Today is Retro Mobile Marketing Day and we have compiled a collection of tips & tricks on Interactive SMS Marketing / Text Message Marketing.  These are all from personal experience gained over the years, during which time we have seen countless marketeers make the same mistakes over and over again.  So apologies in advance if this is all a little passé for you but a little extra homework never hurts.

Most of these are pretty straightforward to follow, and have been written in an attempt to show you just how easily you can improve on your campaigns, or, if you’re just starting out, what to look out for, when buying and setting up mobile marketing campaigns.

First, some background, for those of you not entirely familiar with the concept of Interactive SMS Marketing.  It’s called interactive because consumers are required to initiate the process of participating in the campaign, by sending an SMS to a short code, or virtual number, starting with a predefined keyword, and usually followed with some other text.

We are seeing stacks of examples of this every day, sometimes without even noticing it (or if you’re already in our business paying more attention to the mobile marketing advert than the rest of the page content) and they are typically of the form ‘Text XXX to YYYYY to Win/Vote/etc’.

But let’s get on with the actual hints & tips:-

• Know your audience

This is the single most important factor, and it is just as true here as for any other type of marketing campaign. With mobile marketing however, you are targeting people at a much more personal  level. Their mobile is their most personal electronic device. Being so personal, people are highly selective about what they see and do on their mobile. It is important therefore that you take the time to think about the people in your audience as individuals, not as a single lumpen mass. If you think it through and plan your campaign well, the results may pleasantly surprise you.

• Pick your rate / tariff

Continuing from the theme above, your audience usually fits within an age range / social class, etc. but it’s vital that you also consider the size of their wallet.  Think about how much they would spend.  Don’t think about how much YOU would spend – you are not buying  the product. This also depends on the value of the ‘prize’ or the service being offered. It is certainly worth asking  people in your target audience before you start your campaign what they’d be happy paying and perhaps charge a little bit more.

• Get a good deal

Just because you picked the right tariff doesn’t mean you’ll be maximising your profit. If you don’t own the short code (which can be expensive if you’re just looking to start an SMS campaign), depending on where you are in the world, you’ll be charged set-up fees (per short code / keyword / sub-keywords, etc — this depends) or you’ll only receive a share of the revenue generated by the SMS (e.g. for 20% share you’ll get 0.2 euro for every 1 euro (+VAT) SMS people send in. Or you might get charged both. Do a little market research because it can really make a difference.

• Choose between short code / virtual number

Short codes are usually 4-5 digits and are easier to remember because they are (obviously) shorter(!) Virtual Numbers are like mobile phone numbers (i.e. same number of digits, e.g. 10) but they’re called virtual because they’re not bound to a specific SIM card.  Any SMS sent to that number is routed to your software for processing, no SIM needed. So why might you need a virtual number then if it’s longer? Answer, because it supports roaming.  People from abroad (e.g. tourists) in your country CANNOT send an SMS to a short code, because it gets routed through the roaming network, to their own home network, and from there to the short code within their country. Short codes only work in a specific country, virtual numbers work everywhere. Short codes are (much) easier to remember though. Decide whether you want roaming support and take your pick.

• Pick a good shortcode / virtual number

Ok, now you’ve got the rate / tariff right, and a good deal, it’s time to think about the actual number. Just choose something that’s easy to remember, or something that makes some sort of spelling sense (e.g. 77493 spells ‘PRIZE’).  Just a word of warning, you may find that the companies with the best short codes / virtual numbers charge more, so be prepared to look for alternatives.

• Pick a good keyword

Your short code’s all setup, but you still need a keyword to bind to your service in order to make it all work. A keyword is the first sequence of letters until the first SPACE character. Note: some SMS marketing platforms (use Google to find a suitable one) will trim leading spaces (i.e. when the SMS starts with a space), others will treat this as ‘no-keyword’. You want your keyword  to be:  i) easy to Remember, ii) easy to Spell, iii) Relevant to your service and iv) Short.  I use the RSRS shorthand to remember this.

• Also buy/use misspellings of your keyword(s)

I’ve included this as a separate bullet because I think there’s extra value here.  DO NOT just get ONE keyword. People misspell and mistype all the time (and not just bad spellers – everyone does this).  Aim to get (if you can afford it) every possible misspelling you can think of to maximise participation.

• ADVERTISE — publicise call-to-actions

You might think that you’re now good to go, but you’re nowhere near done yet. Given that you’ve gone into so much effort to design a service specifically for your audience, clearly they will all want to participate – they just don’t know about it yet… Now is the time to go out and tell people about your fantastic new service / contest / vote / quiz / etc.  Again, think of what is the best way to approach YOUR target audience and use the appropriate medium (TV, print, radio, internet, etc.) or even better a combination of these with the same call-to-action.  The more people find out about your campaign the more will participate.

• Show the costs

If there’s a cost for the consumer associated with sending in an SMS (which there most probably is), tell them about it. Don’t let them find out on their phone bill – you will feel their fury, I kid you not. Put it in small letters beneath the call-to-action but NOT tiny – you are not trying to hide it from them, you want them to make an informed decision (that’s why their participation is so valuable after all). You just want them to know what it’ll cost them. Only state the cost, don’t tell them ‘only 1 euro’ is little to pay. They might still think it is, but don’t be the one to tell them – let them find out.

• Send participation confirmation SMS

Be sure to send back confirmation SMS messages to all incoming SMS. That way people know their message has been received and processed. Otherwise they might end up with more than one SMS, which might mean more profit for you, but it also means frustrated participants – do you really want that?

• Give feedback about incoming SMS

If your SMS marketing campaign is such that you can give direct feedback to your participants about their incoming SMS, do so. If it’s a radio or TV show, do comment about people’s views and opinions. It will make them feel valued, and they will keep on participating. And you will build your very own audience of followers.

• Tools

You will definitely find it helpful if the software tools you use to view and manage your incoming SMS campaigns automate routine tasks such as exporting to file, reporting, running draws (so that you can give out prizes), sorting and searching through incoming SMS messages, etc.  Just make a note of this as another thing to be aware of.  Most software/providers offer this sort of functionality, but do tick it off your list before you pick one, or you may live to regret it!

Peter Richards  – March 24^th 2010