FULLERTON, CA-April 23, 2008–Jared Reitzin, founder and CEO of mobileStorm, is today’s “Professor Of The Day” at California State University, Fullerton. His lecture, titled “Digital Best Practices For Geniuses,” focused on how to market to digital savvy consumers.

Mr. Reitzin said that it all boils down to sending the “right message” to the “right person” at the “right time.” He focused on the pros and cons of email, still the predominant messaging channel, and SMS, which reaches a rapidly increasing number of consumers anywhere at any time.

“Digital messaging has become the preferred method for communication,” he said.

Mr. Reitzin spoke to students in Professor Mark Latonero’s Introduction to Entertainment and Tourism class. His engagement at Cal State Fullerton is one of the many events during the university’s 30th annual Communications Week.

New to the Scene: Products

mobileStorm

mobileStorm, which provides digital marketing products and services, announced a new premium short message service for its Stun! platform.

The service gives clients the option to earn money on certain text messages and content by having cellphone users pay for the service through their phone bill, said the company. mobileStorm said the service allows clients to promote voting contests that call for participants to pay a fee to vote for their favorites via SMS. Clients also can create subscription campaigns and charge a monthly fee for the premium content, it said.

The service is supported on several carrier and MVNO services, including, AT&T Mobility, Sprint Nextel Corp., T-Mobile USA Inc., Verizon Wireless, Boost Mobile, Midwest Wireless, Alltel Corp. and Virgin Mobile Inc., said mobileStorm.

mobileStorm takes the guess work out of e-mail marketing

With marketing budgets allotting more funds to e-mail advertising and companies valuing good service, it’s no wonder that e-mail service providers are reaping the advertising benefits. Today’s consumer does not wait for the Sunday paper to get in on the good deals (those days are over); there is no waiting in virtual space. mobileStorm is thriving in the multi-channel/multi-modal marketing world and is the voice of the small to midsize businesses, as validated by JupiterResearch report E-Mail Marketing Guide, 2008. In order for business to succeed it must adapt to the consumers’ expectation and mobileStorm has been meeting and exceeding the needs of the consumers.

Inc., the business magazine and website, named mobileStorm’s technology as the “best for sending text messages.”

In an article about products that are best for email and mobile marketing campaigns, Inc. listed mobileStorm among its six top selections.

Said the magazine, “Here’s our pick of services that let you manage subscriber lists, comply with spam regulations, monitor bouncebacks, and obsessively track who opened and clicked on what.”

For more details, read the Inc. article: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080301/dear-customer.html

Feb 12, 2008 2:29 PM, By Ken Magill
For DirectMag

Surely one of the greatest developments in the short history of e-mail marketing is the “report spam” button.

Once AOL developed the complaint button and in 2001 pioneered using a so-called feedback loop to supply e-mailers information on who complained—after which other inbox providers followed suit—marketers could no longer claim ISPs were blocking their messages unfairly and arbitrarily.

Now, e-mail service provider mobileStorm has taken the feedback loop one step further by integrating a “complain” tab into its e-mail template right next to the “unsubscribe” tab so clients must use it.

What’s more, mobileStorm has written into its terms of use a clause giving it the legal right to fine and fire clients who spam.

The contract even outlines a scaled pricing structure that gets more punishing as the percentage of spam complaints clients generate rises.

MobileStorm also monitors the feedback loops provided by the various inbox providers to see how many complaints clients generate at them, as well.

To warn clients off spamming, mobileStorm reserves the right to charge $10 per complaint to clients who get complaint rates of from 0.31% to 0.7%.

For comparison, it is generally understood that a complaint rate of 0.5% or higher will result in delivery troubles at the major ISPs.

As for marketers generating higher spam-complaint percentages, mobileStorm reserves the right to charge $25 per complaint to those who get rates of from 0.71% to 1%; $50 per complaint to those whose complaint rates are from 1.01% to 5% and $100 per complaint to customers whose rates are 5.01% or higher.

MobileStorm also monitors the number of complaints sent about clients to anti-spam blacklist SpamCop and contractually reserves the right to charge customers on an increasingly punishing basis for those as well—up to $500 per complaint for from 11 to 15, for example.

“Do we enforce it that often? No. We most likely get rid of the client first,” said mobileStorm’s CEO Jared Reitzin. “The policy is in place for people who we’ve warned and who we’ve gone on record as warning, so when we charge them there isn’t really much they can do about it because they’ve entered into this contract.”

However, he added: “We usually do enough due diligence with a client that we pretty much know they’re going to be good to go before they sign the contract.”

It’s not unusual for ESPs to monitor their clients’ spam complaints and other factors that go into creating a mailer’s so-called reputation, if for no other reason than to protect their own servers from getting blocked by ISPs. However, making clients provide their own report-spam button and sign a contract that says the ESP can fine them if they get too many complaints is unusual.

Does the contract prevent mobileStorm from getting some business? “It can, yeah,” said Reitzin.

He also said that on several occasions, would-be clients balked at the word “complain,” saying it was too harsh. He added he let a well-known shoe company that he declined to name change it to “grumble.” But other than that reasonably small concession, mobileStorm does not let clients’ e-mail hit people’s inboxes without that complaint tab.

“The only way you can grow [as an ESP] is if your delivery is good,” said Reitzin. “If you’re sending crap through your system all the time, you’re going to get blocked by the ISPs.”

He added: “ISPs have to protect their subscribers from spam. If their service sucks there will be attrition. At the same time they have to keep their subscribers happy by letting them receive the content they want to receive. I have to sit down at the dinner table with AOL, Yahoo and Hotmail and look them in the eyes and tell them that mobileStorm is doing everything it can to work with legitimate marketers.”

Maintaining an in-house feedback loop and reserving the right to fine spamming clients would seem to be a highly innovative way to do just that.

mobileStorm’s marketing communications manager, Eydie Cubarrubia, wrote the cover story for the November 28, 2007 issue of iMedia Connection. Titled “Brand winners in your Xbox,” the article explains how branded games for the console can further a brand’s sense of relevancy for consumers, in ways that mere in-game or pre-roll ads can not. The story appears both in iMedia’s print newsletter and online: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/17480.asp

Redwood City, CA — mobileStorm CEO and founder Jared Reitzin will speak at the Consumer Technology Innovations conference November 27. During his presentations, he will discuss digital advertising as well as mobileStorm’s expertise in the space. The conference, held November 27-28 at Sofitel San Francisco Bay in Redwood City, California, brings together digital industry heavyweights, hot startups, and tech elites.

Jared Reitzin, CEO and founder of mobileStorm, is a columnist in DMNews’ new “Essential Guide To E-mail Marketing.” The special supplement of the news publication—which covers direct, database, and Internet marketing—is available online as a PDF file. Mr. Reitzin’s piece, “So you want to reach the inbox,” gives advice on how to avoid spam filters and gain consumer trust with permission-based email marketing. “The rules keep changing and marketers need to adapt, or it’s going to hurt their pocket books,” he writes. To read more, go to: http://www.dmnews.com/cms/lib/8687.pdf

See the video here

bnetTV.com interviewed mobileStorm CEO Jared Reitzin at the recent CTIA conference in San Francisco. Mr. Reitzin spoke about mobileStorm’s do-it-yourself digital marketing platform and how it helps customers such as Quantas, Carl’s Jr., Buzznet, and Palms Casino—as well as small business clients who can spend as little as $20 per month to create their own messaging campaigns. Check out the entire video here.

Marketers can’t afford to target every fish in the sea. With better aim and finely honed tools, they can take more time to invest in their customer relationships to create highly compatible lists.

by Jessica Tsai
From CRM Magazine November 2007

Without customers, marketing efforts obviously fall on deaf ears. But without the right customers, you likely end up with the same results anyway. Almost every business relies on a healthy — and hopefully hefty — customer list; but raising a list in an increasingly customer-driven world has forced marketers to adjust their approach. Consumer information — too much information, in many cases — is available everywhere, so it’s up to the marketing department to sift through the available data and find the best fit between what its company offers and the audience it should be targeting.Businesses often tend to take the easy way out and favor quantity over quality when it comes to building their customer lists. “It’s hard to be targeted,” says Elana Anderson, an independent consultant and former analyst with Forrester Research. “It requires analytic skills to reach the right people.” She adds, “Tactics like TV have a lot more glamour associated with it.”

Television commercials also strive to reach a large audience–and when the landscape was dominated by The Big Three networks, TV used to be a fairly definitive form of mass marketing. Unfortunately, the literal meaning of “mass” marketing no longer exists. “If anything, it’s used as a pejorative term,” says Richard Hren, director of product marketing at analytics firm SPSS, “for ‘anything that’s less than finely targeted.’” (The closest relative, he adds, would be buying a general list where each recipient is listed as “Occupant.” Still, even this method involves some sort of targeting, such as location.)

Today, however, with several hundred cable TV channels–and target audiences for each one growing increasingly narrow–companies have to be selective about where they put their ads. It’s unrealistic for marketers to want to reach everyone, everywhere. Fortunately, they’ve realized that attempts to attract just eyeballs are not only a waste of money and resources, but also a guaranteed way to transform potential consumers into a frustrated audience.

But Anderson says the supposedly negative results aren’t entirely the fault of the marketer. “If you look at the way marketing organizations were measured, many marketers, even today, are still measured on overall reach as opposed to conversion of leads,” she says. With those evaluations being counterintuitive to effective marketing strategies, it’s no wonder marketers are facing a serious dilemma. “As long as that metric is in place, marketers aren’t encouraged to be more effective,” Anderson says.

(more…)

Mobile Marketing Agency MobileStorm Lands Series A
By Tomio Geron 10/31/2007

Mobile marketing agency mobileStorm has received a Series A round of funding from sole investor eonBusiness.

The amount of financing was not released, but Centennial, Colo.-based eonBusiness normally invests between $250,000 and $1 million in companies, said eonBusiness Chief Executive Dave Carlson. The deal closed about two weeks ago.

Los Angeles-based mobileStorm provides marketing to small and medium-sized businesses via email, mobile voice and text messages, and RSS. Small companies can sign up and operate their marketing on the Web, while mobileStorm does direct sales to larger customers. Clients include Qantas Airways Ltd., CKE Restaurants Inc.’s Carl’s Jr., and Squaw Valley Ski Corp.

(more…)

CRM seeks to break barriers
By Kelly Hill | August 25, 2007 - 9:16 pm EDT

If businesses had Ten Commandments, No. 1 would probably be “Know Thy Customer.”

Easier said than done.

Customer information plays a crucial role in customer relationship management, from determining the type of offers and incentives that are made to customers to impacting growth and retention. The Internet is opening up new frontiers in gathering customer information, and potential advertising revenues make it ever more important for wireless companies to have a good handle on what they know about their customer base—in addition to the importance of the information for their own sales and marketing purposes.

But challenges remain in making the data accurate and easy to access.

The customer information involved can include demographic information (such as location, age and income); a buying history of products a customer has purchased from the company; revenue history; and perhaps also a loyalty profile, such as whether you belong to any loyalty programs that a company might offer.

According to Steve Bamberger, vice president of media, communications and utilities for Oracle, it simply isn’t enough to warehouse data on customers. It needs to be accessible yet secure, able to be queried and analyzed, accurate and up-to date.

(more…)

It’s now easier for mobileStorm.com visitors to use the company’s resources, thanks to a new RSS feed and a better way to search the mobileStorm site. Visitors can now instantaneously search mobileStorm’s extensive industry blogs, news articles and releases, and product update announcements–all of which will help marketers learn more about the industry as well as about mobileStorm’s offerings.

To get the latest information even more quickly, people can sign up for mobileStorm’s RSS feed, allowing them to receive notice of the latest postings in all four of the company’s blogs: Digital Marketing, Press, Product/News Updates, and CEO Jared Reitzen’s entrepreneur success blog. Users can also elect to receive postings by topic.

Check out our Search page at http://www.mobilestorm.com/search/
Check out our RSS page at http://www.mobilestorm.com/rss/

by Jessica Tsai | DestinationCRM - August 2007

Mobile marketing is on the rise and the June 29 release of Apple’s new iPhone could be a marketer’s dream come true. With more enhanced features, more people will be interacting with their phones, which means more opportunities for companies to snag consumers. However, amidst this new wave of mobile marketing technology, there are still many companies that aren’t taking advantage of this resource. And for those that are, there are precautions that must be taken in order to optimize efficiency and increase customer receptiveness. So will high-end gadgets like the iPhone take mobile marketing to the next level?

In a study conducted by IDC, Scott Ellison, vice president of wireless and mobile communications, reported, “Mobile marketing is one of the few mobile opportunities in which the potential of the opportunity actually exceeds its current hype.” Many companies are still a little gun-shy when it comes to mobile marketing, and some don’t even know the technology is available to them. Ellison asserts, “If the mobile ecosystem is fully leveraged, mobile marketing can create a very different and more relevant customer experience of marketing and advertising.” Indeed, data is expected to surpass voice by 2011, says Jared Reitzin, CEO of mobileStorm.

Given this knowledge, one would expect the iPhone to be the perfect venue as it has the ability to receive and view emails, SMS messages, and video and audio clips, all at great quality. Still, there is concern that the iPhone may not live up to the hype, particularly because of its extravagant cost, and concerns about its last-generation transmission speeds. The iPhone itself costs from $499 to $599, plus the cost of switching carriers if you’re not with AT&T. IDC found that while 60 percent of 456 individuals surveyed are interested in the iPhone, only 10 percent are actually interested in paying full price for it. “There is a big leap between curiosity and commitment,” says Aaron Radelet, a spokesman for Sprint, which, thanks to Apple’s exclusive carriage deal with AT&T, has been locked out of the iPhone jackpot. (Early estimates claimed that Apple moved a half million iPhones in the first weekend of release.)

Apple also announced that the iPhone will have a battery life longer than any other smartphone on the market: 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, or 24 hours of audio playback. “With the iPhone, we’re gong to see a lot of ads where you’re walking down the street and you get a text message from the store a block away saying, ‘Hey, get an additional 10 percent off right now, come on in!’” Reitzin says.

(more…)

SUMMARY: Ready to hear the horrible truth? 64% of key decision makers are viewing your carefully crafted email on their BlackBerrys and other mobile devices, according to new MarketingSherpa data. And, chances are, your email looks downright awful.

By Chris Heine | MarketingSherpa - July 2007

What do you do? First, find a BlackBerry and see for yourself. Then, call for an immediate meeting with your email design team. To help, we’ve put together a list of tactics and creative samples so you can see just how truly bad it is. Plus, hotlinks to two cool simulators.
BlackBerrys are the device of choice for the business users over Treos and Palm Pilots. And while reviews on Apple’s iPhone are that it’s an incredibly wonderful Web tool, it’s not yet as mission-critical as the BlackBerry for email — especially when it comes to enterprise email applications.

Most marketers we talked to echoed Overamerica Media Group CEO Jon Levy, who says, “We believe that a significant percentage of our subscribers read their email in mobiles as the first point of contact. We are starting to commit ourselves to optimizing our email to work better in mobile because of it.”

You don’t have to send in just text-only email to reach BlackBerry users. If you’re truly dedicated to gaining an edge in this the-time-is-now niche through testing techniques and researching your database, there are ways of delivering richer media experiences to the BlackBerry crowd. Although more B-to-B people use BlackBerrys at the moment, that’s changing. The good thing is that our roundup of tips work for consumer marketers, too.

Demographics & Usage

Young adults are the primary users of mobile devices. According to new research from ExactTarget, which surveyed 4,202 mobile phone users, 7% of whom identified themselves as mobile email users:
o 38% are ages 18-44 vs 12% for ages 45-64
o 80% access their mobile email at home
o 39% admit to checking email while driving their cars

Users are also a wealthier demographic — 19% of mobile phone users with an annual household income of more than $100,000 regularly use their mobile devices to access email. For households earning $200,000+, that number doubles to 38%.

Another key point — people use mobile email differently. Primarily, it’s to stay on top of matters that users deem as urgent. 87% access the same email accounts from both their mobile device and through a computer at home or work, says Morgan Stewart, Director Research & Strategy, ExactTarget. Rendering, screen resolution and hard-to-use keyboards make mobile less desirable than desktops or laptops for accessing email.

(more…)

Green Thumb

Get into your customers’ pockets with SMS advertising.
By Catherine Seda | Entrepreneur Magazine - August 2007

Fifty-six million American adults are texting on their cell phones, according to a month-long field survey conducted in June 2006 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. And advertisers are getting in the game.

You have probably seen text-to-win or text-to-vote contests on TV. Popular shows like American Idol, The Apprentice and Deal or No Deal have persuaded millions of cell phone users to text in. You, too, can promote an SMS contest through your marketing channels, but this isn’t your only option. In addition to getting consumers to text you, you can text them.

Mobile-marketing companies such as Cellit, MobileStorm and Movo can help you create an opt-in mobile marketing database. You’ll tap into your existing offline and online marketing channels to invite consumers to sign up (for example: text JOIN to 12345). Using their cell phones, consumers will type in a keyword (which customers select) followed by a common short code, which is a special phone number. Or consumers can subscribe on a website and receive an opt-in confirmation request via their phones. Once customers respond, they’ve opted in.

Now you can send alerts, coupons, notifications and even photos or videos. You can invite opt-in consumers to participate in polls, surveys and contests. Marketing via SMS is more affordable than you might think. Costs start at $100 to $500 per month, which covers a specific number of messages. The per-message rate is typically 5 cents to 10 cents; you’ll get a better deal if you send out more messages. Ask vendors how they charge for hosting/licensing, setup, keywords and customer support–these could be separate fees.

Here are additional questions to ask vendors: Which phone carriers do you work with? Do you comply with the Mobile Marketing Association and each carrier’s best practices guidelines? Can consumers opt out by phone? What kinds of reporting do you provide?

Two-way communication can make SMS an effective research, sales and community-building channel. This form of mobile marketing is quickly attracting new advertisers. Will you join in?

See the original article here

GRC takes PR Strategy to the Digital Marketing Forum

LOS ANGELES and COSTA MESA, Calif. - June 25, 2007 - Global Results Communications (GRC) (www.globalresultspr.com), a full service public relations firm dedicated to advancing the profiles of companies in the high-tech, telecom and wireless industries, is pleased to announce mobileStorm, a digital marketing company, has selected GRC as its public relations firm of record. mobileStorm is an industry leader and pioneer in the digital messaging industry, offering customers a unique and broad spectrum of outlets to target consumers.

“The concept of digital marketing is rapidly emerging with the convergence of Web and mobile making it more important now than ever to educate the market about the benefits and value-add it brings to the industry. We chose to partner with GRC on this effort as the firm comes highly recommended and has a solid understanding of the mobile ecosystem and supporting vertical markets,” said Jared Reitzin, CEO, founder, and chairman of mobileStorm. “We look forward to the upcoming months and the evangelization of not only mobileStorm, but the overall market opportunities presented to marketers when using the company’s solutions suite.”

As the digital marketing industry continues to grow, mobileStorm will be at the forefront of the technology. They have delivered more than one billion messages and have executed 500,000 campaigns on behalf of 950 customers. Through extensive products and services with Stun and Bolt, customers small and large take advantage of the marketing platform, customizing and leveraging campaigns for personal appeal.

“PR is a critical component of business development for rising companies in an emerging industry, and GRC has the experience and know-how to take companies of this nature to the next level,” said Valerie Christopherson, managing director for GRC. “Through mobileStorm’s esteemed reputation and our diversely executed PR plan, we plan on having a long and thriving mutual relationship.”

About mobileStorm
mobileStorm, over the past 8 years, has pioneered the concept of digital marketing. Having successfully delivered over 1 billion+ messages for over 950 premier customers such as Qantas Airways, MGM Grand, Palms Casinos, Carl’s Jr., Squaw Valley Ski Resort and Horoscope.com, mobileStorm is at the forefront of the digital marketing revolution. The company provides a turnkey, hosted email and digital 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, text (mobile) messaging, rss, voice messaging, fax broadcast or direct mail from a single provider.

About GRC
Global Results Communications is a full service public relations firm focused on enhancing the public profiles of our clients. With a specialty in servicing the high tech, wireless and biotech markets, Global Results Communications delivers quality results worldwide. We work with business to business, industry organizations and consumer clients to clarify positioning, dramatically raise marketplace awareness and advance overall business agendas. For more information please contact GRC at www.globalresultspr.comor +1 949 608 0276.

###

Media Contact:
Elizabeth Villanueva or
Kirsten Woodard
Global Results Communications, Inc.
+1 949-608-0276
lizv@globalresultspr.com
kwoodard@globalresultspr.com

Los Angeles - June 20, 2007 - mobileStorm the leader in digital marketing products and services - today announced that Chief Executive Officer and Founder Jared Reitzin and Director of Deliverability Greg Kraios have been selected to present at the LTPact Conference on June 21-23 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The panel titled “Permission Based Messaging: DOs, DON’Ts and Everything in Between,” will also feature Todd Abrams from Layered Tech, along with Dennis Dayman from StrongMail acting as moderator. They will be discussing tactics on how to get better results from e-marketing campaigns as well as the latest best practices, technologies and issues from authentication and delivery to deep analytics reporting and how to optimize emails for higher deliverability rates.

Los Angeles - June 5, 2007 - mobileStorm the leader in digital marketing products and services - today announced that Chief Executive Officer Jared Reitzin has been selected to present a two and half hour seminar on “Using Messaging Technologies to Stay Connected” at the AICPA Tech+ Conference at The Mirage in Las Vegas on June 12th. The three day event was created exclusively for CPAs, IT consultants, VARs and anyone in the financial industry who implements or uses technology in their organization. Mr. Reitzin will be co-presenting along side Mitchell Eisen CIO and Founder of Real Magnet. They will share the history, penetration, advantages, disadvantages, and benefits of email, sms, rss, podcasting, blogging and social networking.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Jared Reitzin is CEO of mobileStorm (www.mobilestorm.com), a Los Angeles-based provider of email marketing and other services. We first spoke to Jared three years ago, and thought it would be interesting to hear how the company’s business has evolved and changed. Ben Kuo spoke with Jared.

BK: For those readers who aren’t familiar with your service, what does it offer?

JR: We’ve built the first, true multi-channel digital market platform, so that a business can build a database and communicate with them, via email, FAX, direct mail, wireless text, and soon RSS. We are also getting into solution type, agency services, where we work with clients on building the database, and helping them determine how to build the database, communicate with them, and figure out which channel will be the most profitable. We look at your current marketing initiatives, where you want to be, put together an assessment, and put you into the right product. We also offer additional services, such as creative services. It’s a means to an end of sending the message. Everything we’ve done so far is in the marketing space, and we’ve built lots of features for businesses. We manage the database, communications, and reports so you can see how your campaigns are doing. Our latest initiative, coming after the Virginia Tech shootings, was thinking that text messaging might be useful here, to maybe save lives and get the message out faster. We came out with a new student alert technology, which we are selling as a wireless alerting platform for schools. It’s not just for schools, but also for government agencies and cities.

BK: Who are your customers?

JR: Our primary customers now are Qantas Airways, Carl’s Junior, MGM Grand, Squaw Valley, and Amp’d Mobile.

BK: These customers are using your marketing products?

JR: Yes, they’re all using our marketing projects. Our new platform is just for schools and government agencies, and will be tailored for larger enterprises for not just emergency but other alerts.

BK: How big is the company now?

JR: mobileStorm is at 23 employees, and we’re totally self funded. We raised a little bit of friends and family and have persevered since we started in October 1999.

BK: Can you talk about your experience growing the company without funding?

JR: One of my strengths as CEO is finding really good people and convincing them to work here. They have the dream of becoming very successful, and we could see selling ourselves to a larger agency or a competitor who wants to become multi-modal. We find the right people, and get them in here. People who are working here know we’re not venture funded, so they must be frugal with what we have. Our COO has been here over three years, our CTO has been here for five years, and we all started working for peanuts. It hasn’t been easy without funding. To be honest, there were times where we really got far behind, but our vendors and people who work with us understand that we always made our payments. We persevered in really hard times. Finally, in February of 2005, with the launch of version 2 of Stun, we had the first product that you could come to the site with a credit card and buy, which was completely turn key. We really started to see a turnaround, where we didn’t necessarily have to be on a phone to make the sale. Lots of it has been very organic.

BK: Did making the product available online and consumer friendly really make that big of a difference?

JR: Oh yeah, a good percentage of our monthly business is people coming to the web site and signing up. We have thousands of dollars in one transaction just randomly coming from companies coming to the site, and seeing our services. They see the brands we are working with, the time we’ve been in business. We’ve had an incredible amount of growth. I think it’s just our branding and positioning in the market. Customers see us, and that we’ve been around for a long time, have good customers, we look and feel secure, and we’ve been able to grow considerably on our own.

BK: How do you get attention here in what seems to be a pretty crowded space?

JR: Our traditional competitors - the Contact Contacts and Vertical Responses of the world, all have turn key platforms. The way we are separating ourselves, is when you are ready to go to the next level–you need extra services–we also have agency type service for small and medium sized businesses, and not ruin your pocketbook. We still compete as you can sign up and use our site, but we also have more hands on help for companies, help them to assess their situation, their bounce back ratio, abuse complaints, and come up with a strategy to build your database and communicate with it.

BK: It sounds like the model is really more than just technology, but also services?

JR: Exactly. Our core competency is understanding messages and how to deliver them. We use StrongMail as our back end for email, and two SMS providers, Motricity and SinglePoint, plus FAX broadcasters. These companies have built out millions in infrastructure, and we’re not in the business to build a MTA. We’ve partnered, and add value by providing great platforms, and built an ASP that sits on these core messaging instruments. We’re focused on marketing now, and are now looking to other areas to provide messages, such as getting the word out in an emergency type situation.

BK: Thanks for the update!

Jared Reitzin, Chief Executive Officer of mobileStorm Inc., will be a guest on TECHLINK TV January 17th 2005. TECHLINKTV airs every Monday at 7:30pm on Adelphia Channel Primetime. The show, which airs in over 1.8 million homes throughout the Adelphia Channel Network (including ME, MA, NY, VT, OH and CO), provides a comprehensive review of the hottest new hardware, software, websites, and computer games out on the market.

Mr. Reitzin will demonstrate the company’s new Stun! 2.0 platform as well as discuss how digital messaging can help drive new customers and revenues for companies. Go to www.techlinktv.com for more information and for broadcast times in your local area. The interview will also be available on the mobileStorm corporate site shortly after the airdate.

Private Property
Customer-privacy issues and regulations aren’t just affecting consumers; they are changing the rules of business-to-business marketing. Is your company doing enough to respect your prospects’ privacy?

By Julia Chang

Checking e-mail these days requires sifting through a sea of subject lines that declare you’ve ‘won’ a free gift. Or that hawk a product you’ve never needed, nor ever plan to. Or that request personal information. But while e-mail users have begrudgingly accepted spam as a fact of life in their personal accounts, nowadays they’re likely to see these messages clogging their corporate inboxes, too.

These nuisances aren’t limited to spam. Like other consumer trends that trickle down to the business-to-business sector, unsolicited phone calls, faxes, and e-mails have arrived with a vengeance as invasions of customer privacy. Consumers are bombarded with canned messages hawking cheap Viagra.

The b-to-b equivalent are canned messages touting business products and solutions executives don’t need. These unwanted communications are becoming a scourge on marketing and lead generation.

‘Customer privacy will be one of the most important topics over the next three to five years’ in the b-to-b world, says Anthony Nelson, chief customer officer for Salesnet, a hosted customer relationship management

(CRM) software provider based in Boston . ‘We are at a tipping point in the use of digital data, and a lot of companies and the government are struggling to see how existing regulations apply.’

Legally Speaking
This year has been a tough one for direct marketers who pay attention to regulations. The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM) went into effect in January, requiring companies to conspicuously label their commercial e-mails and provide clear methods to opt out of future ads. And although the National Do Not Call Registry remains limited to consumer phone numbers, new rules written into Do Not Fax laws apply to b-to-b companies. Starting in June 2005, companies cannot send faxes to customers without prior written approval ? which means that having a so-called ‘established business relationship’ (defined as having had a payment or an inquiry from a customer within a certain time frame) will no longer be enough to justify fax communications.

But with privacy rules still relatively new, compliance hasn’t been exactly stellar. According to a report by Denver-based e-mail security software provider MX Logic, which tracks 10,000 random unsolicited commercial e-mails a week, CAN-SPAM compliance was 4 percent in September ? the highest percentage the company has observed. The threat of fines for noncompliance does exist: In January, fax-number database provider Fax.com was slapped with a $5.4 million fine for allegedly bombarding consumers and businesses with faxes ? in one instance, the company reportedly tied up hospital phone lines with automated dialing that searches for fax lines.

And in March, Internet service provider (ISP) Hypertouch filed a federal lawsuit against the owners of home-improvement Web site BobVila.com, claiming the site sent unsolicited e-mail to subscribers with fraudulent headers and without required contact information. The ISP is asking for up to $100 in damages for each e-mail sent.

B-to-b marketers, however, say they aren’t feeling too much regulatory pressure. According to a recent survey by Kern Direct, a direct-marketing agency based in Woodland Hills , California , 71 percent of 114 companies (two thirds of which are b-to-b) stated that the Do Not Call and CAN-SPAM laws would have no significant impact on their marketing activities. This isn’t because the industry takes the laws lightly, marketers say. Rather, it’s because marketing departments have already taken steps to avoid being labeled as privacy invaders. ‘A brand name, if it’s done right, should stand for a certain level of trust,’ says Matt Leonard, director of privacy and information policy with Harte-Hanks, a direct-marketing services provider based in San Antonio , Texas . ‘Ultimately, the proof is in how you deliver your message.’

Keep Out
Lead generation in a protective environment has created challenges for sales and marketing departments. Many marketers are still employing the ’spray and pray’ method, says Neil Berman, founder of Neighborhood Email, an e-mail marketing software and service provider based in Indianapolis . ‘I frankly receive more unsolicited e-mail in my company inbox than solicited,’ he says. ‘I’ve got a spam problem. But I don’t filter because I’m afraid I’m going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Spam is a plague on [direct marketers'] business.’

If your digital missives cause more ire than interest, you’re creating ‘the possibility of brand aggravation,’ Berman says, even if you have an existing customer relationship. Berman relates his own experience: After signing up for online bill payment with his local phone carrier, he says he started receiving marketing messages without permission to his AOL address.

‘That was a tactical error on their part,’ he says. To retaliate, Berman clicked the spam button in AOL. ‘We’ll see if they can get those e-mails to deliver now,’ he adds.

Indeed, the ease with which ISPs and corporate servers are blocking unwanted e-mail means that marketers have to be more than diligent when it comes to antispam practices. Major providers such as AOL, EarthLink, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are spending millions to block junk e-mail, which does affect b-to-b, as many prospectsespecially in small business often give consumer accounts as their primary contact information.

Additionally, 90 percent of companies use some method of filtering to keep un wanted e-mail out, according to a recent study by Return Path/Forrester Research.

‘For years, marketers were excited about having a six- or seven-figure list [of e-mail addresses]. They were excited about how fast they could get the mail out,’ says Steven Brown, vice president of marketing for Lyris Technologies, an e-mail marketing software provider based in Berkeley , California . ‘On the receiving end, the application service providers were proud about how much mail they delivered. But now they talk about how much mail they’ve blocked.’

Salesnet’s Nelson says his company will limit the number of e-mails a CRM client can send at once to ensure that it isn’t creating the potential for spam. He recently denied a request from a b-to-b user who wanted to send mass e-mail. ‘A guy wanted us to automate an e-mail communication to fifty-thousand people, and he tried to tell me they were existing customers and he knew them all by first name,’ Nelson says. ‘He wanted to blanket market a certain industry vertical, but he’s not going to do it. In order to create some kind of safeguard we have to limit the number of e-mails anyone can send out.’

Getting In
The bare minimum for marketing responsibly in the era of customer privacy means purging your prospecting universe of numbers from Do Not Call or Fax lists, and crafting e-mails that follow opt-out guidelines and avoid misrepresentation. This shouldn’t be hard for legitimate marketers, Brown says. ‘You can still alienate people and cause problems with your business while complying with CAN-SPAM. There’s the letter of the law, and the spirit of the law, and we would encourage people to stay with the spirit once they have the letter down.’

This means customer communications have to be a two-way street. Opt-in lists are an industry standard, and companies are going through the pain of doing exhaustive opt-ins to confirm customer permission ? even in the newest form of unregulated communications such as text messaging, also known as short message system (SMS). ‘We make sure every single person [who receives SMS] is a confirmed opt-in,’ says Jared Reitzin, CEO of mobileStorm, a company based in Van Nuys , California , that executes voice, fax, wireless text, and e-mail messaging for companies. SMS customers receive an initial message with a code to their phone. They must punch that code into an online registration site to receive further text messages. ‘If they go through the whole process, they are confirming that it’s their number and they want your messages,’ Reitzin says. Otherwise, your text messages could become ’spit’ (spam over Internet telephony), which promises to be the next privacy battleground ? an especially hot one, as most users pay per SMS they receive.

Similar messaging companies note that in a multifaceted marketing campaign, companies should keep a consolidated permissions database. ‘If I click an e-mail that tells you I don’t want to hear about this product, then I had better not hear about it through automated phone calls or SMS either,’ says Steve Spencer, president and chief technology officer for Twelve Horses, a provider of e-mail, fax, Web, and text-messaging software based in Reno, Nevada. ‘All of our communications have an opt-out method.’

The rise of consultative over transactional selling also means that prospects expect more from communications, as they don’t have time to deal with a deluge of untargeted messages. ‘I get calls all the time from people trying to sell me stuff, five or ten a day,’ says Eric Holmen, vice president of professional services for SmartReply, a voice-messaging technology company based in Irvine , California . ‘The rep is just trying to do a good job, but all those companies are really failing ? I return one out of every two hundred of those calls.’

In response, many marketers are tracking customer interest to see who is responsive and when they might be ready to buy. Lyris’ software, for example, enables marketers to track which URLs in e-mails prospects click on, as well as measure the number of pages prospects visit and the time frame in which they visit them, to gauge where they are in decision making.

‘You can know, for example, that people who look at your price page are more interested in buying than people who look at the main product page and leave,’ Brown says. ‘We have the ability to collect implicit preferences or demographics.’

Value must be inherent in the messages if they are to maintain a customer’s interest. Kern Direct will send on behalf of its enterprise software clients white papers that customers can read in exchange for answering four to five questions about themselves and their software needs, data that can be downloaded to a CRM system. ‘But we also understand that there is a definite buy cycle to big-ticket enterprise software,’ says James Pennington, Kern Direct’s vice president of strategic marketing. To that end, the company will align communications with the stage the prospect is in. In the interest stage, for instance, prospects typically request industry reports. But when they are in the evaluation stage, they want more case studies or white papers on individual market segments, or they’ll attend Webinars. ‘We’ll e-mail or mail information that appeals deeper into the buy cycle, until they are sales ready and it’s time for a real live person to meet with them,’ Pennington says.

Even in telemarketing, in which reps have little chance to show value, technology is helping companies create targeted messages in an abbreviated time frame. Holmen’s company, SmartReply, automates prerecorded messages meant to be left as voice mails. These messages are scripted to include key words and concepts pressing to client needs. ‘The messages are very intentionally written; we’ve got trigger words and phrases but make the script sound natural,’ Holmen says. For instance, for one of its b-to-b clients, a legal publishing firm, it leaves voice mails between 2 and 3 a.m. for law-firm prospects; messages stress that lawyers need to stay up-to-date on statute changes. Although there are few legal implications for b-to-b telemarketing, Holmen says SmartReply adheres to ethical practices to avoid being perceived as a nuisance; for instance, it will not perform a campaign more than once every two weeks. Holmen claims he receives only an average of one opt-out request per 10,000 b-to-b calls.

‘We are not as concerned about the law as we are about best practices,’ he says. ‘A best practice says you do not call someone’s voice mail every night of the week and leave a message. We want our messages to expand the efforts of a quality sales team, [rather than] just being perceived as telemarketing.’

Sidebars:

The Letter of the law
Not sure if you’re breaking a customer-privacy law? Here’s a quick rundown of the legislation affecting b-to-b:

Do Not Fax: Do Not Fax is part of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Businesses cannot fax an unsolicited advertisement unless they have an established business relationship (EBR) with the recipient, which means receiving a financial transaction within the last 18 months, or a business inquiry in the last three months (although the EBR exemption varies by state). Starting June 30, 2005, you must receive written customer permission to send a fax. All faxes must contain identifying information (date and time sent, phone number, and name of company) in a margin of each page or on a cover page. Fines can reach up to $11,000 per violation.

CAN-SPAM: Each commercial e-mail must have clear and non-misleading data in the ‘from’ and ‘to’ fields, a clear subject line, an accurate and identifiable domain name and e-mail address, a clear opt-out function, and a valid postal address. Companies must also enable the opt-out function for at least 30 days after sending an e-mail, and must honor opt-outs in 10 business days. Any e-mail with the intent to sell a product or service even if to an existing customer falls under these rules. Fines also can reach up to $11,000 per violation.

For more information visit the Direct Marketing Association (the-dma.org), the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (fcc.gov), or the Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov) online.

The Spirit of the Law OF THE LAW
Responsible marketing goes beyond following privacy rules. Click the best practices below to learn more about crafting legitimate campaigns that also drive sales:

GET EDUCATED
Read up on the law, and check how any marketing technology you use will help you comply. StrongMail Systems, an e-mail application server software provider in Redwood Shores , California , holds seminars for marketing and legal departments to inform them about the law and what StrongMail does to simplify compliance - for instance, automating signatures that include the required identifying information. ‘CAN-SPAM has left many people confused,’ says Rod Butters, vice president of marketing and strategy. ‘It’s not just about brand perception; e-mail that isn’t compliant doesn’t get delivered.’

DON’T OVERCOMMUNICATE
”A lot of what’s driving the privacy laws is that people are feeling overwhelmed” by communication, says Carol Meyers, vice president of marketing for Unica Corporation, a provider of enterprise marketing management software based in Waltham, Massachusetts. ”Companies are moving to something we would call ‘right-time marketing.’ That means getting smart about the buying process and knowing when customers do and don’t want to get information.” Many companies also now track how many times a prospect is contacted to make sure not to bother them with too many calls or e-mails, and they are consolidating permission across different modes of contact, whether it’s voice, text messaging, or e-mail.

KEEP INFORMATION CURRENT
This not only means using recency and frequency technology to determine who has expressed interest and to what extent, it also means refreshing CRM data. ”Too many companies say, ‘Well, I’m CAN-SPAM compliant, I’ve been gathering opt-in data for ten years,”’ says Steve Spencer, president and chief technology officer for Twelve Horses, a messaging technology company based in Reno, Nevada. ”People are assuming stale data is okay to use.

That’s a great example of how you should use opt-in confirmation to make sure a customer wants to hear from you.”

08.17.2004

LOS ANGELES, CA August 17th 2004 - mobileStorm’s CEO Jared Reitzin was recently interviewed on the popular radio show “Jeff Levy ON COMPUTERS”. The show is broadcast live on KNX 1070 as well as on the largest independent Internet radio station in the world, wsRadio.com. Currently wsRadio.com entertains over 1 million listeners a month. The “Jeff Levy ON COMPUTERS” show is a combination of Q & A, interviews, weekly lessons, and information sharing on the power of the PC.

In this interview Jeff Levy speaks with Mr. Reitzin on the power of the Internet and how it can be harnessed to help businesses, particularly unknown artists and DJ’s with their promotions, marketing, and ticket sales. To listen to the broadcast, click on either the Real Player or Windows Media links below.

05.01.2004

My interview today is with Jared Reitzin, CEO of mobileStorm (www.mobilestorm.com), an Encino-based startup in the permission-based email delivery market. The company is starting to look at raising a series A round of venture funding, after having entirely been funded by friends and family and revenue customers.

BK: What does mobileStorm offer to its customers, and what is your value proposition?

JR: mobileStorm provides businesses that have opt-in database with a fast, reliable, and efficient messaging platform. The service Stun!, allows businesses to create campaigns, deliver messages (email, sms, voice & fax), manage subscribers, review detailed reports, receive customer service, and obtain one low monthly bill. Our target customers are looking to:

1. Save money
2. Cut costs
3. Improve communication
4. Experience better response
5. Improve e-mail delivery rate to the Inbox
6. Build and grow their database and ensure its security

BK: What’s your background, and why did you decide to start mobileStorm?

JR: I have 8 years experience in the technology sector. Prior to forming mobileStorm in 1999, I started a company called Katalyst Technologies. KMG was a new media company. We provided web-based communication and marketing projects for the entertainment community. We worked on many great projects and had a strong client which included Casio, Infinite Mobility, The Los Angeles Lakers, The San Antonio Spurs, MCA Records, Den.net, Interscope Records and Transamerica. Previous to my work with Katalyst I was employed as a product manager for Interactive Light - a leading developer and provider of networked sports simulators for such companies as IBM, Sega, Microsoft, Sony, and Intel.

I started mobileStorm in 1999 with a focus on wireless content delivery and applications. We launched a few key projects with Vivendi/Universal’s top record label Interscope. As email marketing became more popular, we added on new services to enable our clients to deliver emails and manage their databases.

I regularly speak on panels and at conferences. I am a member of Xingtone’s Board of Advisors as well as part owner Board of Directors member for wantickets.com, a popular online destination for club, concert, and event ticket sales.

BK: What’s mobileStorm’s differentiator in the permission-based distribution market?

Our clients receive a 40% better inbox delivery rate with databases as large as 2 million records, all within an hour or less. We also provide a comprehensive for additional messaging technologies including SMS, Voice and Fax, enabling our clients to communicate in more than just one way to improve their response rates.

BK: Tell me a bit about your financial backing–how did you start the business, and did you receive any angel investment?

JR: mobileStorm has only raised 40k to date from friends and family. We have been completely self-funded. Our last fiscal year (ending in July), mobileStorm grew 86% and showed a small profit.

BK: Do you have customers and revenue, and what’s the next step for the company?

JR: We have over 50 customers. Some of our clients are highly visible and help build credibility, they trust us with their most valuable asset, and we even service clients that compete with one another. Some of our top clients include, Island Def Jam, Squaw Valley Ski Resort, Wantickets.com, Interscope records, Avalon, Giant, Capitol Records, and After Hour Power.

The next step for this company is to raise money so we can build the version 2.0 of Stun. We’re also looking to hire some key positions like a VP of Sales as well as sales team (both inside and out), VP of Business Development, and to expand our engineering and support staff. In addition, we want to strengthen our marketing efforts by launching targeted PR and advertising campaigns, and exhibit at top industry trade shows. Strategically, we intend to continue to strengthen our ISP relationships, work closely with our email backend provider, Strong Mail on a guaranteed inbox delivery program, the first of its kind in the industry.

BK: Finally, in what looks to be a fairly crowded space, what do you think is the most compelling reason a VC should invest in your company?

JR: It is crowded on the email ASP side but lots of these ASP’s have failed to deliver. They don’t have great inbox delivery rates, the ONLY provide email communication, and their pricing can be very expensive.

mobileStorm reaches the inbox up to 40% better than its competitors. When we have enough funds to become national you will see an incredible amount of companies who will switch to mobileStorm. Our client base will quadruple within a few months. Unlike our competitors, mobileStorm allows its clients to communicate in more than one way. We are positioned provide the first easy-to-use interface for email, sms, voice and fax messaging and all for one low monthly bill at a very reasonable price.

BK: Thanks!