An opted-in consumer who enters a geofence near a retailer location gets a coupon via SMS

Consumer receptivity to opt-in mobile marketing and intent to visit stores is growing, according to a new Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Placecast.

One-third of Americans who are currently signed up for mobile marketing alerts indicate that such services impact their decision to go into stores, and 27 percent report that such programs have impacted their decision to buy products in physical retail locations.

“[These results are] further validation that permission-based mobile marketing has potential to drive in-store traffic,” said Alistair Goodman, CEO of 1020 Placecast, San Francisco. “[Marketers and merchants should] incorporate location in some form into their mobile marketing efforts, and test texting.

“With check-in services only available on smartphones, which comprise roughly 21 percent of all mobile phones in the U.S., reach for marketers through these platforms is still a question,” he said. “Furthermore, both consumers and marketers see texting as similar mechanisms to email, which has made a substantial impact on purchase behavior—both online and in bricks-and-mortar stores.

“Incorporating location—the ability to make the message relevant not just for the user, but also based on where they are and when they are there—is consistently seen as a valuable service by consumers, and easy for marketers to execute at scale.”

Placecast is a location-based platform specifically designed to use digital marketing on mobile to drive consumers into physical environments using tactics such as SMS alerts trigged by geofencing.

Mobile marketing drives commerce
Since Placecast’s first Harris Interactive survey on location-based mobile marketing and advertising in July 2009, overall consumer interest in such programs increased, with ‘somewhat interested’ consumers growing by 2 share points (plus 8 percent) to 28 percent of all respondents.

As in the first survey, interest is most pronounced among the youngest groups surveyed: 42 percent of those 18–34 are at least somewhat interested, and interest grew 6 points (18 percent) among women 18–34 from the survey conducted in 2009.

Interest levels between men and women are now about equal overall, but in the 45–54 age group, women show markedly more interest than men: 26 percent of women as compared to 16 percent of men are interested in opt-in text alerts from their chosen brands/stores.

Food dominates demand overall, although interest categories vary for men and women.

Overall, groceries (68 percent), restaurants (64 percent) and fast food restaurants (58 percent) take three of the top-four most popular segments of receptivity to opt-in mobile marketing.

Women skew higher than men when it comes to interest in groceries and apparel, while men skew higher in interest for electronics and sporting goods products.

SMS does impress
Texting is significantly more valued than application-based services, according to the survey.

One data point across all respondents is the importance of text messaging.

Respondents consider texting more important than any other activity on their mobile phones, aside from talking.

An average of 40 percent of all respondents surveyed said that texting is “extremely” or “very important” to them.

Alistair Goodman is CEO of 1020 Placecast

“One of the most surprising data points in this study across all cell phone owners is the importance of texting,” Mr. Goodman said. “It is still an overwhelmingly popular activity on mobile versus other activities.”

Even with the buzz of services like Foursquare and Gowalla, only 7 percent of men show the same level of interest in these types of social networks, and only 3 percent of women.

The survey also delved into consumer attitudes about using the location of their phones to trigger opt-in marketing messages.

Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed think location-based texts could be useful, 29 percent think they would be interesting and an equal percentage (24 percent) think they could be more relevant and innovative.

“Location-based marketing is convenient because it can point consumers to the brands and services we care about when they are nearby,” Mr. Goodman said. “We’re all so over-loaded with the day-to-day—work, school, buying groceries, going to the mechanic—that we appreciate it when information we want comes to us.

“When done right, location-based services make our lives easier,” he said.

Various factors are driving growth in the location-based services and marketing space.

Marketers have seen huge success with email as a catalyst for driving transactions, and location-based text messaging is an easy way to extend these and other marketing activities into mobile.

“Marketers are finally able to run programs at scale using text—and it’s so simple, whether it’s for directly promoting items or just working on the relationship with the consumer,” Mr. Goodman said. “A huge range of digital marketers know how to do this already—location-based text is an easy transition.

“Done right, consumers view this type of marketing as a valuable service, making offers available based on where they are and when they are there,” he said.

“Research with the brands that we work with consistently shows that they think these services are cool—not a game, but useful, automated and timely information from the retailers they care about, when they are nearby.”

My Scotts Lawn app generates customized product recommendations

Scotts Miracle-Gro is using a new mobile application to share lawn care tips and promote its line of products.

Scotts created My Scotts Lawn with mobile developer appssavvy as a tool for homeowners looking for advice on maintaining their lawns. The application provides lawn care tips and recommends Scotts products.

“Scotts wanted to bring the Web experience that builds an annual lawn care program to on-the-go users on mobile devices,” said Chris Cunningham, cofounder/CEO of appssavvy, New York. “Giving users the ability to find the best products for them, based on their location, shopping habits and grass type is a huge advantage for Scotts with users who may be out shopping.

“We also wanted to provide long-term value for users, so we added the capabilities for users to track their lawn’s health and get expert advice about care through videos,” he said. “This additional functionality gives users reasons to continue to use that app after they’ve gotten their suggested program.”

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company offers a branded line of lawn and garden care products.

Appssavvy is a direct sales and services team that partners with brands and agencies to develop relevant mobile applications.

Scotts is promoting the application via a variety of channels, including in the mobile space.

“Scotts ran an advertising campaign to drive applications through in-app advertisements, which helped elevate the app as high as No. 3 in the Lifestyle/Free category on iTunes,” said Kip Edwardson, manager of interactive marketing at Scotts, Marysville, OH. “Scotts also is currently promoting it on the site (http://www.scotts.com), through social media, PR and through our popular email newsletter.”

How it works
Consumers can download the My Scotts Lawn application from the Apple App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch, and will be available later this month on handhelds running the Android operating system.

From the application homepage, users navigate to content like product recommendations and video tips.

Here is a screen grab of the My Scotts Lawn homepage:

When users click on the “Lawn Program” link, they can follow a series of steps to receive customized lawn care tips and product recommendations.

The application prompts users to enter their ZIP codes, select a grass type and indicate what type of store they shop for lawn care supplies in, such as hardware stores, nurseries or mass merchant.

With that information, the application generates a lawn care program that includes a list of products to apply to lawns, and designates time periods when each product should be used.

Here is a screen grab of a lawn program page:

By clicking the green arrows that appear next to the product listings, users can find more information about each particular product.

The “Video Tips” section, accessible from the My Scotts Lawn homepage, includes YouTube-integrated video clips that include tips and demonstrations for better lawn care.

Here is a screen grab of one of the video clips:

Finally, the “My Lawn Profile” section, available from the homepage, lets users keep track of their lawn programs by uploading pictures of their lawns and logging the products they have used to care for their grass.

Here is a screen grab of the lawn profile section of the application:

“By addressing the need to care for your lawn, [My Scotts Lawn] helps our current brand users to remember what to apply and when to apply it,” Mr. Edwardson said. “Push notifications have been built in as well to send tips and reminders directly to the phone.

“Future updates will include calendar functions, social utilities, more videos, regionalized lawn care tips and click to call/text to contact abilities,” he said.

The application is targeted mainly at males in the 40’s and 50’s, though Scotts is tailoring it to any homeowner with a lawn to take care of.

“[Scotts is going mobile because] it fits the demographic, and consumers were asking for an app from us,” Mr. Edwardson said. “Over 90 percent of our mobile traffic to scotts.com comes from the iPhone, so clearly the penetration has reached our demographic.”

The biggest draw of the application is the added-value it gives consumers caring for their lawns, per appssavvy.

“Brands are looking to connect with people on multiple platforms, including mobile, thanks to apps,” Mr. Cunningham said. “The key, however, is to not just enter the app space, but do so by adding value, which is exactly what Scotts has done with its My Scotts Lawn app.”

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Dutch Bros. Coffee franchisees’ mobile initiatives have helped build a mobile database of 25,000 coffee buffs, resulting in increased revenue.

Rocketbux first started working with a Dutch Bros. franchisee in Junction City, OR. The franchisee used mobile to broadcast deals and the results were so good that Dutch Bros. corporate took note.

“Corporate took note because the Junction City retailer’s conversion rates were so high,” said Fred Boos, president of Rocketbux, Bend, OR. “Junction City is a small town with about 5,000 people and the retailer had about one quarter of them signed up to receive alerts.”

Founded in Southern Oregon in 1992 by brothers Dane and Travis Boersma, Dutch Bros. Coffee is believed to be the country’s largest privately-held, drive-through only coffee company.

There are more than 180 locations in Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona.

The Junction City, OR, franchisee offered community members alerts and discounts. Mobile was used to get a line at the kiosk when business was slow.

Six months later Dutch Bros. corporate began to work with Rocketbux and recruited other franchises on the West coast to use the service.

An Arizona-based Dutch Bros. retailer was able to sign up thousands of customers to the mobile database.

Today, with 25,000 customers signed, the conversion rate on offers is at about 20 percent, per Mr. Boos.

Dutch Bros. franchisees promote a keyword and short code call to action at the point of sale, but have seen that verbal signups are working best.

In other words, cashiers verbally ask patrons for their mobile numbers and sign them up to receive deals.

Franchisees also have Web forms on their Facebook pages, where consumers enter their mobile numbers to become part of the mobile database.

Rocketbux is a self-service platform that helps brands build relationships with their customers and drive repeat visits to retail locations.

The platform allows for bar-coded and text-based coupons.

“The biggest achievement is filling in the gaps when business is slow,” Mr. Boos said. “One franchisee sent a message blast for an iced drink because it was so hot out and in 30 seconds a customer walked in to redeem the coupon.

“Mobile is that immediate,” he said. “The customer was driving by, got the alert and made a U-turn to go back and get the deal on the iced coffee.

“I can’t think of another marketing vehicle that is that immediate.”

By Giselle Tsirulnik

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We don’t charge you for the messages we are sending you, however your cell phone company will.
If you have a text message plan on your cell phone account it means this process will use up some of your allotted messages. If you don’t have a text message plan, your will be charged for these messages. Typically that is around 15-20 cents per message.

Go to your phone’s messaging feature. Select the send
message option and input 12345 as the recipient (this is the
number you are sending the message to).
In the message body type the word KEYWORD. Make sure you
have no other words in the message (like your name signed
automatically on the bottom of each message). Send the
message.
You may or may not get a message from your phone telling
you it was sent. You will receive an automatic reply from
12345 letting you know you have successfully signed up.

I found this information on Carrabba’s redemption rate an awesome testimonial on what SMS advertising can do for any restaurant. I’m sure this is not the norm and your results may vary +-, but this would be a good baseline test bed to compare a restaurant/food service SMS advertising campaign to.

Imagine if you were to use SMS advertising as part of your marketing efforts for your business and the impact it could have with interacting with your current and new customer base.

______________________________________________________________

Carrabba’s Italian Grill tested an SMS program in the Orlando market that resulted in a 68 percent redemption rate on offers pushed out to 627 consumers.

The text message campaign was meant to build a database of names to which Carrabba’s could then promote multiple services at a time of the day when customers are most likely to be influenced. The campaign also aimed to further engage customers and learn more about their interests while deepening Carrabba’s brand awareness and technological advances.

“We wanted to drive specific components of our business on a hyper-local basis that are meaningful to our managing partners and will assist in increasing traffic and overall restaurant sales,” said Jamie Miller, marketing manager at Carrabba’s, Tampa, FL.

Carrabba’s locations at the Florida Mall, Altamonte Springs, Gainesville, Ocala, Oviedo, Formosa, Palm Bay, Merritt Island, Kirkman, Clermont and Daytona participated in the test.

There were 424 redemptions of the 627 participants, accounting for a 68 percent redemption rate on offers texted out.

To get consumers to opt-in for mobile promotions, Carrabba’s sent out emails to its Amici Club members, encouraging them to text-in and participate.

Additionally, a geotargeted online display campaign promoted the program.

And, a targeted billboard campaign on broadcast television spots also encouraged consumers to opt-in.

After just three weeks, Carrabba’s was able to get 627 participants.

Carrabba’s delayed the initial offer for two hours after consumers signed-up.

This eliminates people signing-up for the program and receiving the offer in the same visit. It also increased the propensity of a customer to make a return visit to redeem the initial offer.

The restaurant chain also tested a scanning redemption device that allowed servers to scan the offer.

Once scanned, the offer was automatically uploaded into the mobile campaign server – thus allowing for accurate recording of redemptions. Devices were made available through NetInformer.

For some locations it was wine sales they wanted to grow, for others, it was early dining from 4-6 p.m.

Depending on what component they wanted to feature, Carrabba’s created offers that were texted to the customers that opted-in.

“Our customers are mobile and part of that equation is being where our customers are,” Mr. Miller said. “The other part of that equation is being there when our customers want us to be and provide them with offers that are meaningful to them.

“SMS is a powerful channel that resonates with a large segment of our customer base,” he said. “It allows our managing partner the opportunity to test various traffic-driving offers that are location- and time-specific while receiving results quickly.”
Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor at Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer.

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You might have seen redbox at your local McDonald’s inside or close to the drive-thru or at a local grocery store.

Red Box seems to be everywhere now days. According to redbox, there are 8 locations within less than a 5 mile distance from me.
I’m not here to tell you how great they are or are not as I have never tried their service, but I heard they know what they are doing when it comes to using SMS / Text alerts to promo their free rentals once a month.
Just for signing up you have the option of receiving text messages about Monthly Movie Mondays where you get a free rental code once a month as a text message (SMS) to the phone number you listed when signing up.

Now they know how to use SMS advertising to reach their customer base.

To my surprise today, I went to check my PayPal balance while online to see if my tenants are using the PayPal credit card option to pay their lease payments rather than pay with a costly money order and sending it through the mail. “Sorry” to anyone who is working for the US postal service. I’m always looking to help people save money with new technologies.

While on PayPal.com’s home page, they are promoting send money to friends and family in seconds avoiding ATM’s. I decided to check it out and see what this is all about SINCE I’m opened minded to new technologies that will help make my life easier. While checking it out I also noticed toward the bottom something about SMS. Of course that caught my eye since that is what SMSNinjas is all about. PayPal’s angle is that you are able to check your PayPal balance from your cell phone via SMS text messaging with in seconds.

I mean how cool is that!

Once I read the how to activate a mobile device, I activated my mobile device and within seconds I received the how to activation confirmation code and steps, then text-ed ‘BAL’ and within seconds I received my PayPal balance response.

My conclusion; you will see more and more companies coming on board with SMS as a way to advertise & market themselves while connecting interactively with their customers and clients.

Liza Colburn uses her cellphone constantly.

Liza Colburn and her 12-year-old daughter, Abigail, use their cellphones for many tasks, but make relatively few phone calls.

She taps out her grocery lists, records voice memos, listens to music at the gym, tracks her caloric intake and posts frequent updates to her Twitter and Facebook accounts.

The one thing she doesn’t use her cellphone for? Making calls.

“I probably only talk to someone verbally on it once a week,” said Mrs. Colburn, a 40-year-old marketing consultant in Canton, Mass., who has an iPhone.

For many Americans, cellphones have become irreplaceable tools to manage their lives and stay connected to the outside world, their families and networks of friends online. But increasingly, by several measures, that does not mean talking on them very much.

For example, although almost 90 percent of households in the United States now have a cellphone, the growth in voice minutes used by consumers has stagnated, according to government and industry data.

This is true even though more households each year are disconnecting their landlines in favor of cellphones.

Instead of talking on their cellphones, people are making use of all the extras that iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones were also designed to do — browse the Web, listen to music, watch television, play games and send e-mail and text messages.

The number of text messages sent per user increased by nearly 50 percent nationwide last year, according to the CTIA, the wireless industry association. And for the first time in the United States, the amount of data in text, e-mail messages, streaming video, music and other services on mobile devices in 2009 surpassed the amount of voice data in cellphone calls, industry executives and analysts say.

“Originally, talking was the only cellphone application,” said Dan Hesse, chief executive of Sprint Nextel. “But now it’s less than half of the traffic on mobile networks.”

Of course, talking on the cellphone isn’t disappearing entirely. “Anytime something is sensitive or is something I don’t want to be forwarded, I pick up the phone rather than put it into a tweet or a text,” said Kristen Kulinowski, a 41-year-old chemistry teacher in Houston. And calling is cheaper than ever because of fierce competition among rival wireless networks.

But figures from the CTIA show that over the last two years, the average number of voice minutes per user in the United States has fallen.

Still, even the telephone design industry has taken note. Ross Rubin, a telecommunications analyst with the NPD Group, said cellphones outfitted with numerical keyboards — easiest for quickly dialing a phone number — were no longer in vogue. Touch screens, or quick messaging devices with full “qwerty” keyboards, on the other hand, are. On the newest phones, users must press several buttons or swipe through several screens to get to the application that allows them to make calls.

“Handset design has become far less cheek-friendly,” Mr. Rubin said. Mr. Hesse of Sprint said he expected that within the next couple of years, cellphone users would be charged by the data they used, not by their voice minutes, a prediction echoed by other industry executives.

When people do talk on their phones, their conversations are shorter; the average length of a local call was 1.81 minutes in 2009, compared with 2.27 minutes in 2008, according to CTIA. For some, the unused voice minutes mount up.

“I have thousands of rollover minutes,” said Zach Frechette, 28, editor of Good magazine in Los Angeles, who explained that he dialed only when he needed to get in touch with someone instantly, and limited those calls to 30 seconds. “I downgraded to the lowest available minute plan, which I’m not even getting close to using.”

Mr. Frechette said part of the reason he rarely talked on his phone was that he had an iPhone, with its notoriously spotty phone reception in certain locales. But also, he said, most of his day was spent swapping short messages through services like Gmail, Facebook and Twitter. That way, he said, “you can respond when it’s convenient, rather than impose your schedule on someone else.”

Others say talking on the phone is intrusive and time-consuming, while others seem to have no patience for talking to just one person at a time. They prefer to spend their phone time moving seamlessly between several conversations, catching up on the latest news and updates by text and on Facebook with multiple friends, instead of just one or two.

“Even though in theory, it might take longer to send a text than pick up the phone, it seems less disruptive than a call,” said Jefferson Adams, a 44-year-old freelance writer living in San Francisco. By texting, he said, “you can multitask between two or three conversations at once.”

Nicole Wahl, a 35-year-old communications manager at the University of Toronto, estimates she talks on her phone only about 10 minutes a month.

“The only reason I ever call someone anymore is if I don’t have their Twitter handle or e-mail address,” Ms. Wahl said. “Like my hairdresser to see if she has a last-minute appointment or my parents to say I’m dropping by.”

American teenagers have been ahead of the curve for a while, turning their cellphones into texting machines; more than half of them send about 1,500 text messages each month, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

Mrs. Colburn, from Massachusetts, said she caved to the pleading of her 12-year-old daughter Abigail for a cellphone to send text messages with her friends after she and her husband discovered it was hindering her from developing bonds with her classmates.

“We realized she was being excluded from party invitations and being in the know with her peers,” she said.

Mrs. Colburn said texting had also become a much easier way to stay in touch with her daughter and receive quick updates about after-school plans.

“The other night she texted me from upstairs to ask a vocabulary question,” she said with a laugh. “But I drew the line there. I went upstairs to answer it.”

By JENNA WORTHAM
Published: May 13, 2010

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Doesn’t it seem that big businesses like Walmart, Home Depot and

other companies don’t have that “personal touch”?

It seems that “local” businesses are popping up everywhere to bring
that “personal touch” back into our everyday lives.

It’s because we as humans need to be social and we need to live and
associate ourselves into communities and we buy from “trusted
opinions” and “experts”.

We are nothing but social creatures and local small businesses are
not going anywhere!

Look at how Yelp and FourSquare are changing the world!

Going local yet with that social touch.

So for all these local businesses to survive they have to have the

advertising and marketing expertise to generate leads and get their

phone ringing in their business so more people talk about them.

When more people talk about these GREAT local businesses,

word spreads, and that in turn leads to more sales! Right?
I was up until 1:30am the other night (because I am so excited)
crunching numbers from SBA and the US Census and came up with some
CRAZY facts…

1)      America’s small businesses – some 20 million strong – are the strength of our nation’s economy.

2)      63% of Small Businesses have 0-9 employees

3)      They account for 39 percent of the country’s gross national product

4)      Two-thirds of new employer establishments survive at least two years

5)      44 percent survive at least four years, according to a new study

So what does this all mean?
This is a HUGE opportunity for people and companies to go out and provide services
to these business’s to help them succeed and make a profit.

The fact that the majority of these small businesses all have 0-9
employees means that they do not have any kind of online marketing
knowledge…or they just don’t have the time with all the things
they have to do inside their business!

In fact, most traditional businesses probably don’t even have websites

or know how to get listed on Google.

We also know that there is a LOT of money being spent in these
local markets and it should.

So common sense tells us that this is a HUGE market with LOTS of
MONEY.

If you go to many towns, there are no more mom and pop retailers.

All the big boys have come in and forced them out.

What I would like to see is the little guy take back their market share

by playing ball just like the big boys do.

Small companies have to think just like the larger companies, and

implement outsourcing strategies.

Let me explain, the smaller companies need to focus on doing that

they do best inside their business and let other companies help them

advertise their business to the local community.

By doing this simple strategy, they will be able to increase the traffic

through their door increasing sales and profits.

Remember small businesses need to specialize and focus on what they

do best and outsource the rest.