Xtreme Juice Smoothie Shop launched their Mobile Marketing campaign to reward their loyal customer base with exclusive offers via SMS (text messaging).  In just a few short weeks they had over 450 subscribers to their text club, sent three messages and have had a greater than 25% response rate to each message.

Xtreme sent the following message after one week of promoting their text club:

“FREE Small Xtreme Juice Smoothie – TODAY 4/17/09 ONLY – No strings attached. Upgrade to Reg for only $1 or to Lrg for $2. Open until 8pm.”

It went to 93 subscribers and 26 (28%) redeemed the mobile coupon. Additionally, the message spurred a spike in new subscribers increasing their subscriber number to 103 just over a week after their Text Club was launched.

Xtreme’s second message went out on May 5, to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. This time it went to 240 subscribers and 69 redeemed it. This is an incredible 29% response rate!

In the few weeks since then Xtreme has managed to increase their subscriber base to over 750 and sent another message with similar response rates.  Xtreme hopes to have over 1000 subscribers by early June.  They are well on their way.

Congratulations to Chris and his team at Xtreme Juice!!

When did you launch? 

10/15/2005
 

How did the business start? 

Owners, Bill and Michelle Mills, had thought about opening an Irish Pub for about 25 years.  After visiting several Irish Pubs they knew what they wanted; a piece of Ireland here in their native state of Indiana.  So they had a bar built and sent over.  The Interior of Fionn’s was designed and constructed in Ireland by specially trained Irish mill workers. Everything was then imported; from the Mahogany wood, lighting, furniture to the artwork on the walls (called brick-a-brack). After the interior was made in Ireland, it was dismantled into cratable size, transported by ship to the United States brought by train to Chicago and finally to Fishers, Indiana. The Irish craftsmen arrived in Fishers at the same time to finish out Fionn’s interior. 
 
Best selling item on your menu? 

Guinness Stout – We make our own nitrogen to push it.
 
Any new items on your menu? 

We have weekly specials, so every week there is something new!
 
What type of texts can people in your Text Club expect to get from you? 

Special band Shows, Food Specials!   

NOTE:  Want to join their Text Club?  Text:  MACCOOLS   To:  71813

What events do you have coming up? 

St. Patrick’s Day Weekend Party Friday March 13th through Tuesday March 17th.
 
Anything else you want to share about your restaurant?

Fionn MacCool’s is a truly authentic Irish Pub & Restaurant where our customers can enjoy a unique Irish atmosphere, Irish décor, Irish entertainment and the famous Irish friendliness just as you would find in Dublin or elsewhere in Ireland.  We feature Live music Thursday through Saturday Night with Rarely a cover charge.  We hope that people find their own little piece of Ireland right here in Indiana.

Click HERE to visit Fionn MacCool’s web site. 

Join the Fionn MacCool’s Text Club Today:  Text:  MACCOOLS   To:  71813                                                                          *Only Standard Text Messaging Rates Apply.

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.  Nate has provided us with invaluable market research as we continue to enhance our service and has brought many new customers our way.  

ABOUT NATE: 

How long have you been a realtor?    

I am currently in my 4th year as a realtor

Why real estate? 

I have always had an affinity for houses, and used to drag my mom to open houses as a young teen.  After being in Corporate America for a while, I decided it was time to use my marketing, negotiating and design skills to assist those needing to buy or sell a home.  I get a rush when I see someone’s face light up as they realize they’ve just stepped into their new home! 

What’s your favorite area to show homes and why? 

I have always had an attraction to older homes, ie historichomes. Probably stems from being an HGTV junkie before there even was such a thing.  I used to love watching THIS OLD HOUSE as a kid.  That being said- I love showing and selling homes in the Irvington, Broad Ripple, Meridian-Kessler, Butler Tarkington and near-downtown neighborhoods.  On the flip side, I also love 1950’s contemporaries and downtown hi-rise condo developments.  

What do you do in your spare time? 

Well, let’s see, I don’t seem to have much “spare” time, but that is by design.  I enjoy being involved- in networking activities, volunteer roles, and within my Church.  I am very active in RAINMAKERS and divide my other volunteer time between such organizations as Second Helpings and The 500 Festival, as well as serve on committees for the Irvington Presbyterian Church and several Irvington-area initiatives.   

***Note***  That’s Nate in the picture taking kids from his church trick or treating last year.

What impact has mobile marketing had for you? 

During sales presentations, clients really think this is a neat addition to our current marketing plan for listed homes.  Even if they themselves are not “tech savvy”, most realize that a lot of people are, and that the way people get information is always changing.  The service has helped me to attract both potential buyers and sellers. 

Want to learn more about Nate?     www.justcallnate.com

Tony Dungy announced this week his retirement as Head Coach for the Indianapolis Colts.  During the Press Conference, he was asked if he’d talked to his players since the announcement and he responded, “Our guys text now. I’ve gotten a lot of texts and I don’t text back as fast, so they haven’t 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.  We’ve recently had an opportunity to talk to some of the same people who we initially spoke to and it’s ironic the number of people who said then that they don’t text and don’t 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, we’re 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, we’ve had the opportunity to see his philanthropic efforts up close.  We wish him the best as he continues his journey in life.

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.

Is it really just as easy as placing a sign in the yard? The answer to that is yes and no. Placing a sign in the yard will develop leads and those leads will turn into customers, but in order to get the most out of your mobile marketing tools you should first exercise the full options of your mobile tools and then integrate the mobile tools into your overall marketing strategy.

The first part of this is utilizing the full options of your mobile tools. What does this mean? Well for the package that Connective Mobile offers this means using the Call, Email (adding attachments, pictures, MLS sheets, etc… to the email), Contact and More Information option features that come with every listing.

Once you have set up the options you want to use, it is time to integrate the messaging tools into your overall marketing plan. This means including the property code in your other advertising.

Here are just a few things that some of our clients attribute their success with using our service:

1) Include the property code in your newspaper, magazine and online listing ads. You will enhance your ability to deliver information to a buyer and your ability to capture lead information for follow up.

2) Remove the paper flyers from the property and place only the Text Messaging and Toll Free signs in the yard. This will encourage buyers to seek information through this service increasing your lead captures.

3) Promote the Text and Toll Free service as a part of your marketing strategy to prospective sellers to let them know that you are up to date with the latest technology and using it to sell their home.

4) Include links to your web site, your email address and contact information in the Text Messages and Toll Free message. This will drive traffic to you through your site or direct contact.

5) Use the Text Messaging and Toll Free service on every property! The more visible your service is, the greater the usage will be. (This is one of the reasons we price our service to include unlimited listings, we want our service in front of every home.)

Thanks to all of our realtors who have shared their success stories.  We look forward to hearing more.  How have you used mobile applications for real estate?

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.

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

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.

IVR- Interactive Voice Repsonse- A phone technology that allows a computer to detect voice and touch tones using a normal phone call. The IVR system can respond with pre-recorded or dynamically generated audio to further direct callers on how to proceed. IVR systems can be used to control almost any function where the interface can be broken down into a series of simple menu choices.

Messaging- Collectively, SMS and MMS messages sent to mobile phones/devices. This definition does not include advertisments delivered on WAP sites or advertisements delivered into games on mobile devices.

WAP Site- A website that is specifically designed and formatted for display on a mobile device.

MO/MOM- Mobile Orginated Message- The mobile subscribers initial opt-in message, sent from his/her handset.

MT/MTM- Mobile Terminated Message- The reply message from the consumer’s mobile network that reaches his/her handset after sending the MO message.

Mobile Internet/Wireless Web- The Mobile Web is a channel for delivery of web content, which offers and formats content to users in awareness of the mobile context. The mobile context is characterized by the nature of personal user information needs(e.g. updating your micro blog, accessing travel information, receiving news update), constraints of mobile phones (i.e. screen size, keypad input) and special capabilities(i.e. location, connection type such as 3G or WLAN).

Opt-in- The process where a subscriber provides explicit consent, after receiving Notice from the Mobile Marketer.

Opt-out- The process through which a Subscriber revokes consent after receiving Notice from the Mobile Marketer. An example of an Opt-out process includes, but is not limited to, a Subscriber relpying to an SMS message with the phrase “stop.”

These definitions are according to the Mobile Marketing Association

That’s it for this weeks Common Mobile Marketing Terms. If you have specific terms you would like defined please feel free to let us know and we’ll include them in our next post.

Or check out:

Common Mobile Marketing Terms Part 1

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.  Nearly a week later and people are still texting in to get their results on their phone.  Wish we could capture the number of messages that were forwarded…I’m sure it was a lot!

St. Francis Hospital was the Presenting Sponsor for this event and also the Text Sponsor.

The 2nd annual marathon has been scheduled for November 7, 2009. For more details on this event, visit www.monumentalmarathon.com.

Photo courtesy of Capstone Photography.