Posted: April 28, 2009

There are generally three ingredients to building a successful mobile database for a small business.  We call them the three c’s: cadence, content and commitment.  In the next few blog posts, we’ll examine each as it relates to building a successful mobile campaign.  First up:

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Posted: April 16, 2009

We often use our blog to write posts on industry trends and general forces affecting the mobile landscape.  However, sometimes we fail to talk about the obvious: how we, Cellit, are changing our industry.

Cellit is currently rolling out a number of new products: iPhone apps, Android apps, more text messaging platforms, and even one “super secret” system we’ll be announcing later in the year that revolutionizes the mobile couponing industry.  For now, however, I’d like to discuss one of our most useful, most practical, and best-kept secrets:  the Widgit.

Simply put, the Widgit allows businesses, small and large, to loop mobile marketing into their business processes.  It quickly and easily integrates mobile marketing within the the store or restaurant’s point of sale (POS) system, enabling our clients to track coupon redemption and prevent over-redemption.  It’s simple, it’s effective, and it installs in about 2 minutes on any Windows-based POS system.

Cellit is all about working with our clients to develop solutions that work.  Recently, many of our QSR clients expressed the need for a version of the software that doesn’t require a keyboard.  Now, the Widgit works with touchscreens too!

The user literally draws a “mobile coupon” button on their POS system, using our tool.  When the user taps this new button with their finger, the Widgit appears.  Everybody at Cellit, and each of our clients using the system love it.

Of course, the Widgit ties directly in with our CouponZap and CellitStudio campaign management systems, so all coupon redemptions are tracked in real-time.  To learn more, please give us a call and we’d be happy to arrange a demo.

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Posted: April 15, 2009

Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry series of phones, announced the creation of the Blackberry App World, a mobile application which allows Blackberry users to easily download special applications and software for their devices.  This is only the latest entry into a growing list of companies trying to provide venues for both paid and free applications for mobile phones.

Recently, the Wall Street Journal had a great article about whether small businesses should invest in a mobile website (see article).  In it, the author, Roger Cheng, suggested that the business pay attention to their customers – and if the customer experience could be improved by doing so, to go ahead and consider it.  In much the same way, I would encourage small businesses to also think about mobile phone applications.

Ask yourself: Will my target consumer have reason to interact with me while they are on the go? I’m online all day at work, and have access at home – so it’s not often that I want to conduct research or order products via my phone.  Rather, it’s when I’m in transit, or stuck on the train – or, as happens often, waiting for a meeting to begin, that I find myself playing on the phone.  During those juncture moments, are your target customers going to want to interact with your business?  Facebook, Twitter, AIM (all social networking companies) are perfect examples of great mobile applications that target activities I’m most prone to want to conduct in those brief down moments on the go.

Ask yourself: What information can I provide them quickly and easily that would be beneficial on a phone? Addresses, hours, directions and some other ‘critical’ information usually provides me with enough detail to get through 90% of my needs for most businesses.  However, special circumstances do indeed warrant more in-depth information.  When purchasing /renting a home, attempting to make dinner reservations, or finding out bar specials and entertainment offerings - obtaining more information while on the go becomes a defacto must have.  For Rent Magazine has identified that their users need apartment information and specs on their mobile devices; MGM Grand realized that their consumers (travelers) wanted to interact with their entertainment, dining and other services while on location (and thus, not near a computer) at their facility.

As Cheng points out, the answers to your consumers questions will define your need to invest in either a mobile WAP site or a mobile application.  There are additional considerations to think through, as the multitude of mobile platforms makes designing an application for all phones extremely expensive.  However, if you again apply consumer logic to the decision process – it’ll guide you to the right mix of features, functionality, and platform.

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Posted: April 8, 2009

A CTIA panel recently proclaimed that per message fees are killing the mobile marketing industry.  David Oberholzer is the Vice President of Limbo, the largest non-premium mobile entertainment community.  In an article for Mobile Marketer on April 1, 2009, he proclaimed that “for advertising-supported SMS, the net revenue per message is $0.004 … and it’s unrealistic to think the CPMs we’ll be able to charge will go up dramatically, so it’s unrealistic for carriers trying to impose these types of per-message fees.”  While ad supported mobile marketing may be an effective on some level,  I think it misses the real point and benefit: the personal and targeted messaging that happens directly between client and consumer.

Oberholzer refers to the idea of reaching a mass, general audience with a message on behalf of a paying advertiser.  The model is popular with radio station, newspaper and broadcast television groups – as well as consumer focused media websites.  They aggregate a large audience into their mobile club, and then insert advertiser messages into their content.  Sports scores, weather alerts, traffic updates and the like are examples of content typically provided. Typically these advertiser messages are limited to 15-20 characters at the tail end of the provided content.  I’m not an advertiser, but it’s not surprising to me that a generic audience would only command net revenue of tenths of a penny.

However, Oberholzer and the like apply a traditional media mentality to a very personal form of media.  SMS isn’t designed to reach large general audiences in the same way television, newspaper or radio would.  Advertisers would need to purchase or build a television station/radio station/newspaper in every market of the country in order to have a personal relationship with the audience.  It made economic sense for a media company to make that infrastructure investment, as well as investment in content, aggregate an audience and then broker out slices of that audience to paying advertisers.  Broadcast television and radio still work exceptionally well at reaching large swaths of people and getting the message out regarding a new product or service.

Contrary to those traditional media forms, no such infrastructure investment is needed to begin communicating via SMS, and Brand X will own that consumer relationship in perpetuity.  SMS is exceptional at directly connecting advertisers to consumers.   It’s a two way communication in which consumers can request and receive information, receive coupons, and participate in promotions and contests.  That communication is instantaneous, and reaches end users wherever they are (on the train, at home or at work).

Why, I ask, would advertisers want to allow a third party to filter their messages when they can talk directly to the consumer?  Sure, a media campaign must be launched to create awareness and drive membership to the mobile club – and I’ll add, that media spend is best played out in those traditional media outlets we spoke of before.

Marketers regularly spend significantly to produce a direct-mail piece.  They pay list providers several dollars each for a ‘hot lead’.  One only look at the Google Adwords model to understand what a interaction with a potential client is worth.  Why would several cents per message, with no real production costs, even be a cause for pause?

Per message fees, when viewed in the context of general, mass market advertising is probably a negative ROI for most advertisers.  However, when you look at the personal interactions developed by direct advertiser-end user communications, the ROI is well in the positive category.

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Posted: April 6, 2009

As I look at our customers business, one common phrase underlines each of our clients campaigns: stndrd txt msg rates aply (which translates in English to ‘standard text message rates apply’).  Many end users confuse this to mean that Cellit, or the message sender, will impose some fee for receiving the marketing messages that are being sent out – a subscription fee, if you will.  Rather, it refers to the various fees carriers charge each of their mobile customers for sending and receiving text messages (regardless of who they come from).  Since I have a comprehensive plan (including all data, SMS and cell phone calls) – I rarely think about how many text messages I send or receive.  However, many end users have limited SMS plans or pay on a per-text basis.

I recognize that a limited plan, or a per-text plan, would significantly alter my behavior patterns and does alter the behavior patterns of those end users I speak of.  I would be more selective about which mobile clubs I subscribed to and how often they communicated with me, reserving the bulk of my available text messages for those critical 156 character blurbs of wisdom from friends and family.

There are two ways to solve this problem.  First, encourage the carriers to include unlimited text messaging as a standard feature on all of their cell phone plans, or second - a concept called FTEU.  Free to the End User (FTEU) refers to the sending company bearing the full cost of any associated fees.   FTEU is a common practice in the European Union, as their revenue model has always relied on the sender (whether an individual or company) to bear the cost of the message.  However, in the US, the sender and the receiver jointly bear that cost – which makes for some tricky accounting on the part of the carriers, and thus – delayed adoption of FTEU.

Market forces will eventually force carriers to bundle unlimited text messaging into all of their service offerings in much the same way we’ve seen data limits on internet access disappear from the landscape (remember those great AOL CD’s that offered 160mb of free data downloads for only $19.95/month!).  I’m not worried about that, as I can’t control the speed at which the market adopts this mentality.

However, I’ve begun to engage the carriers on the issue of making FTEU easier for individual companies to implement.  This I can impact.  Imagine how many more end users would engage our mobile marketing messages and subscribe to our clubs if they knew that 100% of the cost was being born by someone other than themselves?  While we wait for unlimited text messaging to become universal, FTEU offers a solution wherein marketers can benefit from the end result in the here and now.  Sure – there’s cost associated with it, but I think it is great business practice, and eliminates one potential barrier for consumers to opt-in to your marketing messages.

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Posted: March 24, 2009

Although consumer spending has declined significantly in this unstable economic environment, more people than ever are looking to the power of discounts, and more specifically coupons, to help alleviate their financial woes. A recent study by marketing research firm comScore revealed that consumers of all social and financial backgrounds have embraced coupons in an effort to weather the storm without giving up the goods and services they crave.

During December 2008, internet searches for “discounts” increased 26% verses December 2007; searches for “coupons” rose an astounding 161%. Similarly, the number of unique users on coupon websites also increased dramatically. Each of the last four months of 2008 saw at least a 33% increase in users over the same month in 2007, with December seeing the largest jump at 46%.

The study also polled consumers directly about their feeling towards the use of coupons. 54% responded that coupon sites had been “somewhat important” or “very important” to them when shopping during the past three months. 53% said that they had been using coupons more often than a year ago.

Overall, it seems as though many consumers would rather find deals and discounts than simply cutting back on their buying habits. This is a boon for companies which deal in coupons and retailers who have embraced their usage as an integral part of their marketing strategies.

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Posted: March 20, 2009

Apple previewed its iPhone OS 3.0 software yesterday, revealing a bevy of new features for the iPhone. More than 100 new features will be available to iPhone and iPod touch users this summer, including cut, copy and paste; MMS; landscape view for mail, text and notes; stereo Bluetooth; syncing Notes to the Mac and PC; and parental controls for TV shows.

All the new features that Apple is putting on the iPhone and iPod touch will place them ahead of all their competitors. Apple shares rose $4.24, or 4.4 percent yesterday, closing at $99.66. Even though their competitors like Microsoft have had features such as copy and paste and MMS in its platform for years, Apple is still the front-runner.

With more people buying phones for these features, I think the New OS 3.0 software will be a good look for the summer.

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Posted: March 18, 2009

In an effort to make our environment cleaner, this month, Somerville, Mass., will install text-messaging technology in about 50 public trash cans located in high-pedestrian and far-flung areas. The idea is that the cans, made by BigBelly Solar, will transmit text messages to a central database, notifying haulers that they are full and allowing town managers to maximize collection efficiency.

The smart cans, which cost over $3,000 a pop, each hold 180 gallons of trash, compared to 30 gallons for a normal can. And by compacting trash themselves, they can reduce garbage collection trips by 80 percent. Then after the garbage is full it sends a text message to the central database, reducing trips for haulers checking the garbage.

The cool thing  about this is that it reminds me of the Pixar film “Wall-E” about the robotic garbage can. It also shows how people are becoming more green and combining it with technology. I think very soon these smart cans will be in all the major cities in the U.S. Next there might be a robotic garbage truck picking up the garbage.

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Posted: March 16, 2009

The latest tool to fight identity theft may already be in your pocket - it’s your mobile phone. Using a new solution from Clickatell, a mobile messaging service provider, consumers can be alerted to suspicious bank transactions via text message. The service called Clickatell SMS Receipts notifies banking customers of account activity via SMS alerts.

According to a study by Gartner, 7.5% of U.S. adults lost money as a result of financial fraud in 2008. And a recent Javelin report claims the number of identity theft victims increased 22% in 2008, impacting more than 9 million people with an average cost per incident of $500.

With the economy in a headlock,  identify theft issues are on the rise because people are getting desperate for money. This service gives mobile bankers more control over their transactions. With the new technology customers can either verify or cancel transactions as they occur in real-time. If fraud is detected, it will be spotted almost instantly. The future of battling identity is improving everyday with technology.

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Posted: March 13, 2009

An article I read today in the New York Times talks about how advertisers can track consumer’s interests, their habits and even their location. Smartphones, like the iPhone and BlackBerry Curve, are the latest and potentially most extensive way for advertisers to aim ads at certain consumers.

Advertisers already have web based personal info to tailor ads to consumers; now they are using cellphones. But cellphones have a much higher potential for personalized advertising, especially when they use applications like Yelp or Urbanspoon with GPS to identify a person’s location, right down to the street corner where they are standing. This personal information can tell what the consumers’ interests are. For example, if a person bought a “Dead and Gone” ring tone after seeing an ad for it, then watched a Kanye West video on TMZ.com, that information could be used to categorize that person as a hip-hop culture fan.

The privacy matter is a big problem because some people will feel that advertisers are invading their privacy. Mike Wehrs, the chief executive of the Mobile Marketing Association, said the trade group was updating some of its self-regulatory principles, such as suggesting that applications e-mail their privacy policies to subscribers rather than asking them to read a policy on the small mobile screen.

For now, there are not enough people using smartphones to make it worthwhile for advertisers to use highly specific criteria. But as more people switch to smartphones, that will happen more frequently.

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