Text to Win: Why You Can’t Lose with This Promotional Tactic
Everybody loves to win a prize, and the customers whose phone numbers make up your mobile database are no different. In fact, by opting in they’ve made the first move. They’ve shown interest. And now, they’re waiting to hear from you!
Capture their attention with an always-popular chance-to-win offer. Mobile contests are one of the proven ways to take the database you’ve worked so hard to build and put it to good use. It doesn’t mean your business has to take the plunge and offer a prize valued at hundreds of dollars. In fact, if you employ a little creativity, you don’t really have to part with anything. Consider these mobile contests:
To create a sense of urgency:
• A bar owner with 250 numbers in his database sees a big college football game on the weekend schedule. Looking to fill seats for the game, he sends a message to everybody in the database on Friday afternoon that reads, “The first 50 people to get to The Bar before kickoff of the big game tomorrow gets their first beer on the house!”
To create a potential for big savings:
• A floral shop owner with 100 people in her database prepares for Mother’s Day by sending all 100 people the following message three days ahead of the holiday: “Stop by The Flower Shop and draw a number to see what percentage you’ll save on your Mother’s Day bouquet.”
To create a team-themed charity drive:
• A bowling alley manager fires off a message to all 200 people in her database with the following contest: “Our Mobile Club is driving to reach 1 million pins this year! We’re at 230,000 after last weekend. Come bowl and help us reach our goal. It’s for a great cause!”
And keep in mind that, while mobile contests are a great way to engage with people currently in your database, they’re also in building or adding to that database. Coke is the latest national company to run a contest with its “Twist, TXT, Win” campaign. Coke consumers can find an alphanumeric code under every Coke bottle cap and text that number in to see if they’ve won a prize. By doing so, they’re entered into Coke’s mobile database and become available to receive future messages.
What Coke does with that database remains to be seen. It will, ultimately, be faced with answering the same question you’re facing today. “I have my database, now what?” A contest is just one option, and if done right, it’s an effective one. No matter what type of excitement you want your mobile contests to create, the ultimate goal is that past customers become return customers. Get people excited. Create a sense of urgency. If possible, use timing to your advantage, as the bar and floral shop owners mentioned above did. And most importantly, be creative.
After all, everybody loves to win. Even you.
Need ideas on how you can create a mobile contest? Contact the experts at TXTin Mobile Marketing and learn how the TXTin platform features built-in tools to make it easy. Visit www.txtin.com or call 877-TXTIN-77.
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I have been very hesitant to give out my number for fear of privacy issues. I know they all say they won’t sell your number and all that, but I was still wary. I know the owner of my local whole-foods market and talked to him about how and why he was doing a contest and coupons this. He said it had been great for his business, especially during slow times. I trust him so I signed up. Hopefully I won’t be disqualified because I know him
I loved all of the examples you’ve provided. I didn’t realize there were so many ways to use one tactic so well! I’ll have to try building a mobile database for my photography studio. Maybe I could do a free printing offer.
Our bar just ran our first SMS campaign for a local band performance. Really amazing night, actually. Our message was, “Come see the SuperTargets LIVE and grab a free beer while you’re here!”
I’m wondering how something like this might work for a smaller business, like a consulting firm?
Maybe you could tell people to stop by the office for a discount on a product you guys sell? Do you do information products?
I love entering contests that take next to no energy to get involved in. A few years ago I won a few contests which I was entered into by entering my e-mail address into various website mailing lists that I frequented anyways. I ended up winning a variety of things, like some skateboard equipment, shirts, shoes (which were valued at around $100 dollars too!), and a few other things. It is nothing to extraordinary, but it is very cool to actually know that people can win things like this. Going from e-mail to signing up for cell phone alerts is simple enough, and pretty much works in the same way as well. By the way, I think the ideas you presented are great formulas for making a businesses mobile marketing campaign a bit more interesting then one would expect. They are all rather simple and psychologically inclined, but it works effectively for sure. So effectively that we continue to use the same methods of promote our own businesses in just about every way!