Mobile Marketing: It all begins with your database

Promoting your company’s products or services costs enough. It shouldn’t cost more to promote your promotions!

Wait a minute, what? Promote your promotions? It’s true, for any mobile marketing campaign to be effective, advertisers need to initiate customers to engage with their program. It’s called database-building, and it’s the most important part of any mobile campaign. The database is the list of current and

potential customers’ cell phone numbers that you will use to send future mobile coupons, special offers and other promotions. Without it, your mobile campaign can never get off the ground.

So how can you build a database? How can you entice customers t

o text in and be automatically entered into your database? Most importantly, how can you do it without adding to your company’s operating expenses?

TXTin Mobile Marketing has the answers. We at TXTin believe that a mobile marketing campaign, managed wisely and skillfully, will add to your bottom line without adding numerous promotional expenses to the list of financial obligations your company already faces. When you make the following list of five low-cost places to promote your text message marketing campaign part of your strategy, you will build the foundation you need to make your campaign a successful one.

• IN-STORE SIGNAGE

There’s no better way to capture an audience who like what you do than by connecting with them while they’re in your store.

• EXISTING ADS

Add an interactive element to your traditional advertisements by introducing your customers to your mobile campaign.

• SOCIAL MEDIA

Customers are already following you on Twitter and Facebook. Add another layer to that connection with mobile.

• YOUR WEBSITE

Don’t lose touch with any of the visitors to your website. Use mobile to connect with them any place, any time.

• EMAIL BLAST

People in your email database are already loyal customers. Reward them, and yourself, by adding the immediacy of mobile.

Engage customers while they are in your place of business.

People who are in your store, restaurants, pro shop or office are already showing an interest in your product or service. Utilize that relationship and generate a database of cell phone numbers for people who would also be most likely to return to your place of business.

Your in-store signage can range from a simple, self-printed cash register signs to professional printed wall posters. And don’t stop there – get creative and utilize specific promotional opportunities that are unique to your type of business. If you own a golf course, place the messaging on scorecards and golf carts. If you run a restaurant, apply the message to ketchup bottles or check tickets. And if you own a gym, add the messaging to business cards and member mailings. In any case, the promotional message can encourage customers to text in and join your mobile club, receive an on-the-spot discount, or join your list to receive future special offers via text message.

As evidence that in-store signage doesn’t need to be expensive nor professionally printed, consider the donut store chain in the Upper Midwest that hung hand-written signs at the cash register. The signs encouraged customers to text in by offering a free donut on the spot. At last count, the store had 900 cell phone numbers in its database, every one of them belonging to someone who’d already shown an interest in its products.

Messaging samples:

“Receive a free soft drink with today’s purchase when you text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Join our mobile club and receive great dinner discounts via text. To join, text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345 and save 50% on dinner. Tonight only!”

Add another layer to your existing ad campaign.

Whether you run print ads in the local weekly newspaper, or radio spots on the most powerful station in town, chances are you refresh your creative every week or two. When you do, capitalize on the branding that your traditional advertising is delivering by adding a quick line that encourages readers, listeners, or viewers to text in.

Print ads and direct mail are a great way to implement QR codes into your campaign, adding a track-able layer to your marketing efforts that until now didn’t exist. Likewise, adding a text message feature to your newspaper or magazine ads not only provides you with a chance to speak directly with interested customers, but it also sheds light on who is responding to your print ads and how effectively they’re working.

Since your print, digital, direct mail, radio and TV ads are less targeted than, say, an ad on your Facebook page, be sure to craft your mobile promotional message appropriately. Entice them with a special offer, giveaway, or membership in your mobile club – just make sure it’s relevant to your business. The key is building a database that helps you stay in touch with LIKELY customers. If you build a database by promising the chance to win $1,000, there’s little assurance that people responding even have an interest in your product or service. Just remember, when crafting your message, stay close to home!

Messaging samples:

“Join our mobile club and receive great discounts via text. To join, text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Get a 2-for-1 lunch coupon when you text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Save 20% on your purchase. Text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345 to receive your mobile coupon.”

 

Let your social network work for you.

From the people who “like” your company on Facebook to those who “follow” you on Twitter, chances are you’ve already got an online following. The question is, what are you doing to capitalize on it?

Social media sites are an effective way for you to stay in contact with customers, and a mobile campaign is the perfect way to do so. Add immediacy to your social media connections by inviting fans and followers to participate in your text message advertising promotion. Social media sites rely on your customers visiting the site, and many people are only weekly or even monthly visitors. By adding a text messaging element to your social media presence, you give this group of devoted fans an additional – more personal – way to stay in contact with you. More importantly, you provide yourself with a new, direct, and instant way to get your message to them by encouraging them to join your mobile club.

Utilizing Facebook status updates and Twitter messages is a no-cost way for you to let already-engaged consumers learn about your mobile campaign. It requires only minutes for you to post an update or send a message, and because of the nature of social media, the potential for it to spread is unlimited.

Messaging samples:

“Join our mobile club and receive great discounts via text. To join, text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345 and save 50% on dinner. Tonight only!”

“Surprise Sale at (your business name)! Text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345 to find out when it’s happening.”

Use your own website to its highest potential

Online banner advertising can get costly – unless you own the space on which you advertise. Such is the case with running a banner advertisement on your own little corner of the Internet. A banner advertisement on your home page lets you promote your mobile marketing campaign for free, without the restrictions of size or placement.

Since visitors to your site have a clear interest in your company, it’s a great way to connect with potential customers who are most likely to respond to future text message promotions. More importantly, it’s a great way for to ensure a connection with a potential customer who has already expressed an interest in what you do. Adding them to your mobile marketing database is a great way to ensure that you maintain an open line of communication.

Your website banner ad can assume any shape or size, whether posted as a simple text entry at the top of your home page or created as a traditional graphics-heavy ad. (Keep in mind that although creating a banner ad might require the know-how of a digital designer, the ad could also be utilized in other ways discussed in this book, including on your social media pages and as part of an email blast.)

Messaging samples:

“Join our mobile club and receive great discounts via text. To join, text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Get a 2-for-1 lunch coupon when you text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Save 20% on your purchase. Text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345 to receive your mobile coupon.

Use an existing database to create a new, more personal one.

Depending on the nature of your business, you may already use a database of email addresses to communicate with clients on a weekly, monthly or periodic basis. If you do, that’s great. Now maximize the potential of that database by encouraging recipients to stay in touch with you via text message.

Your mobile campaign promotion can be sent as the primary message of an email blast, or simply tagged on as a secondary message to an already-planned blast. Either way, you can be confident that your message will be reaching people who are interested in your product or service. Much like the benefits of coupling mobile marketing with your social media presence, text messages and email blasts are a great complement to one another. One an promote the other, and each can provide you with a line of communication and valuable information about your customer base.

The benefits of communicating with clients via text message over email are many. For starters, many email blasts miss their target because of spam filters. Others simply don’t get opened because some people tend to check their email less frequently than others. But text messages enjoy an open rate of 98%, and the personal nature of them increases the chance that the recipient will respond.

Messaging samples:

“Join our mobile club and receive great discounts via text. To join, text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Get a 2-for-1 lunch coupon when you text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345.”

“Save 20% on your purchase. Text ‘(your keyword)’ to 12345 to receive your mobile coupon.”