Archive for the ‘Mobile Marketing’ Category

A study by the National Restaurant Association shows that 1 in 5 restaurant goers want to receive daily text messages from their favorite restaurants.

No matter how bad the economy may appear to be, Americans are eating out more often.  According to the National Restaurant Association, sales at restaurants are projected to grow by 3.5% in 2012 to reach a record $632 billion.

And, restaurants create jobs–lots of them.  Overall employment in the restaurant industry will reach 12.9 million this year, accounting for 10% of the total US workforce, according to the National Restaurant Association.

Technology is part of the trend.  Nearly 40% of restaurant customers said that they would like to order on tablets.  The same percentage indicated a desire to use smartphone apps to look at menus and order delivery from an app.

Text message marketing is also gaining momentum with restaurants.  While 30% would like to receive an email with daily specials, 20% now say that they would prefer to receive daily specials via text message marketing.

Here is the direct quote from the National Restaurant Association:
What’s more is that in today’s über-connected society, email and text messaging are proving to be an effective way for restaurant operators to reach their consumers. Roughly 3 in 10 of adults said they would like to receive an email with daily specials, while about 1 in 5 prefer text messages with similar information. If a restaurant’s specials were available on Facebook or Twitter, nearly one-third of consumers say they’d be likely to sign up, indicating that social media continues to be a powerful marketing tool.

The redemption rate for mobile coupons will grow to 8% globally by 2016, according to a study by Juniper Research.

Currently, Europe and North America are trailing Asia in terms of mobile coupon redemption.  By 2016, the study projects that over 600 million people will use mobile coupons.

Mobile coupons play a vital role in bridging the gap between online stores and brick and mortar stores.  Mobile coupons will become an important part of a retail store’s ability to compete with the cheaper costs of online retailers.

Total mobile coupon redemption values for 2016 will be $43 billion globally.  Marketers will become better at targeting and mobile apps will be a major driver of mobile coupon delivery.

If you’re an advertising agency, then you are likely to be using mobile marketing.  That’s  a far cry from how things were a few years ago when we were a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to text message marketing and other elements of mobile marketing.

If you don’t follow the rules, you may be tripping over a federal law and finding yourself with a large legal bill to pay.

There have been over a dozen lawsuits filed in recent years against companies such as Burger King, Jiffy Lube, Timberland, and NASCAR.  The lawsuits are expensive.  Timberland set aside $7 million for  a settlement under which it agreed to pay consumers who received unauthorized text messages $150 each.  Another suit set Simon & Schuster back $175 for everyone who received a new text message about a Stephen King book.

The rules for text message marketing are aligned with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).  That means that you must have a legitimate opt-in from consumers rather than the opt-out that is required for email marketing.

Since the TCPA was passed in 1991, before text messaging was common, laws have been passed that have strengthened the consumer protection elements.  In 2009, the 9th Circuit passed a rule that ruled definitively that sending a text message for marketing purposes is the same as making a phone call.

As a general rule, if a customer follows the rules of the Mobile Marketing Association, he should be within the letter of the law.

84444.com provides a link to the rules established by the Mobile Marketing Association in the footer of the website.

Please consult your own attorney for rules and regulations regarding text message marketing.

When it comes to deciding on a new restaurant, more and more people are turning to the internet and the cell phone. That’s the conclusion of a new study by the Pew Research Center.

And, it simply makes sense.  You are out and about and don’t have time to cook at home.  So, you reach for your cell phone to find a restaurant in your area.  Or, you are still at home and you go on the web to find out where you’d like to eat.

When it comes to the category of restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, the study found that 51% of those surveyed rely on the internet as their local guide.  Of those, 38% start out on a search engine, 17% go to specialty sites, and 3% look to social media to find a restaurant choice.

Other media are not faring as well compared to the internet and mobile phone juggernaut.  Just 31% rely on newspapers, broken down by 26% reading the paper copy and 5% reading an online newspaper site.  Word of mouth was important at 23% and 8% relied on local TV.  Radio came in at 3% and mobile marketing for restaurants at 2%.

Of the restaurant information obtained online, 47% of it was accessed via a mobile phone.  Makes a pretty good case for having a mobile website.

 

The Greatest Businessman of All-Time

North Pole –When you think about the greatest businessman of all-time, who comes to mind?

Ford?  Rockefeller?  Bill Gates?  Donald Trump?  Richard Branson?  Mark Zuckerberg?  Steve Jobs?

Give me a break.

The greatest businessman of all time is, without a doubt, Santa Claus.

 

8 Things That Santa Claus Does Better than Donald Trump

Think about it.  Santa’s customers return year after year.  He has a factory that churns out toys 24/7 with little overhead.  He has loyal and long tenured employees that work for near minimum wage.  Of course, there aren’t a lot of jobs in this tough global economy, so imagine how hard it is for vertically challenged elves these days.

Santa Claus has a promotions department that secures prime visibility in crowded malls and gets him grand marshal positions in parades all over the world.  He also has a publicity crew that writes songs, poems, and even produces movies and television shows with him as the star.  His stamina is amazing and there are no performance enhancing drugs in his body, unless you count the chocolate chip cookies!

He’s an advertising genius.  Just watch TV in December and see how many commercials he’s on.  I’ve seen him drinking Coca-Cola for years now and am still amazed how he can balance himself on that Norelco razor after all the junk food he eats!

And talk about customer service.  It’s the best in the world!  No waiting on hold to talk to his telemarketers “Ryan” from Sri Lanka.  He knows what you want, often without your even telling him.

 

The Biggest Mistakes Santa Claus Makes

But, sometimes I think Santa Claus is slipping a bit the past few years.  He hasn’t really embraced html5, social networking, apps, or cloud technology very well.

Santa doesn’t own an iPhone or an Android.  He thinks a Blackberry is a health food that he’d never dream of eating.

I think he’s one of only about 15 people in the world that don’t have a Facebook account.  I’m not sure if he knows how to Google anything.  His website isn’t optimized.  I’ve never seen him Tweet.  His Klout score is below 25.

His workers still use basic tools from the pre-Industrial Revolution.  And, they don’t even have worker’s compensation or a decent HMO.

His mode of transportation still involves harnessed livestock that take a treacherous route around the world.

And, don’t tell me one animal with a light bulb on his nose is innovative.  It’s animal cruelty.  Call the ASPCA!

As for knowing when we’re sleeping, even conservatives would admit that’s taking The Patriot Act too far!

His ordering process?  It’s downright archaic.  I mean, who writes letters any more?

 

The Only Thing That Can Save Santa Claus’s Business

What Santa Claus needs is mobile marketing.

Worldwide, 5 trillion text messages are sent each year, but how many of you have ever received one, or sent one, to the North Pole?  Even Verizon can’t hear you now at the North Pole.

Did you know that 18% of those 5 trillion text messages are considered commercial text messages?  Don’t you think text message marketing would be a great way for Santa to get rid of some of his closeout inventory?  I hear there’s a warehouse at the North Pole that still has half a million eight-tracks in it!

Ever see the long lines at the mall with kids wanting to take their picture with Santa Claus?  By the time the kids get up to Santa, they are often crying and that doesn’t make for a great Christmas card photo opp.  Why not provide a Custom QR Code to scan while waiting in line?  Mom could scan it and Santa could entertain the kids with videos and the provide text message reminders to be especially good at this time of year.

Did you ever watch the late news on television on Christmas Eve?  There’s usually some hokey satellite picture of Santa flying over some other country.  In the eastern United States, I think Santa is usually somewhere around Slovakia during our 11 o’clock newscast.

Well, I’m an insomniac and I often stay up late on Christmas Eve multi-tasking on my laptop while watching the History Channel, ESPN, or Skinemax.  I would love to check the app on my iPhone to know when Santa and his reindeer are getting close to my hometown so I can get to bed on time.  If his clever little engineers can’t figure out how to develop an app to track the progress of the flying reindeer, I’m sure Southwest could give them a hand.

Ordering is another issue.  How many of you still have envelopes and stamps in your house?  It’s been so long since I sent a letter that I have no idea how much it even costs to send a letter any more.  How many stamps do you need to send a letter to the North Pole anyway?  It’s not even on the USPS.com web site; I checked.  Plus, there’s the issue of the post office losing your snail mail.  No, that never happens, does it?

By the way Santa, I’m still waiting for the Porsche I asked for last year.  I knew I should have sent my Christmas list by Fed Ex.

With text messages, we could send in our Christmas lists to Santa Claus through a short code, say 72682 (S-A-N-T-A).  With an easy-to-use mobile marketing solution like this, Santa could confirm receipt and even tell you if you’ve been…bad or good.

Maybe that’s what happened to my Porsche.

Bob Bentz is president of Advanced Telecom Services which provides text message marketing, apps development, mobile websites, and custom QR Codes to its media and advertising customers.  Bob would like to supply such services to Santa Claus as well, but Santa doesn’t answer his text messages, Tweets, Facebook friend requests, or LinkedIn contacts.  Santa, if you are reading this, please follow @BobBentz on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, or hit him up on LinkedIn.  He has a great deal for you.

36% of Americans own a smartphone as per third quarter, 2011, according to a ComScore study.  This is opposed to 43% from the Nielsen study.

 

 

When it comes to holiday shopping activity, smartphone users are most likely to use their smartphone to take a picture of a product.

 

by Bob Bentz.

According to a study by AT&T, 34% of business owners are showing interest in using text message marketing in 2012.  Creating mobile apps is of interest to the largest amount of business owners at 43%.

Of all mobile marketing tactics, text message marketing is clearly the most utilized of them.  That likely explains why there is more interest in the development of apps.

AT&T’s findings are based on an online survey in September 2011 of 501 marketing or advertising professionals working at a US-based company with more than 1,000 employees. Respondents held a director or higher title and were personally involved with making or overseeing marketing or advertising program decisions for their company.

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier today, eMarketer released a study that estimates advertisers will spend $1.23 billion on mobile advertising in the U.S. market in 2011. This year will be the first time the mobile ad industry has passed the one billion dollar mark. This unprecedented amount represents a 65% increase over the $743 million spent in 2010 on mobile advertising.

The study also estimated that by the end of the year the number of Americans with a smartphone will be 38% and 41% of mobile users will use mobile Internet at least one time per month. The increased number of smartphones and mobile Internet usage equate will equate to higher mobile advertising spend in the near future. The eMarketer study predicted that mobile ad spend, which includes ads viewed on both mobile phones and tablets, will grow according to the above chart.

The numbers include money spent on display ads, search ads, and mobile video ads, but does not include money invested in text message marketing on sites like 84444.com. The fastest growing mobile ad segment, mobile video ads, is expected to account for $57.6 million of the $1.23 billion mobile advertisers spend in 2011. However, that number is expected to grow at a 69% compounded annual rate through the year 2015. In fact, by 2015, advertisers are expected to spend approximately $395.6 million annually on mobile video ads.

Although advertisers have traditionally hesitated to spend large amounts of their budgets on mobile advertising, this study indicates that resistance is diminishing. With the number of consumers accessing the Internet through mobile devices steadily increasing and advertisers allocating more funds to mobile ads, there is no reason to doubt the data in this study.

Google reports that its users are searching more and more from mobile phones.  In fact, in fourth quarter, 2010, 2.3 times more mobile searches were done on Google than during the previous 3 months!  That’s some serious growth in mobile search.

Even more interesting is the amount of searches being done in particular categories.  For restaurants, for example, 30% of all Google searches are now done on the mobile phone.  That makes sense.  After all, when you are out and about looking for a restaurant or a mobile coupon, the only medium you will have to search on Google is your cell phone.

Another important industry for mobile search is surprisingly autos.  In the auto category, 17% of all Google searches done in January 2011 were done on mobile phones.

The busiest time of the day for mobile search?  6-9 PM says Google.

Just the time when you are starting to get hungry.  Hmmm.