Archive for the ‘Qittle’ Category
Pandora you Rock!
I am a huge fan of Pandora.com and the today I had an issue with my account. I had recently upgraded to commercial free music and for some reason my account was playing ads.
I sent an email to Pandora’s support and with in 5 minutes I got a response from Jed! He saw that I had registered 2 accounts and that I was signed in under the free account. He took it upon himself to correct the situation and delete my free account.
Now I have unlimited music again!!! Great Customer service and a great business! I love the story of Pandora a company that should have shut it’s doors after yr 2 when it was unprofitable but Tim and the teams passion kept them in the game, thanks!!!
SMS Marketing Campaigns and Consumer Protection
There are rules of engagement in mobile marketing says Michael Becker, Managing Director for North America, Mobile Marketing Association, in a recent article on RCRWireless.
It’s a simple one, but imperative nonetheless: “Protect the consumer, and you protect the opportunity.”
It’s privacy protection he’s talking about, of course, giving the consumer choice at every opportunity to opt-in and opt-out. He’s not referring to how to get consumer opt-in interest: Mr. Becker is more interested in informing the consumer as to what exactly an opt-in consists of. For example — is the opt-in limited to one specific campaign or does it include all future advertising by that company? To be transparent, the marketer also needs to address the frequency of text messages, the content that might be contained in those messages, and the use of the private information given to the business by the consumer.
Obviously consumer ability to opt-out of any SMS marketing campaign must be seamless: an easy STOP message which is immediately effective and the choice to do so provided with every text message.
Marketers must act on the basis that privacy concerns trump all others, including sales and ROI figures. By having a clear cut privacy policy in place before engaging on a mobile marketing plan, contingencies with respect to how identifiable and non-identifiable privacy concerns are to be handled are set out.
A privacy policy is not the same as the terms that govern a mobile marketing program. In one campaign, a marketer may limit opt-in participants to age of majority customers only, for example, while another program may not have any age limit specified. Certain blanket statements should remain for every campaign, though. One is whether or not the text messages are free of charge to the consumer. Casey McConnell, founder and CEO of mobile marketing company Qittle.com, says he typically finds that the majority of mobile users (at 85 percent) have unlimited text plans, making it free for them to receive text messages.
Why bother? Because “your brand is riding on it,” says Michael Becker. “Drop the ball on something as fundamental as consumer choice and control, and you may lose the trust of your audience and your program could backlash – creating customer dissatisfaction, rather than boosting sales, generating awareness for your brand or whatever your objective may be.”
Mobile Marketing Benefits as Landlines Disappear
If you go by data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), landline telephones in America are disappearing. In the past seven years, the number of people across the country who have discarded their landline telephones in favor of mobile phones has grown from less than five percent to nearly 25 percent — and that trend not only continues to increase, but is doing so at an ever-increasing rate.
In other words, today 75 million family phones nationwide are cellular-only, and at the current rate of change, it won’t be much longer before that figure doubles.
The trend obviously bodes well for text marketing companies, like Qittle.com, a mobile marketing company, with its head office in Aspen, Colorado. Qittle.com founder, Casey McConnell, says that for advertisers planning SMS marketing campaigns, there are other interesting sets of numbers that needs to be noted, specifically those that relate to the hot spots of the wireless-only movement.
Oklahoma, for instance, was the nation’s leader in 2007 of homes that used mobile phones exclusively over landline, at a rate of one in every four households. At the low end, with just 5 percent wireless-only, was Vermont.
That information is important when you’re planning a nationwide text marketing campaign that targets households. When you know that Oklahoma (or other states including Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas and Idaho) have some of the highest home cell phone to landline phone ratios in the country, it provides a natural lead as to where you should direct a higher proportion of your opt-in awareness budget.
The converse holds true too. States with the lowest 2007 percentages of households using mobile over landline phones (all hovering at around 5 percent) include Delaware, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Montana. Until those statistics change, any mobile marketing campaigns directed at households using wireless-only phones in those states would of necessity be limited.
SMS Marketing Collars the Pet Industry
Even in these recessionary times, Qittle.com mobile marketing company CEO Casey McConnell, says the pet business is a great niche for the SMS marketing industry. Why? Because the pet business in America is a $50 billion a year industry. That’s total projected sales for 2010 as set out by the American Pet Products Association — and the figure is expected to grow.
The break-down includes $11 billion on pet supplies (including over-the-counter medicine), with $3.45 billion forked over on pet services including grooming. Pet owners tend to be extremely committed to their pets, seeing them as integral family members who need to be taken care of and pampered. In addition to basic food stuffs and veterinary care, pet owners buy toys, bedding, fencing, clothing as well as services like day care and grooming.
When you consider that there are family pets in over 71 million homes across the nation, it’s no wonder the pet industry is thriving.
In mobile marketing, says McConnell (a pet lover himself, and owner of two Labrador Retrievers), the more precisely you can target each consumer the better the ad response rate. What’s great about the pet industry is that hyper-specificity actually inherent. You’ve got specifics across the board to work with: the type of pet; the breed of animal; its age; its sex (which goes to veterinarians mainly when sending client reminders regarding spays and neuters); the location.
You’ve also got the broader types of classification, of course — the product itself (food, supplies) and the service (grooming, day care, vet) being offered.
A boon to any sales niche is the large pool of consumers, already proven to be repeat customers who spend an increasing amount annually.
Basically the pet industry is a marketer’s dream, no matter what form of advertising you’re in. However, with the use of a focused mobile marketing plan, McConnell expects to see new client redemption rates run as high as 20 to 25 percent (vs 2 percent with most print coupons, for example). As those text marketing campaigns continue and broaden over several months, McConnell adds, the response rate should grow even higher with a corresponding growth in the client’s customer opt-in database.
Relevance Matters in Text Marketing
SMS marketing is very personal — or it should be, if you want the best results from your mobile marketing campaign. So says Casey McConnell, the founder and CEO of Qittle.com, a mobile marketing company with clients that include Cost Cutters, The Aspen Club & Spa, Bono’s BBQ, Snowmass Village, eMoo.com, Metro Brokers real estate and Aspen Snowmass skiing company.
Cell phone users who opt in to receive text marketing messages from businesses demand valuable information in return for giving up their privacy. If you, as a marketer, give them that, then you can create customer loyalty plus potential viral word-of-mouth marketing.
Relevant information can include anything from mobile coupons to a restaurant’s daily specials. As with all advertising, the more precisely a marketer can target the ad recipient, the higher the response.
For example, McConnell cites two restaurants that use mobile marketing: one is a breakfast and lunch cafe, the other a fast-food sub outlet. The first sends breakfast menus to its opt-in users on early weekday mornings only, while the second fires off text messages just before lunch time.
The two businesses have very different clientele and use these demographics carefully. The sandwich joint caters mainly to nearby college students (young people who’d rather sleep in than eat breakfast, are always broke and who are avid texters). The bistro, on the other hand, serves office workers and upscale professionals (somewhat older people with more fixed schedules, including breakfast meetings, who have solid and disposable incomes and are also avid texters).
While the cafe sometimes sends special mobile-only coupons, its patrons are more interested in receiving texts detailing choice of product. The sub eatery, on the other hand, actively promotes its sales and specials, even sending ‘free sub’ coupons just before lunch specifically so that other students will opt in to receive similar text marketing messages.
Whether advertising in print, by email or through SMS marketing campaigns, every business drills down to specifics, continues McConnell. Restaurants target vegetarians and dieters, for example, and of course tie in to calendar events like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. The difference with a cell phone ad message to any other is that it’s so personal, it’s in your pocket, it’s in your hand.
McConnell urges advertisers to remember that text messages are still very much viewed as a ‘between-friends’ mode of communication. For text marketing to successfully enter that very personal forum, marketers need to be hyper-diligent about relevancy.
Text message marketing software
Why You Should Choose Qittle as your text message marketing provider
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Our clients enjoy industry-leading deliverability. | |
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Track the performance of your text messages with our charts and graphs that are populated in real time. | |
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Use one of our professionally designed text marketing ideas or one of your own for permission-based text marketing campaigns. | |
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Easily set up, organize, and leverage your customer opt in list to boost your mobile marketing efforts! |
Text message marketing software provider. Create, Send and Receive SMS mobile communications
QITTLE TEXT MARKETING CLIENT PLANT TREES 4 LIFE FEATURED FOR A 3RD TIME ON GROUPON IN LESS THAN 1 YEAR
QITTLE TEXT MARKETING CLIENT PLANT TREES 4 LIFE FEATURED FOR A 3RD TIME ON GROUPON IN LESS THAN 1 YEAR
Side-by-Side tree planting FOR $21, featured as the Side Deal of the Day on Groupon Fresno, California
ASPEN, COLO. – August 20th 2010 – Plant Trees 4 Life based out of Aspen , CO whose mission is to plant trees which supports the future of our planet for our children will be featured as a Side Deal of the Day on Groupon Fresno on Monday and Tuesday August 23rd and 24th.
“We are thrilled and excited to have a 3rd feature on Groupon. A company that takes small businesses and puts them in front of more people than imaginable. We have the ability to plant trees in all 50 states and are excited Groupon believes in Plant trees 4 Life and the goal to plant 1,000,000 trees in 10 years. They are on the cover of Forbes this week and we feel honored they picked our company to be on Groupon for the 3rd time this year!” Pamela Hart owner of Plant Trees 4 Life
“Wow!!! What an amazing feat for Pamela and her company. This is a very big deal and will create some big momentum for Plant Trees 4 Life. We are stoked to be working with this dynamic company.” Casey McConnell CEO of Qittle
About Plant Trees 4 Life
Plant Trees 4 Life is dedicated to environmental protection by dramatically increasing the number of trees on the planet. Our goal is both to sequester carbon and reduce global warming. We can achieve these goals by educating and inspiring the public to better understand the importance of nurturing living trees as an essential, responsible human action. http://www.planttrees4life.com/
About Qittle
Qittle helps businesses create, customize and manage a mobile text marketing campaign. Launched on the dawn of a worldwide mobile reign, Qittle brings the message to the customer through the mobile phone-a device most customers don’t leave home without. www.qittle.com
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Qittle Media Contact:
Casey McConnell www.qittle.com
1.866.761.7442
Hard to believe but it’s almost that time of year…
I’m in shorts enjoying the awesome weather but I was just reminded today that winter is around the corner. It’s time to start thinking about ski and snowboarding season.
This winter take your ski resort to the next level of marketing and include text message marketing. With so many choices for skiers and boarders staying top of mind is a good game plan.
Pasadena Deals Peruvian Cuisine from Choza Mama in Old Town
Pasadena Deals Peruvian Cuisine from Choza Mama in Old Town is this week’s Deal. Yummy Yummy! In order to get this Buy One, Get One Deal you need to Text To: 26469 with the word PASADENA in the message box. Do it tonight or you’ll miss out on this week’s Deal!
RESTAURANT TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING PROVIDER QITTLE
RESTAURANT TEXT MESSAGE MARKETING PROVIDER QITTLE
Restaurants can update customers with specials, news and SMS coupons
Aspen, CO (August 10, 2010) – Restaurant owners can now launch their own text message marketing campaign using Qittle’s software platform.
“Our customers have been thrilled with the success and response to their text marketing strategy. They are able to reach their customers when they are thinking about food and getting hungry. Restaurants are seeing redemption rates around 14-15 percent whereas their print coupon marketing yields a 1-2 percent redemption rate,” said Casey McConnell, CEO of Qittle.
Restaurants are offering weekly specials such as free appetizers with an entrée or free drinks with a meal. The advertising is being sent via SMS text messaging, Table Tents and through their email database. http://qittle.com/text_marketing_for_restaurants.html
“Our customers have had great success implementing SMS text marketing campaigns and building their databases. The ease and effectiveness of the Qittle software platform, its ability to reach customers, and the desire to cut marketing costs by bringing some of the marketing in house are a natural fit for restaurant owners.” said Casey McConnell.
