Archive for the ‘Mobile Marketing Tips’ Category

Mobile Restaurant Interaction Spikes

The restaurant industry received a boost in mobile marketing use over the Thanksgiving holiday.  This is likely due to family cooks being burned out on cooking after the Thanksgiving holiday pig out.  Mobile marketing for restaurants has been a very viable category for 84444.com

Or, should we say: 62% of retailer are still NOT using mobile marketing.

Retailers are learning mobile sells.

According to a study from Aberdeen, only 18% of retailers were using mobile at the end of 2008.  Since then, however, the increase in the use of smartphones and improvements to other mobile technology has increased a retailer’s excitement for mobile.

The study surveyed 129 retailers this summer to find that 38% are using mobile.  Another 50% are not far behind, said the study, and do plan to use mobile marketing some day.  15% said they would employ mobile within the next year.

Retailers are anxious to begin to employ mobile for merchandise promotions, mobile coupons, mobile advertising, and retail loyalty programs.  Of course, at the core of any mobile program is text message marketing.

And, with Black Friday on us, what could be a better blog post than one that discussed mobile marketing for retailers?

Restaurants are one of the best vertical markets for the use of mobile marketing via text message.  84444.com has enjoyed many successes with restaurants and many savvy restaurant marketers are investing the time to generate more visits and more return visits via text message promotions.

Text Message Promotions for Restaurants

Where Restaurants Can Promote Text Message Mobile Marketing

Just like in any market, getting a database of restaurant patrons is the key to an effective mobile marketing plan.  Here are just some of the places that our restaurant customers are using to promote their text message marketing.

1. Along with all traditional advertising in newspaper, radio, and billboards.
2. Outdoor signage in prominent locations.
3. On the backs of t-shirts of the wait staff.
4. Can’t do t-shirts?  What about buttons?
5. On take out menus.
6. On pizza boxes or bags for take out.
7. On pens and other promotional products.
8. If you have a DJ, get patrons to interact by choosing the next song or sending a shout out.
9. Promote on receipts.
10. Business cards.
11. Give away cards.
12. Have the hostess take phone numbers and text them when the table is ready.  There’s no need for pagers any more.
13. On TVs at the bar.
14. On coasters.
15. Napkins.
16. Place mats.
17. In the bathrooms (enter joke here).
18. On the telephone on hold system.
19. Get the phone number when they make a reservation.

Interactive Text Message Promotions at Restaurants

Get your restaurant customers involved with an interactive text message program and they will opt-in to your database so that you can send them broadcast text message promotions in the future.

1. When delivering the check, add text message promotion to get a free appetizer or desert on their next visit.
2. Get them back quickly.  Put a text message promotion on the check to get a discount if they come back within a week or on a slow night.
3. Add free mobile coupon offer in all traditional advertisements.
4. If you have outdoor advertising on the highway, use an interactive text message promotion to send directions to the restaurant.
5. Text message sweepstakes usually produce the greatest amount of participants.  Have your restaurant offer tickets to a sporting event or concert, sponsored by the restaurant.  It’s the single best way to grow your database of opt-in users.
6. Prior to the start of the NFL or MLB season, offer a chance for fantasy football or fantasy baseball players to host their draft at the restaurant with special offers for them.  A fantasy draft takes several hours so you can sell a lot of drinks in that time.
7. During the big game, have some fun with the audience by giving them a chance to predict who will score the next touchdown or the next basket.  Give prizes to those with the correct answer.
8. Send picture of food to get a response message.
9. Send a text message to get a message back with the menu or the specials.
10. Return with an app download for the restaurant that includes the menu and mobile coupon.

Restaurant Broadcast Text Messages

1. Get traffic to your restaurant on slow days with a broadcast text message offer.
2. Invite your opt-in database to the restaurant to a special Monday Night Football party or to watch the local big game on TV.
3. Notify your database when there is a celebrity in the house and watch the traffic come through the door of your restaurant.
4. Send reservation reminders.
5. Let your restaurant customers know when you are having live music.
6. If you added menu items, let them know by broadcast text message.
7. On the holidays, invite your database to the restaurant.

GRANDE: Latinos now make up 1/6 of US population.

If you are looking to traditional American values, the Hispanic market may be the equivelant of the 1950′s in America.

The median age of Hispanics is 28 — the same as it was for America in 1955, right after the post-war baby boom. 34% of Hispanics are children. Hispanics more often live in large, traditional, married-with-children families with participation from grandparents in the family unit. The average Hispanic family has 4.0 members compared to 2.9 members in the average White family. Only 4% of Hispanics live alone, compared to 15% of Whites.

Hispanics now make up 50 million Americans; that’s one in six residents! Since 2000, the Hispanic population in the USA has increased by 42%! That compares to the non-Hispanic population which increased by just 5% in that time period. In fact, Hispanics have now replaced African-Americans as the second largest consumer market in the USA.

What’s more important is the continued Americanization of the Hispanic population. Today, 91% of all Hispanic children were born in the USA, as compared to just 47% of their parents.

The market is also easy to reach, similar to the neighborhoods of ethnic groups in the past. 76% of all Hispanics live in just 8 states — California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, and Colorado. In fact, half of all Hispanics live in California and Texas.

We’ve previously discussed how Hispanics tend to have cellular phone bills that are larger than non-Hispanics. This is because Hispanics are more likely to not have a landline phone. Not surprising, given the young and urban concentration of Spanish-speaking adults and children.

The American Hispanic population is split down the middle in terms of the language that they prefer to speak.  About half actively speak both English and Spanish, but often speak Spanish at home with family.  On the other hand, half prefer to speak Spanish. 

Reaching Hispanics with Spanish speaking advertisements is definitely the preferred method.  While the ethnic group will speak English, its important to also offer them marketing and advertising in Spanish.  It will also help make your marketing message stand out from those brands that don’t bother to market directly to this important market segment.

That’s why 84444.com believes that you should target your mobile marketing to Hispanics as well…with Spanish messages.  To not do so, means you are missing out on an important and growing segment of the US population.

Today, out of women from the ages 16-54 who use mobile devices, 93% say they are on the lookout for bargains and mobile coupons.  Retail companies are continually looking to please the consumers by giving them what they want.  Through survey,  68% of women have said that they are fascinated by the idea of receiving discounts via their mobile devices.  Approximately 53% of women say they are most interested in retail coupons, followed by approximately 16% interested in dining coupons.  These women in search for special offers come from the 94% of women who browse the mobile web at home daily.

Mobile Ads have also become frequent amongst women.  When asked if they have ever clicked on a mobile ad, out of 875 responses, approximately 57% responded yes, 28% responded no, and 15% were neutral.  Women are increasing their attention on the advertisements within the mobile web.

Among women, Facebook and Yahoo are the most popular, leading to research on the commonality of internet usage.  This internet usage then leads to the frequency of mobile web usage. Women are already engaged and interested in exploring all of the new mobile services on the mobile web provided today given their interest in the internet.  These mobile devices are extremely important in connecting retail brands with their customers in which women find themselves paying attention to.

Opt-In: The sandwich is on us.

One of the most daunting tasks facing a new entrant into the exciting world of mobile marketing is the ability to establish an opt-in mobile marketing list.  Even experienced advertising agencies seem to be perplexed by this task.

But, it’s really not that difficult.  Overwhelmingly, the top two ways to establish an opt-in database are through mobile coupons and text message sweepstakes.  Have tickets to the Dodger game?  Give them away in your pizza restaurant.  Better yet, give them away and include a mobile coupon in the return messages.

While text message sweepstakes are the best way to get consumers to opt-in to your mobile marketing programs, mobile coupons are the best way to keep them there.  And, the best thing is that they work!

For years, broadcast salespersons have been criticized by advertisers, because their advertising is not measurable.  With newspapers, the consumer can walk in with the clipped newspaper coupon.  This is not possible with broadcasting…until now.

When a consumer walks in and flashes his cell phone, the store manager will certainly remember.

Moreover, with mobile coupons, you can reach your consumer when they are most likely to buy.  Subway, for instance, sends all of its promotional text messages at 11:30 am when workers are starting to get hungry for lunch.  And, since 94% of all text messages are read immediately upon receipt, that means that your opt-in consumers are receiving your promotional message when they are most likely to buy.

With mobile marketing, you walk a fine line between your best customer and your worst customer. 

Long text messages may increase opt-outs.

Your best customer is the one that loves your product and can’t get enough information about it so they welcome receiving all of your text message promotions.  On the other hand, your worst customer may be the best customer whom you sent too many messages to and has now chosen to opt-out of your promotions.

Some companies believe that sending a promotional message that is longer than 160 characters is a good thing.  At 84444.com, we don’t agree.  We believe that messages should be concise and fit within the 160 character parameters that have been established by the carriers.  To do otherwise, means that a consumer is more likely to opt-out.

Perhaps, the other companies suggesting such lengthy messages are only interested in selling more text messages and are not thinking in the best interests of your opt-in customers.

Interactive and broadcast messaging is taking its toll on the marketing industry. Pizza restaurants have the ability to target the mobile industry based on interactive text message programs.  Their first goal is to create as big of a database as possible by using sweepstakes and mobile coupons through their advertisements. 

Pizza Restaurants: Red Hot Sales with Mobile Marketing

A pizza restaurant can use permission based marketing in order to build a database of interested consumers.  The customer opts-in to the promotion or offers by texting a keyword to a short code. For example, text pizza to short code 84444.  Then, the text message solution invoices immediately an automatic response including the advertised mobile coupon or promotion; for example, buy 1 pizza get the other half off.

This mobile strategy can easily be added to the existing marketing strategies.  Any customer would shun advertisements to be sent to their mobile device; however they would enjoy receiving mobile coupons that are accepted at the register of their favorite pizza restaurants.  In order to advertise their mobile coupons and promotions, there are several things the restaurant can do; including sign up sheets in public places, where the customer can physically opt-in to receiving promotions to their phones, or have radio broadcasting in which it advertises the keyword and short code. 

Once a restaurant has built a database of interested consumers, they now have the capability to send out broadcast texts that include mobile coupons, promotions, specials, or information regarding the restaurant. The restaurant can use this to promote its restaurant personally and beneficially.  For example, if they are generally slow on a particular day, they can send broadcast texts with mobile coupons promoting that day specifically.