BabyCenter, a website dedicated to all steps in the process of motherhood, knows and understands the needs, lifestyle, and likes of mothers in the US. They recently conducted a study on mothers and their mobile devices, and received surprising results
The study, called the 21st Century Mobile Mom® Report, which studied 5,000 moms, reports that 50 percent of moms are addicted to their mobile devices and that adaptation of their mobile device has risen 64 percent over the past 2 years.
In the mobile marketing world, we think it’s pretty exciting that motherhood has actually been named a trigger for mobile phone adaptation! More than half of the moms surveyed admitted they purchased their particular device as a direct result of motherhood. As a woman transitions into motherhood, the way that she uses a phone changes as well. A woman without children favors her calendar while a mother finds her camera the most important feature of her phone.
The most interesting thing is that 62 percent of moms change brands at the onset of motherhood. This is a key time to communicate with moms and provide them with relevant information about your product offering. Since it is clear that moms love and worship their mobile device, reaching them on their mobile phone is a great way to communicate. For instance, reach out to a new mom about things like nutrition facts if you are a restaurant, or safety facts is you sell baby products.
Also, 46 percent of moms reported that they want information just as they are shopping. This means that you now know the ideal time of the day to communicate your marketing message. You’re likely aware of the time when you see the largest number of mothers at your business location. Plan your messages to go out just as you know the highest percentage of moms will be there, or if possible, send individual messages to moms that you can see walking in or near a certain product. You might even consider offering a keyword that moms can text in next to products that they will inevitably stop by, like baby food or a stroller, to receive additional information on nutrition or safety facts.
A recent article on Mobile Marketer discusses common SMS marketing mistakes, and gives a few suggestions on how to avoid them. From our years of experience, we have a few more insights to add to the list, to ensure that our users have all the education, hints, and advice they need to guarantee success.
The first point that the article addresses is what we in the industry call a “call-to-action”, referring to the statement made in your advertising that is supposed to result in an action from the consumer. The article urges the reader to make this call-to-action prevalent, but doesn’t explain this important advice in detail. Let’s take a look at IHOP’s hit slogan from 2004, “Come hungry. Leave happy”. There is a clear action statement here, which says, “ Come to our restaurant, eat, and you will leave happy.” For a marketing campaign to be successful this same slogan should be used across all forms of marketing, from billboard, to TV, to a text message that enters one’s inbox. This unity across all platforms increases the effect it has on the consumer, since it has a greater chance of residing in one’s memory.
Along these lines, we like to stress that you should be using your text message marketing platform to help gage the usage of other marketing mediums. You can repeat the same slogan but just have a different keyword for TV, billboard, and radio. With these varied keywords, you’ll be able to see which form of advertising is the most successful, so that next time, you know how best to invest your marketing dollars. This is one of the greatest benefits of having a text message marketing campaign, one we highly suggest you take advantage of to monitor the interaction that your target market has with you advertising mediums.
The next point that the article mentions is the current perception of some that a text message marketing campaign is a onetime communication tool for events, in lieu of a long term marketing medium. Many companies are missing out by not seeing text message marketing as a long term marketing strategic communication tool. The best part about mobile is that it allows you to converse with your customers the way that they converse in real life. A TV commercial and a billboard don’t allow for conversation, whereas sending a text message saying “How was your last experience at our store? Anything we can improve on?” gives you much more insight as to what your consumer is really thinking, something that marketers are continually trying to track.
Another mistake that companies make is to choose a text message marketing campaign based on price. We believe that you should choose your text message marketing provider based on the quality of their database and software, and the budget for your text message marketing campaign should be based on its ability to reach your customer. The great thing about Opt It’s software is that you can keep an extremely close eye on the interaction your consumer’s is having with the system, so you can measure its effectiveness much better than any other marketing form, justifying its price and proving its value in your marketing mix.
The next point is a clear rule of thumb we often stress to our customers- don’t send a text message each day, it’s simply too much. Daily messages result in annoyed customers, a marketing message with a decreasing value and ultimately, people opting out of your list. We recommend sending 4-6 general messages a month. If there is a need for more, make sure they’re delivered to a more targeted list that clearly understands and/or wants more messages.
Lastly, anything that you use to brand yourself, from a TV ad to a 160- character message, must align with your overall tone. If you are a luxury brand, you should not shorten words or use text talk like “G2G but c u there” to fit into one text message. Read the message outloud to imagine what it sounds like to your customers to make sure the intended tone is clearly transferred.
We hope you’ll take these points into consideration for your text campaign. If you do, we’re sure you will be able to see the clear benefits of them very shortly.
A recent survey by Experian Simmons gives new insight into consumer acceptance and usage of mobile coupons. Since 2005, when only 12 percent of the population used digital coupons, that number has nearly doubled. Twenty-two percent of the U.S. population is currently using digital coupons, almost a quarter of the total U.S. population.
In comparison, the usage of print coupons remains consistent. In the survey, 99 percent of participants who used digital coupons also used print coupons, while 35 percent of participants who used print coupons also used digital coupons. This is an interesting statistic and means that people who use digital coupons are much more open to a variety of forms of coupons. In addition, “digital coupon users also used them [mobile coupons] for a wider variety of purchases and at a greater variety of stores than those who used only print coupons”, reports MediaPost News.
This gives insight in determining the “profile” of a mobile coupons user. While they are not picky in regards to the form a coupon takes, the deal that it offers is paramount. The study also shows that people who use digital coupons are more frequent coupon users in general, meaning that they are open and willing to not only receive coupons on their mobile phone, but have also shown that they will use them.
As mobile coupons continue to rise in usage, it’s important to include a text message marketing component into your advertising campaign in order reach this 22 percent of the U.S. population that is looking for a good deal via their mobile device.
Recent studies conducted by the University of Michigan and University of California have focused on isolating the brain regions that control a smoker’s urge to smoke, in order to experiment with how text messages might be able to calm those urges.
The study used “functional magnetic resonance imaging” or MRI, to pin point the specific parts of the brain that cry out for nicotine. In order to gather data, Elliot Berkman, a University psychology assistant professor, choose a text message marketing platform like Opt It’s. He selected text over handing out PDA’s to all participants because “such devices are also relatively costly, since palmtop devices typically used for ecological momentary assessment can cost more than $300 each, while 86 percent of U.S. residents already have cell phones and 91 percent of those are SMS-enabled.” (Emily Falk, University of Michigan.)
The research study was able to gather facts on how many cigarettes were smoked each day, and also information on the associated emotions and behaviors. What they found is that when an individual is craving a cigarette, they need to do something that they consider self-controlling, and sending a text message is a self-controlling action. Study findings suggest that the behavior of texting may help ward off a smoker’s impulse to smoke.
The research scientists involved in the study praised the text messaging system because they feel it is a mode of communication that is very intuitive, that people are used to writing their emotions or thoughts within this intuitive means of communication, and that people always have their cell phones on them, which is ideal for a study that needs to gather information on a 24-hour basis.
Who is the world’s best texter? We bet if you tried, you could surely think of someone in your life deserving of the title. However, did you know that there was recently a texting championship that gave this prestigious title to an official winner?
That’s right; the LG Mobile World Cup has turned text messaging into an internationally competitive sport. Participants from around the world gathered, stretched out their fingers, and texted their little hands off for a grand prize of $100K. The participants were from 13 countries and texted in 7 languages. Before the event, LG spent a lot of time researching the stroke value of words in different languages to ensure that the games were fair for all.
At the event, which looked like it could have taken place on the same set as American Idol, the crowd watched how well each team of two performed via a monitor that depicted teams as cars going down a race track.
The 2010 Worlds Champions were Christina and Jennifer Sales of Team Panama, who took home the grand prize of $100,000. In 2nd place was team Korea, and in 3rd place team Brazil.