Flynn Wright

I came across an article recently that said the average cell phone subscriber now sends/receives an average of 357 text messages per month compared to 204 phone calls. As an avid texter, this is not a surprising statistic. With my friends, texting is the most common form of communication. Frankly, I have almost forgotten what my ringtone even sounds like.

So what does this mean for the future of advertising? And what companies are already having success with text message marketing?

According to Nielsen, approximately 200 million of the 250 million wireless subscribers have text messaging capabilities on their cell phones. For those of us in the industry, that means we now have a much more personal and interactive way to communicate with our target customers. Everything from TV shows, cars, soda and deodorant are being promoted through text message. Nielsen found that 16 percent of texters in the U.S. see some form of text message advertising each month. Of those, 45 percent say they have actually responded in some way.

Coca-Cola has been using text message marketing for its “My Coke Rewards” program with great success. The mobile portion of their campaign allows consumers to enter their codes/points via text message.

Ashley Furniture is another example of a company having success with text message marketing. They sent 6,000 text messages to existing customers and 29,000 emails to the general public promoting a four-day “secret sale” at their local store. The text messages outperformed the email with almost 63 percent of the revenue generated from the sale being attributed to the text message coupon.

What’s your company doing to take advantage of this mobile marketing trend?

Who Is Texting?


Plus:

• 21.1% of texters have a household income between $75,000 and $100,000
• 33% of 25- to 34-year-olds and 26% of 35- to 44-year-olds have opted to receive text messages from a company
• 60.2% of 25- to 34-year-olds and 46.2% of 35- to 44-year-olds have received some form of marketing message via text message

Customer loyalty programs can be a great tool for promoting long-lasting relationships with your current customers. In fact, we spend a lot of time talking with our clients about how it’s often easier to retain and grow your current customer base by getting them to continue service each month, purchase more, upgrade services, etc, than it may be to convert an entirely new customer to your pool. However, while customer loyalty programs are a good tool for increasing satisfaction and retention, they can have the total opposite effect, creating both customer dissatisfaction and disengagement, when they are poorly implemented.

Getting bit for being loyal
My case in point...yesterday we received a letter in the mail from my husband’s cell phone company. The letter thanked us for being one of the company’s “most valuable customers,” and for our “continued loyalty” offered us a special gift at no charge. Okay, cool! The gift, a free mini cell tower, could be picked up at our local cell phone provider store. Here’s what the letter said about the free gift, “The mini cell tower will help boost the bars you receive in your home so if you are not getting the signal you expect in your house, this may be the perfect solution for you.”

My husband gets garbage for signal at our house – too many other places as well. This offer put him on cloud nine. The mini cell tower would be the perfect solution and because of our “loyalty” the company was taking care of it for us. That is, until my husband called to verify pickup of the free gift.

See, while the product was being given to us “free of charge,” the cost to operate the free gift each month would be $10 plus tax. How does that reward us for our loyalty? Where’s the add service, the extra value? How is this company really stepping up to show us their thanks? They’re not.

For this to have worked as a true loyalty reward, the cell tower and service should have both been free – even for a year. Instead it doesn’t work, because essentially while the company tells us we are valued and loyal, it promises we will never be treated as such. By pointing out a real problem and then basically forcing the customer to pay the price to fix it, the cell phone company doesn’t meet the objective of the loyalty letter, to tell the customer “thank you.”

And so, my husband’s response to the customer service representative on the phone after inquiring about his free gift was, “I already pay more than $120 a month for your cell phone service. Now because I’m a loyal customer, I need to pay $10 extra a month just so I can use the service I’m already paying for!? No thanks. I think it is time I made a switch to a carrier with more coverage.” 

Eight months ago we introduced MailStorm (Flynn Wright’s email marketing software) to our clients. In that time a group of clients has implemented it, and we've sent out more than 200,000 html emails through the system. Those that have used it, LOVE it. It's easy to use and it provides great reporting that’s second to none. In December I wrote a post entitled The Email Marketing Comeback of 2010 to explain this software and how we utilize it.

But that’s besides the point of this post. What I want to explore is how the iPad and iPhone are changing the future of email marketing.

I was surprised when the iPhone grew to more than 5% of the email client market within a year of its release. If the iPad experiences similar growth we'll likely see 15-20% of emails we send through MailStorm being opened by a handheld Apple product. That's not to mention Apple's computer software Mail, which could raise that number to roughly 30%. That's amazing!

Here's a little data we experienced
First off, email client usage on a particular email is going to be determined primarily by the composition of its list. We sent out emails for a client recently whose list is made up of young adults (ages 15-18). In this campaign, 26.2% of the email clients used were Apple products, with 15.4% of those being handhelds.



So why is this amazing?
I’m not trying to pimp Apple here (though I’m an avid user), but compared to every other web and desktop email client on the market, the iPad, iPod and Apple Mail interfaces are noticeably free of distractions. It's all about the content of the email. And when it's about the content of the email, your email gets noticed. When your email gets noticed, the result is higher click-through rates and more interactions with those users. Now that's amazing, isn't it?!



Flynn Wright's MailStorm is a slick system that makes creating beautiful emails simple and takes the hassle out of managing your lists while providing up-to-the-minute reporting on your campaign deliveries. Humbly speaking...it rocks! Contact us or send a message to @flynnwright on Twitter if you want more info.

As a media buyer, I come across new terms and new media everyday – which can be a little daunting. I find it easier to link all this emerging terminology to media we have more knowledge and experience with. That is where this blog post comes in.

In an effort to make social media a little more welcoming, I have taken a few terms and related them back to their traditional media counter parts using Facebook as our example.

ORGANIC IMPRESSIONS = EARNED MEDIA
Earned media is publicity gained through promotional efforts other than paid advertisement. Likewise, organic impressions are the social stories that appear on a Facebook user’s profile once they have become a fan of or follow a brand. One advantage of an organic impression is the brand has much more control over the finished message that is broadcast versus relying on a news anchor to relay the correct messaging.

SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS = PAID MEDIA
Paid media is any impression a brand pays for: TV, radio, print, etc. A social impression is a Facebook ad paid for by a brand that promotes the user’s friends who already "like" the brand. This is similar to a traditional print ad in the sense that the brand is paying for the space/impressions, but with the social tie the ad creates a lightweight form of brand advocacy based on their fan/follower base.

ORGANIC FREQUENCY = FREQUENCY
Frequency in both arenas is the number of times the target audience is exposed to a message. The difference with organic frequency is that only people who are currently fans/followers of the brand will see the message. This actually works out to the benefit of the brand. Social media users are more willing to absorb a brand’s message for a longer period of time and at a higher frequency than with traditional media. This helps to increase awareness and purchase intent for that brand.

REACH = REACH
Reach is the same for traditional media as it is for social media; it is the number of people your message comes in contact with. In the social media realm, this number is very reliant on how engaging/interesting your paid impressions are. The more interesting/engaging your message is, the more it will be passed on among users.

A few other key words to keep in mind when planning your social media campaign:

• RELEVANCE – Relevance is very important in the social media realm, if your message or brand doesn’t hold any value or benefit for the user, they will not continue to follow your brand.
• CONSISTENCY – As with all other aspects of a brand’s marketing mix, consistency of message is important. Users of social media are also consumers of traditional and other forms of media, thus any inconsistency in a brand’s messaging could create confusion or apprehensiveness toward the brand.

Minivans aren't for losers, soccer moms and whipped dads anymore. Toyota has made it apparent that when you roll in the new Sienna, you will roll with "swagger." Amazing part of this ad... the song is good! I mean it's funny, cheesy and all those things, but the lyrics are well written and the tune is really catchy!

"My #1 Dad mug says "yeah I'm the mack"!"



Be sure to check out the Sienna YouTube channel to see all the great ads Toyota has produced about these self proclaimed "best parents in the world".