OIR Interactive Blog

In light of a capricious economy, consumers have had to become more judicious about their purchases in the last couple years, a trend that has affected sales in everything from retail to real estate. Recent articles in Forbes and The Wall Street Journal highlight some of the economic effects on the auto industry and point to falling numbers for new car sales in August. While the market is undoubtedly difficult right now for auto makers and dealerships, the growing trend toward mobile marketing may offer some solutions to auto companies looking for low-cost ways to increase advertising and offer-redemption. Here are some things for dealers to consider:

Mobile marketing gives dealers direct access to interested buyers.

SMS marketing, which advertises in the form of text messages to individual customers’ cell phones, is permission-based, which means the only people who receive messages are those who have proactively requested them. Dealerships can easily initiate an SMS campaign with a mobile marketer and then invite people to text a keyword in order to receive a cash-back or low-interest offer. These are the exact same offers dealers send out via newspaper and bulk mail, but when the offer is sent as a text message, the dealer is assured that only interested prospective buyers receive the message. Instead of blasting promotions to thousands of indifferent or uninterested people, SMS text marketing addresses only those in the market for a new car and who want to receive discount offers over their phones.

Mobile marketing will get people into your store.

One of the most challenging aspects of selling cars is getting the prospective buyer through the door. Once the consumer enters the store, quality vehicles and good salespeople expedite the sale. But with many local competitors all vying for the same small group of local buyers in any given month, targeting interested people and getting them into the store is tricky. If the texted offer is a good one, like zero-percent interest loans, or thousands off the price of in-stock vehicles, people already in the market for a new vehicle and checking out dealerships are likely to at least come in for a test-drive or to check out the inventory. Once they are on site, the dealer can do the rest to make the offer as attractive as possible.

Mobile coupons have higher redemption rates than print coupons.

Depending on the region, there may only be a few hundred to a few thousand people in the market for a new car in any given month. Blasting everyone in the area with flyers produces a low redemption rate. But 95% of mobile phones are equipped to receive texts, and text messages are typically opened within 4 to 15 minutes of receipt. Text messages also have a higher open/read rate than any other form of direct advertising. Buyers are far more likely to carry a mobile coupon (stored in their phone) around with them than a print flyer.

Mobile marketing builds client lists.

Even those who opt in to a campaign but do not purchase a vehicle have done something useful: they have granted permission to receive future ads and promotions. These consumers can be remarketed to later, and as long as a company does not abuse the client’s permission by oversoliciting, the client may remain on the dealer’s list and become a future buyer. In the meantime, text message marketing offers low-cost advertising directly to receptive people. Even if the customer decides to buy elsewhere, he or she may return to your dealership in the future or pass your offers on to friends.

Mobile marketing can offer a variety of solutions for driving up sales, building customer loyalty, and expanding client lists. As we wait for the economy to fully rebound, inexpensive text marketing can put a company just far enough ahead of a competitor to make a difference.

Retail shops have already begun thinking about implementing mobile marketing in time for holiday shopping. When the back-to-school sales fade and the tourist season draws to a close, the autumn offers a slower-paced shopping environment; it is a good time for retail businesses to adjust their marketing strategies to reflect changing consumer habits in time for the holiday shopping season.

Almost every American shopper owns a mobile phone, and about a quarter of those phones are smartphones. The back-to-school shopping season this year offers clear testimony to the pervasiveness of mobile usage while shopping. Consumers report using their mobile devices to find items, prices, and downloadable coupons. The use of SMS marketing is becoming more widespread as well, with consumers opting in to text campaigns in order to receive coupons via text directly to their phone.

Stores that are ready to begin planning their holiday marketing can look to the recent mobile marketing trends as a starting point.

Use the Physical to Promote the Virtual

The Friday following Thanksgiving, a huge day for retail, offers the best time all year for stores to advertise, on site, their mobile campaigns. With so many shoppers in the store, using signage to invite customers to text keywords for immediate discounts can really pay off. Once consumers have texted the keyword, they have opted in to your campaign and can be marketed to again, not only for the holidays, but for future deals and alerts, too.

Make Cyber Monday Mobile Monday

Businesses with websites adapted for mobile will be at a huge advantage over non-mobile competitors. Not only do consumers use their mobile phones for obtaining coupons and discounts, but more consumers will shop directly from their phones this year than ever before, thanks to the growing ubiquity of smartphones. A store that has a site customized specifically for mobile—with easy-to-find items and prices and a simple-click checkout—can offer the busiest, most time-crunched consumers a hassle-free way to get the best deals without the long lines.

A successful mobile website, however, cannot be a mere size-reduced version of a desktop site because it will not be navigable enough to lure the mobile shopper; the site must take into account the consumer habits associated with mobile shopping, the tactile nature of mobile navigation, and the fact that almost all mobile users are engaged in other activities while they surf their devices. The most useful mobile sites are simple in design and clear in content so that they can be accessed by people on any kind of device.

Making the most of Cyber Monday includes allowing shoppers to make purchases from the store’s mobile site. Businesses that have an email marketing campaign in place can email subscribers in advance to let them know about the launch of a mobile site and/or its Cyber Monday shopping deals. A store can also use its website, store signage, email, and even the bottom of the receipt to advertise a holiday SMS campaign that will allow people to opt in from their mobile phones and receive coupons via text message.

Learning about mobile trends, consumer habits, and changing technology will help retail businesses make the most of the holiday shopping season, even in a slow economy. Staying a little ahead of the curve can make all the difference between a thriving season and a sluggish one, as consumers rely heavily on their mobile devices for all the time- and money-saving deals they can find.

The Grand Strand offers over 60 miles of beach land for vacationers to enjoy, and with the Intracoastal Waterway and Waccamaw River so close, the Grand Strand is one of the most popular tourist locations on the East coast for water sports enthusiasts. However, only those vacationers who do research on the area’s offerings and proactively seek out deals will even know what is available. Where can boats and jet skis be rented? Where is parasailing available? Where are the best water parks? Where can people go to fish, and what are the requirements? Mobile marketing can be an invaluable tool for water-based attractions to draw in business by delivering all the answers and information to consumers directly. The customer does not need to ask around and depend upon random referrals, suggestions, or drive-bys; an SMS campaign can help drive up business by targeting water sports enthusiasts directly on their phones and then leading them to specific deals and locations that fit their specified interests.

Establishments that rent boats, jet skis, and other water accessories can easily incorporate a mobile element into their advertising campaign by inviting people to text a keyword in order to receive a coupon. Since these businesses typically offer print coupons anyway, why not expand the reach? Do not rely on the interested customer to pick up the particular print circular—of which there are many—where your coupon happens to be placed; make it available to anyone who owns a mobile phone. Once the consumer has opted in to a campaign in order to receive a discount, a business can find out the client’s other interests and advertise additional services accordingly.

Equipment rental sites and water parks can increase the benefits of mobile marketing by placing additional signs directly on site that invite people to opt in to the SMS campaign. Everyone standing in line at a particular business is obviously interested in purchasing its services or products, and many of those consumers will appreciate the opportunity to text for an immediate discount as well as additional VIP-type promotions for the rest of their stay in Myrtle Beach. Since many of the water attractions in the area appeal to families, SMS marketing can help turn one-time visitors into repeat customers throughout the duration of their visit.

It is not too late to join the interactive SMS campaign, txtMB, which aggregates promotions for a variety of area attractions and sends them directly to visitors’ cell phones. The campaign is permission-based so that only interested visitors receive the alerts. Visitors can specify which entertainment categories interest them and will receive promotions only for those sites that fit the selected interests. Boating rental sites, water parks, fishing-related shops, and any other business that caters to water enthusiasts can integrate mobile coupons and deals into their advertising strategies by joining txtMB or by initiating their own SMS campaigns.

Mobile marketing campaigns, including SMS campaigns, work best when the company has a website adapted to mobile. The widespread use of mobile technology has created unique opportunities for businesses to put advertisements directly in customers’ hands wherever they happen to be. Companies that make the most of mobile technology by having all of their pertinent information (location, prices, store hours, contact numbers, directions, etc.) readily available on their customized mobile site provide convenience for their clients and, thus, have the best chance of attracting visitors.

What are the most effective features of SMS marketing? Why would a company choose it over other forms of mobile or traditional marketing?

One of the biggest advantages to using mobile marketing, specifically SMS, is the cost. It is appreciably less expensive than traditional broadcast and print marketing methods, and it reaches consumers much more directly. No other marketing method can reach people as quickly and directly for such a small investment.

Consumer engagement is higher with SMS than with other types of marketing. Even email, which is also inexpensive and direct, does not generate the same level of consumer engagement because unsolicited emails are often deleted or marked as spam. Plus email messages must wait for the consumer to actively access the account before the ad message can be opened. With SMS, a text alert can reach a consumer instantly. Most text messages are read within only a few minutes of receipt, and since SMS is permission-based (no unsolicited messages can be sent), businesses are assured that their marketing message is being reached only by interested and likely consumers.

Programs that run SMS campaigns have tracking capabilities that let businesses know how successful their SMS campaign is. OIR, for instance, offers a suite of analytics that assists our clients in gauging all aspects of their SMS campaigns. Our sms marketing application can track keyword effectiveness, thereby letting a client know which of the various advertised keywords generated the highest or lowest responses. Our application can also track which subscribers belong to which carrier; this information helps determine the demographics and phone types that are subscribing to a campaign. With voting or contest campaigns, our application can keep track of how each subscriber voted, and this data allows the client to better segment the subscriber list based on the expressed interest or preference, which, of course, improves future marketing efforts.

The use of short codes (5- or 6-digit numbers to which people text keywords) is becoming so common, why can’t a company just get its own? Why use an outside marketing firm?

Getting your own short code is a more complicated process than you might think. Short codes are not like phone numbers, which anyone can request from the phone company and begin using immediately. Short codes are governed by the Common Short Code Association, and they can be leased to businesses that want to run an SMS campaign. However, before you can start sending and receiving text messages, you need to work with an application provider (AP) to enable this. In a nut shell, the AP then works with the carriers, the CSCA, and their system to get everything working with their application. It can take up to 4 months after applying for the short code to actually execute the SMS campaign. Short codes are also very expensive, costing thousands per year per dedicated short code. For these reasons a shared short code like the ones OIR offers can save businesses a ton of time and money. Our clients are able to utilize our short code and launch their SMS campaigns without any wait.

Do you find that consumers are reluctant to join advertisers’ mobile campaigns because they believe they will be charged high text messaging fees? Can you explain how text-message marketing affect users’ cell phone bills?

It’s actually the other way around. Most consumers are eager to join a free SMS campaign. Because consumers are the ones opting in and out, they have the control to stop messages at any time. Premium SMS campaigns (the ones that people get billed for) have extremely high consumer resentment, with many customer refunds and high complaint rates. It’s important for both premium and standard rate campaigns to set consumer expectations from the beginning by making it clear what the costs are, if any, how many messages will be sent, how frequently, and how to opt out.

AT&T recently announced an end to their unlimited data plan for new customers, and many people expect other carriers to follow suit. How do you see the phasing out of unlimited data plans affecting mobile marketing?

Data and bandwidth should always be a concern for anyone trying to target mobile devices for marketing. Mobile platforms are not as powerful and typically run on slower networks. This must be factored in to all aspects of mobile content (banner ads, mobile apps, MMS campaigns). Personally, I don’t know how long AT&T’s move to do away with unlimited data will last. It is a policy difficult to maintain if they want to stay competitive in the USA and the rest of the world.

How effective do you think web banner ads are? What is the most cost-effective way for a small or mid-sized business to utilize web banner ads?

Web banner ads (WAP) can be extremely effective—as long as they are well targeted. There are some tools out there that help with this. AdMob.com, Quattro Wireless, Google Adwords, Google Local are all great tools to run your own campaigns—even small businesses can take advantage of them. Businesses don’t realize that a lot of mobile search starts with Google, so making sure a company’s Google local account is setup correctly is extremely important.

While the number of people who use the mobile web is growing, a lot of people are still reluctant to surf the web from a mobile phone, citing poor user experience and too few sites adapted for mobile. How important is it for a company to have a site specifically adapted for mobile? What are the important features?

It’s very important for a business to have a mobile site. People interact with a website differently on their phones than on a computer. Keep in mind some important differences: mobile devices lack a traditional mouse, the screen is considerably smaller, and 9 times out of 10 the user is doing something else while navigating the site (shopping, dining, standing in line, etc). Mobile site visitors have a very distinct reason why they are there; they want or need something specific, so it’s in the business’s best interest to make directions, pricing, and contact information direct and easy to find.

Sites that use Google Analytics can see what content mobile visitors are trying to locate on their non-mobile site. Using this data is a good way for a business to discern typical customer needs and then begin building a mobile site with that data in mind.

Business owners who understand the importance of mobile seem slow to actually pulling the trigger and executing a mobile site. Yes, there are additional costs involved with building mobile content, but the payoff can be enormous.

Thousands of families travel to Myrtle Beach each year, many of them looking for fun activities for children. Most people know that Myrtle Beach is the home to over one hundred top-notch golf courses as well as popular restaurants, resorts, and live-show venues, but it is not always easy to find kid-friendly attractions. After parents have taken their kids swimming in the ocean and hotel pool, they begin to look around for other ideas. Mobile marketing can help child-friendly businesses stand out and give vacationers and residents options for entertaining children.

Young children can be difficult to entertain on vacations because they need consistent supervision and are easily bored. Businesses that cater to children—particularly vacationing children—can optimize their marketing campaigns by including a mobile element. Taking advantage of a text campaign already in place for Myrtle Beach is an inexpensive and low risk way of getting started with mobile.

txtMB, an interactive mobile campaign that broadcasts discounts for local attractions directly to visitors’ cell phones, offers a category specifically for child- and family-friendly activities that lets vacationers know about all the things they can do with their kids. txtMB aggregates coupons, discounts, and alerts for area businesses and sends them out via text message (for free) to users who opt in. txtMB is the only comprehensive mobile campaign in the Grand Strand that gives vacationers and residents exclusive discounts directly on their cell phones so there are no coupons to remember to carry. Kid-friendly attractions can join txtMB and be guaranteed to have their company’s coupon or promotion in the hands of every parent who signs up.

Water parks, amusement parks, museums, and mini-golf courses are popular choices for parents, but with so many competing businesses—and with no way for parents unfamiliar with the area to discern among them—a mobile campaign that sends alerts directly to parents’ cell phones narrows the choices dramatically. And since new coupons are texted to subscribers’ cell phones each day, businesses are likely to see their offers redeemed the very day they are sent out.

When assessing the kid-friendly aspects of your business, don’t forget teens. Three-quarters of American teenagers have mobile phones, and texting is the fastest, most effective way to reach them. How likely is a teen to conduct his or her own extensive research about area attractions when on vacation? Not very. But businesses that offer entertainment options for teens can market to them and their parents directly through txtMB.

Offers sent to cell phones have a high open/read rate, and with txtMb, offers are guaranteed to go only to those who have expressed explicit interest in kid- and family-friendly activities. txtMB is free to subscribers and offers a simple opt-out option to people when they leave the area; it is also the area’s only mobile marketing campaign that brings together promotions from dozens of area businesses and broadcasts them to consumers directly. With the tourist season in full swing, there is no better time to join.