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10 things you’ll learn by attending J&C’s SMS marketing workshop

Posted by Sheera Eby on August 19, 2013

SMS marketing is becoming a go-to channel for many marketers. Yet we often hear marketers discuss how their organizations haven’t fully developed their SMS marketing strategy. Is everyone in your organization in alignment with their expectations for SMS marketing? Do you feel your SMS marketing objective fits into 160 characters? Do you know where to get started with a SMS strategy or how to evolve your SMS marketing activities?

 

 

It seems many marketers are clamoring for a structured approach to establishing their SMS marketing objectives, strategy and plan. We’ve assembled a Getting Started with SMS Marketing Guide and Getting Started or Evolving your SMS Marketing Workshop. So why should your company attend our SMS marketing workshop? We’ve come up with 10 reasons why your company should attend J&C’s SMS marketing workshop.

 

1. Learn how to leverage existing channels for integration.
One of the first steps in building a SMS marketing strategy is to consider which existing channels can be utilized to generate subscribers. Our philosophy is that a SMS marketing program can’t be successful in growing subscribers without tight integration with other marketing channels.

 

During J&C’s SMS marketing workshop, we typically go through an inventory process of all existing channels a marketer should consider for inclusion in the contact strategy. This includes newsletters, website banners, direct mail and other online and offline touch points. For marketers that have a brick-and-mortar presence, we also discuss the role of in-location signage and merchandising.

 

2. See firsthand the success factors that drove a retailer to gain 20,000 SMS subscribers in less than 20 days.
Marketers are always searching for a mechanism to learn from others’ successes and failures. Part of J&C’s SMS marketing workshop will focus on identifying the success factors from a recent SMS marketing campaign.

 

The case study will be dissected and shared in detail. We’ll investigate what the critical success factors were in delivering the almost 20,000 subscribers in less than 20 days. The workshop will also explore how the program drove repeat purchases among customers and achieved a remarkable revenue-to-expense ratio.

 

3. Working exercise to establish your SMS marketing objective.
One of the core elements of success in all marketing program development is objective setting. As marketers, we know one of the first questions that generally should be asked is, “What are we trying to accomplish?”

 

 

Objective setting is a critical step, whether you’re launching a new SMS marketing program or enhancing your current SMS marketing efforts. J&C has developed a list of more than 20 possible objectives to consider in developing your SMS marketing strategy. The objectives span a number of priorities, including revenue, customer and marketing goals. This part of the workshop will help you really define more precisely what role SMS marketing should play in your marketing mix. Specific objectives include growing revenue of existing customers, generating repeat purchases and improving or simplifying an operational process, delivering content or messages as well as delivering offers or coupons.

 

Our workshop helps marketers determine the most critical goals. We typically work with the marketing team to rank a handful of top goals rather than just check all those that apply. This can help bring some of the necessary focus to the SMS marketing strategy.

 

4. Learn why SMS isn’t an appropriate prospecting-only channel.
The reality is that SMS marketing requires customer opt-ins. SMS marketing messages simply can’t be sent to people who haven’t provided consent to participate. For that reason, we typically think of SMS marketing programs as being more appropriate for customers (versus prospects) and try to steer marketers away from considering SMS as a pure acquisition channel.

 

J&C’s SMS marketing workshop will provide you with the rules necessary in creating a subscriber database as well as Mobile Marketing Association compliance rules for maintaining a subscriber database.

 

5. Learn how to map the prospect-customer lifecycle.
The best place to start in determining what role SMS should play in the marketing mix is to start with the customer. Consider where and how users are interacting with your product and brand via mobile.

 

J&C’s SMS marketing workshop will help your marketing team map the entire customer lifecycle and determine where the prospects and customers would benefit from interacting with your product, services and communications via mobile. While this isn’t a complete blueprint for developing a mobile strategy, it is a place to start in determining what role mobile can play for your product, brand and company. The focus of this process is to identify potential interactions that can be enriched through SMS marketing. We’ll discuss questions like: What are the main reasons your company reaches out to customers? Where do prospects learn about your products? How do customers re-engage with your company on an ongoing basis?

 

6. Work through a process to align your SMS marketing strategy to the objective.
The goals and customer mapping will guide the SMS strategy development process. One consideration is whether you are working toward building your subscriber database or driving activity against a current set of customers. J&C’s workshop will help guide you through the overarching strategic development process, as well as specifics such as offer, messaging and contact strategy.

 

7. Develop offers that generate action.
Offers are one of the most critical elements for ongoing SMS marketing program success. J&C’s SMS marketing workshop helps marketers establish offers that align to their objectives and motivate their target audience.

For example, we’ll explore why it’s essential for utilizing a specific offer for enrolling in your SMS marketing program. If it’s not exclusive, it’s not an incentive to join. We’ll work with you to develop an offer that will motivate customers to provide their mobile number. The goal is to find an incentive worthy of exchanging this information.

 

Additionally, we work with marketers to establish an ongoing set of SMS/MMS offers to deliver value. Once you have a subscriber database and you’ve defined your objective, it’s easier to establish an ongoing set of offers. The offers should be aligned to meet your goals, such as driving engagement, revenue, repeat purchase, traffic or transactions.

 

8. Develop a testing strategy.
Not all organizational cultures embrace testing. Our SMS marketing workshop recognizes that the SMS marketing testing plan should be aligned to the cultural appetite for testing. We’ll work through a series of different testing options, including MMS messages, mobile coupons and video.

 

9. Gain helpful stats on mobile usage and SMS acceptance.
You’re probably familiar with facts that demonstrate how SMS text messaging and MMS messaging provide marketers with an effective means of communicating with customers. We’ll share stats such as “on average it takes 90 minutes to respond to an email, but 90 seconds to respond to a text message.”1

We’ve done the heavy lifting and homework for you. As part of J&C’s SMS marketing workshop, we’ll share a compilation of key facts and stats around SMS marketing—facts and stats that can help you build your case for an SMS marketing program, as well as help shape your SMS program.

 

10. Become a believer that free can be good.
Most of us are familiar with the saying, “It’s free for a reason.” This workshop will overturn that thought. It turns out that this workshop is a case where your company can get something valuable for “free.” We won’t do all the work; your marketing team must actively participate, but we believe the 90 minutes of value will exceed your expectations.

 

1. CTIA.org

 

Topics: Mobile

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