A great way to boost sales lies in your own backyard! You have likely spent time and energy building a database of customer information, but if you don’t have a cross selling strategy, you may not getting maximum results. If you lack resources, implementing a cross selling strategy may seem difficult, but keeping it simple can still go a long way when it comes to increasing revenue. Putting together a simple email or SMS cross selling campaign will deliver at little cost.

Some key reasons why your existing customers are great targets:

Quick revenue source: Because your existing clients have already purchased your products or used your services, there is no need to go through the “getting to know you” phase. Your brand is already familiar to them, so introducing them to other useful services will be considered helpful, and won’t get drowned out by other offers.

Loyalty building program: It’s easy to get caught up trying to rope in new prospects. Because of this, loyalty initiatives and CRM campaigns can get little attention and may slip through the cracks. Cross selling can help maintain the flow of information/communication between you and your customers while putting money in your pocket.

Less energy than finding new business relationships: When many of us start marketing initiatives, we focus on the information collection. Unfortunately, most of the time we never leverage this information. When designing a campaign much of your work is already done for you, in the form of this data that’s already collected. It’s time to use it!

Important things keep in mind:

- Creating a relevant offer to your customer’s interests can mean the difference between 50 percent and 1 percent response rates. If you are providing event planning services, send your customers tips for planning holiday parties. If you are a DJ, offer birthday specials.
- Connect to past purchase behavior: One product purchase can often lead to another. One of the most famous examples is McDonald’s catch-all, “Do you want fries with that?”
- Divide and conquer: Tackle one target at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to launch a one-size-fits-all campaign that will get low response and discourage your efforts.
- Stay customer-focused. This kind of initiative requires one main thing for success—your dedication to your customers’ needs.

Shaneli Ramratan, Marketing Manager, mobileStorm

Marketers who read this blog want to keep up on the latest developments in the industry. So maybe some of you already read Event Marketer magazine’s June issue–specifically, the feature on the winner of its Grand Ex Award, the Stoli Hotel. If so, you’ll be interested to know how the mobileStorm platform played a crucial role in the Stoli marketing campaign.

The vodka-maker’s marketers created a traveling top-line hotel–described as an “ultra-luxe” “pop-up experience”–that appeared for just a few weeks Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York, and San Francisco. Think of it like a traveling circus big top–and when you think about it, as magical as the supernatural camping tents described in the Harry Potter books! The Stoli Hotel, all of 20,000 square feet, showcased bedrooms, bars, spa services, and lounges like you’d see in a permanent building–and where guests drank cocktails made from the brand of vodka in question, of course.

Because of the short-term nature and the immediacy of the event, Stolichnaya marketers had to quickly generate buzz prior to each Stoli Hotel stop. It started advertising in the respective cities about one month before arrival. On the website stolihotelrsvp.com, there was a dedicated landing page for each city—on which interested consumers signed up to receive more detailed email messages about the hotel.

Stoli marketers then used mobileStorm RSVP Manager to create and maintain its database of people who wanted to visit the hotel. As you may know, RSVP Manager is the first comprehensive event management software that incorporates multiple forms of messaging into a single system. It lets clients collect responses and more information about event attendees via SMS, email, and/or a Web form. Because RSVP Manager gathers so much data, clients can also get comprehensive reports on the success of their campaigns. (Read more about mobileStorm RSVP Manager here.)

“Thousands and thousands” of Stoli Hotel guests came each night, said the Stolichnaya brand director at Pernod Ricard. More impressive is how effective the campaign was: After attending the hotel event, 86 percent of consumers said they were likely to drink Stoli; 76 percent bought the vodka in a bar or restaurant; 80 percent said the experience improved their thoughts about the brand; and 94 percent told their friends about the Stoli Hotel.

Grand Ex-worthy results indeed. Thanks, in part, to RSVP Manager.

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm

“I’d rather you text me”

By the time you read this, you might already know Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate for the U.S. presidency.

And that clearly illustrates the strength of SMS.

As most people know, Mr. Obama’s long-awaited announcement has been expected to be delivered by text-message to supporters who’d subscribed to receive SMS alerts about his campaign. As of this writing (late Monday), the declaration was “imminent.”

Sure, the candidate was also going to post news on his Web site and send out email messages to other subscribers. But few people are in front of their computers 24-7, while most people have their cell phones with them at all times. So those who’d subscribed to get texts would be the very first (other than wife Michelle, I suppose) to know Mr. Obama’s wannabe-VP.

The impending Veep announcement illustrates one benefit of SMS marketing: Giving audiences a sense of importance and exclusivity. Being the first to obtain something—whether an iPhone or knowledge of the country’s possible next vice-prez—is itself valuable to the consumer/citizen. Marketers in all industries could adapt this fact to their own situations, and perhaps sign people up to receive “secret” SMS notices about store sales, new merchandise, or events such as concerts that are not open to the unsubscribing public.

The Obama campaign’s use of SMS also shows how individual message marketing campaigns can be used within a larger strategy. The Illinois senator is no stranger to using SMS and other digital messaging tactics—indeed, I wrote about this nearly a year ago. I’m guessing the eagerly-awaited VP announcement has garnered gobs more subscribers for the campaign. As he enticed increasingly more voters and citizens to sign up for campaign news, the candidate increased his database of very interested supporters. As long as he removed joke contacts and practiced double opt-in, that is!

With the right platform, any candidate could easily create and organize such a database —by demographic, by voting precinct, and/or by contact preferences, just to name a few categories. Such detailed database management makes sense for a candidate who wants to ensure maximum attendance at local rallies—or for marketers who want to ensure that they reach consumers who are most likely to be engaged with the brands in question.

Jokers and moralists aside, it’s not necessarily bad that a presidential hopeful knows how to sell himself to an increasingly digital-savvy constituency.

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager
“I’d rather you text me”

Want to engage consumers on their cell phones? Then you’d better send them a text message.

That’s the gist of an eMarketer report yesterday, which notes that among mobile consumers, SMS gets them more responsive than other types of mobile advertising. That’s a stance we at mobileStorm have long taken, even with the advent of true Internet access on handsets. As eMarketer said, “The simplicity and compatibility of texting is likely to ensure its long-term appeal in the same way text-based e-mail has remained viable.”

The first thing to consider is that despite industry enthusiasm for iPhones and similar gadgets, mobile Web marketing won’t edge out SMS marketing. According to a Direct Marketing Association survey of U.S. mobile users ages 15 and older, 70 percent of people who responded to mobile offers did so because of a marketing text message. That number was more than three times greater than 22 percent of those who responded to mobile Internet ads.

Now, we’re not saying that SMS is the be-all, end-all of mobile marketing. Remember, text-only email has remained viable. Recall, too, that we at mobileStorm have long touted the importance of multi-channel marketing—and the lead role SMS plays therein. Even eMarketer noted, “The medium (SMS) is better-suited for targeting specific audiences, and as part of multichannel campaigns.”

One thing yesterday’s report pointed out was that when iMedia surveyed U.S. online marketers, two-thirds said they would simply “dabble” in mobile advertising this year. That’s because of the relative newness of the platform, especially compared to Internet and non-digital channels.

But there’s no need to fear the new. There are a lot of resources for neophyte mobile marketers, such as mobileStorm’s white papers on SMS and digital marketing. Considering how important text-only messages will remain, it’s time all marketers learn more—and then implement their knowledge.

Eydie Cubarrubia, Marketing Communications Manager, mobileStorm
“I’d rather you text me”