Author Archive

June 29, 2009 — Today mobileStorm Inc. published a comprehensive guide for the mobile marketer entitled, “The Ultimate Guide to Common Short Codes.” Written by mobile evangelist and mobileStorm CEO Jared Reitzin, the guide focuses on acquiring and using short codes to market products and services.

Short codes used with keyword combinations are front-and-center marketing technology. Texting the word “VOTE” to a short code helped your favorite American Idol stay on the show, for instance. And, widely considered to be the biggest mobile marketing event in history, President Obama used short code 62262 to announce his VP candidate Joe Biden.

Short codes are now tied to every kind of online and offline advertising and promotion. Today, in television, radio, billboards and print media, short codes are an important touch point for attracting and enticing new and repeat customers.

This engaging paper gives a complete description of the structure of the short code industry and answers key questions about what to expect when obtaining a short code for commercial purposes.
Other topics addressed in “The Ultimate Guide to Common Short Codes” include:

- The right strategy to use when choosing your short code
- How to acquire a short code and what to expect in the application and provisioning process
- Provisioning process terms and definitions — what it all means to you

“The mobile industry comes with a lot of challenges and nothing is truly easy. We want to take some of the guesswork out of using a short code for mobile marketing,” said mobileStorm CEO and founder Jared Reitzin. “I started out to create a guide that my sales team could use to help clients understand the pros and cons of using a dedicated code. I realized that this is invaluable information, and the final document is a guide for the public that is simple, easy to read, and full of what you need to know in order to effectively acquire and use a short code.”

For the last few years, Mr. Reitzin has been publicly speaking out about improving the short code provisioning process. In a recent article on MobileMarketingWatch.com, he suggested specific improvements in four key areas: standardization of terms, decreased costs, reduction in launch times, and creation of testing tools to ensure marketers are MMA and carrier compliant.
If you’re a professional mobile marketer or considering a strategy in the near future, this is a must-have read. Save time and money by downloading your free copy of “The Ultimate Guide to Common Short Codes.” DOWN HERE.

About mobileStorm (http://www.mobilestorm.com) -
For a decade mobileStorm has pioneered the concept of digital marketing. Having successfully delivered more than two billion messages on behalf of thousands of premier customers such as American Idol, Qantas Airways, K2 Sports, Palms Casino, Carl’s Jr., and Squaw Valley Ski Resort, mobileStorm is at the forefront of the digital marketing revolution. The company provides a turnkey, hosted email and mobile messaging platform backed by world-class support and expert digital marketing services. mobileStorm has created the most complete digital marketing solution available, enabling you to reach your customers via email marketing, SMS/text messaging, voice messaging, video broadcast, RSS marketing, or fax broadcast from a single provider.

For more information, contact:
866-492-7886
323-785-6333
323-785-6310

Bankruptcy, falling revenues, decreasing patron counts: These offer just a glimpse of the tough realities casinos are facing.

The casino marketer today must deal with a unique problem set. To triumph in these times, it becomes necessary to open up new channels. Many marketers who are after high ROI and quick ramp-up times are turning to mobile as the solution. To those properties who haven’t added a mobile component to their plans: Be warned. The time is now.

Fitch Ratings, a credit research firm, has seen casino revenue drop 2.5 percent, with no recovery in sight for the next few years. To counter this, casinos that implement mobile programs are seeing returns on their investment up to nearly 30 percent. Because of this success, mobile seems like a perfect fit for casino programs.

mobileStorm is an expert in the distinctive problems that face casinos—and has developed a whitepaper that specifically discusses applying SMS/text programs to the casino industry. “How the Casino Next Door is Getting Ready to Kick Your A**: Why it’s Time to Get Real about Mobile in Casino Marketing” is available for download now! It covers topics like:
• Types of programs casinos are running now
• Ideas on applications of SMS for one’s property.
• Why mobile is so relevant for this industry.

As a low-cost medium, SMS/text programs provide a viable alternative to traditional channels such as direct mail, and also provide increased response.

Whether you are ready to implement a mobile program, or just want more information, download mobileStorm’s newest whitepaper here: How the Casino Next Door is Getting Ready to Kick Your A**: Why It’s Time to Get Real About Mobile in Casino Marketing.

For other white papers, go to this page.

To view the press release:
/press/new-mobilestorm-whitepaper-sms-marketing-not-a-crapshoot-for-casinos

Shaneli Ramratan, Director Of Marketing, mobileStorm

I recently read a headline regarding how many people in Canada would rather “hold their cell phone on Valentine’s Day” instead of a special person. Cell phones were the clear winner, at 56 percent! This solidifies the fact that the mobile holds a prominent place in people’s hearts.

For those of you who may think you don’t have room in your media mix for SMS, think again. After all, activated emotions are a key precedent of purchase intentions. Getting right to the heart of your potential customers has never been easier because of the simplicity and affordability of text message marketing.

One of the most powerful ways of using SMS is by adding that interactive aspect to your marketing campaigns, and no matter what kind of advertising you do, there is a place for a mobile component. That’s because including an SMS call-to-action makes it really easy for you to get your customers to engage with your brand. And it gives them a sense of empowerment, since consumers choose who to engage via text.

Text-in calls-to-action can be placed anywhere: On your website, print ads, on outdoor boards, wherever you wish. They offer the ability to provide the instant gratification many people need to become buyers–and are effective vehicles for disseminating product incentives many are looking for in a recession.

This Valentine’s Day season, get to the heart of your prospects: Send a text!

Shaneli Ramratan, Director of Marketing, mobileStorm

So you know you want to add or continue email campaigns for your 2009 marketing efforts. But you need to consider email relevance as a factor from the start. Not only will this increase your campaign success rates; it also will serve as a preventive measure against your messages being marked as spam.

Where do you begin? The answer is to start with your subscribers, those people to whom you plan to send email messages. Remember, there is a person on the end of each address (at least in most cases).

Some of you may already have a database with existing email addresses, while others may be employing various forms of email capture–via a website, brick-and-mortar locations, etc. Regarding those contacts in your existing database, it’s important to ensure they still want to receive your emails. If you’re just starting to send out marketing emails, make sure you send an opt-in message to these addresses. This way you reduce the risk of sending an irrelevant email to a recipient who will very likely hit the spam button.

Next, consider where you are getting your email addresses, and why your subscriber signed up in the first place. Was it for a newsletter to keep updated on information in your industry? For a specific product offering? Or maybe to get updates on new events? Each of these people have completely different motivations for interacting with your company, and will be more responsive to messages that take this into consideration. Each grouping should either have its own list, or else be properly segmented within your database.

Remember, email can be the extra punch in your marketing strategy, but not just in terms of the volumes of leads. Quality email programs allow timely deployment of targeted messaging, which triggers an increase in the quality of leads (and the qualification) and ultimately equals higher revenue for your business.

Tune in next week for more on email relevance…

Shaneli Ramratan, Director of Marketing, mobileStorm

According to a recent study by eMarketer, the majority of college students pay little or no attention to marketing emails. However, email still remains their second- most preferred way to communicate, after text messaging. While this study mainly applies to college students, it got me thinking of the importance of relevance in messaging.

The deluge of marketing emails hitting inboxes ,paired with unrelenting spam, makes it hard for messages to get through to the brand audience—as we can see from the survey above. Taking the reins of your email marketing today can mean increased attention to your brand for generations to come. Not doing so means losing the very generation that email should be able to reach. Action has to be taken by all email marketers out there, to ensure that good marketing gets through.

The solution to effective email marketing , according to many companies and consultants in the field: Relevance. This word is often spoken, but the confusion lies in it being defined in too many ways. For some, relevance is equated to proper segmentation; for others it may involve dynamic content; and still others may focus on data collection and metrics as a key factor in achieving relevance. Before even considering email relevance, the first thing you should do is take inventory on attitudes in your organization about your email marketing itself.

Email marketing is well-known for its ROI, and as a relatively inexpensive channel, is often and easily abused. Looking at email as a channel where you can unload a mass of messages for quick impact to your bottom line would be cheating yourself. Email is not just randomized contact on a mass scale- it directly touches an individual on the other end, and can have a major impact on how your brand is recalled. Think of the brands whose emails you receive everyday: Google, Apple, Amazon… which ones do you read?

Learn more about email relevance…stay tuned next week!

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2009!

Shaneli Ramratan, Director of Marketing, mobileStorm

In a faltering economy, most marketing departments are heavily focused on direct response—and online media publishers promote the seemingly perfect marriage between traditional branding and trackable response as the solution. With today’s financial situation, it’s unrealistic for businesses to pull all their dollars out of advertising and marketing. So on the minds of most marketers is this: “How can we  improve success rates with no budget increases, and possibly a decrease in spending?”

Traditional marketers who overspend in print, radio, and other traditional media formats excitedly believe the online arena is the answer to this question. The online space is heralded in the agency world as ”interactive,” and a place to apply old-school media commissions to the likes of display, paid search, video, and more. But those looking for a stringent ROI know the likelihood of getting it with online media is not encouraging. That’s why you should use your own intuition and—despite lack of endorsement by marketing agencies—consider email campaigns.

In today’s business environment, most of us need to know if our programs were successful “the day before they start.” Otherwise there is the constant fear that you are throwing precious business dollars out the window. Marketers who have already dabbled in banners, search, and other online media should really check out email marketing—whose cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the last commission you paid your interactive agency. I’m writing this article to propel “traditional marketers” into a communications channel they should look at before taking the online plunge. Sure, you may find yourself in unfamiliar territory, but the pay-off supersedes waiting for latent conversions generated by an unsourced click. Don’t get me wrong, there are clear values in online media. But if you’re looking for high impact NOW, try an email campaign.

I look at email marketing as putting money in the bank. But before looking at one-off results, think of it this way: Email campaigns help you get to know your prospects and customers. It is a nice way to build a richly engaged contact base from which you can farm future conversions. Not everyone is ready to buy now, but by using email to segment your audiences into buckets, you can quickly separate buyers from browsers—while figuring out who needs that extra incentive.

Email is a direct response tool, yet it’s also a means of building a relationship with your buyers. The messages you can use in email are far more personal, and they hold the power to activate the emotions of your prospect. An email is like an intimate conversation— not shouting over a megaphone across miles of traffic buildup, hoping you’re placed as far forward as possible in the feature article, or deciding if RON buy can give you enough impressions for your bottom line. Email is highly dependent on how you choose to build your database. It allows selectivity and filtering depending on where you implement forms or contact information capture—and in turn gives the marketer the control to determine the success of the campaign before they even hit “send.”

Shaneli  Ramratan, Director of Marketing, mobileStorm

Times are hard.

As a marketer, racking your brain for fresh ideas going into 2009 is probably on top of your to-do list in December. I know it is for me.

I received a CNN news alert yesterday, saying we’ve officially been declared in a recession as of November 2007. Immediately, a feeling of relief rushed over me. Kidding! With the market plummeting nearly 700 points yesterday, I felt no relief.

Today I searched for ways to make myself feel better. Quite successfully I might add, because of these two reasons:
1) This isn’t anything new. We’ve been in this “recession” for an entire year.
2) Email and SMS marketing are where it’s at. For marketers, that is.

You, too, can get some relief from the recession by implementing email and mobile efforts into your 2009 planning. There are two reasons to give this a try.

Activate your customers’ purchase interest: Personalized communication from brand favorites, or even brands that are new to me, makes me feel special as a consumer. In times of drudgery, an email message makes me feel like a company values my business; an SMS message puts a brand forefront in my mind. (Provided the message is relevant, of course.) Sadly enough, the presence of relevant email and SMS messages were lacking in my inboxes both on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Short ramp-up times: We all need some pick-me-ups, and having a little extra marketing firepower on short notice is invaluable. You hit the send button when you want. You can act on marketing gut intuition—and easily track your results. It’s also a great way to execute testing for messaging and segments.

Tell us how email and mobile is working for you! Leave a comment below.

Shaneli Ramratan, Director of Marketing, mobileStorm

Following one of the biggest days in democracy, it seems like a good day to talk about another manifestation of democracy, via the Internet: Blogs.

The ability to blog is arguably one of the coolest, most valuable features the Internet has brought. Blogging itself has completely changed the production of written texts, allowing virtually anyone to speak their mind, and share experiences good or bad, sans censorship.

A new study by Jupiter Research found that not only has blog readership gone up–by 300 percent!–but that blogs influence the purchase decisions of readers. And this influence is far more than that of social networks. None of us here would say it’s much of a surprise. Consider what blogs offer:

1. A real voice for the people. When I was a growing up I always imagined writing a letter to the editor, or if a business gave bad service, reporting them to the Better Business Bureau.  Now I don’t have to; even if I don’t have my own blog, there are countless out there ready and willing to accept comments.

2. Personal and original content. Who wants to read the same old dry perspectives, the corporate pitch, the product specifications, when you can check out blogs and learn about real experiences and opinions?

3. Word-of-mouth builds trust.  Who doesn’t believe what a friend or colleague says about a product or issue? Most of us at least give this more credit than a biased spiel from an organization, corporate or otherwise. Blogs mimic the power of word-of-mouth because they offer a platform to collectively share and exchange experiences and insights.

Do you use blogs in your life, professional or personal? How do you find them the most valuable?  Take a moment to share with us below!

Shaneli Ramratan, Director of Marketing, mobileStorm

With November around the corner, this week is the start of the holiday shopping season—and the pressure is on retailers both online and offline. To get through what could be a doomed season, many merchants are turning to price reductions and extreme sales.

Retailers are resorting to an intense focus on value to the customer (with price cuts and other incentives) and away from brand value, hoping this will encourage business. Obviously this approach makes sense. But there might be an untapped channel that can make a big impact this season: Mobile phones.

Mobile campaigns—such as mobile coupons or other text-based incentive programs—serve not only as a direct-response mechanism, but also as a proven brand vehicle that improves customer retention and loyalty. More than ever, having a dialogue with consumers and standing out from the crowd are key—and for retailers, this means expanding their branding efforts. Getting your value proposition to customers is simple and economical when sending messages straight to their mobile phones.

SMS allows you the flexibility to reach all your stakeholders. It stands out both as a communication and marketing tool, via business alerts, sales and new product announcements, and incentive-based offers  like mobile coupons, to name a few. The key is staying brief in your claims and maintaining a consistent identity that conveys unique value. Brand does not have to cost a lot of money. Brand is not something you can not do. Brand is absolutely necessary, now more than ever.

Brand today is more important than ever to consumers. A well-crafted and strong brand proposition means you can survive in the current sea of retail uncertainty. But it’s important to remember this isn’t the branding of yesterday—spending oodles of money on expensive efforts with no clear return. The branding of today will come through digital channels like mobile and email, channels that can be measured and personalized, and that have been proven as the most effective media/marketing vehicles today.

Shaneli Ramratan
Director of Marketing, mobileStorm

Verizon Wireless been in the news a lot recently. And it hasn’t been the most positive press. Here are a few recent incidents:

1. The Washington Post accused the carrier of installing a cell phone tower on behalf of Senator John McCain. (He was getting bad reception.)
2. News leaked about Verizon’s per-message fee on outgoing SMS, which would have increased the cost to send messages by as much as 300%! Just in time to score massive revenue from holiday marketing campaigns.
3. The cellular provider is currently being reviewed by the FCC to determine whether or not a proposed Verizon-Alltel merger will stifle competition. (They’d be bigger than AT&T; did the iPhone choose the wrong carrier?)

With the retail industry in a slump, mobile and text message marketing may prove to be a great way to boost business, especially if campaigns include coupons or other discounts to lure consumers into the shops. Verizon’s tentative rate hike, though, could’ve dampened mobile coupon campaigns for the grim-looking holiday season, as it had been scheduled to begin November 1. Fortunately, with buzz in the blogosphere with articles like this, Verizon retracted its plan, saying the proposal was just an idea and had “been mistakenly characterized as a final decision to implement. That draft was intended to stimulate internal business discussions and in no way should have been released to the public and represented as a final document.”

Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the rate hike is completely off. Verizon admitted that “we recently notified text messaging aggregators… that we are exploring ways to offset significantly increased costs for delivering billions upon billions of text messages each month.”

But I thought text messages had relatively minute cost for carriers. Hmm, is Verizon trying to generate fast cash to cover the cost of its acquisition of Alltel?

Shaneli Ramratan, Director of Marketing, mobileStorm