Archive for the ‘Text Message Marketing’ Category

It is a big election year and many political candidates will be using our voice broadcast, or “robocalls,” to reach voters. The question came up as to how the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 fits in with political candidates. You probably know that political candidates are given more leeway when it comes to outbound telemarketing without a bonafied opt-in.

Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, politicians and campaign volunteers may call voters on their landline or wireless phones. But when a campaign uses an auto dialer to leave a “robocall” (precorded message), calls to wireless phones are prohibited. In short, it is:

• legal for a campaign to call voters on their landline phones using an auto dialer to leave a robocall without the “prior express consent of the called party.”
• illegal for a campaign to contact voters using to use auto dialers and robocalls to their cellphones without prior express consent.

The same rules apply to text messages. It is:

• legal for campaign workers to send texts to voters’ cellphones. For this service, political candidates can use text message marketing services such as 84444.com.

To learn more about TCPA, please visit the FCC’s websites on telemarketing and SPAM texts.

Please do not consider this legal advice. You should consult your own attorneys to get your own legal opinion.

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.

Super Bowl Sunday requires some serious flour power at pizza restaurants across America.

The National Restaurant Association said that 55% of Super Bowl viewers order food from restaurants and 65% of them pick pizza.  For most pizza restaurants, that means that Super Bowl Sunday will mean twice as many pizzas as their next biggest day of the year.

Last year, Pizza Hut and Domino’s sold 2 million and 1.2 million pizzas respectively on the day of the biggest game of the year. Papa John’s sold more than 1 million pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday topping its 940,000 that it sold on Super Bowl Sunday in 2010.

Papa John’s Gives Away Free Pizza on Coin Flip

This year, however, Papa John’s has cooked up a new promotion in an attempt to top 2011’s sales.  If you go to the Papa John’s website, you can choose the outcome of the coin toss if you are a member of Papa John’s Rewards.  If the majority of Americans choose the outcome of the coin toss prior to the start of the Super Bowl, Papa John’s will give away one large one-topping pizza plus a two-liter Pepsi MAX to its Papa John’s Rewards members.

If you like to gamble based on historical outcomes, this is not the best place to do so.  In the first 45 Super Bowls, heads holds a slim 23-22 lead so it must be the year for tails, right?  Interestingly, the NFC team has won the coin toss for 14 consecutive years.

A coin flip that matches the choice of the fans is going to mean that Papa John’s employees are going to be flipping a lot more free pizzas in February.  And, Papa John’s hopes that its Rewards members will be flipping out if they win.

Despite the potential cost of the free food, Papa John’s online promotion and television commercials starring Peyton Manning and Jerome “The Bus” Bettis are helping it build its database of email addresses and mobile phone numbers.  A mushrooming database for email and mobile marketing is the result of savvy efforts such as this.

Private Stores Playbook for Pizza Sales

But, it isn’t just the large pizza chains who are trying to earn a larger slice of the super-size Super Bowl pie.  Local pizza restaurants like Main Line Pizza in Wayne, Pennsylvania, are also getting into the act.  Last year, single location store Main Line Pizza offered a Super Bowl party platter via its text message marketing and received an 11% return rate.

“That blew me away,” said Robert Saionz, owner of Main Line Pizza.

“It has been very effective,” said Jennifer Saionz who handles the marketing for Main Line Pizza and creates the text message promotions.

Jennifer said that the 84444.com text message marketing company that it uses has packages as low as $45 per month for up to 1000 text messages, thus making mobile marketing the most inexpensive advertising that it does.

Main Line Pizza builds its database through store-front signage, stickers on its pizza boxes, and by offering an immediate 10% discount for any new customer that opts-in to its database and shows the text message.

Taking Action on Super Bowl Pizza Sales

Super Sunday is the biggest day of the year for many things: hours spent watching television; dollars wagered; pizza sales.  While it’s probably too late for your restaurant to purchase a $3 million spot in the Super Bowl, there’s still time to set up a text message marketing promotion to have a spectacular Super Sunday in pizza pie sales.

 

It is great to see that text message marketing is the most popular activity used by marketers followed closely by QR Codes.

There are three categories of short code programs from a pricing perspective.

• Standard Rate — The consumer is charged standard text messaging fees (usually decremented from their carrier messaging bundle) when participating in the program.  No premium fees are charged.  Standard rate is the type of text messaging offered by 84444.com.
• Premium Rate — The consumer is charged premium fees in addition to standard messaging fees that apply.  You can not run a premium rate text message campaign on 84444.com, but Advanced Telecom Services does not offer Premium SMS services through another short code.
• Free to End User (FTEU) — This is the newest of the short code categories.  With FTEU, the consumer incurs no charges at all for participating in the program.  The carrier waives standard message fees for these programs.  Such programs are currently extremely rare.

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Interest in text message marketing and text message advertising continues to increase.  One of my favorite tools to prove out such theories is Google Insights which measures trends in searches over time.

This article was first provided to iMediaConnection.

 

Less is More: The Long and Short of Text Message Marketing Copywriting

The best thing about text message marketing is the likelihood that your message will actually get read.  In fact, 94% of all text messages are read immediately upon receipt, even the promotional ones.

But, once you’ve got the readers’ attention, how do you keep it and make them act on it when you only have 160 characters, including spaces, to work with?

Here are some best practices to be the master copywriter for the short message.

• Get straight to the point.  With 160 characters, you really have no choice.
• Use short and simple words.  No need to impress anybody with your Ivy League vocabulary.
• Think in terms of teasers.  Those messages on the home page of Yahoo that just force you to open them.
• Talk about benefits.  You probably won’t have room for the features part.  How much weight they lose or how much better their car will handle with new tires.
• Use the shortened text format that is already acceptable in personal text-speak.  It will make your message seem more genuine and not a sales pitch.
• Adding an embedded URL or phone number for quick access via a smartphone is a great addition, but don’t sacrifice the basic understanding of your message to add it..

The day will come when open rates of text messages start to decline, but for now, they remain high, even among those who receive a lot of promotional text messages.  Take advantage of those high open rates by maximizing the effectiveness of your promotional text message copy.

That’s the long and short of it.

Bob Bentz is president of mobile marketing company Advanced Telecom Services which provides text message marketing, apps development, custom QR Codes, and mobile web sites.

Diana Chiafair Roberts has won the 4th Annual Baseball’s Hottest Wives competition sponsored by fantasy baseball site Fantasy Baseball Dugout.

2011 was a disappointing season for Brian Roberts and the Baltimore Orioles, but hopefully things are looking up a little for the Roberts family now.

In the closest competition in the four year history of the popular Baseball’s Hottest Wives contest, Roberts’ wife Diana Roberts edged Derek Jeter’s ex-fiancee and Charlie’s Angels star Minka Kelly to take home the coveted title. The vote went to the ninth inning with the margin of victory for Roberts, the ex-Deal or No Deal suitcase model, being less than one percent.

During the year, Baseball’s Hottest Wives nominated numerous wives and fiancees of professional baseball players. The fourth annual Baseball’s Hottest Wives contest registered over 29,000 votes from all around the world. Baseball fans, and fans of pretty women in general, voted via the web site Fantasy Baseball Dugout and via text message voting supplied by text message marketing site 84444.com and Advanced Telecom Services. While Roberts won the overall combined vote, Kelly actually received the most text message votes followed by Roberts, Emily Greinke and Lindsay Clubine (Clay Bucholz wife).

Final votes for Baseball’s Hottest Wives 2011 was as follows:

Diana Roberts — 15.03%
Minka Kelly (Derek Jeter) — 14.21%
Emily Greinke — 10.94%
Heidi Hamels — 10.33%
Heidi DeRosa — 7.67%
Laura Posada — 7.06%
Karina Smirnoff (Brad Penny) — 5.01%
Joanna Garcia (Nick Swisher) — 4.91%
Saeko Darvish — 4.30%
Michelle Damon — 4.28%
Amber Sabathia — 3.37%
Krystle Campbell (Ryan Howard) — 3.07%
Lindsay Clubine (Clay Bucholz) — 2.87%
Jamie Kotsay — 2.85%
Alejandra Tejada — 2.15%
Ashley Eckstein — 1.94%

Brian Roberts has been with the Orioles for 12 seasons and is the longest tenured current Baltimore player. Diana Chiafair married Roberts in January 2009. The brunette beauty was born on Long Island and raised in South Florida. Diana’s resume includes photo shoots for FHM, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair. She has appeared in commercials for Herbal Essence, Dasani, and Virgin Mobile. Brian and Diana Roberts are also active sponsors and regular visitors to the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital.

Previous winners of Baseball’s Hottest Wives were two time winner Heidi DeRosa in 2008 and 2009 and Saeko Darvish in 2010. Heidi is the wife of Giants utility man Mark DeRosa and Saeko is the wife of Nippon Ham Fighters pitcher Yu Darvish.

Baseball’s Hottest Wives has been featured in major newspapers such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Houston Chronicle. The staff of Fantasy Baseball Dugout has a regular sports talk radio segment that covers fantasy baseball and fantasy football and airs on many ESPN Radio stations on the weekends.

Fantasy Baseball Dugout is a fantasy baseball tips and information site published by Olympic Internet. Text message marketing for the voting is supplied by text message marketing company 84444.com and Advanced Telecom Services.