Category Archives: Knowledge base
March 29, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
Recently many companies have created marketing campaigns that include QR codes. These are literally bar codes that people can scan in order to receive a coupon to their phone, connect to a website, or show a picture. Sounds very good… in theory.
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.
March 2, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
Reuters recently released an article entitled “Cellphone calls alter brain activity: study”, discussing a study where 47 people were given brain scans while a cellphone was turned on next to their ear for 50 minutes. A control group with a cellphone next to their ear that was turned off was also scanned. The study was designed to investigate how the brain reacts to electromagnetic fields caused by wireless phone signals. The study found that “glucose metabolism (a sign of brain activity) increases in the brain in people who were exposed to a cellphone in the area closest to the antenna,” according to Dr. Nora Volkow of the National Institute of Health, whose study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Reuters)
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!
February 11, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
For the average American man, the Super Bowl is a symbol of athleticism, team work, and also a great time to make some side cash betting on whether the Packers will beat the Steelers. For the average American women, the Super Bowl is a great excuse for a party that everyone is sure to attend, and a chance to swap cheese dip recipes. For marketers, the Super Bowl exists solely as a basis for the wonderful commercials and ad campaigns that go along side it.
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.
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January 26, 2011 by Jessica Zorawski
You’ve probably heard that over 90 percent of text messages are opened. This is a statistic that is proven over and over again by numerous studies and is pretty much a matter of fact these days. For marketers and business owners new to SMS marketing, this fact is comforting and encouraging.
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.
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by Jessica Zorawski
In school, marketers learn a variety of different promotional channels they can potentially use to reach their customers. Traditional channels include T.V., radio, billboard, telemarketing, and newspaper. With T.V., you can really only estimate the number of people that will actually see your ad, and nowadays with TiVo and new ways to avoid commercials, the intended effect of your ad diminishes further. Radio, where it’s also hard to calculate the number of listeners that truly engage with an ad, is still a pretty viable marketing channel, one that mixes quite easily with mobile actually. Billboard? Same as radio. Marketing educators now need to get with the times and update their curriculums to include online and mobile advertising.
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.
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