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Everything about Mobile Advertising!
Sold On Mobile
Here’s something to think about on this wintery Wednesday: if one considers that 91% of mobile phone owners keep their phone within a one metre radius, 24 hours out of every day, why then do marketers bother with any other type of media? With South African mobile penetration hovering around the 130% mark, it just doesn’t make sense to adopt the ‘spray and pray’ approach that is mass media television advertising, for example, when brand owners can go direct to the source of their future good fortunes: the end mobile phone consumer who probably spends more time looking at that little screen than anything else. Just think about that for a second – the consumer’s spouse, job, and dog, easily get less attention than that SIM card-loaded marketing dream device. When I started out, the often-quoted statistic of 2% was usually trotted out as an example of a good response to a direct mail campaign. Two percent was the holy grail for the direct marketer – if you got 2 out of every hundred people to respond to your offer, you uncorked the sparkling wine and made an excited call to your client on your Motorola StarTac at R2.75 a minute. The irony is that the device you were making the client call on, would in two decades be responsible for unheard of consumer recall and response rates of 13%! Mobile phone users are able to respond to marketers so rapidly, and in such impressive numbers, because of the SIM card that is an integral part of every cellphone. And because about half of all mobile phone users in...
More Data, Video & Apps Are Key Emerging Mobile Ad Trends
A report last year by On Device Research states that South Africa’s mobile penetration rate is now a staggering 133%. ‘Staggering’ is no exaggeration if one remembers that just two decades ago, in 1993, the country had but 4 million landlines, and was just about to roll out its first cellular base station. Twenty years later, we’ve hit the 60 million mobile phone mark. For marketers, the relevance is that along with 60 million South African cellphones comes the fact that advertising rands are better spent when they target mobile screens. Some 63 percent of South Africans, Kenyans and Nigerians say that the mobile Internet has ‘greatly improved’ their lives – no doubt because it has greatly improved their ability to make informed purchasing decisions. Now that it’s clear that the number one mobile marketing trend is ever-increasing opportunities thanks to ever-upwards mobile phone sales, we took a look at what leading opinion-makers say are three more specific mobile advertising trends that we can expect during the latter half of 2015. We looked at VentureBeat, Matomy Media, Target Marketing and CNBC for certain common threads and this is what we came up with: With growing mobile impressions, there’s an increase in demand for better and richer measures of ROI. Advertisers are looking for more meaningful interaction and will therefore want to see more cost-per-acquisition (CPA) campaigns. Essentially, we’re likely to see mobile advertisers focusing increasingly on performance. As users start demanding more interactivity, and marketers realise that video formats are highly effective in engaging users and delivering stronger brand stories, video will become ever more essential. Allied with this...
Voice-based ads
I don’t think it would be out of place to write that ever since our ancestors discovered that logs could be made into seats – and a circle of cavemen could then be called a meeting – we have equated meetings to work. This is why for many years competitive types would settle down at their favourite pubs and hold after-hour meetings where they would all inform each other about how many meetings they had attended that day. This was a way of illustrating to their friends just how hard working they had been. Enter the advent of ubiquitous email access in corporate South Africa, and suddenly hard work is not defined in meeting hours anymore, it’s about how many emails you sent and received during a particular working day. A friend of mine recently told me he sent and received over 120 emails in one day, followed by perhaps a dozen text messages, and in last position, he said he received perhaps ‘one or two’ phone calls. ‘One or two?’ I thought, ‘That’s an opportunity!’ It seems to me that communication has become more text-based than at any other time in history. With people having to work their way through thousands of lines of text-based emails a day, marketers have a fantastic opportunity to be heard – quite literally – via InTarget’s voice-based mobile advertising service. These days, when the phone rings, people take notice because it has become so unexpected for so many of us. And that’s especially true of the younger generation who barely make a phone call today. We’d love to hear from you (forgive...
Mobile means immediate gratification for Intarget clients & mobile users alike
With South Africa’s GDP growth expected to come in well under the 2% percent mark again this year, it’s clear that marketers are under pressure as consumers slash spending and try to conserve as much of their dwindling cash reserves as possible. The good news, however, for InTarget clients is that challenging economic times are when mobile advertising really comes into its own. Few firms can afford to spend right now on lavish brand-building exercises that are designed to deliver little else than promoting vague consumer recall at some far off point in the distant future. What we’re seeing in our business in the current climate is a strong demand for ‘call-to-action’ mobile advertising campaigns that move inventory – and move it quickly, or at least campaigns that result in strong leads. Who can afford to brand the crowning glory of a 50-storey building, for example, or a fleet of 100 cars, and then wait for some unspecified future positive impact on the bottom line? While InTarget can certainly implement mass airtime campaigns, for instance, that are ideal to create general brand awareness, even better and faster results can be achieved by linking mass airtime campaigns to below-the-line promotions. Our interactive mobile platforms and applications can provide the end user with a unique customer experience featuring instant gratification – and immediate sales for the marketer. While we excel at creating billions of monthly advertising impressions through our mobile advertising properties and engagement channels, for the marketer wanting a quick bottom line impact, InTarget offers a variety of sales-supporting tools. For example, sending and receiving bulk text messages is a...
‘Please call me’ Goldmine up for grabs
Often heralded as the biggest homegrown commercial success of the local cellular industry since the November 1996 launch of prepaid cellular, the ‘Please Call me’ service also holds enormous commercial opportunities for advertisers. By enabling prepaid users who have exhausted their airtime to carry on chatting courtesy of another mobile user calling them back, Please Call Me has become a mobile operator multibillion rand goldmine. How many billions? As much as R45 billion according to the Sunday Times in 2013. Good news for the rest of us, however, is that the golden opportunities made possible by Please Call Me can be exploited by practically any brand in South Africa and beyond through InTarget’s text-based ads tagged onto the end of Please Call Me messages. Text Tags are push notification advertising messages that mobile users receive directly on their handsets. Text tags enable brand messages to be succinctly conveyed in 40 to 120 characters. With the attention span of the typical human down to record levels, Please Call Me is a good bet for any brand wanting to get a message across. Interestingly, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the average attention span of a human being has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013. This is one second less than the attention span of a goldfish! Our vision to be a world-leading, well-renowned mobile solutions provider and digital mobile advertising company has seen us design and implement Please Call Me campaigns for such outstanding brands as First Bank, Nigerian Breweries and Metropolitan Insurance Group. All of these corporations benefitted from low costs per...
Integrat positions for growth as Intarget
Leading mobile services aggregator Integrat is now InTarget after completing a rebranding exercise that will see it better-positioned to explore opportunities as a diversified mobile advertising and related solutions provider. As one of South Africa’s most established WASPs (Wireless Application Service Providers) with a 15-year pedigree, Integrat provided mobile aggregation, premium SMS, mobile billing and bulk SMS services across the African continent. It last year launched InTarget after securing mobile advertising tenders from MTN and Airtel which called for the commercialisation of mobile advertising platforms in 32 African countries and Iran. After successfully completing the first ten mobile advertising integrations as InTarget, it became clear to Integrat’s leadership that the future growth of WASPs would be tied to their ability to exploit mobile advertising opportunities in South Africa and beyond. “Collapsing the decade-and-a-half Integrat brand into the new InTarget entity and staying true to a diversification strategy will ensure our continued exponential growth,” said InTarget CMO, Mike Laws. He added that Integrat survived the turbulent times that continue to present challenges for WASPs by pursuing the diversification strategy that this week has seen the Integrat brand retired. Together with the need to diversify revenue streams is the ever-present need for mobile services firms to remain lean while offering clients a streamlined experience. “InTarget is now the proverbial one-stop shop for any organisation wishing to either exploit the opportunities offered by mobile advertising solutions, or reach the customers of mobile operators,” concluded Mr...
Tips for budgeting and timing of mobile advertising campaigns
Your Mobile Advertising campaign needs a set budget and timeframe for it to be successful. These two components often go hand-in-hand because the one can directly influence the other. What should you know to get you started? Keep it small You don’t need over-the-top budgets or extensive timeframes to make your Mobile Advertising campaigns work. Smaller, personalized campaigns that only focus on customers who will actually buy from you, will be more beneficial to your business’s bottom line. Unlike traditional forms of marketing, the “go big or go home” motto doesn’t necessarily apply here. Know what your cost drivers are Get a list together of all the things that you have to budget for during your campaign. Once you know what they are, you can start shopping around. The three most important cost drivers are: Payment for a marketing team/ agency: If you don’t have your own marketing team, you will need people to produce content, implement the strategy, monitor the progress and provide feedback on the results you achieved. The cost of your mobile platform: If you are using text messaging, you need to know how much each SMS will cost you. Or if you are using mobile display advertising, you need to budget for the costs of clicks/ views or the hosting of your ad. The length of your campaign: The length of your campaign directly influences the cost of it. The longer the campaign, the more content you have to produce and the higher the cost of your mobile platform will be. Goals can determine timing A Mobile Advertising campaign always has one or more goals....
How to use customer data in Mobile Advertising
If you want to create an effective Mobile Advertising strategy, you need to know a little something about your customers. But how can you make sure you don’t get lost in all the data and stats and end up failing? Determine the most popular device You have heard this before – your website needs to be mobile friendly and responsive if you want to make a good impression on your customers. But hold on, not every consumer owns the exact same device, and not every device has the same functionality. An advertisement that looks good on a tablet for example, might not look so impressive on a smaller phone. What do you do? Find out what the most popular device is that YOUR consumers are using – not what people around the world prefers. Cater for the unique needs of YOUR customers and they will love you for it. Know how your customers think The customer journey is super important in the world of Mobile Advertising. You need to know things like: how and where people click, which page on your website they like to see first, if they view your Facebook page before making a final purchasing decision etc. Track the journey your customer embarks on from start to finish so you can use this data to create the best experience possible for them. If you can give achieve this, you will receive more follow-throughs on your digital advertisements. And your customers will forget all about those other mobile sites that aren’t up to your standards! Keep your data in context When marketers see that they have a...
What are Text Tag advertisements?
Text Tags are a clever way to incorporate advertisements in permission based mobile messages to your customers. How do these ads look and how does it all work? Have you ever received a Please Call me from someone that look something like this: “Please call John (John’s number). For low insurance premiums, call Company X at number so-and-so.” The first line is the standard wording you expect from a “please call me” message, and the second line is an example of a Text Tag ad. But these mobile ads aren’t limited to call back request alone. You can also insert them in missed call alerts, balance checks, recharge notifications, end of call notifications etc. The only “trick” to this kind of advertising is stricter character limitation. You have less than the usual 160 SMS characters at your disposal because the actual message (e.g please call john) forms part of your overall message. Thus, you are looking at about 40 – 100 characters that you can work with. That is why Text Tag messages usually focus on one strong call-to-action. This action call can say absolute anything you want – e.g. click to call, click to see a menu, click to go to website, click to send SMS etc. Text Tags ads are basically a bonus on top of a message that you have to send anyway. Now, depending on the type of message you are sending to a customer’s handset, the customer will either have the option of saving the message or not. USSD Push type message usually don’t provide you with a storage option that of course has...
Ideas for promoting SMS Marketing in-store
One of the ways you can make your customers aware of your SMS Marketing campaigns, or get them to subscribe to your SMS list, is by promoting it in-store. Here are a few ideas on how you can do it successfully. Posters The first thing you need to do is make marketing material that are bold and in-your-face. You want your customers to see it everywhere they turn in your store. Use bright and beautiful colours and font that is easy to read. Next make sure that the copy contains all the info that a customer requires – it has to contain a strong call to action and instructions on how to sign up for your service. Find strategic locations in your store to place your SMS Marketing posters. Think about the journey your customer has to take from entering to exiting your store. Good examples are: At the entrance to your store. In the aisles. (Suspend it from the ceiling or paste it on the shelves) At the cash register. Till slips People often keep their till slips as proof of payment. Put a short message at the bottom of the slips with instructions on how to subscribe to your SMS Marketing. Make sure that the cashier points out the message to your customers. Wrappers and bags If you can put your logo on wrappers or bags, why not do the same with your promotional messages for mobile? In fact, any object that can be safely printed can serve as a vessel for your message – take a look at the things you use in your store every...
How to use customer data in Mobile Advertising
If you want to create an effective Mobile Advertising strategy, you need to know a little something about your customers. But how can you make sure you don’t get lost in all the data and stats and end up failing? Determine the most popular device You have heard this before – your website needs to be mobile friendly and responsive if you want to make a good impression on your customers. But hold on, not every consumer owns the exact same device, and not every device has the same functionality. An advertisement that looks good on a tablet for example, might not look so impressive on a smaller phone. What do you do? Find out what the most popular device is that YOUR consumers are using – not what people around the world prefers. Cater for the unique needs of YOUR customers and they will love you for it. Know how your customers think The customer journey is super important in the world of Mobile Advertising. You need to know things like: how and where people click, which page on your website they like to see first, if they view your Facebook page before making a final purchasing decision etc. Track the journey your customer embarks on from start to finish so you can use this data to create the best experience possible for them. If you can give achieve this, you will receive more follow-throughs on your digital advertisements. And your customers will forget all about those other mobile sites that aren’t up to your standards! Keep your data in context When marketers see that they have a...
3 Keys to successful SMS Marketing
In SMS Marketing campaigns you obviously want to accomplish certain tasks or reach specific goals. These goals could be directly related to your customers or to your business itself. Apart from your brand’s own unique objectives, there are three keys you should try to hit every time. Permission and control A mobile device is part of the personal life of the consumer – hence the reason why people don’t simply give out their phone numbers to just anyone. Asking for permission to send messages to your customers’ phones is compulsory; just because you obtained a customer’s phone number years ago it doesn’t mean you can now simply start firing away with texts. But, it is just as important for your customers to see that you grasp this concept as well. That means not abusing the relationship with spam or unauthorized contact and giving them the control to unsubscribe from your marketing efforts at anytime. Relevancy and accuracy Your SMS Marketing needs to truly reflect the needs of your customers. And you only have a few seconds to make an impression. If you are sending texts for example that aren’t informative or don’t speak to the needs of the consumer, your customers will regard it as spam. Also, if the content of your marketing isn’t interesting or appealing, customers won’t bother to find out or more about your product or service. Convenience People regard their phones as “short cuts” to quickly obtain something they want – whether it is the ability to browse the internet on-the-move or to keep in touch with important people/ brands at the click of a...
Will my customers welcome Premium SMS?
It is only natural for brands to wonder how their customers will react to paying for goods a different way. Will your customers welcome the option of Premium SMS? Most certainly, yes! What is it exactly? It is pretty simple. When a customer contacts you via a Premium SMS message, the customers pays for your service or product through the SMS itself. For example: You are hosting a competition and entrants have to submit their entries via a text message – this message costs a bit more than a standard SMS they would send to a friend. The money is deducted from their phone bill or airtime and the money is divided between your brand and the mobile operator. So, instead of forcing the customer to pay you with a credit card, electronic transfer or in cash, they can simply pay you with a text. This is super convenient for the customer and allows a brand to reach more customers than ever before. Customers also don’t have to give out any personal info which makes the transaction safe and secure. I have read some negative comments about it? Remember, any existing marketing tool or billing platform can be misused. Brands with less than honourable intentions have managed to utilize Premium SMS in a negative way – e.g. deducting more money from the customer than they should. But that is a reflection of the brands themselves, not of Premium SMS as a mobile billing tool. If you are afraid that your customers might be reluctant to give this a try, simply state very clearly in your marketing material what the...
What is the purpose of a Bulk SMS gateway?
From a personal point of view, forwarding a text message to 20 people doesn’t seem like a big deal. However, when companies use Bulk SMS they do it on a very large scale and that is why a gateway is needed. Companies sometimes send a hundred or even up to a thousand messages to their customers at the same time. That is a lot to handle for a single person with a single phone! Luckily, the Bulk SMS model was configured in such a way that a business can handle their mobile messaging without breaking a sweat. From computer to mobile A gateway is what allows you to send a message from your computer to the cell phones of your customers. So, instead of typing it on your own phone, you can do it from the comfort of your computer – a big convenience for those of us who struggle with those tiny mobile keypads. Plus, the gateway can handle a very large amount of messages at one time, so it is not like you have to retype messages or wait for one to go through before you can send the next one. And yes, it also eliminates the problem of employees scurrying around to find the company cell phone in order to get messages out. How does it work? Usually, sending Bulk SMS messages works something like this. You create your messages and your phone list in a document like Microsoft Excel. When you are ready to send your message, you can simply import all your data to the Bulk SMS gateway. From there you can choose what...
How the medical industry can make use of a SMS campaign
Communicating through texting can be used effectively in any industry. Why should the medical profession (private practices, clinics, hospitals etc.) invest in an SMS campaign? Texting today is a much faster and more effective way of getting in touch with patients. A person who is ill at home, work or on the road don’t necessarily have access to email. You might argue that a phone call is just as immediate, but it can be very disruptive to a patient who is trying to rest or feeling too sick to have a conversation. Texting can help patients and medical professionals to: Save time and money Increase service efficiency Improve service accuracy Exchange important information Stay in touch during critical times An SMS campaign can be used for: Data capturing: Misunderstandings happen frequently over the phone because people have different accents and some also suffer from speech and hearing problems. This often leads to inaccurate data capturing. However, allowing a patient to text their information eliminates misunderstandings and can be cheaper and less disruptive for both parties. Appointment reminders: Private practices lose loads of many every year due to patients not showing up for appointments. With a SMS Platform you can quickly send a reminder to a patient the day before their appointment, and they can also text you back to confirm, move or cancel. The sharing of health tips: Patients with chronic conditions and those who are going through a major medical trauma often need a little extra tender loving care when recovering at home. Texting can be used for instance to remind a patient to take their medication on time or...
5 Ways your website could be hurting your Mobile Advertising
You have a killer Mobile Advertising campaign that ticks all the boxes, but for some reason consumers are falling off your website before making a purchase. Hmmm. Have you had a good look at your mobile website? Does it tick all the boxes as well? It happens to the best of marketers. They get so caught up in the thrill of creating a killer Mobile Advertisement that they never stop and look at the condition of the “shop.” Let’s take a look at the five most common mistakes that are actually scaring your mobile customers away. Your site takes forever to load: If for some reason your site is testing the patience of consumers, they will simply move on and forget about you. People use their mobile devices on the go and thus expect the same speed and urgency from your brand. Your site isn’t optimized for mobile: Trying to operate a website on small phone that hasn’t been optimized for mobile, will drive any person mad. You don’t meet consumer expectations: Let’s say your Mobile Advertisement is about a new product. When the consumer clicks on the ad, he expects to be taken to your product page. If he lands on an entirely different page, he might not even be bothered to browse through your site anymore. Your graphics are mediocre: Now it’s true that the size of the mobile screen doesn’t allow for big, “in your face” images. But if the quality of the graphics is bad, or if the user has to click and zoom to see anything, you won’t make a very good impression. Your site...
4 Reasons why your customers will love Mobile Advertising
Are you considering Mobile Advertising for your business, but you aren’t sure if your customers will give it the thumbs up? We can give you 4 reasons why they will love it! It’s fast Few communication channels can reach customers as fast as mobile can, because people always carry their phones with them wherever they go. Add to that the “you saw it here first” factor, and customers will only be too happy to receive your messages. What do we mean by this? If you can promise your mobile customers that they will be the first to hear about your special offers before you put it on flyers/ in the newspaper/ on the radio, they will most definitely jump at the chance for this privilege. It’s simple Everybody knows how the basics of a handset work, which means they will have no trouble understanding Mobile Advertising. Take a SMS for example: people use this on a daily basis to communicate with their loved ones, so they will have no problem opening, reading or responding to your text. The same is true for internet browsing. People know they have to scroll and click, so they will know what to do if they see your mobile display or video ad. It’s fun After a while, all traditional ads start to look the same. Consumers get bored very quickly and they hunger for fresh, exciting content. Loyalty programs, mobile vouchers, sound clips, mobile competitions and surveys, high resolutions images and pin-point messages are all tools in your Mobile Advertising arsenal that you can use to deliver unique communication pieces. It’s interactive From...
Part 4: How to start a Mobile Advertising Campaign
Measuring your success In the last phase of your Mobile Advertising campaign planning you need to focus on measurement. This step is often included as an afterthought or only considered important when the boss starts asking for sales figures. But, there is no pushing “play” if you don’t complete every phase of your planning. To quickly recap, you have already completed these steps: Setting objectives Identifying your target market Choosing your advertising platforms and support media Putting a budget in place Setting dates for the start and end of the campaign as well as a schedule Planning the content of your messages Choosing who will be responsible for production and execution You probably can’t wait to get that first communication piece out to your target market and see all your hard pay off. But how will you know if you are indeed successful with your Mobile Advertising? Depending on the marketing platforms you chose and your objectives, you will have different tools available to measure the effects. It isn’t always just about an increase in the number of products that you sell. Things that you could look at for instance are: The number of clicks, impressions, downloads or views of your Mobile Advertisement The reaction of your social media community: an increase or drop in followers, the number of times a post was liked or shared, comments and mentions. The number of customers who signed up or opted-out of your subscription list Conducting polls/ surveys to obtain the opinion of your customers Tip: Don’t only have metrics in place to measure the end of your campaign; you need to...
Part 3: How to start a Mobile Advertising Campaign
Content and production We previously looked at the importance of anything from having objectives for your Mobile Advertising campaign right through to knowing your audience and budgeting for everything. Your next step involves the content and production of your messages. Three important questions During this phase you should be able to answer these three important questions: What will the content of my messages be? How will I distribute my messages? Who will be responsible for the production of these messages? You have already chosen your advertising channels and support media and you know who your target market is. Now it is time to produce the content pieces for your campaign. If you have chosen SMS messages for example, you will have to write an appealing text of 160 words – in fact, you will most likely need to produce multiple texts containing key messages with different wording. If for instance you want a banner ad you will require quality images or unique graphics as well short, powerful copy. Once again, you are faced with a big choice. Who will write the copy/ create the images/ shoot the video footage/ do the voice talent you need to make your Mobile Advertising campaign work? Who will be physically clicking the “send” button for your messages to go out according to your campaign schedule? Will you do everything in-house with your own team, or will you give it to an outside agency? There is no right or wrong answer here – everything will depend on the resources you have and your particular objectives. Remember: It is always good to have a hands-on...
Part 2: How to start a Mobile Advertising Campaign
Dates and costs: In Part 1 of starting your Mobile Advertising campaign we looked at important decisions you have to make before you can even begin your planning. Let see what should happen next. Getting your advertisement onto mobile will require resources, time and money for a variety of things. Some marketers only have their eye on the cost of sending a text message and forget that other stuff needs to happen in between. Where do you start? Decide on launch date When are you launching your campaign? The length of your campaign will determine how many messages you need and for how long you need to display these messages. For example: a Mobile Display ad that runs for two weeks will obviously be cheaper than one that runs for two months. Don’t forget to set a deadline for your Mobile Advertising material to be ready or you might have to postpone your campaign. Campaigns that are centred around specific dates (like Valentine’s Day for instance) could totally fall apart if your messages aren’t timely. Set a budget and calculate the costs Different advertisements have different costs, so make sure you select the type of ad and payment options that work for you. Remember to factor in the cost of your support media as well. The other cost related to Mobile Advertising, is the production. If you are constructing a Voice Ad, you will need voice talent. If you are making a Mobile Display Ad, you will need a graphic designer and copywriter to make it look good. After you have worked through your budget and schedule, you might find...
Part 1: How to start a Mobile Advertising Campaign
Get the basics right. Developing a successful Mobile Advertising campaign doesn’t simply happen overnight. It takes step-by-step planning and careful execution. Want to know how? We will guide you through a series of steps in the coming week! The Four Key Questions You should always answer these four questions before you can start your planning. What are my objectives? Decide what you want to accomplish with your campaign. E.g. I want to sell 1000 Smartphones. When will the campaign start and stop? It’s pretty obvious that your campaign can’t go on forever. The length of the campaign will also be a big factor in calculating the cost and resources you will need to achieve your goal. Who is my target market? Knowing who your audience is, will determine your approach to your campaign. What will be appealing to this kind of target market? What images do they find attractive and what kind of lingo do they use? You don’t have to narrow it down to a tee, but don’t be too vague or you will miss the mark. What platforms am I going to use to support my campaign? Mobile Advertising is a great tool marketing tool on its own, but spreading your message across multiple platforms will help to extend your reach and prove enhance your credibility. Decide on an approach Now that you have answered the above questions, it is time to get into the nitty-gritty of planning your campaign. Next you need to decide on an approach – do you want to “push” or “pull”? Push Marketing means that you push information to your customers and cross...What can I do with USSD Push?
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Push messages can be used to convey various types of information to your customers in the blink of an eye. Much like SMS, USSD Push messages are sent in plain text to a recipient’s mobile handset. You can use it to communicate with your customers (or even your employees or stakeholders) about absolutely anything. For example: A promotion or special offer A onetime pin or password Relevant company news (the company reached its sales target, you received a big investment, new stakeholders are joining the team, the company is relocating etc.) Directions to your social media pages or website Important info about your products and services (shipment dates, shift schedules etc.) Unlike an SMS, these messages can’t be saved to the recipient’s phone. How is this useful? Take the onetime pin for example – this is sensitive info that the recipient doesn’t want to store on his phone in case his phone ever get’s stolen. In other words, having the message disappear automatically after reading, provides the customer with an extra measure of security. Because the customer can just click the message away without reading it, some customers find this communication method less invasive when compared to actual phone calls. Some of the advantages of USSD Push are: It puts the focus solely on your message – no pictures or jingles It is a very cheap method of customer communication It all happens in real-time It is fast and can reach your customers wherever they are All handsets are capable of receiving these messages It is a point of contact that you can use...
How Mobile Advertising and email can work together
Marketers often make the mistake of thinking that they should stick to one communication/ marketing channel alone, when in fact a combo of channels provides better result. One such an effective partnership is Mobile Advertising and electronic mail. Brands have been using email for anything from direct advertisements to newsletters and various forms of customer service. The biggest advantage of email is the fact that you have no limitations when it comes to content – unlike a SMS that can only take 160 characters. Even though email might not be as popular today as it was a decade or so ago, there are still certain situations where an email message is more fitting than a phone call or even a text. But, no communication channel should exist in a silo, especially not if you want to grow your customer base. Getting customers to sign up It doesn’t matter if you want customers to opt-in to your mobile contact list or subscribe to your eNewsletter – you can cross your channels to achieve both. Use Mobile Advertising to send customers a link to a subscription form for your newsletter on your website. Or, send them a text containing a SMS Shortcode and keyword they can use to instantly submit their email address. When it is time to gather mobile numbers, send customers an email containing instructions for opting in to your mobile list. Getting people to give their phone number away is much harder than obtaining their email address. The reason for this is simply because mobile phones are much more personal to consumers. Unwanted emails are after all much...