SMS (Short Message Service or otherwise known more commonly as ‘Text’ or ‘Texting’) is the most pervasive digital data application in the world with 2.4 billion active users, or 74% of all mobile phone subscribers sending and receiving text messages on their phones. In the US alone, in 2008 there was about 75 billion message sent per month. These sort of numbers should make any marketer pay attention.
Here at ShopLocal we have been live for about year with SMS messaging in a variety of applications. One of the unique aspects of how ShopLocal has applied texting technology is for on-demand, ad-hoc alerting and messaging. Instead of trying to “subscribe” a user to a series of ongoing message, ShopLocal uses text message as a way of moving content from a user’s computer to their more portable mobile device. So users that choose to engage this SMS feature on any ShopLocal site are NOT signing up for a never-ending stream of messages, but rather just one (1) single message to help the user take some information they have identified as useful with them.
The core value proposition is simple then. If a user knows where your store is and/or knows an item they want to purchase, the more sticky and portable this information can be the better. Since the goal of the SmartCircular sites is to drive shoppers that are researching online into a physical store location to make a purchase, this type of shopper tool should increase the ‘conversion’ rate of these type of consumers.
By using text or SMS messages, there are loads of benefits not available to any other medium such as:
- Ubiquitous format across carriers and mobile devices
- Highest deliverability rate of any pushed based medium
- Messages are sent as the action happens which creates instant user gratification
- 95%+ of all US mobile subscribers are supported which includes all the major carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, AMP’d, Alltel, etc, etc, etc (all due to picking the right underlying mobile platform partner – 4INFO)
With text or SMS messages, there are a few constraints to be aware of (so as to tell a balanced story):
- Only 160 total characters can be inserted into any one (1) outbound SMS message. This is an inherent limitation of this type of media
- Can’t track opens like you can with email. You can track sent and click thrus but open rates are not available
- Privacy and permission are managed at the highest tolerances. The mobile carriers often remind anyone that is sending message across their walled networks that unlike email where
- To prevent SPAM, no more than 5 unique messages can be sent to any given user within a 24 hour period
- This service is only available in the US. Sorry Canada…
The two main use cases that ShopLocal currently supports with mobile text (SMS) messaging are:
1. Send A Store Location Of Interest To Your Mobile Phone (just one)
2. Send A Specific Item Of Interest To Your Mobile Phone (just one)
Here is an example of what a typical screen flow would look like for the 'Send A Store' to a mobile phone or device. The user is prompted to enter their 10-digit mobile phone number, agree to a terms and conditions (mandated by the mobile carriers) and then hits a "SEND" button to fire off the SMS text message. Note the red arrow. This is the link on the page that triggers this mobile messaging feature.
Once a user hits the "SEND" button, the SmartCiruclar site displays this confirmation message on screen assuming all the error checking conditions are meet.
Finally, here is an example of what type of SMS text message would actually be sent to a user's mobile phone or device. In this case, the store address, phone number and hours of operation would be included.
Here is a partial list of some of the retailer that have chosen to deploy this type of mobile messaging – just click to see and use live examples of this mobile feature:
It only takes a spark to ignite a viral spread of ideas or content
Online advertising is great for reaching new customers, but it is not without an ongoing cost component. The model going forward suggest that a marketer should pay once for the new customers (acquired through digital ads) and then engage them in a series of ongoing “free” conversations. The goal of this post is to present a top 10 list of very inexpensive technologies to make your web site more sticky so as to convert one-time visitors into repeat users.
1. Social Bookmarking Buttons
Both browser based bookmarking features (like the ‘bookmark this page’ on Shopping.com) and social bookmarking buttons (made easy these days from companies like AddThis.com) offer your users the ability to very easily grab a site or piece of content and either remember it for later use or share it with the community at large.
2. RSS Feeds
Every page, view or area of your site should have an accompanying RSS feed enabled. This allows users to again take just the specific slice of content that interest them and subscribe to it. By encouraging users to subscribe to your content, it changes the model of driving people to your site to rather pushing content to your customers. Pull vs. push where pull is expensive (search, display, etc) and push is free (RSS, emails, etc). One tip is to make sure to ‘burn’ (via Feedburner) any and all feeds so that there is some measurement available.
3. Email A Friend | Print This Page | Send To Phone
Help make it easy for a user to take content with them. By creating ways for users to port out information from that big ugly black box on their desk (eg their PC), it opens up new doors for extending your interactions with that customer beyond the browser and your site. Again, every item, view and area of your site should allow for the following three actions whenever practical:
- Printing the user’s view in a printer friendly manner
- Sending a real-time email to yourself or friends of that view or information
- Sending a real-time SMS text message to your self or friends’s mobile phone
4. Wigetize Key Content
Are you seeing a theme yet? Allowing users to take with them the information they find useful in a manner that the user chooses. Widgets are just another tactic at achieving the ‘freeing your content’ strategy. By turning to one of the big widget providers (WidgetBox, Gigya or Clearspring), nearly any flash movie, RSS feed, JS/HTML or web page can be turned into a snaggable, portable widget for free in a few minutes. There is no reason not to take the most interesting, highly requested information on your site and package it up in a way that allows your users to take it with them.
5. Lists / Collections
Pen and paper are so tired. Out with the old and in with virtual lists and collections. By encouraging users to gather up items of interest in one place, it opens up a number of really cool possibilities for these user generated collections of items. Like sending your wish list to a friend or creating a wedding gift list and sharing it with your family or having your friends comment on your list. The best examples of lists are:
6. Integrations to 3rd Parties
You can’t win the war without allies. Your users are a lot of other web site’s users as well. We all share them to some degree. So get your content within their sites. The new buzz word behind this concept is ‘application’ Whether it is a Facebook, MySpace or (the newest entrant) LinkedIN application, extending the reach of your content and brand into the sites where your users are interacting is a great way to tap into an audience for next to no costs.
7. Open APIs / Web Services
There is no better example of how effective opening up the doors to your back end data marts can be other than Amazon. I cannot tell you how many mashup apps I have seen or spots where Amazon content is included due to enablement that a well written and deployed web service can bring. This is a must have conversation within retailers today. Partners are desperate on how to integrate and being closer and a well build API can be just the ticket. It really is amazing all the uses and applications that just come out of the wood work once an API is live. More than any initial business case will ever contain. This may take a little act of faith to trust that there is real value here and some hard fought battles to get people comfortable with the loss of direct control of their content. The motto for APIs is, “If you build, the developers will come.”
8. Create Some Content In A Wiki Format
People love to feel like their voice can be heard and that they can contribute to the greater good. It is time that retailers tap into this collective power that their users have and open up some ways to allow content generation and editing. Shopwiki has build a business on this single principle, with their competitive difference coming solely on the wiki content that wraps their spidered results. Typical starting places these days are commenting and reviews, but the really golden alter is going all the way to wiki-type pages where all the content is up for grabs, not just a little slice.
9. Use Linkbaiting Techniques By Creating Specific Content That Is Buzzworthy
Give the web world a reason to notice you. One crafty way that has proven effective is to create small nuggets of content that is news worthy. The goal here is for one of these linkbait specific stories to get picked up by a user and added into the social network vortex of sites like Digg.com or Facebook and if your lucky, get noticed / voted / ranked high enough to generate a huge wall of incoming traffic back to your web site. This seems like a somewhat junior and low-class tactic, but it really works, often to the tune of 20,000 – 40,000 additional visitors to your web site for just one linkbait story that makes the front page of Digg.com for example. Below are a few typical types of linkbait stories to consider creating:
- Top Ten Lists
- News hook
- Contrary / rants hook
- Resource hook
- Humor hook
- Quizzes / Polls
- Stats / Research (amazing claims)
10.Richness of Overall Site Experience
Drum roll please. Wait a second, the finale is really anti-climatic. All of these techniques described are all in vain if your overall website does not offer good content and a user experiences that gives a visitor a reason to come back. Bolting on a bunch of viral, social and sticky features is only ‘putting lipstick on a pig’ as my friend Eric would say. There are no shortcuts to the blocking and tackling of nailing down a solid site wide experience. Once that is achieved, then these more advanced tactics can really be unleashed in their most effective manner.
Free is the name of the game in today's marketing budget
The economy is in the crapper. Budgets are tight. We all get this news cast at us every day within the retail world. So now is the time to make the most of internal and essentially free marketing tools that nearly everyone has at their disposal to drive additional in-store traffic and sales. Often times these resources go overlooked and are vastly untapped due the common, low-tech nature of many of them. That however is the beauty of many of them. The price is right (free), the complexity is low (quick implementation) and there is still potential (as many of these ‘stones’ have not yet been turned over).
Below is an examination of a few techniques that I have personally witness retailers using over the last 4+ years that are designed to drive consumes cross-channel.
1. Web – To – Store
a. Search - Every single site has a keyword search box. However most sites only search items available online and ignore those items on sale OR for sale in the store. By simply integrating these data sets and providing a holistic view to search across all channels,. ShopKo for example does a great job of this on their dot com site where store based on-sale items are included in the search and browse results.
b. Email - Who doesn’t have a million plus house email list these days? It’s a well proven method of driving on-line sales. Consider however how email could easily be made to serve an additional master – the store. By simply including in-store promotional content within. Retailers such as JCP, OSH, Staples and others faithful use email to promote and drive people in-store. Just sign-up for their newsletters and you’ll get the picture immediately.
c. Store Locators – OK. This one is becoming a personal ‘soap box’ for me. It is however probably the most powerful method defined here. Online store locator visits = in store visits. It is the closest, most well established measurement proxy for how to track the effectiveness of the web driving in-store sales. As such, by including in-store messaging as to give an incentive for the user looking at the online store locator to actual take action and drive to a local store (via what is happening in store, what’s on sale in store, etc). Here is another good example of how this key asset can be best used.
2. Print – To – Web
a. Inserts / Circulars / Flyers / Catalogs – Print ads are not cheap to produce or distribute. Help keep print costs in check and add additional users by messaging that the same in-store promotional content is available online.
Here is the front cover of a recent JCP ad that has messaging that is cross promoting the online weekly ad site
b. Direct Mail – Same story as circulars above. Cross-promotional messaging is the key here.
c. Bill Inserts – Another variation for those retailers that run their own private label credit cards. This customer touch point is one more area that cross-promotion can naturally occur.
d. Newspaper Insertion Add-Ons – These come in many forms. Yellow sticky notes on the outside of the shrink rack bags that hold all the FSIs / inserts. Other actually branding the circular bag itself.
Highly branded shrink wrap bag that all the circular ads got stuffed into
Special call out on the front page of the newspaper drawing attention to in-store deals
3. Store – To – Web
a. Cash Register / Point of Sale (POS) Receipts – This is a technique that I first noticed at my local Target store. I just checked out and I looked down to notice that on the bottom of my receipt was a message that stated “No Newspaper? No Problem. The Target Weekly Ad Is Online At http://weeklyad.target.com“ Simple, useful information, high exposure and cost effective.
b. In-Store Signage / Bulletin Boards- Your local stores are a huge marketing machine. Making sure that all of the places where informational channel specific or cross-channel signage is displayed have the proper messaging in place to make shoppers aware of all the options, communication mediums/tools and channels you offer. Wal-Mart always has this huge glassed-in bulletin board by customer service that has the weekly ad pinned up. I see consumers actually getting out scrap paper and making notes of which items are of interest, the prices, etc. This is exactly the type of opportunity to drive these information requests to a better channel. Enter mobile site, kiosk standing right there with the ability to print, etc. Basically anything has to be better than making people do their store shopping research through a piece of glass.
c. Registries / In-Store Kiosks – Bringing the internet inside of a store is a brilliant idea, as it opens up a whole hoard of information to store shoppers. As more and more kiosks get deployed (Borders has made a big investment in this area), these store and web experiences get really blurred quickly. This is the exact reason that their needs to be good bi-directional messaging and promotion across both the online and in store channel. Registries are also another great example of how in store and online are all mixed up as users add items in store, edit the registry list on line and friends and family consume it back in store. Talk about a system that is ripe for cross-channel promotion.
d. Ad Racks – Walgreens is the retailer that comes to mind here. Every time I go in store, the first thing that I literally run into is a large chrome wire rack that has a stack of paper circular ads stuffed in it. However more times than not, the rack is empty. What if however there was a sign on this rack that said, “Go online to our mobile WAP site to find out the deals in our local store at http://m.walgreens.com” It would solve the out-of-stock issue, be ‘greener’, always up-to-date and drive awareness of a WAP site.
e. Check-Out Point Of Sale (POS) Terminal Screens – Whole Foods has really fancy, large LCD monitors that you are suppose to watch when you check out. There are of course the details of what you are buying but in addition there are tons of display ads and messaging that wrap around the transaction area of the screen. Again I see an opportunity here to drive cross-channel messaging and behavior by promoting that consumers can figure out what is on sale in that specific local store BEFORE they leave their house by going online to the weekly ad.
Whole Foods POS screen that has almost half the screen real estate being used to promote products in store
4. Mobile – To – Web
a. SMS Text Alerts / Reminders – Urban Outfitters has a pretty simple and cool mobile messaging effort that send periodic updates to a house file of mobile numbers that their customers have entrusted the retailer with. How about including in the bottom of each message a simple & short URL (like a www.tinyurl.com redirect) that links back to a mobile compliant site that has in-store content, events and promotions? That would be a perfect cross-channel promotional opportunity.
5. Phone – To – Web
a. Call Center: Recorded Messages - How many times have I been on hold hearing the same endless loop of music and messages? Too many to recount, but each time I get lost in phone tree hell, I always think about what a lost opportunity to ‘talk’ to a customer. The retailer has a very captive audience that it can easily expose to any ideas or messages it wants. Smart sellers should take advantage of this and provide teaser content to help build future demand for a future web or store visit. Tell the users what is on sale, for sale or being promoted. Keep fueling the demand fire.
b. Call Center: Catalog / Circular Requests – Mailing a physical circular ad or catalog to a customer is expensive and takes forever. Some cost conscience retailers are instead offering to email a virtual copy of the ad or catalog to the customer. This is a Win-Win. Cheaper for the retailer and faster delivery for the customer.
Am I missing other promotional methods? Have experience using any of these you would like to share? Are even better, results? Leave a comment and let’s discuss.
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