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A major American research company has found that most companies have no real measures or understanding about how well they are doing at implementing their mobile strategies.

Researchers recently talked to over 200 global companies to find out how they were measuring their mobile strategies, and what their measures of success were. The study found that media, travel and financial services were most likely to have an established mobile strategy, but the numbers were low.

The research found that 57 percent of organizations either did not have any mobile strategy or policy, or were only in the early stages of developing it.

Of those businesses surveyed that did have some form of strategy in place, only 30 percent have had the strategy in place for more than a year. A further 10 percent only had some kind of strategy in place for less than a year. Researchers believed the low numbers are a result of the relative newness of the mobile marketing platform.

Customer engagement was listed as the most important goal and a key longterm strategy for 52 percent of the businesses surveyed. Businesses said they see mobile marketing as an important way to attract and interact with customers, alongside retaining them.

One third of the businesses surveyed do not have a dedicated executive in charge of developing mobile strategy, and over half of the businesses have one full time equivalent fulltime staff member or less dedicated to mobile strategy. Even though most businesses do not have the staffing resources dedicated to mobile strategy development, most of the businesses have already increased their mobile budget for 2011, with around 25 percent of businesses doubling or even tripling their spend.

Research showed that the shift towards mobile marketing is seen as important, but the ways to ensure they are getting the most out of their advertising spend were not as easy to establish.

Visit www.txt2get.com for advice on developing successful and measurable mobile marketingcampaigns.

Starting a new business can be a terrifying prospect, with the thought of having to do the hard yards setting up the systems and establishing a customer database. When a business is just starting out, there is often not a lot of money in the marketing budget, and huge print and television campaigns are out of reach. Businesses need customers to survive, but how do you get them in the first place?

Mobile marketing allows a business to attract attention, and more importantly customers, with a much smaller budget. Mobile marketing is flexible, and with some added creativity, businesses can use it to attract new customers quickly and easily. A teaser campaign, a competition or early sign up offers are all easy to create, and all attention grabbing when done properly.

Customers love competitions and they are a great way to encourage customers to try something new. All of these options create interest in a new business, and paired with mobile marketing to capture customer information, they can help a business hit the ground running.

The low cost and more importantly, highly cost effective mobile marketing platform is accessible even to businesses with the smallest of budgets. The high cost of producing print ready advertising can be prohibitive, but a mobile marketing campaign can be set up quickly and easily. Mobile marketing companies offer a variety of packages, and can help a new business owner decide which one will work best for them. Mobile marketing professionals can offer advice about how to use mobile marketing to create a thriving business, right from the first day of operation.

Mobile marketing is not just for the established players. The cost-effective mobile marketing option can be embraced by even the newest business. By capturing the interest of the customers, and then using mobile marketing to capture the information of the customer, a new business can start strong with a healthy customer database.

Head over to www.txt2get.com for more advice on how you can set up your business with mobile marketing.

QR codes are gathering speed in the marketing and media campaigns of forward-thinking companies and having seen their success, you may well be thinking of launching your own QR code campaign. But where to from here? Here are some tips to get you started:

Your first step must be to decide what your QR codes will be used for. You may wish to launch a new product, heighten awareness of an exisiting product, promote a service. Your next decision is how to best use the QR codes in your campaign. You may want to provide product information via a URL or perhaps you have decided to run a competition, host a contest.

As part of your initial planning, you may already have introduced your current customers to what a QR code is by placing one in your email signature or on your website or online blog posts. You could include one on a business card as well. Creating interest and educating prior to the campaign start may prove invaluable.

Having the what and the how to, you must now select your QR code campaign management platform. There are several to choose from, some of which give 30 day free trial periods. Users can create QR codes in various formats and manage and track multiple QR code groups and campaigns, out of which statistics can be viewed and exported and so on.

Now that you have selected your QR service provider, you need to develop a mobile website that the QR code will link to. The final and perhaps the most exciting stage in the process is to decide where you want to place your QR barcodes – magazines, newspapers, billboards and so on. After that, it’s all systems go!

Learn more about QR Codes. Stop by www.txt2get.com where you can find out all about Mobile Marketing and what it can do for you.

The QR code or Quick Response code is a matrix barcode – a bit like a paper-based hyperlink. Used widely in most Japanese cities, the country where they originated, they are now starting to gain momentum in the US. Unlike a barcode which uses only vertical lines, the QR code has the two-dimensional code operating vertically and horizontally and can thus store far more data encryption; also readable from any angle.

The QR code originated in Japan in 1994 where it was created by Denso-Wave, a subsidiary of the Toyota Company. It was originally created to track parts in vehicles and allowed its contents to be decoded at very high speed, hence its QR title! Today the QR codes have a much wider usage and a broader context.

QR codes can be used to add a v-card contact to a user’s device (a file format standard for electronic business cards). It can also be used to display text to the user, open a URL or to compose email or text messages. Users can also generate and print their own QR codes which other users can then scan and use by visiting a free QR code generating site of which, several are available. Many of the new Android phones come with QR readers installed. More recent versions of Blackberry phones can also scan QR codes. Similar software can also be downloaded on phones readying them for this phenomenon as it truly takes off.

QR code usage is widespread throughout the media and QR codes which store URLs or addresses can be seen in magazines, on billboards and signs, on buses, business cards and anywhere a user might look to find out information. Relatively easy to utilise, the user scans the image of the displayed QR code with his camera phone and the text or contact information will then be displayed or alternatively the appropriate webpage is opened in the user’s phone browser.

QR code usage is becoming widespread throughout the media and QR codes which store URLs or addresses can be seen in magazines, on billboards and signs, on buses, and business cards. It could well revolutionise the marketing industry.

Looking to find the best deal on QR Codes, then visit www.txt2get.com to find the best advice you need!

Text response is being used more and more in advertising campaigns, replacing traditional mechanisms of response such as 1300/1800 numbers and websites. The ease of audience engagement with text response is its greatest advantage.

Case studies show that text response typically doubles, or even triples, ad reception. Aus/NZ mobile marketing experts TXT2GET supplied this result to Sydney’s 2UE radio station. Rebecca Coleman, Promotions Manager at 2UE, says of text response: without a doubt, TXT2GET more than doubled the response we achieved.

A further advantage of text response is its ability to provide an exact measurement of ad response. Also, its live reporting feature exposes trends in response over time. Finally, future communication with respondents is opened up, leaving an invaluable database of consumers.

Traditional response mechanisms such as phone numbers and websites are based around the same concepts as text response: they are just the evolutionary step before it. Text response is effective where other forms of response-seeking fall below expectations.

The launch of 1300 and 1800 phone numbers in Australian advertising had similar aims to text response. These phone numbers were included in advertisements to make it easy and cheap for audiences to respond, and so reached moderate success. But what’s holding this method back is accessibility. When most of the audience is on-the-go, calls to 1300 and 1800 numbers happen from mobile phones. This means that the call is no longer local, costing the average person more than they care to pay. A text message, on the other hand, is cheaper and also requires less effort than a phone call.

Another popular response mechanism is website links in advertisements. While links to social media can be effective in garnering audience response, this technique is limited by its low user-friendliness. The action of remembering a website address and returning to it later does not effortlessly occur: initial interest is hard to retain over longer periods of time. Furthermore, even once browsing a website, the audience is not left with anything tangible to encourage further engagement with the business or brand. When audiences spend hours browsing websites; an advertisement needs to be remarkable to leave an imprint days later. The solution? Provide them with a concrete result: a text message.

When compared to traditional response methods, text response is more effective, due to its ease of use for both the marketer and the audience.

Looking to find the best deal on SMS Marketing, go straight to www.txt2get.com.au where you will find all your answers.

The popularity of SMS advertising has skyrocketed since businesses began to use it almost a decade ago to reach consumers with marketing communications. The statistical evidence from numerous studies clearly demonstrates the reasons businesses of all sizes are reaching out to their customers with SMS. If you are among the companies not yet using SMS advertising, it might be time to jump on the bandwagon.

SMS Advertising Essentials

SMS is an abbreviation for Short Message Services. In essence, SMS is text messaging over the telephone, specifically sending a text message to someone’s cell phone or smart phone or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). As technology has significantly improved the capabilities of cell phones and other hand-held devices, the kind of messaging included in the SMS designation has also broadened. SMS can now include text, voice, video or some combination of message types.

Many small business owners are reluctant to use SMS advertising because they fear antagonizing customers or potential customers by invading their privacy. Some are also concerned about the time required to learn all of the laws that govern SMS advertising. The way text messaging works, however, is based on permission marketing. The people who receive these messages are those who have “opted in” or given permission for you to send them messages.

SMS advertising messages are sent only to people who opt in to your messages directly or to advertising messages from a marketing service. Once you hire that service to deliver your messages, you can send messages to their list. Using a service eliminates the concern about permission to contact the audience and it is available at an affordable price.

Why Use SMS Advertising?

If you plan marketing for a small business, you really should be considering SMS advertising as part of the marketing mix. 64.1 million Americans now have mobile access to the web.

SMS advertising is an important tactic in your marketing strategy for several reasons:

1. When people subscribe to your advertising, it is because they want to hear from you.

2. People subscribe to your messaging because they want you to give them a reason to buy from you.

3. You will have the opportunity to target every aspect of your SMS advertising message – when, where and how it is delivered, and how specific it will be.

4. SMS is an ideal way to build customer loyalty by providing targeted information and targeted offers.

5. You have the ability to combine text messaging with voice messaging, pictures, video clips and even GPS technology to deliver the message at the most advantageous moment.

SMS Advertising in Practice

During the second quarter of a college football game everyone in the stadium and using a specific cell phone company receives a text message that says: “Answer this question for free food: What is the name of the visiting team’s mascot? Text answer to 99999.” When the correct answer is received, the sender gets this message back: “Correct!. Bring this message to the nearest food vendor for free fries with every hot dog or burger purchase.”

You could also use SMS advertising to entice your customers to shop your next sale. Your message might go out to everyone who has ever made a purchase from you. It might say: “Your Store Spring blowout. Everything 30% off. Bring this message for extra 10% on any one item.”

On a Friday evening, you send a text message to every teen in the mall with a cell phone. It reads: Buy one ticket, get second 1/2 price; buy food, get free drink. Just show this message. My guess is that you will have a full theater, sell a lot of food, and perform the community service to other store owners of moving all of the packs of teenagers roaming the mall aimlessly into the theater.

SMS advertising is popular because it is exceptionally versatile, highly memorable, and can be personalized in many ways. Whether you want to use it to build your brand or sell products, you simply cannot afford to miss the opportunity it presents.

If you own a small business or professional and want more information about sms advertising, see the free video, “How You Can Send 25,000 – 50,000 New Prospects to Your Web Site Every Month – For Free” at http://internetleadgenerationacademy.com/freevideo.htm

How Mobile Marketing Can Boost Success This Christmas

Trying to get your share of the Christmas retail rush? As the holiday season begins, it’s time to think about ads, revenue, and Christmas specials. Implementing a mobile marketing campaign may make the difference between sink or swim in this crucial period.

Innovative Technology and Increased Revenue

As competition increases, innovation becomes increasingly important as a tool to distinguish yourself from the rest of the market. Many retailers this season will be looking towards mobile marketing as an innovative technology which boosts sales. This is exemplefied by Brisbane’s Clinic Aesthetic, a day clinic specialising in laser treatments, injectables and hair removal.

Through their SMS-response campaign with mobile marketing experts TXT2GET, Clinic Aesthetic received nearly 100 leads, including many customers who made long-term bookings and several return visits from past clients. Clinic Aesthetic’s Carolyn Ingram explains the innovation of mobile marketing:

“The direct link we achieved with those listening to our ad will help more cleverly process and script the next campaign of ads we do.

Digital Media, Social Media and Maximum Ad Response

Another strength of mobile marketing is its function as a link between traditional advertising and social and digital media; a feature which maximises ad response. Customers are more likely to become company loyal when they are linked to an online presence, as the brand enters the realm of the personal. Australian energy-saving company Low Energy Supplies and Services (LESS) have experienced success with this.

LESS’s print and broadcast campaign was enhanced by mobile marketing experts TXT2GET, who facilitated an SMS keyword for inclusion in the advertisements. LESS’s website was also provided, and its standard level of traffic was increased by requiring customers to log into the website to complete their entry into the draw to win a solar power system. Over 450 text responses were received, spurring 246 online quotes. LESS’s Lucy Allinson reflects on the benefit of linking traditional ads to digital and social media:

More than 95% of responses were from texters. Less people went directly to the site.”

Christmas Specials Made More Effective

Christmas specials: are they worth having? There’s no doubt that they can be useful, but whether they drive sales or not depends on their delivery. One way of making sure Christmas specials are effective (and one which builds an invaluable database of customers along the way) is by using mobile coupons. This was successful for Hairfree Plus Pty Ltd, Australia’s largest laser hair removal specialist.

Hairfree used mobile marketing in their print and radio broadcast campaign, through the help of mobile marketing experts TXT2GET. Their special offer was distributed as an SMS coupon to the 640 customers who texted in response to the ads. Unlike a paper voucher, the mobile coupon is on hand for the customer all the time, meaning that they are redeemed more often. Additionally, a database of customers who can be reached by mobile marketing is created with little effort, making the benefits last well into the future.

So What’s On Your Wish List?

On both small scales and large, the benefits of mobile marketing and text response are numerous. To increase customers, retailers need innovative technology; links to digital and social media; and customer databases. Mobile marketing can provide all of this.

Looking to find the best deal on Mobile Marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com.au to find the best advice on Text Marketing for you.

Over the last decade or so, mobile marketing has been increasingly harnessed as an effective tool in the promotion and running of events. Be it on television or live, mobile phones give organisers an opportunity to not just spread the word about events, but also to create a more dynamic experience for those watching or attending. With smart phones becoming more and more widely used, the ways in which this can be achieved are ever expanding.

Television has proved to be an effective user mobile technology as a way to further engage its audience. Shows such as American Idol who allow viewers to vote for their favourite contestants have been at the forefront of mobile use on television. Certainly, Idol owes its consistent number one rating in part to its engagement of viewers in allowing them to decide each season’s winner.

The popularity of using mobile technology in television has easily translated to live events. As a way of filling the time between matches and keeping it’s audience involved in the proceedings, the replay screen at this year’s US Open tennis tournament frequently displayed messages that patrons could respond to by SMS. Amongst other things, the crowd was asked to vote for correct options in fact or fiction games, answer trivia questions or even vote for the song they most wanted to hear played over the PA system. The idea proved such a success that the organisers are already looking for new and exciting ways that mobile technology could be developed for future events.

While new and innovative uses for text messaging are still being developed, the growing popularity of smart phones has given event organisers a far greater range of tools with which they can communicate to their audiences with. Applications for one allow organisers to create content that ties into their events. The US Open particular offered an application that allowed users to keep track of match scores and tournament information.

The social networking capabilities of phones though is something that organisers are particularly excited about. The recent Red Bull Air Show used the social networking service, Whrrl, to create a society which interested parties could access from their phones. Because Whrrl takes account of a users physical location, those who joined the society were able to access exclusive content which tailored for them based upon their physical location.

Planning the marketing and advertising components for your events? Why don’t you use Mobile Marketing? Visit http://www.txt2get.com today and find out how.

Simply put, one of the most important technological developments in recent years has been the advent of social networking. Allowing users to connect and interact with friends, relatives or just generally people of similar interest and hobbies, social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have become very popular in a short space of time. As mobile devices are now capable of running social networking applications, the opportunities for advertisers are exciting.

Social Networking sites go right back to the early days of the internet. Through chat rooms and other rudimentary online communities users could interact with others; often by linking in email addresses. These online forums quickly evolved however and it wasn’t long before the first social networking services appeared allowing users to build their own sophisticated online communities with which they could interact in a diverse range of ways. Presently, largest of these services is Facebook which has over 500 million users. 100 million of which have access on their mobile phones.

Advertisers have been quick to seize the opportunities presented by mobile access to social networks. One clear example of this the Red Bull’s use of the location-based social networking service, Whrrl, in promoting it’s New York Air Race. By creating a Red Bull Society that people could join up to, Red Bull was able to provide mobile content such as ticket deals, drink passes and event information to interested parties relevant to their physical location.

Services such as Whrrl show that the location-based technology will be a big part of social networking’s future development.

Giants such as Facebook have started to integrate it into their platforms and considering their reach, it is an exciting prospect for marketers. The ability to infer a user’s preferences from their whereabouts will allow advertisers to tailor their content accordingly making for more relevant and effective marketing.

To find out more about how Txt2Get’s mobile marketing tool can help you embrace the benefits of social networking, visit www.txt2get.com

Incumbent, traditional media networks are not usually swift to change business practice and adopt innovative new technology. This is generally because they have large revenue streams coming from traditional advertising models and disruptive new technology generally represents a threat to these revenues and the entire existence of the business. For all involved in the management of an established profitable business, massive change is very scary, the future of the business and people’s livelihoods are at stake.

However, when change comes and a traditional media company faces the possibility of losing their audience almost over night, then they are forced to consider changing business practices, make decisions and acting. In the newspaper industry, this was seen with the rise of the internet and the move by audiences to consuming news and information online. Newspaper publishers where the first traditional media companies to feel the massive impact of disruptive technology and there have been many articles written about the impact on their circulations and revenues.

However after successive periods of denial, anger, grief and acceptance, smart newspaper organisations found ways to adapt to change by joining the ‘online revolution’ as it was called at the time. Companies like News Corporation made significant investments in digital assets and this had the effect of hedging against the wave of online content brought about by the changing tide of technology.

In a similar way in Australia, a pro-active radio company has embraced technological change and has used it to compliment its core business of selling radio advertisements. The Australian Radio Network (ARN) is a subsidiary of APN News and Media, they have been actively supporting their medium and their advertisers by integrating mobile marketing keywords into radio scripts. This has had the effect of increasing the response their clients receive from advertising, proving that the medium is delivering results and creating interactivity between the radio broadcast and the listener.

The Brisbane based ARN radio station 97.3 FM has integrated numerous keywords into advertising campaigns and one notable campaign resulted in listeners receiving mobile coupons to their phones via SMS. To receive the coupon, listeners were asked to text BOAT to 19 33 33. The listener was then able to take the SMS coupon to the registration desk at the Brisbane Boat Show and receive a 25% discount on entry.

By taking this pro-active approach to the mobile revolution and digital technology, the management at 97.3FM and ARN are ensuring that their medium and their product stays relevant to clients. They are using a piece of new business technology to grow and protect their valuable existing revenue base. This is demonstrated clearly by the response from clients:

“It was our account manager Naomi Westaway at ARN (97.3FM – Brisbane) who planted the seed for us to start using SMS promotions in the first place.

“She provided great suggestions and advice on how to use radio to get the best results. Thanks to her we were able to integrate radio advertising with mobile coupons that visitors redeemed at the door.

“Naomi’s expertise and the integrated mobile option made advertising on radio very compelling and certainly influenced our decision to go with 97.3FM” says Nicholle Smith – Marketing Officer- Marine Queensland

By trying new things and adopting what works, ARN are much better positioned to weather any storms that disruptive technology may throw at them.

The latest trend is to combine mobile marketing with traditional marketing such as radio advertising. Have you tried this out for your advertising? Visit www.txt2get.com.au today to find out more!