Mobile & Text Message Marketing

Electronic Retailing Association Goes Mobile

<strong>Text message conference event alerts are now an available feature for attending ERA members during their 17th Annual Convention in Las Vegas at the Venetian!  This is a beginning stage roll-out, and will be enhanced with more details for future events.  It's a great first step towards event innovation & definitely very interesting.</strong> 

Honestly, who doesn't have their cell phone / blackberry at these events & with so much going on, schedule evnet reminders seemed like a desirable benefit for their participants.  Who wants to carry around event schedule papers...?  Not me!

The picture below is linked to their opt in (sign-up) page for these alerts & worthy of taking a quick look!  Programs like this for your best customers keeping them in the know during their busy lives is the basis behind our retail text messaging programs...  Not cluttering their phones with junk.  Requested, relevant, intimate & timely communications is what this is about.

Setting up an event & want to see what the messages look like, email me and I'll be happy forward them on to you.  It's a great concept and was very well received!

The Choice Generation

Marketing as always is evolving, as of late it has been shifting from straight push towards consumer directed communications.  We now now call call CRM or 1 to 1 is becoming Managed Customer Communications based on permission marketing.  This theory applies to: "The Choice Generation"

"The Choice Generation" is not a demographic, but a new wave of consumers," says Eric Holmen, President of SmartReply. "Call them control freaks - they are the polar opposite of the passive consumers of yesteryear who were receptive to one-directional marketing messages. Consumers of the Choice Generation require a two-way dialogue where their input matters." 

Mobile Marketing / Text Messaging  Opt In Marketing plays a big role in this time of interactive customer communications.  In my experience, anytime we engage our customers on a deeper level, involve them with the direction of our brand or make their experience with us a more enjoyable & convenient one: They Respond Very Positively!

Explore some recent consumer behavior studies & breakthrough retail marketing strategies here:

Text Messaging Case Study - Catalog Integration

La Redoute, one of the oldest catalog retailers in the world came into 2006 - 2007 with an open mind & a fresh outlook on new marketing possibilities.  Completely up-to-the-minute product offerings and event announcements, La Redoute is giving their customers the power to chose how they receive their marketing messages, building greater loyalty & profits along the way.

Download The Case Study Here

Learn more about La Redoute’s mobile marketing campaign with SmartReply, where the retailer has continually achieved phenomenal response rates through the use of opt in text messaging.  So successful in fact, La Redoute has decided to integrate mobile marketing into its overall business plan. The retailer is seizing mobile marketing opportunities right now, gaining valuable insight into this new medium and positioning themselves to be well prepared for an undoubted component in the present & near future of marketing.

"It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when.” says Victor Essoka, Senior Vice President & General Brand Manager of La Redoute USA, a division of Redcats USA. “And who ever starts today will seize the advantage for the consumer who wants the opportunity to be in charge of how you market to them.”