There are many advantages and obvious benefits to running this type of marketing campaign over more traditional methods, but here are what I consider to be the top six.

1. Open Rate and Response Rate

Statistics don’t lie. Text messages have a  [read more →]]]> Text marketing campaigns are becoming very common place in today’s retail and service sectors. From golf equipment shops to restaurants and from butchers to hardware stores, text marketing is becoming an essential marketing and advertising tool which companies dare not ignore.

There are many advantages and obvious benefits to running this type of marketing campaign over more traditional methods, but here are what I consider to be the top six.

1. Open Rate and Response Rate

Statistics don’t lie. Text messages have a 98% open rate. Mobile coupons and special offers sent by text message have a redemption rate of between 5% and 15% as compared to 1% and lower for traditional coupons. If you want your marketing message or special offer read and used, then text marketing out performs all others with quite a bit to spare.

2. Low Cost and High Return on Investment

Commercials, print ads, sponsorship and outdoor advertising can all be cost prohibitive for many bar those with lavish marketing and advertising budgets. Text marketing however has such low set up and running costs that campaigns can be launched and executed for a fraction of costs associated with the more traditional marketing channels.

With the cost effectiveness and high response rates of text marketing campaigns, there are simply no other marketing mediums out there that can touch it for return on investment.

3. Intimacy and Personalization

Your keys, your wallet and your phone – these are the only things that you never leave home without. The mobile phone is probably the most intimate object that a person owns in the fast moving digital age and few electronic gadgets have become as close a part of our daily lives than our mobile phone. Because mobile phones are such a personal part of our world, this form of mobile marketing has the potential to create a uniquely powerful impact on the recipient. Text messages can be personalized to the recipient and delivered to their pockets within seconds; no other form of marketing can achieve this level of intimacy and personalization.

4. Speed and Flexibility

We now live in the fast moving information age where circumstance and environment can change on a daily if not hourly basis. The modern business must be flexible and adaptable to keep pace with the change and so must their marketing campaigns. As there is virtually no lead time to text message marketing, campaigns can be conceived of and delivered to their target audience in a matter of minutes. Whether it’s driving footfall on a slow day or clearing stock before months end, the speed of a text message cannot be matched. Text marketing allows businesses to immediately respond to the events of the day or to a competitor’s special offer almost instantaneously.

5. Highly Targeted

The days when marketers could send out marketing messages into the ether in the hope that they would land on their target consumer are over. For any company with even one eye on costs it’s now essential that every marketing and advertising campaign they run is highly targeted. Marketing messages sent by text message are sent directly to the pockets of their target market and are opened within minutes and sometimes seconds. In addition to this, as these subscribers have already opt-ed in to receiving these marketing messages they are much more likely to purchase than the recipients of other types of marketing messages.

Traditional marketing took the carpet bomb approach where as text marketing takes the sniper approach. As a result of this no other form of advertising can compete with text message marketing when it comes to reaching the most highly targeted audience.

6. People Want Offers

Text marketing campaigns do not always have to contain an offer but the most effective generally do. In a recent survey 70% of consumers said they were happy to receive marketing text messages provided they were invcentivised and in control. According to another survey from the National Consumer Agency, 30 per cent more people are using coupons than in 2008 and mobile coupons have a much higher redemption rate. Now more than ever before people are demanding value and actively searching for deals and special offers. There is no quicker and easier way to deliver those special deals to consumers than through a text message.

So there it is the six main reasons why I believe that text marketing out performs all the traditional forms of marketing.

Brian Stephenson

Related Text Marketing Articles

This sort of sharing is not contained within the Facebook  [read more →]]]> You may believe that each social network is a sort of capsule of information that is contained in the one site and simply passed between members. For instance, if you post a funny comment on your Facebook status area, it can be passed or shared within your network, right? That isn’t where it ends, however, because your friends will have their own set of friends, who also share information widely too.

This sort of sharing is not contained within the Facebook site alone, however, because there are many easy ways to give links that take people outside of the site as well.

Here’s a good example: a friend of yours on Facebook has a very funny “vlog” (video blog) that he or she connects to their Profile. This means that their new vlogs show up on your newsfeed very often. You find one particularly amusing and click the “share” link that allows all of your friends to see it. Let’s say ten of those friends use the link to the vlog to head outside of the site and to the page where the vlog was initially posted. They see that they can share it with their LinkedIn peers, their Vimeo audience, and their Twitter followers too.

If they opt to do this they have created a massive web of connections for that one video, and the person who created it is going to benefit tremendously.

Beyond the Webs

This is only a small and relatively simple example of the ways that social networks can expand and communicate with a massive audience of fans and/or viewers.

When we said that the person who created the video will benefit from the sharing of the information, you may not understand what that means, but it is important that you do so.

The social networks are designed to function as a totally new form of communication. They use video, audio, and web content to inform people of almost anything imaginable. While we have shown that this can spread something all over the Internet and world without a lot of effort, it also means that such tactics can work on the local levels too.

Consider the many different local directory sites that are becoming a major tool for businesses and organizations operating in specific areas. The benefits from ranking highly or getting favorable comments from local clients, customers, individuals, etc. cannot be measured.

Get it from the Locals

We’ve all heard that when you are in a new place it is best to ask a real “local” where they would eat if they could choose from any restaurant in the region. The value of an informed local opinion is the same whether received in person or online. This is made even clearer when you understand that most “searches” for local services and products occur online too.

Consumers are looking for information directly from the Internet rather than printed phone directories or yellow page ads. They do this because it is easier to pop open a browser on a mobile device than it is to scout around for printed listings AND because most of the online information comes with user generated reviews as well.

For instance, let’s say that you are in a small town in upstate New York and you want to find a good pizza place. You could stop a local and ask, you could look for a phone booth with a phone book, or you could simply use your mobile device to “google” pizza in the town in question. You would get instant information and the added benefits of consumer opinions in the form of ratings and reviews through a range of local directory websites.

The world is going electronic and this means that the Web is everywhere. If you have a business, you need to be on the web too.

It is really quite astounding to realize just how much social media has changed our world and in what a short  [read more →]]]> How often do you tell someone to “google” a term or question? How often do you “friend” people on Facebook? Is part of any new professional relation the adding of that person to a LinkedIn network? If all of these things are familiar to you, it is because you are using the Internet and social media at an “average” amount.

It is really quite astounding to realize just how much social media has changed our world and in what a short period of time it has taken. Ten or twelve years ago you would have added someone to a rolodex file or your clunky cell phone’s speed dial. You would have added them to one of your email lists, and that would have been it! Today, one person may see you on Facebook news feeds, Google+ circles, LinkedIn updates, RSS feeds, and so much more.

What Social Media Means

While we understand that social media is a new way for people to communicate and to exchange information, we have yet to focus in on it as a way to earn income. This is not to say that people are not using social media in an amazing number of ways, but not everyone has mastered it as a form of strong business communication.

Is this due to the fact that the name is confusing? After all, “social” media makes us think it is about gossiping and chit chat rather than “business” media might. While the terminology can be misleading, it is not that factor that prevents more professionals from really getting all that they can from social networks. The biggest hurtle for many is simply that they don’t have the time.

Social Media Takes Time and Effort

This is the one thing that a lot of professionals dread about the use of social media networks, but which has to be overcome if they are to get the results. The reason that a lot of people frown over posting blogs, comments, updates, videos and other materials to their social pages is because they dislike all of the time it takes to post materials and to also give the kind of feedback and replies necessary to generate more interest.

For example, you might be a hair dresser who has found that social media is a fantastic way to tap into the “special events” markets like proms, weddings, and photo sessions. Each time you “tweet” about a special on a hair and makeup combination, you get results in the form of appointments and bookings. The problem is that you get Facebook comments thanking you for the work or comments on the videos you post at Vimeo, but you don’t have the time to respond to them all. This is costing you some possible clients and wasting opportunities for advanced benefits.

Choosing the Right Components

Fortunately, there are so many experts on Internet tools that it is relatively easy to find recommendations about the most effective tactics and techniques. For instance, it is possible for you to spend a few hours developing a website for your business or organization and to then link it to all of the various social networks as a way of streamlining the flow of communication. You could also create things such as blogs or forums that would allow you to interact in a much broader way through one type of popular social media.

Regardless of how you choose to use social media, the simple fact of the matter is that you MUST begin using it right away. It is a whole new language and form of communication, but it is becoming one of the essential and primary forms used by all.

Using email marketing software is an essential step when reevaluating and leveraging your MLM strategies. With the powerful tools of our multifaceted email campaign software, you get the best return possible on money invested in your direct marketing campaigns.  [read more →]]]> In a bad economy, email marketers need to be creative and resourceful. They need to avail themselves of every path, opportunity, and tool at their disposal, to not only remain in the game – but to win it as well.

Using email marketing software is an essential step when reevaluating and leveraging your MLM strategies. With the powerful tools of our multifaceted email campaign software, you get the best return possible on money invested in your direct marketing campaigns. You need to make each email campaign count, while increasing your conversion rates. Here are just some of the advantages that our software brings to the table today – improving your email marketing campaigns while greatly increasing your ROI.

Segmentation is vital to a campaign’s success. But many email marketers do not take the time and effort to use that knowledge effectively. Many marketers do not realize the value of segmentation. Whatever your expertise or comfort zone, you need to work on segmenting your database for optimal results.

With email marketing software, you can target the right people with right message. Breaking your data lists into: Age, Gender, Class, Income, Location, hobbies and purchase preferences are just a few of the countless ways we can split lists to give ourselves a greater chance of converting the curious to prospects – converting prospects to sales – to repeat satisfied purchasers, as we continue to build ongoing relationships with our recipients.

Social Media Integration

You need to be in it if you are determined to win it. No email marketing campaign software is complete without Social Media Integration. Smart email marketers know that they need social network integration. Email campaigns and social media work hand-in-hand, each helping promote online visibility.

Email marketing software seamlessly connects you with your clients and prospects. Create your campaign and insert social media links with just a click. Your recipients will then have the option, to add your email campaign to their social networking sites, on the fly.

Marketing Reports and Analytics

You cannot manage data that you have not measured. We are living in a diversified, multicultural universe. The Internet has opened the door to a global market never before realized. When marketing to such a gamut of personalities and cultures, every part of our campaign must be measured and tested. As one size does not fit all, one message does not have the same results.

A/B testing is comparing two campaigns going out to a divided recipient list. By changing several aspects of your campaign, you will soon discover which one is the most successful. Using this method to test your subject lines, design, content, or call to action, will quickly show the comparisons between campaigns in open clicks, links, and conversion rates. Adapting your campaign as you learn what to change is the key towards any successful email marketing campaign.

Tracking in Real Time gives your campaigns tracking stats with real-time behavioral patterns. This enables email marketers to understand and interpret the actions taken by their recipient in each campaign. This information can then be used to modify and target a well planned campaign that is not just engaging, but results in satisfying the recipient’s needs. With these advanced tracking reports, you can adapt and adjust your offers, tactics, and strategies, automatically boosting sales and profitability.

The sole focus of any email marketing campaign is to send out targeted, relevant messages, to receptive subscribers. For that to happen, one must know their audience, having the proper demographics and behavioral statistics in which to work. In today’s highly competitive market, every campaign is important. In a stressed and work oriented society, we are all suffering from an extraordinary lack of time. Lack of time always leads to impatience. Your email campaign may have just seconds to win or lose under those conditions.

Don’t play guessing games with your email marketing campaigns. Get the competitive edge you need to get your email marketing campaigns noticed, opened, and read.

Joe from www.perfect-email-marketing.com discusses how businesses can use email marketing as a powerful method for boosting your online business and skyrocketing your ROI.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

More Email Marketing Articles

SMS Marketing is growing as best method of marketing world widely. SMS marketing is first time available in market in 1996 and now this is one of easiest way to connect with people. In SMS marketing, bulks of numbers are gathered to send a message to all of them. This all done by automated software and anyone can get them from internet.

Now days are going to more competitive day by day and business needs to be solid marketing in  [read more →]]]>

SMS Marketing is growing as best method of marketing world widely. SMS marketing is first time available in market in 1996 and now this is one of easiest way to connect with people. In SMS marketing, bulks of numbers are gathered to send a message to all of them. This all done by automated software and anyone can get them from internet.

Now days are going to more competitive day by day and business needs to be solid marketing in cheap way and that directly connect to people. In this approach, SMS marketing was came in tradition. But before SMS marketing there are need of legal actions too, before getting this marketing as spamming.

SMS marketing is related to only related to mobile offers or ring tones, it is more than that including awareness of education program, new business offers and local activities around you.

SMS marketing is also good for getting lots of feedback from users at minimum time. You can give your contact at end of message to give them your feedback. In SMS marketing there is some limitation also like SMS message length, its legal action too, common language support, time and targeted user and area too. All these actions are done by software and would create leads for all activities.

SMS marketing contains much type of activities that may engage user to give them feedback in response of marketing. Some of are voting, win contest, promotional plans and times vouchers.

By voting marketing, you may engage your customer to get them their taste about any product, or feedback about their services. Time vouchers are best to give them promotional and new plans time to time.

In all other marketing services, SMS marketing is shortest way to reach their customer in any region by mobile network provider. Any one of us can use SMS gateway to do marketing at low cost and low price. SMS gateway is used to send and receive SMS without any help of mobile phone, so SMS marketing services provider use SMS gateway mechanism to fulfill client’s requirement. To get good response from targeted user of any area or region, message should be short and clear, otherwise it would loss its importance.

SMS marketing has great importance in some region where numbers of mobile users are more then other. For example china is at one place in using mobile services just because of its huge population. At Second place India introduces itself maximum number of using mobile services. Services of mobile provider also have great effect on SMS marketing also.

There are lots of companies that giving SMS marketing established worldwide and giving their best services to their clients. SMS marketing is getting popular in many regions like Pakistan, South Africa and India also. In Middle East region SMS marketing are going to popular rapidly. SMS marketing UAE based companies are growing with their strategies and plans. There are lots of UAE SMS marketing companies IN MENA region and you may find their name and contact details over internet.

Find More SMS Marketing Articles

Introduction

Short Message Service (SMS) is a wireless service available on digital mobile networks. It enables the transmission of text messages between mobile phones and other systems such as electronic mail, paging and voice mail. Up to 160 characters can be sent and received through the network operator’s message system to the mobile phone (Gustafsson & Lenman 2007).

SMS is essentially similar to paging. Paging is the process of a message, which consists of a few digits typically  [read more →]]]> Understanding SMS Marketing

Introduction

Short Message Service (SMS) is a wireless service available on digital mobile networks. It enables the transmission of text messages between mobile phones and other systems such as electronic mail, paging and voice mail. Up to 160 characters can be sent and received through the network operator’s message system to the mobile phone (Gustafsson & Lenman 2007).

SMS is essentially similar to paging. Paging is the process of a message, which consists of a few digits typically a phone number that the user is then expected to call, to be received by a one-way numeric pager. A pager (sometimes called a beeper) is a simple personal telecommunications device for short messages. A one-way numeric pager can only receive a message (paging) consisting of a few digits, typically a phone number that the user is then expected to call. While paging requires the pager to be active and within range, SMS messages do not require the mobile phone to be active within the range as they will be held for a number of days until the phone is active and within range. SMS messages are transmitted within the same cell or to anyone with roaming capability. They can also be sent to digital phones from a web site equipped with a PC Link or from one digital phone to another. In addition to SMS gateway is a web site that lets the user enter an SMS message to someone within the cell served by that gateway or acts as an international gateway for users with roaming capability.

The SMS is a store and forward service. In other words, short messages are not sent directly from sender to recipient, but via an SMS Center. Therefore there is a need for a network operator. Each mobile telephone network that supports SMS has one or more messaging centers to handle and manage the short messages.

The SMS features confirmation of message delivery. This means that, unlike e-mailing users do not simply send a short message and trust and hope that it gets delivered. Instead the sender of the short message can receive a return message back notifying them whether the short message has been delivered or not.

Short messages can be sent and received simultaneously with GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) voice, data and fax calls. This is possible because whereas voice, data and fax calls take over a dedicated radio channel for the duration of the call, short messages travel over and above the radio channel using the signaling path. As such, users of SMS rarely, if ever, get a busy or engaged signal as they can do during peak network usage times (SPG Media Group PLC 2008).

According to the same study above ways of sending multiple short messages are available. SMS concatenation (stringing several short messages together) and SMS compression have been defined and incorporated in the GSM SMS standards.

The introduction of standardized protocols such as SIM (A small smart card type device that has details of the mobile subscriber including public telephone number and the numbers required by the network to recognise and authenticate the subscriber), Application Toolkit and the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) contribute to an increase in messaging usage by providing a standard service development and deployment environment for application developers and business partners. These protocols also make it easier for users to reply to and otherwise access messaging services through custom menus on the phone. While these protocols are only a means to an end and not new messaging destinations or services, they are likely to lead to a 10-15% uplift in total SMS volumes (SPG Media Group PLC, 2008). Some companies could reach more successful results if manage the SMS marketing processes successfully.

Today, for example, to use SMS, MMS, e-mail, instant messaging (IM), voice mail, and so on, end users must be aware of the underlying technology and their intended recipients’ capabilities. Studies and market trends show that messaging solutions must be easier to use if they are to facilitate communication and increase traffic. This will form the base of a successful mobile marketing campaign constructed on SMS.

SMS Marketing under Marketing Overview

SMS has grown into a mainstream communication tool for consumers, reaching them via SMS marketing has become increasingly important strategy for businesses. Whether between two people planning to meet up or a broadcast message to thousands of users, more and more customers are becoming converts every day, and savvy marketers realize text messaging is a great way to quickly communicate with their audience. For this reason; text messaging is increasing at an enormous rate. One of the primary reasons behind this growth is that text messaging has become increasingly used as a business tool (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009).

The trend in Jupiter Research shows that SMS Marketing is quickly surpassing e-mail technology as a tool for marketers and also for customer relationship management. Moreover; Jupiter Research says three billion coupons issued to cell phone users will generate sales of almost billion by 2011 (textsmsmarketing 2006).

Types of SMS Marketing

Types of SMS Marketing can be defined in three different contexts in general; Purchase Context, Technical Context and User Context. These contexts are mostly given preference while enterprises practising the SMS Marketing efforts.

Purchase Context defines SMS as a product based on the way it is purchased. On the other hand, technical context defines the types of SMS Marketing from the mobile operator point of view while user context defines it from the benefit the SMS provides to the target customer. The common point of these types is that the payment type of these SMS can be defined based on the request of the buyer (the sender). The company that wants to send SMS can chooses either to pay the price of the SMS itself or to charge the price to the target customer.

Purchase Context

In SMS marketing campaigns, there are two different SMS methods as a product; a company can either choose to make a deal with the carrier for a promised amount of SMS for a given time (mostly 1 year). This is called bulk SMS. On the other hand, the company can choose to buy SMS packages that are being sold by the carrier in specified amounts like 1.000 or 500.000 or it can be included on the standart price numbers of dispatch etc. This is called piece SMS.

Marketing strategy is obtained by making corporate SMS purchasing agreements either with Mobile operators or with the infrasturcture providers or different SMS reseller companies. The more amounts of SMS purchased, the less money is paid for an SMS. While it is more profitable to buy over million quantities directly from the GMS operator (bulk SMS), it can be a better decision to buy from the providers or resellers since they buy from the operators with over million quantites and resell them in small quantitities with better price (piece SMS). This also creates a new intermediate trade of SMS. In addition to this; wide extensive solution partnership agreements are available among company. At that time; more services are given in a lot of case such as SMS, logo, melody, conversation, entertainment, competition, game, etc.

Technical Context

There are three types of SMS from the technical perspective. These are one way, single shot and two way SMS’s (see in Table 2).

One way SMS is an SMS that sent by the sender to the target customers. With this type of SMS an answer from the target customer is not expected and most of the time not allowed. So there is no customer interaction.

One way Fast SMS (Single Shot) is an SMS which is sent by the sender to the target customer and an answer from the target customer is not allowed. The most important feature of this type is that the SMS is valid for a defined time (mostly a short period like 3 minutes). Becuse of this feature, the SMS must be sent immediately after it is triggered. This type is mainly used to send passwords that are valid for the defined time (Like a password that will be used by the target customer to log in into his/her different accounts over the internet). This type of SMS is not blocked by the filters meaning that a customer can filter the SMS that is coming from a certain sender or number by sending that message to a special filter list of the mobile operator. But this filter is not used for single shot SMS.

Two Way SMS is an SMS sent by the sender to the target customer and an answer from the target customer is expected if he/she wants to join or use the services/benefits that are offered. Since there will be a client interaction, the SMS number that is used to sent this type of SMS must be configured to recieve SMS that will be sent by the customers.

User Context

Premium SMS gives clients the option to earn money on certain text messages and content for which consumers will pay to send or receive. Clients can hold voting contests, like those on many reality TV shows, daily horoscopes, a VIP program, or other instances where new information is time-sensitive, making that information valuable to the consumer.

Mobile Coupons will benefit businesses and customers alike-promoting spending while saving money for consumers. In addition, the convenience and “green” factor (no excess paper or ink needed to produce them) of digital coupons, such as mobile coupons, make them especially appealing to consumers today.

Text-To-Screen is a premium service that allows marketers to create polls and quizzes especially for a particular event.

Marketers have a way to ensure event attendees’ interest while adding excitement to shows, parties, major sporting events or a regular evening at a movie theater. A marketer can use giant video screens that are traditionally at these places to advertise a poll or quiz, compel the crowd to participate and then post the results on that same screen in real time. (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009)

The SMS Campaign

The SMS system is a small piece of mobile communication and marketing system. For this purpose, like every marketing campaign, SMS campaign should be carefully planned. There are 3 processes that a campaign manager should plan in order to create a successful SMS campaign.

Every process has its own individual approaches. In step I, campaign manager should carefully plan the target segment, the message that will be addressed and configuring the body of the SMS based on this message.

In step II, the carrier must be chosen in order to reach the targeted segment based the technical and financial criterias. All the replies must be carefully viewed.

After sending the message, an analysis of the study must be made for performance measurement (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing, mobilesmsmarketing.com 2009).

In order to create an SMS marketing campaign, a database must be created that consist of the phone numbers of the clients that are targeted. A member or commitment list is being constituted by the enterprises with the help of clients’ needs. However; we cannot observe the same situation at the private sector. The companys, which can constitute their lists, can add new numbers to these lists by using different channels. The channels can be;

inside the company – the companies own database or affilitaions database outside from the company – databases that can be provided from consulting firms, SMS operators, yellow pages etc.

This process is sensitive because of the requirements and outlines defined by the law. Both the individual numbers at the newspapers and the other numbers, which are used by institutional enterprises, help to increase the quantity of the numbers at these lists in the behalf of request or guidance.

SMS Marketing Implications

In the past; the companies, which want to communicate with their customers, were using postcards, celebration cards, fax and telephone. These ways were increasing the costs and were creating problems for transportation. Most of the cards were not arrived to the addresses and the companies were not controlling these limitations. By the use of corporate SMS service, the companies began to trace whether the SMS was received by the user. Furthermore; considerably higher profits were provided at the cost side. One of the most attractive sides of this application for the companies is the high returns of the customers, who are taken these messages.

Corporate SMS Working Process

Client applications have a speciality of working as internet-based environment and desktop execution with local database. The applications, which are served as free for customer usage, can be accumulated in three main titles: Desktop SMS application, web-based Web SMS application and Office SMS application, which can be provide sending SMS from directly Microsoft Excel. After controlling SMS sending offer from these applications out of institutional servers, SMSs are transferred on Internet at the same time to the related mobile operator. Then; these SMSs are transmitted to the mobile phones.

The corporate SMS system can be classified in 3 categories;

First one is the public enterprises, in which SMS application is an indispensible requirement for each company. For instance; small announcements can be transferred to the people by associations, labor unions, foundations, etc. By the way; it provides an opportunity to get lower costs and make the works rapidly.

The second one is the private sector institutions especially finance (banking), automotive, market, retailers, etc. They announce their campaigns to the related clients at the same time and this provides a returnable and customer fidelity.

The last category is about the education sector, in which corporate SMS was began to see as an essential requirement and called service by the guardians. A private class was began preference by giving the services of lack of continuity, examination results and other reports.

Efficiency of SMS

What could efficiency of SMS bring to companies? The most important issue is to get the transmission reports of the messagings. We can analyze these reports based on;

People & Responses Total cost of Transmission Results

In a recent study by Nielsen Mobile, 23% of U.S. mobile phone users remember seeing mobile advertising in the last month, and over 50% responded to the ad. (mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing 2009) When we compare this result to another marketing media like TV where the response rate is around 0,3%, it can be seen that SMS can be a very successful media for marketing.

Not only for the mobile advertising however it covers a lot of place in mobile marketing but also constitute a good relationship with the customers are very important subjects to the companies.

SMS Marketing System Analyses

The marketing concepts are changing while these new medias & technologies step into ourlives. An important factor to consider when selecting a marketing technique such as SMS marketing is that method’s ability to reach a wide audience. This is why famous TV programs attract a lot of sponsors, famous celebrities get a lot of endorsements and popular websites get a lot of posted ads. Businessmen know that these programs, celebrities and websites will be garnering a lot of visitors; thence, more people will get to see their advertisements. The same equation applies to SMS marketing. Nearly every person in the world possesses a mobile phone. It’s only natural that companies and businesses will want to compete in this new marketing arena. (sign-up.to 2008)

It is very important to understand the SMS Marketing system and to manage the system after sending messages to the customers even their target is advertising or relationship. Companies have to find out the most valuable customers by detecting the performance with so many analysis and then to decide and apply what are the following actions whether the companies want to succeed their functionality continuously for their success in marketing.

The companies naturally think about their current customers primarily, because they know their identities, personalities, conventions, pleasures, etc. There are two types of customers; the current customers and the potential customers, who are not available for the present and may be the candidates.

To create opportunities for the companies and satisfy the customers, companies should perform some endevours. Hereby these endevours undertake with marketing philosophy and to give some detailed conveyance for the SMS marketing efforts. Like every marketing concept, analyzing the result to measure the performance of system. In general before passing through to the analyses, suppose that a company determined their customers and sent them an advertising text message, in which the company’s new products were recognized. Presume that the amount of these customers is 10,000 and just 1,000 of them have demanded the new products after receiving the SMS. However, since this is a cost for the company, cost – benefit ratio must be taken into account all the time. The other 9,000 people can be classified into two groups: the people, who erase the text messages without seeing; and the people, who erase the text messages after seeing. In this direction; these people may not be interested in these text messages for the reason of the improper time, unsuitable content, previous experiences, etc. In that case what should the company analyze to control the activities and the environment for benefitting from SMS Marketing?

From the strategical point of view the companies should be done below analysis for their safety and do the right things for the good marketing relations and satisfaction of the customers;

Basic Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis is the first step of the success or failure of the system. It includes the response time of the respondents to the text messages, the percentage of the right arrivals, the percentage of the lost messages, etc. In addition to these; these performance results should be traced and understood effectively to take the precautions and determine the SMS strategy primarily. For instance; at Keynote Systems, the average performance for all carriers was 11.8 seconds to receive message and 94.7 percent of all messages arrived at their destination. While these numbers are an improvement over the prior three months, the 94.7 percent availability could represent a significant loss of information and business when the number of lost messages is calculated. (AT&T 2002)

In our example; the company can classify the customers, who have made commercial activities, in 3 groups: high level, mid-level and low level. By the way; the company should also trace these classifications to understand whether there are changes in high levels, mid-levels and low levels. There may be some quantitative changes such as the increase in high levels that also indicates the increase in the expenses or the reduction at all levels that indicates the demand in the market has been declined.

Tendency Analysis

Targeting the audience is one of the most important things that any advertiser should remember. Nowadays, businessmen are considering it more wise and practical to advertise to individuals who will likely become customers. For instance, if a company is selling video games and other hip electronics, then marketers would want to run your SMS marketing campaign on teenagers and other young people who might be interested. (sign-up.to 2002)

Since 80% or more of all cell phone users carry their phone all the time, a text message to their cell phones is the perfect way to alert your subscribers or clients of any urgent information, such as a change of appointment, or product ready for pickup. For this reason; the companies have to understand in which stores and/or products that the customers have paid money by finding out the location of these stores and/or products, what the ranges of these saves are, who these clients are by making data mining, etc. By the way; the company can make identification about the product characteristic and determine new marketing strategy related to the most popular products or services. In addition to this; the products can be served to the people individually.

Capacity Analysis

The main idea of detecting capacity is to answer the question of will the company maintain the investment of sending text messages to the customers. The company has to understand the signals of benefits with the usage of SMSs. Because of the company will produce the products or keep the inventory according to the demands. Whether the demand is low due to the expectations, the company will produce lower parties, keep lower inventories and may reduce or stop the usage of SMS marketing. Moreover; the company may change the marketing strategy. On the other hand; the company may support and increase the usage rate of text messaging by sending them to more people whether the demand is very high. At that time; the company will perform more aggressive role in the market and this will affect the investments of the company.

For this reason; the capacity analysis, which indicates the present situation to meet the present demand and the future situation to meet the following demand, should be investigated and taken into consideration by the companies.

Reviewing Marketing Performance

Mobile marketing can be used for a wide range of occasions like announcing new product, one-day specials, new store openings, special events…etc. Subscribers can be treated as a special group for offers and information that only they have access to, increasing loyalty, purchases, and speed of communications.

While mobile marketing can be used in a lot of areas that helps them customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and incremental sales; the companies should search the performance of their marketing activities to maintain the available situation and then to increase the market share by accessing more satisfied clients. To achieve this; some functions should be generated like market research, market modeling and market consulting.

Ø Marketing research – world-class qualitative and quantitative research, particularly market segmentation that gives the company growth-oriented insights. Ø Marketing modeling – state-of-the-science, profit-focused modeling that offers the company invaluable information about the financial impact of different marketing decisions. Ø Marketing consulting – continuously filtering what the statistics say through managerial, statistical, and financial criteria to provide the company with relevant and doable action steps.

In this regard; the company should determine some indicators to trace the performance of the marketing to understand whether the situation is going on the predetermined strategy or not. Some of these indicators are market share, new product, marketing return on investment (ROI), customer, brand, etc.

Furthermore; there are some criteria for selecting the targets of these performance indicators such as sales potential, growth potential, retention potential, common motivations, problem potential, responsiveness, findability, lifetime value, etc. These criteria should be investigated, considered and evaluated before targeting process. (Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research n.d.)

Sales Analysis

In sales analysis, the goal is to provide accurate management information related to sales activity in order to improve sales profitability and provide facilities for sales forecasting and planning at customer and product class levels.

By sales analysis; we can make the following actions:

Ø Identify the most profitable customers Ø Know which products are selling Ø Analyze market trends and geographic market patterns Ø Know the profit generated by each product Ø Know which divisions of business are selling Ø Identify which salespeople are performing Ø Improve sales forecasting Ø Measure actual performance against quantity or revenue forecasts Ø Analyze tax collections Ø Set targets against customers and / or products Ø Compare against budgets per product group and/or salesperson

By the way; we can decide to maintain and admire the most profitable customers, continue to produce the most selling products, prompt the most valuable salespersons, get precautions according to the trend of the following months’ sales, constitute the budget or make re-budgeting, determine the following targets that the marketing department should provide, etc.

In this regard; SMS marketing is perfect for local and national retailers wishing to promote products or services, provide incentives, and increase customer loyalty and retention. Retailers can send SMS messages to their opt-in subscribers with coupons code inserted directly into the message. Customers can come into the stores and present their coupons right on their cell phones for redemption. This application is very useful for consumers to sale any product in any time at any location, where it helps to increase the sales of the company.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

When consumers make purchases at market prices, they reveal that the things they buy are at least as beneficial to them as the money they relinquish. Consumers will increase their consumption of any commodity up to the point, where the benefit of an additional unit (marginal benefit) is equal to the marginal cost to them of that unit, the market price. The same idea can be used for the companies. A company, which directs its marketing strategy on SMS marketing, wants to get the financial benefit of the application including customer satisfaction. However; when the trend of the earned marginal benefit is going on a reducing direction, the company may decide to give up SMS marketing and consider another methods. On the other side; whether the marginal benefit is going on a positive direction, the company will begin to behave more aggressive way to use more text messages to arrive more customers.

Character Analysis of the Customers

The first step in SMS Marketing campaign is collecting and getting permission to gather cell phone numbers as stated before. Although it is perfectly acceptable to simply have a signup form on the company’s website or retail store with the promise to send valuable offers in return for signup; it is much more effective to come up with a creative tactic that offers more like prizes, memberships, bonus and free stuff. As the comapny build its database of cell phone numbers, try to elicit more than just that one piece of information. Ask for the customers about their hobbies, conventions and then create special announcements based on niche interests. Find out demographics and customize the text messages campaign to that particular cell phone recipient.

In the character analysis; clear purpose and goal focusing, communication skills, time management prioritization and planning, conflict handling and mental attitudes’ information should be gathered by the companies. For instance; a goal focused person, who understands the direction of the organization, makes plans and organizes resources, both of people and materials and plans ahead in a strategic manner; can be directed to the gifts of special days and the text messages can be sent to these customers like in this way. Because these people are living in perfect planning days and they do not forget the most important days in their lives. For this reason; the gifts, which emphasize the special days, should be chosen as a content of text messages in SMS marketing strategy at these companies. In a different example; there are also SMART people, who can be described as Specific, Measured, Achievable, Realistic, and with a definite Time deadline. That’s why these people always calculate the time and the cost opportunity, in which the prices are lower at any location. In this regard; the shopping centers’ activities such as discounting days or other kind of promotions may be announced to these kinds of people earlier by the help of text messages.

This needs to be new specialists that improve themselves of psychology and marketing.

Institutional Risk Analysis

“Most of the banks in the US are not broke, not in trouble, but they don’t trust each other because they don’t know which banks are bad. We’ve got to get the bad ones out.”
William Seidman / American economist and financial commentator

The same situation can be considered for the commercial companies. The expectations will be seen clearly, whether the companies can determine which products are not sold enough, which salespersons are not successful enough, what are the actual and forecasting values of the market, etc. In the same direction; the main idea is to determine which products may not be sold in the following period and what are the actions that can be taken primarily. The methodology of risk analysis can be written as in the following:

Ø Identify risk assessment and prioritize risks Ø Develop strategies to manage risks Ø Develop tactics to mitigate risks Ø Assign responsibility and implement Ø Test effectiveness and evaluate results

Comparative Analysis

Comparative analysis is a tool that uses item by item comparison of two or more comparable issues like processes, products, qualifications, sets of data, systems, etc. For instance; in accounting, changes in a financial statement’s items over several accounting periods may be presented together to detect the emerging trends in the firm’s operations and results. The company, which uses text messages to arrive to their customers, sends SMSs to their available clients primarily. After a time of this application, there are some feedbacks that some of the clients have made trades against the others have not. The results in here should be recorded. In this regard of this situation, the company may change the content of the text messages and then wants to see the results. In this time; the company can take a photo of two different situations and make a comparative analysis by using the quantity of sales, the amount of saved money, the number of sold products, etc. to see the differences and the impact of the contents. After that; the company can determine the following marketing strategy due to the feedback of these results.

Environmental Factors Analysis

The last searching area is to reveal the environmental factors like the changes in interest rates; crisis surrounding in economical, social and political areas; the developments in the rivals; the sales in each product; the demands in the market; purchase power of the public, new investment areas, which are rising in recent period, etc. Furthermore; SWOT analysis, which takes the information as a result of these previous activities and separate them into internal issues (strengths and weaknesses) and external issues (opportunities and threats), is one of the best techniques to understand and evaluate all these activities together. In SWOT analysis, the knowledge is designed to help an organization an understanding how it relates to its external environment. In other words to act as a way of seeing whether the organization is aligned with the world going on around it.

As a result of these analyses, the company should evaluate the available situation and get some remarks for the future. Whether the situation is not good enough or the demands are not expected, the company can trace the following instructions:

a. Constituting an action plan b. Differentiating text messages c. Timing of the text messages d. Differentiating of the product e. Timing of the product f. Determining new marketing strategies g. Finding potential customers h. Evaluating the channels for their potentials, capabilities and reliability conditions

CONCLUSION

Mobile marketing tools are offering easier and more convenient ways with evolving marketing strategies. SMS has been the pioneer in wireless data applications and SMS services were the first mobile data services with a serious impact on the operator’s revenue. The industry has seen tremendous growth and, clearly, messaging will lead the way to profits in 3G as well. Inevitably, the way that revenues from mobile applications are currently shared out will change and become much more versatile.

We can admit that SMS Marketing is a very useful tool for the marketers and a competitive marketing strategy for the companies. However; the main issue is not just to apply text messages to the clients. The focal point is to send the right value of contents, at the right time, at the right location, to the right customers with the right effect. Also; after sending them to the clients; the enterprises should follow the marketing auditing like marketing statistics by applying some analysis whether the text messages are effective or not. If there are some problems with this type of marketing strategy, the enterprise should review its’ all ongoing processes to understand where the problem is.

The reasons of failure/triumph should be investigated. After the determination of these, the cautions should be taken into a contingency plan, the actions should be revised and the new applications should be done. If all these processes such as taking pre-cautions, monitor the applications in an analysis approach, etc. are taken into consideration in a systematical approach, we think that SMS Marketing will become a very powerful and indispensible tool for the applicant enterprises. On the other hand, most of the forecasts show that data-related services are increasing its value especially in the means of revenue of the mobile operators. Moreover, picture messaging and visuality has taken off, and MMS is a natural progression of these facts. The fact that the consumer preferences are moving fast towards visuality especially with services like Youtube, Video Messaging Services can be the new concept for the mobile world and the mobile marketing strategies.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) is a new form of communication that combines rich content, such as audio and video clips, photographs and images, with text messaging. It is an end-to-end application for person-to-person mobile messaging, mobile-to-mobile, mobile-to-Internet and Internet-to-mobile. It is good news for service providers, as they can now improve their existing text-based services by adding rich visual content. MMS will be a key mass-market revenue generator for content providers, mobile operators, application developers and advertisers, while for users it will provide a way to capture a moment of time and share it with others.

From the users’ perspective, a successful MMS launch needs the terminal to be set up ready to use from the minute he or she walks out of the store with it. An operator can meet this expectation by offering automatic terminal provisioning over the air through its own network and today, Turkcell, the leading operator in Turkey is offering this service over the air. In addition, operators need to educate end users, not only on how they can send and receive MMS messages but also how they can discover and subscribe to MMS content services. Operators can create service packs, set-up content service demos provide customer training and competitions in retail stores, as well as at relevant events such as festivals and concerts.

REFERENCES

Gustafsson, Å. & Lenman, AEricsson’s enriched messaging architecture, Ericsson Review No. 2, 2007.

SMS (Short Message System) Mobile Technology, International, White Paper SPG Media Group PLC, 2008.

http://www.marketingpundit.com/MktgLessons_files/Introduction_to_Marketing_Planning.pdf

Piercy, N. & Giles, W “Making SWOT Analysis Work”, Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Volume: 7 Issue: 5/6, 1989

How to Conduct a SWOT Analysis, Dr. E.J.Keeley, Executive Director, Institutional Effectiveness and Research

Codling, S. Best Practice Benchmarking, gowerpub.com, 1995

Kotler, P Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, Prentice-Hall, 1988

http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_objectives.htm

Borden, N. H “The Concept of the Marketing Mix”, Journal of Advertising Research, 4, June 1994: 2-7

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk

http://www.mobilestorm.com/sms-marketing

http://www.textsmsmarketing.com

http://www.mobilesmsmarketing.com

http://www.plusone.com.au/smsstudies.php

http://www.mobiltim.com.tr/sms_cilginligi.pdf

MMS entering into the next phase, White Paper, Nokia Corporation, 2003

http://www.sign-up.to/0308.php?k=sms-marketing&PageID=8631

Copernicus Marketing Consulting and Research, Bringing Science to Marketing

http://portal.bsnl.in/Telecomguide.asp?intNewsId=483&strNewsMore=more

McDaniel, C.D. & Gates, R. H Marketing Research Essentials, Published by Taylor & Francis, 1997

Introduction to SMS Text Message Marketing, Guide to getting started, SMS marketing history and expected results from typical SMS text message marketing campaigns.
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Choosing the Right Email Marketing Campaign Software

With the right email software campaign, you can easily manage your email campaigns from start to finish. Email campaign software enables you to:

· Choose from  [read more →]]]> Email marketing is a cost-effective and highly sophisticated communication tool, able to send thousands of messages globally, within seconds. With the click of a mouse, marketers can modify and tailor their campaign messages to many targeted audiences, based on their preferences, interests, and purchase history.

Choosing the Right Email Marketing Campaign Software

With the right email software campaign, you can easily manage your email campaigns from start to finish. Email campaign software enables you to:

· Choose from thousands of professionally developed corporate email templates
· Track your campaigns in real time
· Set up a multitude of autoresponders for different purposes and time intervals
· Launch A/B Split Testing with report comparisons
· Supervise bounce management
· Create segmented demographics and email lists
· Automatically integrate social media marketing in every email marketing campaign

What are your Objectives and Goals?

Create an email template with a design that reflects your corporate brand image: With template designs, you will have hundreds of templates to choose from, pre-optimized and ready to send. Write content that is sharp and precise, with a distinct and clearly defined call to action. However, before you execute your first campaign, you need to decide what your primary focus and message will be. What are you trying to accomplish with this campaign? Are you creating more website traffic, or announcing a new product or service? Do you want to get more feedback from your clients and prospects? Knowing your objectives will help you strengthen the right messages reflecting those goals.

Building your Email Mailing Lists

Very few prospects will give out their email addresses without getting something in return. Make it worth their while:

1. Offer a free e-report, a free software download, or online course on a subject of interest.
2. Have a promotional sale on your website asking for the email address to enter the contest, making sure it is a double opt-in.
3. Upgrading a new product or discontinuing an old one – how about a closeout sale?
4. Add a contact information form on your website requiring their email, name, and phone number.
5. Hit the road. Go to networking events in your market niche and collect business cards.

Recording and Measuring the Results

You cannot measure what you do not monitor. Tracking live campaigns is the most accurate way to test their effectiveness. When you send out a campaign using email software, you will receive the following metric reports:

· A/B split testing and report comparisons
· Google analytics integration
· # of click-throughs
· # of bounces
· # of undeliverables
· # of opt-ins/# of opt-outs
· # of conversions
· # of unsubscribes

Tracking email campaigns gives the marketer the advantage to adjust, adapt, and change their email marketing campaigns “on the fly,” as they monitor behavioral patterns in their clients and prospects.

The ultimate goal of every email marketing campaign is to increase a company’s revenue. Reaching these goal means, you need to employ an MLM mix, which uses all the marketing techniques needed when reaching your target audience. Creating campaigns that accurately hit the mark you are targeting are the result of a marketer who is wisely optimizing their demographics and campaign stats to their greatest advantage.

In today’s highly competitive global market, no stone should go unturned; every creative idea and strategy counts. Providing good customer service, accompanied by a valuable product, gives the marketer the edge they are looking for, when standing out and being noticed.

Many organizations are utilizing email marketing as part of their internet marketing strategy. There are numerous email marketing services provided that support all types of businesses such as: Emma, ConstantContact, Aweber, etc. In today’s environment, businesses are sending emails to promote products & services, cross-sell additional services, inform customers, and provide discount coupons. The question is: Are businesses leveraging email marketing to support multi-tactical internet marketing campaigns?

In most cases, businesses are not leveraging email marketing to drive  [read more →]]]> Introduction

Many organizations are utilizing email marketing as part of their internet marketing strategy. There are numerous email marketing services provided that support all types of businesses such as: Emma, ConstantContact, Aweber, etc. In today’s environment, businesses are sending emails to promote products & services, cross-sell additional services, inform customers, and provide discount coupons. The question is: Are businesses leveraging email marketing to support multi-tactical internet marketing campaigns?

In most cases, businesses are not leveraging email marketing to drive successful campaigns. Marketers continue to see email marketing as a single tactic that has a limited impact on the goals of their campaigns. The biggest example of this is the lack of integration between databases, website, and email marketing campaigns. A local business owner has a limited amount of hours in a day and a limited amount of resources. However, most of them do not streamline the lead acquisition process to work together. If the systems were integrated, a similar scenario can be applied to large corporations that employ or utilize 3 different employees to do the job of a single email marketing professional. Simply put, the website form does populate to the database, and neither of these automatically feed to the email marketing system. In general, this is a manual process that costs businesses time, resource, and money.

How can effective Email Marketing Help Your Business and Drive Results?

How you ask? Well, let’s start with efficiency. The ability to integrate your website with your business’s database, website forms, and email marketing services tools may cost additional money upfront; however, in the long-run you will not need to use manual processes that require more resources. At DaBrian Marketing Group, we provide businesses will the tools to connect website forms to an email marketing system and eliminate the database itself. In our client’s case, the email marketing system or email marketing service is the database. In addition, you can use event or email triggers to confirm opt-in email addresses after receiving a contact submission form. In less than 30 seconds, you have populated your form into a specific list with the email marketing tool, confirmed an opt-in email, and responded to a prospect with relevant content.

Email triggers can be a useful and impactful tool for customer acquisition & lead generation. We live in a society of instant gratification so being able to deliver relevant information or set the expectation to receive a response to a question is critical. This can help to separate your business from the competition.

The ability to reduce the resources used for an email marketing campaign will reduce the campaign cost. If implemented effectively, email marketing can position your business to be on your customers’ minds and reduce your overall acquisition cost. The bottom-line is Return-on-Investment.

Testing to Drive Results & Revenue?

Once you have become proficient with your automated process, it is time to start testing your email campaigns. There are a number of different tests you can do with a single email campaign. These tests include A/B, A/B/C, and multivariate testing of headers, subject lines, layouts, landing pages or calls-to-action. The more successful your business is at getting customers to open emails, the greater the probability that the customer will respond to your call-to-action. Usually, better open rates and click through rates translate to better ROI.

Conclusion

The truth is that just about every business uses email marketing to communicate with customers. Unfortunately, not every business takes the time to evaluate opportunities to integrate technologies, test, or measure their results. These are simple fundamental businesses practices that should be gone. The ability to establish internal processes and best practices are critical to every business’s success.

The fact that you have an email marketing tool does not mean that what you are communicating is relevant to customers, or even driving results. It is our recommendation that businesses start to take a holistic approach to all internet marketing strategies & tactics. Continue to push the envelope for maximum results that will lead to maximum returns.

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