When you launch a business, you always have your first customers. Those who, despite knowing that you’re new, embrace what you have to offer and if you’re lucky continue to provide feedback that is crucial to your growth and success. For us, one of our very first real estate customers was Nathan Pfahler. We remember that first meeting with him nearly 2 years ago and can’t forget his enthusiasm and lucky for us that excitement hasn’t gone away.
Tony Dungy announced this week his retirement as Head Coach for the Indianapolis Colts. During the Press Conference, he was asked if hed talked to his players since the announcement and he responded, Our guys text now. Ive gotten a lot of texts and I dont text back as fast, so they havent heard from me quite as fast.
When we started doing market research about 3 years ago prior to starting our company, there were a lot of adults 30 and older who did not text well at least not yet. Weve recently had an opportunity to talk to some of the same people who we initially spoke to and its ironic the number of people who said then that they dont text and dont intend to ever start are now texting quite often. Why the change of heart? We keep hearing the same story over and over. My client, my child, my friend, my co-worker insisted on using this as a communication tool so I had to start. Some said that they merely do it out of obligation to respond to the other party or so they at least have some communication with their teen or college age child. Most, though, admitted that it has become a quite useful way for them to communicate.
So, do you remember the first time you sent a text and why?
Needless to say, were pretty happy that the number of people texting continues to grow.
By the way, Tony might not text fast but he was definitely quick to have an impact on the city of Indianapolis. In addition to watching his success with the Colts, weve had the opportunity to see his philanthropic efforts up close. We wish him the best as he continues his journey in life.
We have been getting more and more requests for our API (Application Programming Interface) function so we thought we’d highlight what we offer-a REST based API that provides a wide range of functions that enable our customers to integrate Mobile Marketing (SMS/Text Messaging) into their own products.
Our API provides clients with the ability to:
Deliver messages to one Cell Phone
Deliver messages to an entire Text Club.
Schedule Messages for delivery at a later date.
Initiate a Text Club Opt-in Process.
Unsubscribe (Opt-out) a subscriber.
Check the status of delivered messages.
Retrieve the number of subscribers for a particular Text Club.
Retrieve the Mobile Subscribers’ numbers for a particular Text Club.
Set up an Initial Message to be delivered to a new subscriber.
Each time an action is submitted the API returns a status, error code and ticketid. The error code and status can be looked up in the API documentation. The ticketid is used to check the status of that transaction. You can tell if a message has been delivered, is waiting in queue, or was undeliverable.
We are very pleased to have our API publicly available and are constantly working to enhance it and add new functionality. In the near future we expect to add the following features:
Add new Keywords to an Account.
Manage Real Estate Accounts.
Deactivate Keywords on an Account.
Change account information (Billing address, logo, etc…)
Expanded Reporting via API.
If you have questions or want more information please feel free to contact us:
info @ connectivemobile.com
We will keep you up to date as we make enhancements and modifications to our API.
Ever been to a conference and found yourself constantly checking the agenda or finding out a little late that a change had been made?
Between October 29 – November 1, 2008 we helped the DOCTRAIN East Conference with their mobile communications. We were part of the event’s daily communication strategy as well as providing a method for the conference to communicate last minute updates and changes to attendees.
Attendees received approximately 5 text messages a day reminding them of sessions, lunches and special events. At the end of the conference 7 subscribers were randomly chosen via our system to receive door prizes from conference sponsors.
When attendees were asked about the text message program comments ranged from, “really smart and useful” to “way cool” and “another reason I look forward to attending DocTrain events, you guys always are up-to-date with the latest technologies.”
We look forward to continuing our relationship with DOCTRAIN and providing them the same high level of service for each of their events.
DOCTRAIN East is an annual Conference and the theme this year was Producing Quality Content. There were 275 attendees and presentations were given by many leaders in the Content Generation, and Document Management/Preparation software Industries. For more information on Content Management visit thecontentwrangler.com.
To answer why we need a Double opt-in we should first understand what a Double opt-in is. The Mobile Marketing Association defines Double opt-in as “The process of confirming a mobile subscribers wish to participate in a mobile program by requesting the subscriber to opt-in twice, prior to engaging the subscriber. A requirement for premium and many other types of mobile services.” What this essentially means is that in order for a subscriber to participate in a mobile marketing or premium sms program they must not only send in an initial message indicating interest but they must also respond with an affirmative to a second message. A sample of the process is below.
Step 1
A subscriber responds to a call to action and texts in a keyword to 71813. In this case the keyword is
BEAN.
Step 2
The subscriber gets a response back prompting him or her to confirm the subscription.
Reply Y+Zip(Y12345) to join The Bean Cup Text Club
Get 1 msg/wk
Std Msg Rates Apply
To Opt-out reply STOP BEAN
T&Cs @ connectivemobile.com
In this case we also ask for the zip code because we provide this demographic information to our customer and enable them to send messages by zip code if they desire.
Step 3
The subscriber replies with “Y46237” providing the affirmative required for double opt-in and giving us their zip code so that if a future message is specific to a certain area not near them, they won’t receive a text.
Step 4
The subscriber receives a response message indicating the process is complete.
Welcome to The Bean Cup TEXT CLUB
To opt-out text STOP BEAN to 71813
Standard messaging rates apply
Text help for more info
At this point the Double opt-in process is complete and the subscriber will now receive messages. Why is the Double opt-in process necessary? It seems like it might actually deter people from subscribing. It seems cumbersome. In truth it can be, but there is one compelling reason that overcomes all objections and that is preventing SPAM. SPAM has become a parasite sucking the productivity and usefulness out of email and specifically email marketing. The Double opt-in process was implemented to help prevent SPAM on the cell phone. Imagine the constant stream of garbage you could receive if there weren’t safeguards in place to prevent SPAM on the cell phone. We are glad to see measures and methods being put in place to prevent what has happened to email from happening to SMS (text messaging)
As for the the downsides, here at Connective Mobile over 95% of the subscribers that initiate the process complete it. That means that you have a text club that is 100% interested in seeing your message. This is why mobile marketing has a much greater rate of return than many traditional advertising methods.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or thoughts you have on the Double opt-in process
info at connectivemobile.com
Welcome to Part 2 of our series of Common Mobile Marketing Terms. We are providing definitions of terms that are commonly used in Mobile Marketing. We hope that you find these posts useful.
IVR- Instant Voice Response– A computerized system that allows a person, typically a telephone caller, to select options from a voice menu and otherwise interact with the computer phone system from their mobile device.
This past Saturday the inaugural Indianapolis Monumental Marathon took place in downtown Indianapolis. You couldn’t have asked for a better day for an event. The weather was incredible-not too cold and not too hot. We’ve had the opportunity to provide text results for a number of Ken Long and Associates events and love the response that they get. For this event, there were nearly 3000 participants and over 50% of the total opted to get their results via a text message.
We saw this clip and felt that it expressed (in about a minute and half) why every company, Realtor, and marketer should have a Blog. While blogging is something that we’ve just recently started doing as a company, we are pleased with the exposure and interactions that have resulted thus far. Similar to Mobile Marketing, it is definitely not a silver bullet means of getting your message out there. However, when integrated with your other marketing methods, the impact is consumers who are more educated about your products/services, your company and you. What success have you had with blogging? What blogs do you follow….why?
On October 7, 2008 we had the opportunity to attend a sales rally hosted by RE/MAX Realtors. The event was held in the newly minted Lucas Oil Stadium here in Indianapolis, IN. This was my first time in the new stadium and I must say that it is an incredibly impressive facility. If you get the chance I would highly recommend attending an event there.