Mobile Marketing

Hi-yah! Even though some business owners might not be able to fight at a martial arts competition like our own John Wood, they can still use martial arts principles in their product development and marketing strategies  to win business.

Move Faster to Beat your Competitors

The concept of speed and surprise  is often found in the Brazilian Ju-Jitsu fighting style. It is a martial arts principle which determines the best way to win a competition when the opponent is larger. This principle removes fear from the equation by teaching that a bigger opponent can be defeated if the smaller, weaker opponent is faster. This concept relies heavily on the element of surprise. Many small businesses can feel backed into a … Keep reading

We recently joined 10 Mobile Marketing Association member companies in a working group to craft a new white paper on the current state of mobile messaging in North America. This 21 page white paper runs through all things messaging, including SMS, MMS and push notifications.

Mobile Messaging in North America: A Fresh Look at Current Options for Marketers

We hope you find it a quick, valuable read.… Keep reading

A recent Hubspot blog post caught my attention as it attempted to highlight the right and wrong way to use SMS marketing.

In it, Eridon points out that SMS marketing works best when integrated with other digital marketing channels as opposed to being used alone for lead generation.

“[SMS] is most successful when it’s leveraged for its superpower … a real-time, interactive method of communication that’s promoted through an integrated marketing campaign leveraging social media, email marketing, landing pages, and more.”

Adding SMS to your cross-channel mix can provide remarkable results for businesses who do it right, but a lazy approach may do more damage than help. Eridon highlights that the intimacy of receiving text messages means SMS marketing deserves … Keep reading

Yesterday was a sobering one for me. I hope by sharing this story I can raise awareness of a fantastic service we’re proud to be involved with.

If you weren’t already aware, we offer a live chat feature to anyone who visits our website and wants to get some real time info about our product and services.  I tend to be logged into this chat tool (provided by the fine people at Olark) a fair amount throughout the day.  I enjoy helping solve our customers problems and helping prospective customers learn more about what we do.

Last night, I was involved in a very different kind of chat.  At first, it seemed like a common question that we get … Keep reading

Everyday it seems I get more and more emails from retailers like Fab.com, Gap, and Gilt Groupe. While I’m sure there’s something nice inside, like a new deal or sale, I don’t bother to open it. I simply get too many of them. Like many relationships, this started out exciting and intriguing, and I just couldn’t get enough (ask my Amex card)! Recently though, it’s different; I’ve been feeling overloaded and suffocated by my retail friends. When this happens I tend to shell-up and avoid the situation, neglecting them all together. When I open my email, I can see them there, staring at me amidst the pile of other personal inbox mail that I have not the time nor energy … Keep reading

Today in Target, we spotted Ciao Bella Gelato using Signal‘s QR codes and text call-to-actions to engage their customers. This is a great example call-to-action as they are providing both the scannable QR code for smartphones, and a text keyword for people without web and camera enabled cell phones. Mouth watering yet?

… Keep reading

Before we ring in the new year with that delicious bottle of Andre Brut we’ve been saving for a special occasion, I wanted to start on an important resolution for marketers everywhere.  In 2012, I’d like to put an end to the bad habits text marketing and make next year a more fit and effective year for your SMS! As with every goal, specific objectives are necessary to help you accomplish your feat, and here I will lay out ten ways to help you improve your mobile marketing to grow your lists, build stronger relationships with customers, and impact your bottom line.

1. Pick Better Keywords!

Your mobile call-to-action must be transparent and legible! This is about as simple as … Keep reading

Consumers have stated they’re more likely buy from brands that personalize communications to them. With that in mind, Signal is excited to release a simple feature enhancement that will help brands have more relevant and personalized interactions with their customers. For those interested in sending personalized mobile messages, now you can do so with Signal.

As of today, when you go to schedule a text message, you will now see a series of links below your message. These links correspond to specific dynamic tags and actions  you can take to customize your message. The tag that is shaped like a person is for inserting personalization tags into your text message (as in “Hey Joe…”).

 Any content or data you … Keep reading

This week the nation’s capital is the host to the second annual Digital Capital Week, a week long gathering of  tech innovators, entrepreneurs, designers and developers that aims to examine the ways that tech, government, the non-profit sector and other areas intersect.  With over 10,000 registered attendees, this is obviously one of the most visible gatherings of digital thought leaders in 2011.

What makes this conference particularly interesting is it’s focus on leveraging emerging technology to improve how government functions and serves it’s constituency, an area that has notoriously been slow to adopt new tech.  From addressing ways to improve government’s data transparency to leveraging that data via apps that improve our lives, these are worthy explorations that could change … Keep reading

Following up on post we did back in August giving a breakdown of Redbox’s mobile initiatives by the numbers, I’m extremely happy to announce that Signal and Redbox won the highly coveted Forrester Groundswell Award for our highly effective 10 Days of Deals program.

The Forrester Groundswell Awards recognize excellence in achieving business and organizational goals with social technology applications.  This campaign is a perfect example of creative use of mobile to deliver real results.  Generating over 1.5 million texts in 10 days, 10 Days of Deals led to growth of more than 200,000 unique subscribers to the Redbox text club.

Though the success of this campaign is extraordinary, the principles behind it can be used by businesses of all sizes … Keep reading