Most business that utilize applications already have a text message list, and rightfully so. The two go hand-in-hand. One of the easiest ways to get people to sign up for your application is by sending out a text to your opted-in loyal customer group, with a link in the message that leads people to the downloadable app. Also, you can set up a keyword specifically dedicated to getting people signed up for the list, another way to promote your brand or business. You could host a campaign pushing people to text APP to 46786 to get the link sent to them directly, enabling you to easily track the results of who downloaded the app and when.

Depending on the device, once your customers click on the link, it will take them to their mobile browser and to the appropriate page to download the app. This page varies by phone. If they are downloading an iPhone app, it will take you to the app store where you will be given instructions on how to install the app. If they have an Android, they will arrive at the iTunes store and can look at the app from here.

The important thing to remember is that text marketing is not just a single, stand-alone marketing medium like T.V. or radio. It can actually attract people to your other marketing forms, and it can precisely track the interaction that consumers have with it and your advertisements.

The great thing about texting is that it allows you to communicate with your customers before and after they leave your location. This means you can truly lengthen the experience that customers have with your brand. For example, if you are a clothing store, you could send a text message to a customer right after they leave your store to tell them that you found an item that they wanted, and that you put that item on hold for them. Another example could be to send out a text message when you receive new inventory. This can be especially useful for highly targeted groups, meaning a portion of your list that you know loves shoes would be pleased to learn about a new arrival.

Another great benefit that text message marketing adds to customer service is that it can be used to measure the level of customer service being provided. You can simply run a quick survey immediately after a customer visits your facility and ask them about the attention they received.

The time’s, they are a’ changing’ and falling behind on new marketing trends will only cause repercussions as the rest of your industry moves forward. We highly suggest connecting to your consumers via the mode of communication they like best: texting.

The first point that the article addresses is what we in the industry call a “call-to-action”, referring to the statement made in your advertising that is supposed to result in an action from the consumer. The article urges the reader to make this call-to-action prevalent, but doesn’t explain this important advice in detail. Let’s take a look at IHOP’s hit slogan from 2004, “Come hungry. Leave happy”. There is a clear action statement here, which says, “ Come to our restaurant, eat, and you will leave happy.” For a marketing campaign to be successful this same slogan should be used across all forms of marketing, from billboard, to TV, to a text message that enters one’s inbox. This unity across all platforms increases the effect it has on the consumer, since it has a greater chance of residing in one’s memory.

Along these lines, we like to stress that you should be using your text message marketing platform to help gage the usage of other marketing mediums. You can repeat the same slogan but just have a different keyword for TV, billboard, and radio. With these varied keywords, you’ll be able to see which form of advertising is the most successful, so that next time, you know how best to invest your marketing dollars. This is one of the greatest benefits of having a text message marketing campaign, one we highly suggest you take advantage of to monitor the interaction that your target market has with you advertising mediums.

The next point that the article mentions is the current perception of some that a text message marketing campaign is a onetime communication tool for events, in lieu of a long term marketing medium. Many companies are missing out by not seeing text message marketing as a long term marketing strategic communication tool. The best part about mobile is that it allows you to converse with your customers the way that they converse in real life. A TV commercial and a billboard don’t allow for conversation, whereas sending a text message saying “How was your last experience at our store? Anything we can improve on?” gives you much more insight as to what your consumer is really thinking, something that marketers are continually trying to track.

Another mistake that companies make is to choose a text message marketing campaign based on price. We believe that you should choose your text message marketing provider based on the quality of their database and software, and the budget for your text message marketing campaign should be based on its ability to reach your customer. The great thing about Opt It’s software is that you can keep an extremely close eye on the interaction your consumer’s is having with the system, so you can measure its effectiveness much better than any other marketing form, justifying its price and proving its value in your marketing mix.

The next point is a clear rule of thumb we often stress to our customers- don’t send a text message each day, it’s simply too much. Daily messages result in annoyed customers, a marketing message with a decreasing value and ultimately, people opting out of your list. We recommend sending 4-6 general messages a month. If there is a need for more, make sure they’re delivered to a more targeted list that clearly understands and/or wants more messages.

Lastly, anything that you use to brand yourself, from a TV ad to a 160- character message, must align with your overall tone. If you are a luxury brand, you should not shorten words or use text talk like “G2G but c u there” to fit into one text message. Read the message outloud to imagine what it sounds like to your customers to make sure the intended tone is clearly transferred.

We hope you’ll take these points into consideration for your text campaign. If you do, we’re sure you will be able to see the clear benefits of them very shortly.

The study used “functional magnetic resonance imaging” or MRI, to pin point the specific parts of the brain that cry out for nicotine. In order to gather data, Elliot Berkman, a University psychology assistant professor, choose a text message marketing platform like Opt It’s. He selected text over handing out PDA’s to all participants because “such devices are also relatively costly, since palmtop devices typically used for ecological momentary assessment can cost more than $300 each, while 86 percent of U.S. residents already have cell phones and 91 percent of those are SMS-enabled.” (Emily Falk, University of Michigan.)

The research study was able to gather facts on how many cigarettes were smoked each day, and also information on the associated emotions and behaviors. What they found is that when an individual is craving a cigarette, they need to do something that they consider self-controlling, and sending a text message is a self-controlling action. Study findings suggest that the behavior of texting may help ward off a smoker’s impulse to smoke.

The research scientists involved in the study praised the text messaging system because they feel it is a mode of communication that is very intuitive, that people are used to writing their emotions or thoughts within this intuitive means of communication, and that people always have their cell phones on them, which is ideal for a study that needs to gather information on a 24-hour basis.

Nowadays, things have changed. Does anyone even remember what pay phones are or that back in the day, you had to return home to make a call on your landline? Not really, and especially not if you’re a tweens, teens, or young adults. Conversations take place via Facebook chat, BBM, instant messaging on Gmail or MSN messenger, or by text messaging. Along these lines, the Today show ran a recent story entitled “The death of the telephone.”

Since 2007, the length of a call has been steadily declining and is half of what it used to be. Voicemail? It’s pretty certain that if you leave a voice message, it will not get checked. Why is this? That’s a great questions and one that the Today show decided to investigate. They questioned three twenty-something college students who said that they liked that you can control your conversation better through this communication medium. With text messaging, they can take their time to reply and strategize as to the best possible answer to a tricky question, whereas when on a call, they would have to respond immediately. One of the participants even commented that he thinks he sounds “better” via text.

Times are a’changin’, and since the young are an indication of trends to come, this is one trend that is not stopping. We suggest joining the massive conversation taking place via text messaging as soon as possible.

http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/03/10/6218785-dont-like-to-call-youre-not-alone?GT1=43001

There are limitations with QR codes for many reasons. People must have a phone that has the capacity to hold applications, which is still only about 30 percent of the US market. Text messages are a much more common method of communication with 1.1 trillion SMS messages sent in 2010 in the United States, according to Informa. Nielsen reported this year that 90 percent of Americans send and receive messages. It is quite clear that you can reach a much larger portion of the population via text.

Another disadvantage within the application space of QR codes is that there is a lack of standardization. For example, if you were to create an application you would have to create several for various platforms. For example, Microsoft Tag only allows their users to access applications on their system. So your customers would need to understand which reader to use to be able to read the QR code, as well as which application to open, and when.

Since SMS has a wider reach, is easier for the greater population to use and is faster to access, it is a much more convenient way to communicate your marketing message to your target population.

Scientists that have analyzed these findings say that the study is inconclusive in proving in any way that the cellphone and wireless phone signals directly cause brain cancer, but that they do believe that they indicate that further studies should be done to better understand the brain’s reaction to wireless phone signals. A calming fact is that a person’s brain metabolic rate can normally fluctuate to even higher levels than found in study naturally, such as when a person is thinking.

The World Health Organization, the Federal Communications Commission, and the CTIA-The Wireless Phone Association, have all publicly stated since this article was published that the cell phone does not cause a public health risk. Funny enough, the scientist that conducted the study, Dr. Nora Volkow, has said that she isn’t taking any chances and now uses an ear phone to avoid having her ear directly next to her cell phone. At Opt It, we’re following the lead of the scientist, and we are sticking to texting whenever possible; now for more reasons than ever!

Pepsi understands this, and had developed a multichannel mobile campaign for the event in order to capitalize on the number of eyes glued to the game. According to Mobile Marketer, the campaign included a mobile website, an application for smart phone users, a scan able QR code for a Pepsi coupon, and an SMS experience. All of these initiatives were publicized on all pieces of advertisement.

A key target group for Pepsi throughout this campaign was Latinos, a group that is accustomed to using digital media on their phones. Pepsi’s goal was to engage them in the Pepsi Super Bowl experience as much as possible. There was actually a specific site made for Latinos in Spanish, and a call to action keyword labeled “FAMILIA”. For those that opted in to the keyword in Dallas, six had a chance to win tickets to the Super Bowl.

A few lessons to learn from Pepsi: Creating a marketing campaign around a popular event is a great idea. In, particular, it is an opportune time to accumulate information regarding your consumers while giving them a chance to win something. If Latinos are a part of your target market, try approaching them in Spanish. Even if you don’t have any Spanish speakers on your staff, Google Translator is pretty reliable with its translations. And last but not least, offering a truly valuable prize (in this case, Super Bowl tickets) will have people signing up for your text message list in droves.

What will comfort newbie’s to the world of SMS even more is a recent finding in a SinglePoint research study. This study found that 90 percent of text messages are read within 3 minutes of delivery! That’s truly amazing when you think about the possibilities this brings to your marketing campaign. If you own a restaurant and have a surplus supply of salad that needs to go by the end of the night, you have the comfort of knowing that if you send out a text message at 6:13pm, the moment that you realize the surplus exists, you could potentially have customers opening your doors at 7pm, showing their “free side salad with entrée” text message coupon you sent less than an hour before.

Compare this to email solicitations. Nowadays, most spam filters will keep an unsolicited email from ever reaching its destination. For the lucky few that do make it into your inbox, only 40 percent of these messages are actually read, according to SinglePoint.

Another SinglePoint finding indicates that 95 percent of existing mobile contracts have SMS built. This means chances are high that your target market will have SMS in their mobile contract, and your SMS marketing efforts have the ability to reach your consumers’ hands.

Studies show that as time goes by, 99 percent of text messages are read. Ninety-nine percent! There is literally no other marketing form that can say 99 percent of its ads or announcements are read. Mobile Marketer summarized these findings quite well when it said, “The universal accessibility and usage of SMS, combined with the ability to provide information in real-time, creates oppotunities for marketers.” Based on our experience here at Opt It, we’d add that in order to take full advantage of this opportunity, it must be matched by an imaginative creativity and an understanding of the tools on the market. Since Opt It Mobile 3.0 allows you to customize almost every message that your customers receive, it provides the full advantage you’re looking for; one that will allow your creative thoughts to fly directly to your target markets members’ inboxes.

Within online and mobile advertising, there are different categories and the effectiveness and reach of each of these varies. Take online for example. You can be online on your computer, laptop, or mobile phone. And each of these marketing channels will need a different approach to make sure consumers see your advertisements. The same goes for a mobile phone. You can either reach people by call, a text message, or online, if they have all of those features. The reality still remains that the vast majority of phones don’t have either the ability or the relevant plan to be online. However, almost all phones have the ability for you to call and text. Narrowing this down even further, a telemarketing call is a tried and tired practice. However, a permission-based text message is still warmly welcomed, and even requested, by consumers.

SMS messaging has the broadest reach of almost any communication and promotional channel. What’s more, it enables you to track the reach of other, more traditional forms of marketing. For example, during a radio ad you could do a contest promotion to win a prize, and ask people to text WIN to 46786. By doing so, you would be able to see how many people text in for this promotion, and then also have the opportunity to ask them to join your permanent list where you send out regular coupons or updates. You could run a similar campaign on a billboard ad, or use your billboard to ask people to text in their preferences regarding your products (with some sort of incentive), turning your billboard ad into a research point and also allowing you to see how many people text in.

All marketing forms add value to your business depending on your target market and campaign appropriateness. However, when it comes to accurately reaching the largest number of people at once, SMS marketing stands out of the crowd.