Texder Blog | Tools For The Mobile Masses

Jet Airways guests may now search for the lowest fares via sms

Source: gomotext.com

Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, today announced the launch of a new and exciting initiative for guests to access to the lowest current fares on the airline network from their mobiles on any given day of travel.

Jet Airways guests may now send a simple SMS to get the lowest real-time fares available on jetairways.com on a particular sector and date. To get the lowest fare information, a guest has to send a simple message in the following format: LFS Origin Destination Date (in dd/mm format) to 56388. E.g. LFS BOM DEL 25/11 to 56388.

In keeping with Jet Airways’ commitment to continually enhance the Jet Airways experience for all our guests, the airline regularly studies its customers and their needs. The introduction of initiatives such as these, along with the airline’s existing services of real-time flight updates and prior check-in through SMS, among others, enable it to further raise the bar in terms of overall customer satisfaction.

Read the complete Press Release here

Advantages of Text Message Marketing for Your Small Business

Source: webinfoathome.com
Author: Shane Farrell

Text message marketing has numerous advantages over traditional forms of advertising. Text marketing or SMS marketing is still an emerging marketing and advertising medium that until recently was only cost efficient to large companies and organizations. New technology has made this available to small businesses at a cost investment that is lower than direct mail, newspaper, radio and other forms. The return on investment is also measurable which always isn’t the case with the other forms of advertising.If you are using print and traditional advertising methods with some success, you can add a mobile marketing call to action. An example, “TEXT ‘PIZZA’ to 83936 for FREE APPETIZER with purchase of LARGE PIZZA” has been shown to increase response rates by up to 30%. We don’t have to do the math for you but imagine your marketing campaigns bringing in 30% more business. Would that help out your bottom line?

Text message marketing is also targeted. With direct mail you can target a neighborhood or zip code. Radio, newspaper and television it is very hard to target and your message is reaching customers who will never spend money with you. Text message marketing allows you to target directly customers that have already spent money with you, have a positive relationship with you and just need a little incentive to increase their spending frequency with you. SMS marketing allows you to target your advertising dollars to customers who are most likely to spend more money with you.

Text message marketing is also very easy to set up and start a new campaign. To start a new campaign with other advertising methods it can takes weeks of layout and design and you do not know when potential customers will see or respond to your message. With text you can have a new campaign set up literally in 5 minutes and have sales and customers coming through your doors or ringing your phone in under an hour. Your time to market is instant, allowing you to take advantage of rapid market changes and sales you need to advertise quickly.

Keeping your message in front of your customers also extends retention and life span of that customer. Your customers are bombarded daily with messages from your competition. By giving your customers what they want from you, directly on their phone, you are creating a brand identity and relationship with that customer. It is far more cost effective and profitable to market to your existing customers that constantly wasting your money casting a wide advertising net trying to attract new sales.

If you have not yet started a text message marketing campaign the time to start is now. Text message marketing has been shown to be 10 times more effective than newspaper advertising and 5 times more effective than direct mail. Do you think response rates such as those at a fraction of the cost would help your business grow?

Companies texting today to get the word out

By Jerry Osteryoung

Source Business Matters at tallahassee.com

One of the newer trends today is the use of text messaging technology in business. Text messaging, which is sometimes referred to as SMS or short message service, allows businesses to instantaneously send brief messages to their customers’ cell phones.

Text messaging does not replace other types of advertising. Rather, it should be thought of as a tool to use only in certain circumstances. Normally, you would use text messaging when you want a rapid response from your customers, and the message to them must be short and simple.

Many carriers limit the length of your message, but shooting for somewhere around 150 characters is a good guideline to follow. I frequently receive text messages from Tropical Smoothie. Both Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s have had a great deal of success using this tool in their marketing campaigns.

There are many firms that will help you use SMS. The gold standard is MessageMedia, which boasts more than 8,000 business and government customers. SMS services make text messaging a fairly easy process. Simply provide the cell phone numbers and the message, and the SMS service will handle the delivery.

You can pay per message, but a newer approach involves the use of teaser messages that ask recipients to reply if they want more information. In these cases, some firms only charge for the second message, which shows that the customer has responded.

While the use of texting is quickly spreading throughout the entire customer base, young people still use text messaging much more than baby boomers. Nielsen Research found that teens and young adults send an amazing 3,000 text messages a month. However, total text messages sent have nearly tripled each year as people of all ages use the technology.

When texting, it is vital to get your customers to agree to receive the message or have an opt-in agreement. Also, you should limit the use of this tool to only those cases when you have something of real value to offer your customers.

Now go out and see if text messaging makes sense for your business. If it does, then develop a plan for implementing this very effective tool.

You can do this!

Mobile Spam Study Reveals Users Attitudes to Mobile Marketing

Source txt4ever

txt4ever in association with the DMA has released a study into mobile users attitudes to spam. It shows that trust and control are important for brands marketing to mobile users. Clearly identifying themselves, along with the timing and frequency of messages, were all important factors to the survey respondents.

Some key figures form the study where:

• 69% of people have received spam messages
• 55% of people are happy to receive offers from trusted brands
• 68% of people did not know who was sending them messages

Source thefonecast.com

Text message provider and mobile advertising agency txt4ever, together with the Direct Marketing Association, has published a study that looks at mobile users’ attitudes to spam.

Its Mobile Spam Study shows that 70% of respondents were happy to receive marketing messages via mobile phone, with 55% of respondents ready to receive SMS offers from trusted brands. However, over two-thirds (68%) of people felt that companies did not make the opt-in process clear enough.

There was also confusion about charging; 69% of people had received spam messages with a third of respondents believing that receiving a spam message resulted in a charge on their mobile bill.

Remy Martin mobile campaign attracts 1,200 SMS opt-ins

Read below and then think about all YOU could accomplish with a mix of Texder Messenger™ & Texder Reminder™ and creative signage!

From Mobile Marketer
By Giselle Tsirulnik

Cognac maker Remy Martin ran an integrated marketing campaign to reintroduce its flagship VSOP label to a new generation of drinkers and was able to drive 1,200 SMS opt-ins.

The campaign targeted consumers ages 21-40. Remy’s digital agency ID Society selected Neighborhood America’s MOVO to tie together all of the elements of the campaign with mobile marketing.

“Mobile was an ideal channel for Remy because they wanted to target customers while out and about,” said David Rippetoe, senior product manager at Neighborhood America. “They used in-venue calls to action to draw people into the campaign promoting special tasting events.

“Mobile offered them high value because of reach and low cost of entry and strengthened brand awareness,” he said. “They used an SMS/WAP campaign as a way to get people to RSVP to the events. During the day of the event, Remy sent out a broadcast SMS to remind people to attend.”

The Remy Chill Zone campaign promoted new ways of enjoying the traditional drink at over 300 tasting events scheduled in six metropolitan areas across the United States, including New York, Newark, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area.

Signage and a virtual display invited consumers to text a keyword to receive a special invitation and be placed on the Remy Chill Zone VIP list at ultra-exclusive nightclubs.

Those who opted-in were given a link to a mobile Web site, built by Neighborhood America.

To follow up, RSVP reminders went out to the VIP’s 3-4 days prior to the event, and allowed them to make reservations for up to two people.

In just three months, the campaign was able to drive 1,200 SMS opt-ins from table-top advertising in just a few venue bars.

The WAP site yielded 1,086 views and 270 visitors.

The tastings in all six metropolitan cities all sold out as a result of the campaign.

The campaign helped Remy build brand loyalty through exclusive offers to the database of consumers, which was built by providing consumers incentives to participate.

“I think the biggest benefit that mobile provides to brands is that the consumer is raising their hand and telling the brand that they want their product or service by opting-in to a campaign whether it is SMS or a mobile banner on a mobile Web site,” Mr. Rippetoe said.

“One of the bigger issues with brands not being successful in mobile is the lack of integrating a visible or interesting call to action in their overall campaign strategy,” he said. “Because Remy is a luxury brand with a dedicated following, the agency [ID Society] did a great job with the creative and giving the feel of exclusivity for the events.”

Verizon, AT&T, others rally on IMS approach to voice over LTE

From FierceWireless
By Phil Goldstein

Verizon Wireless, AT&T and several major international carriers and vendors threw their support behind an IMS-based approach to delivering voice and SMS services over LTE networks. The level of operator support—the approach also is supported by Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera and Vodafone—sits in sharp contrast to another approach, called Voice over LTE via Generic Access, or VoLGA, which is supported by T-Mobile International.

Vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson also voiced their support for the initiative, dubbed One Voice. The companies said they concluded that an IMS-based approach “is the most applicable approach to meeting the consumers’ expectations for service quality, reliability and availability when moving from existing circuit-switched telephony services to IP-based LTE services. This approach will also open the path to service convergence, as IMS is able to simultaneously serve broadband wireline and LTE wireless networks.”

The companies said that the purpose of the initiative is to create the largest LTE ecosystem possible, and to avoid fragmentation of technical solutions.

Interestingly, both Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson also support the VoLGA approach, and Nokia Siemens has supported its own solution, called Fast Track Voice, which proposes having mobile switching center servers handle VoIP traffic over LTE networks. VoLGA proponents argue that their approach should be used as an interim solution. All three vendors said they do not see a conflict in supporting the different approaches.

“We have been supporting the IMS approach from the beginning,” Nokia Siemens spokesman Kent Tankersley told FierceWireless. “We look at an all-IP-based architecture as the ultimate goal for LTE. The Fast Track is a way the intermediate step, a bridge to that IMS.”

Ed Elkin, director of IMS marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, said the company supports One Voice, VoLGA and circuit-switch fallback approaches for delivering voice over LTE. However, he said that One Voice is attractive for several reasons. “Once Voice, by giving the handset the handset manufacturers a common target to aim at, increases the likelihood that they can create a variety of handsets for the subscriber to choose from,” he said.

He said that VoLGA will continue, but noted the broad support for One Voice likely would increase the possibility of global roaming. “Other methods have a narrow operator base,” he said.

Peter Linder, director for network solutions at Ericsson, said that the One Voice approach was a “lightweight collaboration model” aimed at accelerating market adoption of LTE.

“We felt that the industry was a little bit unclear about the timing for when voice over LTE would happen for 3GPP standards,” he said. “If we could take that uncertainty out of the marketplace and create clarity,” he said, that could help drive momentum in the LTE ecosystem.

For more: see this release

The Reason Why Email Marketers Think Mobile Marketing is Stupid and Why They are Wrong

Read on and consider if Texder Messenger™ might be a valuable tool for you in your marketing effort.

- Sourced: Mobile Marketing Watch
- Original Source: mobileStorm

From the articles:

“One of the biggest problems with email marketing is the turnover rate of email addresses. Within one year 33% of email addresses in your campaign list are no longer valid. Cell phone numbers have a far lower turnover rate, and most people keep their cell phone number for life. With virtually no delivery issues and 95% of cell phones SMS enabled, getting the message in front of eyeballs is much easier via mobile than an email campaign.”

“…the biggest hindrance to mobile marketing is the opposition from e-mail marketers, who are bitter about problems with email marketing and don’t understand how mobile marketing differs from email.”

“…your mobile database is not going to be as big as your email database, but is that important? Answer this: which is a bigger return –a call-to-action that sees a 20% take on a mobile database of 3,000, or a 5% take on an email database of 10,000 people? If you guessed the mobile database made you more money, you guessed correctly. Time and time again mobile has a higher response rate. Let’s take a look at the reasons why:

1. 95% of cell phones have SMS capabilities and 87% of the population has a cell phone.
2. You can reach someone no matter where they are.
3. 95% of text messages are read within 15 minutes.
4. There are virtually no delivery issues with SMS. If you send it, they will get it, and right into their inbox.
5. All mobile clubs should have a double opt in so you cannot sign up anyone but yourself. The subscriber takes the action of responding with a “YES.”
6. 33% of email addresses change on a yearly basis, but with number portability (the ability to take a number from carrier to carrier), people are ditching their home phones and keeping their cell phone number for life.

Texder goes beta!

Last week, under the radar and without fanfare, we upgraded Texder to beta status. The change indicates that we have completed most of our internal testing and fixed enough bugs to call it good. We have not yet added any new features, though we have a bucket list of what’s to come. We’re celebrating this milestone and we’re doing it with free stuff. Through July 31st, any Texder user can use the promotional keyword beta01 to set up a FREE texder. If you’re already a user, log in to set up a new texder. If you’re new to us, sign up today!

A note to those of you who have a keyword from either our SXSW super alpha licious launch or Real Estate BarCamp Phoenix promotions, those keywords are still good through the end of this month.

Real Estate BarCamp Phoenix

Today, Phoenix is holding it’s first Real Estate BarCamp, an unconference designed to help real estate professionals learn all about blogging, social media marketing, Twitter, Facebook, prospecting, and more. It will undoubtedly be a day of new ideas, new tools, and new connections. We here at Texder hope to contribute to all of these.

Texder is a personal SMS/text messaging sales tool. Since inception, we’ve known there are real estate applications. Imagine being able to provide prospects driving past one of your properties the ability to get more information, including who to contact, direct to their phone.

123 Nameof St - 3bed, 2.5bath bungalow in Maple-Ash n’borhood. Restored & upgraded in 2003. Large backyard. MLS #1234567. Call John Smith: 123-321-1234.

Your outgoing message, or texder, is fully customizable and can be changed at anytime. Are you having an open house. Is it a sale pending? Potential buyers can text against a code we provide you to get the most current information about the property. We’ll even provide reporting of how many requests have been made against your code.

A couple of things to know…

We are in alpha launch and we want people to help us test the site and the service, so we’re offering a promotion for free access to the service through May 31st. Sign up, create a texder, and track the pulls against your code as you sell your listed properties. Then tell us what you think.

We assume you’re reading this because you found one of our promo cards at RE BarCamp. Hang onto that card! We’ll keep the 4-digit code on the back live, continuing to update it with our latest promotions as we move from super alpha licious version thru beta and into full service.

SXSW super alpha licious launch

Texder is at South by Southwest Interactive, armed with promo cards about our super alpha licious launch. If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve happened upon one of those cards, followed the instructions on the back, and received a promotional keyword.

So what is Texder and how does it work?

Texder is a personal SMS/text messaging sales tool. Analogous to a classified add. Users, which means you, set up an outgoing message about something you’re selling or promoting and we’ll give you a unique four digit number to publicize with any posting about what it is that you’re selling/promoting. Potential buyers can then text against this unique number to get more information about your advertised product/service. It operates entirely on a pull system, and texts are only sent when requested.

Your outgoing messages is fully customizable, can be changed at anytime, and your changes take effect immediately. We’ll even provide reporting of how many requests have been made against your code.

Join us for alpha testing…

We want people to help us test the site and the service. We’ve pushed hard to get a working version up and now we need to you use it, break it, critique it, and if you like it, praise it. Your keyword is good for free access to the service through April 30th May 31st. Sign up, create a texder, and track the pulls against your code as you sell/promote whatever it is you want to sell/promote. Then tell us what you think.

And hang onto the promo card!

We’ll keep the 4-digit code on the back live, continuing to update it with our latest promotions as we move from super alpha licious version thru beta and into full service.