Texting for Dollars

Is your business doing this?

Retailers Drive Traffic and Sales with Text Messages

Up to 35% of consumers who have opted in to receive targeted promotional text messages from a retailer or brand subsequently visit that store or e-retail site, according to research conducted by Placecast Inc., a vendor of text-based marketing services.

And among consumers who visit a store or web site, up to 34% report redeeming the coupon or promotion offered in the text. Placecast surveyed a panel of consumers to understand their actions and also analyzed its clients' redemption data and analytics to come up with its findings.

Placecast CEO Alistair Goodman says redemption rates can vary, from 11% on the low end to more than 65% depending on how appealing the offer is.

"We've seen some outliers, as high as 65%, when a retailer delivers a great promotion for an impulse item," he says.

Placecast clients include outdoor gear retailer The North Face and apparel retailer White House Black Market. The North Face is a unit of VF Corp., No. 138 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. White House Black Market is a unit of Chicos FAS Inc., which is No. 129.

AT&T also entered a partnership with Placecast earlier this year to provide consumers a way to deliver messages from retailers or brands to AT&T customers when they are near store locations or stores that sell the brand's products. A consumer within a certain geographic range of a Kmart store, for example, may receive a coupon or other offer to redeem with the retailer. Or the consumer might receive an alert from home cleaning products manufacturer S.C. Johnson about a special on its Pledge furniture cleaner at the nearby Kmart. Up to 90% of consumers surveyed indicate they find the text message alerts useful.

(Source: Internet Retailer 05/12/11)

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Are You Smartphone Friendly?

I'm an early adopter in some area's and more cautious in others.

When the iPhone came out, I watched others with theirs, but waited.

And waited, and waited some more.

It was a combination of events that led me to buy my first smartphone last summer, and I hope you are prepared for the smartphone revolution that we are in the midst of...

Mobile Users Are Ad Clickers

According to the Mojiva Mobile Audience Guide, 60% of mobile users click on mobile ads at least once a week. When seeing an ad, half of users indicated that they would play a game, download an application, or visit a Web site after seeing an ad, but only 22% said they would make a purchase, and only 40% would download a coupon.

Tony Nethercutt, General Manager of Mojiva, notes that "... mobile marketing performs well when it lines up the services and products that affect people on an everyday basis ... mobile advertising is part of the conversation for major national brand advertising..."

Some additional findings from Mojiva and InsightExpress in the Mojiva Mobile Audience Guide include:

• Over 84% of users deemed 'normal banner ads,' 'video ads,' 'ads that let me interact with them,' or 'animated banner ads' as the forms of marketing they would likely pay attention to.
• Text ads perform modestly with 13% of users most likely to pay attention; however, only 2% pay attention to expanding screen takeover ads.
• Marketing offers related to magazines, social/dating, airlines, traffic and banking had the least effective performance.

With user statistics from InsightExpress, the MAG offers a look into what resonates with users through mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. This month's research shows that marketers need to focus on engaging creative executions that encourage user interaction.

Joy Liuzzo, Senior Director from InsightExpress says "... InsightExpress research continues to demonstrate that mobile consumers are evolving, with new behaviors, attitudes, and demographic segments emerging almost monthly..."

There are opportunities to advertise with mobile ads, says the report, as respondents are frequently clicking on mobile ads. Graphic ads as a whole appear to be successful in grabbing attention. Content and type of ad will impact overall reach:

• More than half indicated they would "play a game," "download a mobile application" or "browse a website" after seeing an ad on their mobile phones.
• Fewer than one-fourth of respondents would "purchase a product" after viewing an ad on their mobile phones.

For the most part, graphic ads as a whole were successful in capturing the attention of respondents:

• Over 20% of respondents said that normal banner ads, video ads and ads that let me interact with them are most likely to be paid attention to.
• Respondents were least likely to pay attention to expanding screen take-over ads, which may be too aggressive.

Ads pertaining to retail stores, weather, restaurants or bars and sports are most likely to be clicked on by someone using their mobile phone:

-- Respondents tended to gravitate more towards mobile ads that focus on providing information pertaining to everyday life, rather than more specific and direct ads.

-- 60% of respondents click on a mobile ad for more information at least once a week. Of those, 19% click on a mobile ad for more information several times a day.

(Source: The Center For Media Research, 05/31/11)

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