easy on you to spend your time marketing the services and not bothering with manual removal of opt-out customers.

 

Short codes enable retailers to keep in touch with customers and prospects via text message marketing.  Short codes enable the retailer to establish two way conversation with the people that matter the most–the customers.

It is important to remember several factors when considering a text message marketing program for your retail store.

• Mobile interaction is not a stand alone activity for a retailer.  You need the right marketing mix.  A savvy retailer leverages his print, radio, television, online, and outdoor advertisements by making them come alive and become interactive with short code marketing.
• It is vital to respect the mobile subscriber’s right to privacy.  An effective short code marketing plan will always gain permission from the consumer through an effective opt-in before sending broadcast text messages in the future.
• Under no circumstances should a retailer purchase a list of cell phone numbers despite the opt-in claims that may be made regarding the list.  The last thing you want to do is alienate potential customers with unwanted and unsolicited promotional text messages.
• Broadcast text messages should always offer some value to the consumer.  Simply sending a reminder of your retail store is not enough and may cause consumers to opt-out of your program.
• The Mobile Marketing Association recommends that a retailer send no more than 2 purely promotional messages per week on average.

Radio stations have a real opportunity if they choose to use it:  sell text message marketing services to its advertisers.

Radio stations can earn more money with text message marketing.  This is the premise of the new article by Bob Bentz that is in RadioInk Magazine.

Check out Bob’s article at Radio Ink.

And start earning more revenue for your radio station today with radio mobile marketing by following Bob’s helpful hints.