Blog

Summer of Rich Media

June 25th, 2009 • By: Kim Dushinski • Events & Engagements

I’m excited to announce that I will be a speaker at the Summer of Rich Media. Check out this cool video that fellow speaker Ken English created to give you a sneak peek. I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to grab a margarita and head for the beach. I’m guessing that is exactly how much fun the Summer of Rich Media event will be.

If it sounds intriguing just sign up to be kept informed here in the upper left corner.

Continue Reading Comments(0) Events & Engagements

“Holy @!*#!@ Mobile is Huge!”

June 17th, 2009 • By: Kim Dushinski • Mobile Marketing 101

mobileishuge

Not sure how, but I had forgotten about this comment that was made to me immediately after my talk at The System Seminar in March. Today I was reminded of it when Billye Thompson sent out this email about my call tomorrow night as a part of his Ultralist Jam Session.

In this series of free calls (free to listen live or $77 to get the recordings) you can hear amazing folks like David Bullock, Shama Hyder, Gina Bell, Marc Harty, Shannon Cherry, Lou Bartone and me talk about how to build your list.

Each of us has our own take and specialty around how to build your list. Of course I will be talking about how to build your SMS (text message) list and how to use SMS to build your email list.

Check it out at Ultralist Jam Session.

Click here if you want to learn more Text Messaging for Internet Marketers

Continue Reading Comments(0) Mobile Marketing 101

Mobile Marketing Challenge

April 22nd, 2009 • By: Kim Dushinski • Mobile Web Design, Text Messaging

Last week in my e-zine, Mobile Marketing News Brief, I issued a mobile marketing challenge to my readers. (You can see the News Brief here and sign up to receive it here.) Today I’m reporting my results and giving you the chance to share how the challenge went for you.

The Challenge:

This week I’d like to issue a challenge to you. It is to participate in mobile marketing from the consumer side. If you are going to work in mobile marketing, you need to CONSUME mobile marketing.

I challenge you to sign up for at least 2 text message campaigns and visit at least 2 mobile websites (from your mobile browser) this week. These should be new campaigns to you.

If you don’t have a text message plan or a data plan on your phone yet, go get them. There is no excuse for being in mobile marketing and not having a text and data plan.

As you do this I’d like you to stay aware of what caused you to sign up for campaigns. What were the factors that you had to see present to feel safe to give over your mobile number? What made you excited to get a message?


My Challenge Report:

To be honest I have to say that I was only able to accomplish half of the challenge - I used one text messaging campaign and visited one new mobile site. On a brighter note I did upgrade my mobile plan to Sprint’s Everything Data Family Plan. Turns out we get 100 extra minutes and unlimited texting and unlimited data on all three phones for $2 LESS per month. Check your plan – it might be cheaper to have unlimited now.

New MexicoAnyway, there we were on a road trip driving across New Mexico. For those of you who don’t live out West, or even in the US at all, here is a visual image. It looks like this for hours at a time.

I had just about given up on being able to execute the challenge when we were wondering how to get to the restaurant we heard had awesome green chili in Santa Fe.

We were too far out in the middle of nowhere to get the mobile web to come up, but then I remembered I could text Google for the info. I didn’t have the Google short code memorized or programmed into my contacts so I had to bring up my on screen key pad to figure out the numerical equivalent to GOOGLE which turns out to be 466453.

I bring this up so that you know when you ask people with smartphones to spell out the short code, it doesn’t work. The number pad we use on our QWERTY keyboard doesn’t match the phone dialing numbers and letters combo. Just use the numbers.

Since I knew the name of the restaurant and that we were going to Santa Fe, I texted “Tomasito’s Santa Fe” to 46645. Yes, I accidentally left off the last 3 and it worked anyway. It sent me back the correct name (Tomasita’s) and the address with a click to call phone number.

Once I had phone call level cell service I clicked to call the restaurant and got directions off the freeway from the hostess. Worked like a charm. The best part was that my friend who was driving thought I was just brilliant and a Techno Goddess. Turns out that texting Google can impress your friends AND get you where you want to go.

Now about that mobile site…

I had decided that I wanted to be marketed a mobile site in the real world and not search for one on my mobile or find out about it from a mobile marketing oriented source. The only site that I saw with this criteria this week was the Disney mobile site, specifically one for the show called Phineas and Ferb. (Don’t get me started on the show itself. Suffice it to say that this is not one of the shows on Disney that I actually like.)

A full mobile site review is not in order here as I’m not sure if anyone reading this, myself included, actually cares how the Phineas and Ferb mobile site worked - which it did. Let me just point out a couple of things that were great about this mobile campaign.

First, the domain name was great. I saw the site promoted on the Disney Channel while we were getting ready to head to the competition. I was literally tying my shoes when the commercial aired. It caught my attention because I was trying to find a mobile site and I worried that I might not be able to remember the domain name. Not to fear. It was www.disney.mobi/pf which I successfully remembered without writing it down or using it for 4 days.

My daughter also got excited initially but then remembered she doesn’t have internet access on her phone so she turned away from the TV and kept getting ready. Now that we have that new unlimited plan she can check it out for herself.

The other great thing about this campaign was that it was being marketed to the right audience (Phineas and Ferb viewers) from a trusted source – the Disney Channel. Keep these concepts in mind when you start marketing your mobile site. Start with your current customers who already know and trust you. Build from there.

OK, what about you? Did you accept the challenge? What text campaigns did you participate in and what mobile sites did you visit? What did you find interesting and/or noteworthy?

Continue Reading Comments(1) Mobile Web Design, Text Messaging

Recommended Text Message Companies

February 20th, 2009 • By: Kim Dushinski • Recommended Vendors, Text Messaging

U.S. Text Message Companies

Choosing a text message company can be daunting. There are so many choices with a wide variety of services available by each vendor.

Once you have eliminated any company that only offers SMTP email based texting (see why here) you can move on to choosing a provider based on the types of features a particular company offers and whether or not their service will work for what you want to do.

Need help getting started with text messaging? Want to be sure you are developing a smart campaign before you hire the vendor to get it done? Check out my Mobile Marketing Launch Kit which includes a module about creating a successful text messaging campaign.

Listed below are several text message companies that I have either personally used or have gone through an in depth tour of their platform.  Full disclosure: In some cases I will earn a referral fee if you choose to do business with them. However, no company is listed here that I wouldn’t personally do business with myself or suggest to a dear friend.

You will find companies that are Self-Service, Specialty Self-Service and Managed Service.

SELF-SERVICE

The following text message companies are set up so that you can sign up and handle your own campaign. Whether that means you are doing it yourself or have your in-house marketing team taking charge.

Texting Forward
Texting Forward is owned by Jerson Daganzo, a very smart and savvy marketer who also owns a Cold Stone Creamery franchise. His real world business experience translates into a very powerful text message platform that includes mobile coupons, a loyalty club with automatic tracking and reward delivery and the ability to create a variety of sublists for smarter marketing.

All campaigns are created and monitored in the easy to use campaign control center. Reports are built with a business owner mindset. It is easy to see what is working with your text campaign and what needs attention. The Texting Forward platform includes a coupon redemption module that makes every campaign trackable in a very easy way.

I highly recommend TextingForward, especially for businesses doing mobile coupons with staff who will be responsible for redeeming them. It is the business owner’s dream program because the reporting is so detailed. The easy to use user interface and powerful campaign features (including a social networking component) and robust reporting make this a knockout platform.

More Info

markUmobile
markUmobile is run by Kathryn Rose, a smart businesswoman who understands that it is technology’s job to do what we want and then makes it happen. Her platform is set up to work for any type of business but she has specialty platforms for realtors (HomeSearchMobile), mortgage lenders (RateWatchMobile) and banks (Mobile Banking).

The admin panel is easy enough to find your way around in to get done what you want. Plus, Kathryn will walk you through it in your demo, so you’ll know what you’re doing.

There is an online widget available that you can use to capture text message sign ups from your website. This allows for the markUmobile platform to help you build your subscriber list from multiple sources.

More Info

TxtWire
TxtWire, run by CEO Doug Moss, has txtdispatcher which is their service for schools and universities to send text message alerts (emergency and otherwise) to their students and faculty. They also have txtnet which is a network that lists participating schools, businesses and organizations in a given geographic area. Consumers sign up to receive information from only the entities of interest to them.  They also offer custom solutions for businesses.

One really great thing about TxtWire is that through txtnet consumers get to choose exactly what they want to receive – event alerts, coupons, other offers – and from whom. It works well for everybody.

More Info

Mobivity
Mobivity is an excellent platform for small businesses that need a cost-effective way to get started in text messaging. The Mobivity platform has a lot of features, but is not as user friendly as it could be. Mobivity 2.0 is said to be coming out shortly which should solve that issue.

Campaigns are created in the admin site, but there is not much that can be monitored there.  (This is ironic because the Mobivity team is also responsible for Mobilytics, the best mobile web analytics available.)  Within Mobivity you can do SMS autoresponders, text clubs, mobile coupons, polling/voting and contests.

The best feature of Mobivity is its small business friendly pricing and variety of features. If you are open to figuring out how to use the admin panel, then Mobivity is a solid, smart choice. I use Mobivity for my Mobile Marketing Text News Brief and am very happy with their service.

More Info

i2SMS
i2SMS is an Australian company with a U.S. branch office run by Giff Gfroerer. Their program handles text blasts, text clubs, mobile coupons and mobile originated information requests. I2SMS is the best text company to go with if you have a database of information that you want to serve up to customers via text messaging upon their request.

The admin panel is easy enough to figure out and there is some level of reporting you can see. When you sign up you will get a complete walk through of the system by someone from the company. That is one of the best reasons to go with i2SMS.

You also get unlimited secondary keywords that can be used to crate sub-lists and make campaigns more trackable.  A very cool feature of 12SMS is that you can send messages to your subscribers by using your phone.

More Info

mobileStorm
The most robust and multi-channeled platform presented so far, mobileStorm helps you pull out the big guns. You can do mobile coupons, autoresponders, scheduled texts and text clubs. You can even use their platform to create a Text to Screen. Additionally, the mobileStorm platform does so much more than text messaging. It handles email, voice, faxing and also video promotion. They even have an RSVP Manager that is wonderful for clubs & restaurants who can use it to get more people in the door.

Customer service is high touch at mobileStorm. You will likely get a personal call from someone there when you sign up to make sure you are getting started OK. There is a lot of data and information about your campaigns you can access in the admin panel.

I highly recommend mobileStorm because their platform is more than text messaging and so it gives you more marketing channels in one. Plus they are a top of the line company with affordable introductory pricing to get started.

More Info

SPECIALTY SELF-SERVICE


PhindMe / EverywhereIGo
EverywhereIGo is a mobile site building service with integrated text messaging. This is very smart to combine the two mobile marketing tools. The website builder is fairly robust and easy enough to use. As with all mobile site builders it feels a bit like wearing new shoes.

The user interface is mostly intuitive and you can certainly get at least a preliminary mobile site built in less than an hour. It will help to have a clear cut idea of what you want to create before you start using the site builder. Integrating in the text messaging component is super easy. Most of it is built in for you.

If you need a mobile site with a text messaging component, I highly recommend EveryhwhereIGo, especially because they have a fully functional free version so you can try it out.

More Info

JitterGram
JitterGram is a local-oriented mobile coupon provider. You can very easily set up a mobile coupon offer and then send out coupons via this service. Their back end software takes care of everything you just plug in your initial offer and then you can send text message on a set pre-programmed schedule or whenever you want to send one.

There is a basic report for each JitterGram sent but you have to manually input the redemption numbers. JitterGram gets huge kudos for being super easy to use. Another bonus is that consumers who are signing up to receive JitterGrams from their website will see all the offers in a particular area.

If you need the easiest, fastest way to create a basic mobile coupon campaign, JitterGram is it. They offer the first month free as well, so there is no risk to give it a try.

More Info

MANAGED SERVICE

The following are companies that actually do the text messaging for you. They work with your marketing team to create the campaigns and then they implement it for you. The minimum budget you need to work with a managed service company is $10,000 plus you need marketing support for your campaign.

Blast Companies / Smart Reply
If you are looking for a company that will handle the text messaging campaign for you, instead of you doing it yourself, then Smart Reply is the place to go. They will take care of every detail of your campaign from start to finish. In addition to text messaging they can also help you with a voice campaign.

More Info

Confused by how to get started with text messaging? Want to be sure you are developing a smart campaign before you hire the vendor to get it done? Check out my Mobile Marketing Launch Kit which includes a module about creating a successful text messaging campaign.

Not Listed Here?
If you are an SMS text message company provider and would like to be listed, please contact me to set up a tour of your platform. I am open to reviewing companies worldwide even though right now I only list U.S. companies.

Continue Reading Comments(1) Recommended Vendors, Text Messaging

Voice Vendors

February 20th, 2009 • By: Kim Dushinski • Recommended Vendors

Getting a voice campaign going can be as simple as putting “call our office from your mobile phone right now” on your advertising or as complex as setting up an abbreviated dialing code. Check this list of Voice Vendors for recommendations on companies that can help you with your campaign.

PAY-PER-CALL
ingenioWith approximately 14 million businesses in the U.S. and less than 300,000 of these engaged in click-based online advertising, it is clear that the “one size fits all” approach to online advertising doesn’t work—especially when it comes to local merchants and service providers who do not have or operate e-commerce websites. Ingenio Pay Per Call offers an innovative twist on the traditional method of search-based online advertising: it enables you to attract millions of small, local and service based businesses to pay-for performance advertising with an online solution that delivers a phone call instead of a click.

Ingenio Pay Per Call is an ideal solution for the millions of local businesses who know the value of a phone call lead—studies show
that these small businesses prefer incoming calls to website clicks by a ratio of 2 to 1. With Ingenio Pay Per Call, these businesses can acquire new customers online—and pay only after they receive an incoming phone call. Click here for more information.

ABBREVIATED DIALING CODES
singletouchSingleTouch offers the ability to get a three digit code that consumers can dial to get information directly from a brand. An example is #WMT for WalMart’s savings alerts program. Dialing this code from your mobile phone gives you a voice recording option for signing up for their weekly savings alerts.

Continue Reading Comments(0) Recommended Vendors
Next Page »