Text Messaging Marketing

Here are the results of a fellow SMS (short message service) marketing provider for your review. I chose this because of the cool video and the incredible illustrated results (which also supports my results nationally)  They are as follows:

In June 2009, the Shedd Aquarium needed to drive significant awareness and visitors to the premiere of a new aquatic show, Fantasea, in the renovated Oceanarium. Campaigns were created across multiple media channels, including a contest to win exclusive VIP tickets to the show. The Shedd team wanted to test the overall effectiveness and consumer preferences of different marketing tactics, specifically the Web versus SMS text messaging. Shedd selected a platform that starts at $500 to manage the SMS text messaging campaign and measure conversion rates.  Take a look below at the commercial that was ran utilizing text message marketing:

A Television commercial was created that aired on the four major networks (NBC, ABC, Comcast and FOX). Each commercial was the same except for the call to action to enter the contest.

• Three stations asked viewers to go to a website to enter the contest.
• The fourth station asked viewers to text the word FOX to 69866.

Once a viewer texted in, they received a message asking them to respond with their email address and zip code to officially enter.

Results
When Shedd compared the entries received at the end of the promotion, they were amazed at the results:

• The TV ad with an SMS call-to-action generated 325% more contest entries than any other call-to-action.
• SMS entries made up 52% of the total contest entries, despite only running in 25% of the ads.
• When Print and Outdoor were added in, SMS entries still made up more than half of all total respondents to the contest.

“Mobile text messaging has been working well for Shedd Aquarium and after results like this, we continue to think strategically about how to use SMS,” said Jay Geneske, Marketing Strategy, Shedd Aquarium. “Mobile Commons makes it extremely easy to setup and run campaigns, and the direct CRM integration allows us to be smart about the data.”

So there you have it.  Mobile Commons was the provider of this service and they did a great job.  However, I know some of you are thinking your need to do a commercial, buy air time (on 4 stations), employ funny looking  kids and pay them a royalty for every showing of the commercial,  swim with the dolphins and manatees pay Mobile Commons a  nice retainer, integrate this with that and the kitchen sink to get results.  Hell… anyone can do this with money.

I am here to tell you that you do not need all of this to create highly targeted clients or customers to help you generate more revenue for your business.  This can be put in place in a matter of minutes.  You simply need to do the following:

1. Find a text message provider who will give you unlimited messages and subscribers with a low monthly fee (like $49 or $30 for non profits from Text Marketing Media).
2. You need to think of a short code you want to represent your business.
3. Take that short code and add it to all of your existing marketing.
4. Train your staff to promote the benefits of joining your customer loyalty or V.I.P. program (provide an awesome offer or promotion).
5. Place signs, fliers and table tents where they can been seen while in your establishment
6. For those of you who  have high foot traffic you can implement proximity marketing using a Bluetooth device.
7. Get creative on your offers and if things are not working look at your overall service and or business (don’t shoot the messenger/text messaging platform but the the message).
8. Promote to your client base, however be very responsible with your client’s access and time.
9. Take exceptional care of your clients and customers, because as fast as they can come…the can go!

If you do all the above you are on your way to establishing a plan to improve your business and be another text messaging marketing success story.  For more information on how this can work for you, watch the video on www.TextMarketingMedia.net

Technorati Tags: mobile advertising, Mobile Phone Marketing, Proximity Marketing, sms, sms advertising, SMS Marketing

Text Message Marketing in my opinion is a must have and can be applied to any business or service. Text Solutions can be put in place in 2 minutes. However, even though it is rather simple to implement, it will require some time to build the list of highly targeted clients/customers who want what you have to offer.

Technorati Tags: best advertising, mobile advertising, small business advertising, sms advertising, text message marketing quick tip, text messaging