CommerceTel Corporation (OTC.BB: MFON.OB - News), Mobivity’s parent company, announced today that Utah State University has renewed their mobile texting program for the next three years using CommerceTel’s patented mobile marketing technology.

A new texting club sponsored by the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business during the 2011-12 school year attracted over 4,000 students, according to the school’s co-director of strategic marketing and brand management Eric Schulz.

The club, created as a way to inform students about upcoming business school events, also sent out information about general campus events.

“Texting is the preferred method of communication for students,” Schulz said. “It’s relevant to what we’re doing here, and it’s the best way to communicate with them. Every time we used the texting platform this school year, it worked wonders. It is especially good at generating crowds for special events and special speaking engagements. Many times we had overflow audiences where in the past we’d be struggling to fill up half the auditorium.”

Text message announcements help students to stay informed without having to sit down and use a computer, said freshman international business major Aimee Matheson.

Schulz pulled the idea of starting a texting club from his experience working at the Utah Jazz, where he started a similar program with CommerceTel technology.

“Texting is one of the key marketing tools that is really evolving,” he said. “The experience I had with the Jazz really convinced me of its power. CommerceTel and Txtstation’s technology has empowered us with an unparalleled toolset to drive success from the mobile channel.”

He said texting has capabilities that other forms of communication do not, noting that social media pages like Facebook and Twitter tend to bury messages. Email, he said, is ineffective, because most students only check their email in the evening.

Read the full press release here.

Text Message campaigns have long served many purposes to businesses and brands – from becoming one of the best ways to build customer loyalty to allowing an instant-gratification marketing approach, SMS has always been the preferred channel for connecting with customers on the mobile channel.  However, often times businesses and brands lose the opportunity to monetize this approach, and instead inundate their customers with messages that benefit neither the business nor the consumer.  Below we’ve listed some of the key ways to create and monetize a successful and results driven SMS campaign.

Text talks, and it talks now.

Like any other marketing strategy, an SMS campaign must align with the brand image and the rest of the brand’s marketing efforts.  The key difference however is time.  Jeff Hasen points out two of the key components of a successful SMS campaign:

“Brands should use SMS for time-sensitive offers and information.  They should also consider location to boost relevance.”

The main purposes of SMS campaigns are not only customer retention, but also to increase profit and revenue generated from marketing expenses.  In order to conceive a successful mobile campaign, all of these things must be kept in mind.

Putting the right message in the palm of your customers hands.

Perhaps one of the greatest aspects of a successful SMS campaign is that you are putting your message directly into your customers’ pockets, immediately.  However, there are some timely pitfalls that we have seen over the years.  The key issue that must be addressed to achieve a successful mobile campaign is creating a call to action.

You don’t want to simply give your customers information, that’s what billboards and yellow pages are for.  You want to create a call to action, create a sense of urgency within your customers.  Not only do you want to send them pertinent information, but also give them something to act on, and make it time-sensitive.  This is key to bringing these customers who you’re communicating to into your location.

For example, Dominoes has used the controversially successful QR codes on their pizza boxes around the country, but when an end-user scans the displayed QR code they are simply taken to a mobile friendly version of the Dominoes site.  No call to action, no conversation, just information.  This is what must be avoided to maintain a successful mobile campaign.

Successful mobile campaigns do much much more than simply convey information, they generate excitement, and initiate conversation between brand and customer. To speak with a Mobivity Account Manager about how to best convey your brand’s message to your customers, give us a call today.

Many tech and mobile marketing blogs are citing the level of use and interaction with QR codes, Microsoft Tags and the likes as marking the end of SMS as the king of mobile marketing.  However, we have seen nothing but an increase in use and effectiveness of SMS marketing to connect consumers and brands. For example:

• In 2011 Harley-Davidson held a 12 Days of Christmas mobile campaign, offering customers different in store discounts via SMS message for each day of the 12 days of Christmas.  The dealership saw a significant increase in sales of the specific items discounted during the campaign – for example, T-shirts were offered at a discounted price during one of the days, and the dealership saw a 250% increase in sales of T-shirts.  In addition, high-dollar items such as Helmets and Leather Jacket sales saw increases up to 16% when they were offered at a discounted cost via text.
• Also, during this year’s NBA All-Star game Sprite, a subsidiary of Coca-Cola, is utilizing SMS to interact with fans leading up to the game.  Users will be able to participate in real-time polls and quizzes to vote for who they think should win the game.  Sports fans will also have the opportunity to enter to win prizes from interacting with SMS.  Coca-Cola clearly sees SMS as a viable opportunity to create fun and effective marketing strategies.  Tom Daly, the director of mobile, search, and global connections at Coca-Cola, Atlanta, recently stated that brands need to bank 70 percent of their mobile strategy on channels that are proven to be effective, with SMS at the top of the list due to its reach.  “Mobile builds brand awareness and love.  The mindset is mobile enables things that money cannot buy, and create a bind that consumers have with a brand.”

It is clear that SMS is not loosing it’s place as king of the mobile hill.  However, in the coming months and years we may see the kingdom being distributed evenly amongst mobile connection giants.

An executive form Rock the Vote at the Nonprofit Mobile Day said that by using a combination of SMS, mobile bar codes, web, and social media applications, the organization has been successful in getting young voters to the poll.  “Our approach as an organization is to go to where young people are and digital and mobile is a huge part of it,” said Chrissy Faesen, VP of marketing and communications at Rock the Vote Washington.

Rock the Vote is perhaps one of the largest marketing champions in the mobile industry currently, employing a multi-channel approach.  For instance, Rock the Vote promotes its SMS program by combining it with social media and email efforts as a way to get users engaged.  Mobile bar codes also play a role in the company’s efforts.  At a recent concert, Rock the Vote volunteers wore t-shirts with a QR code on the back that users can scan.

Ms. Faesen offered possibly one of the most relevant and pertinent pieces of advice the mobile marketing world will read in the near future:

“Over the course of the last four years, the biggest lesson we have learned is to know your audience and what makes sense to message them about.”

This insight makes it clear to businesses that, with the entry and dominance of the third-screen, a single-channel marketing approach is no longer the most intelligent or effective way to get your message into your customers hands.  A multi-faceted and cross-platform approach is introducing itself as the best way to not only increase communication between consumers and brands, but also to keep your business ahead of the mobile marketing curve, and to keep yourself relevant in your customers’ minds.

If you are interested in opening your business up to the mobile conversation give us a call today.