What’s wrong with this SMS marketing advertisement? The advertisement seems to be instructing customers to text the SMS keyword NOROO2 to short code 41411, but here’s what happens when you do this on your mobile phone:

Turns out NOROO2 is not the SMS keyword, but rather it’s NOR(zero)(zero)2. You can see the successful SMS interaction below:

Big difference huh? This is why it’s so important when selecting a good SMS keyword, to make sure the SMS keyword doesn’t have characters that could be misunderstood by customers. Using similar looking characters in your SMS keyword is a good way to confuse your customers and result in customers not being able to interact with the advertisement.

What do you think, would you have been confused by this ad? What would you have texted, NOROO2 or NOR002? Let us know in the comments section below.

Once you’ve logged into your Dunkin’ Donuts loyalty account, you’ll want to select “Contact Preferences”, as seen in the screenshot below. This is where you’ll be able to set your text alerts.

When you select “Contact Preferences”, you’ll see the following options, one being the option to receive emails, and the other being the option to receive text alerts from Dunkin’ Donuts.

After entering your mobile phone number and clicking the “Save” button, you’ll receive a text message from the short code 38646 asking you to reply “YES” to confirm you want to receive text alerts from Dunkin’ Donuts.

Looking to integrate text alerts into an existing loyalty program as Dunkin’ Donuts has done? If so, contact the text messaging experts at Tatango and let us help you implement a text alert campaign that plays nicely with any existing loyalty programs that your business may already have.

Macy’s shoppers who want to “Shop like a star,” can text-to-win by texting the SMS keyword “FASHIONSTAR” to the short code number 62297. Or, for those shoppers that have a QR code scanner on their mobile device, they can scan the QR code.

Looking to run your own Text-to-Win SMS Campaign, we always advise our new clients at Tatango to look to large retailers like Macy’s to get ideas for how to advertise your own SMS campaign. Many times, the ideas and techniques used by large retailers when advertising their SMS campaigns can be used by other retailers, no matter how big or small they are.

For companies like GUESS, using their website to get more subscribers for their text message alerts is incredibly important, that’s why so many other brands are choosing to do so too. Getting customers to sign up for text alerts online also lets them collect other important information that they may have a tougher time collecting in a text message opt-in, like the customers’ gender or zip code.

Why is collecting that type of information about a mobile subscriber so important in running a successful text alerts campaign? With brands like GUESS, who have two very different types of customers, males and females, who buy very different types of clothing, it’s essential that each GUESS text message alerts are sent to the appropriate gender. By sending gender specific text message alerts, GUESS obviously will receive much higher redemption rates for each promotion than if they were sending the same promotion to both males and females.

After signing up for the text message alerts, customers receive a text message from the GUESS’ SMS short code 48377, asking the customer to confirm they want to receive text message alerts from GUESS.  Other companies like like Charlotte Russe and Zip Car are doing the same kind of double opt-in SMS confirmation, which is required by mobile carriers.

Want to learn how you can use customer information such as a zip code or gender to better target your text message alerts? Get in touch with the team at Tatango and let us show you the different options we have to target your text message promotions and in-turn increase your redemption rates.

I’m apparently extra special, because when I sent texted SAVE01 to the short code 56457, I received more than 10 percent off (I received 15%) any online purchase at Kohl’s.com.

Offering incentives for customers to join your SMS campaign is a great way to make customers feel special, which most definitely will increase the amount of customers who join your SMS campaign. 

Are you interested in learning other helpful SMS campaign tips? Check out this blog post on the 10 key things to running a succesfful SMS loyalty program, or drop us a line and let us help you set up a successful SMS marketing campaign.

With the explosion of mobile marketing over the last couple of years, we here at Tatango have seen an increasing interest in location based SMS campaigns. While this type of technology has been around for years, there’s still a lot of questions regarding location based mobile marketing, and concepts like mobile geofencing, and how these technologies can be used to improve your SMS marketing campaigns.

To get answers to some of the most commonly asked location based SMS marketing questions, we reached out to our good friend Rip Gerber (pictured below), the founder of Locaid, the world’s largest mobile location-based marketing platform, and the exclusive provider of SMS geofencing technology to Tatango. Below are the 10 most commonly asked location-based mobile marketing questions and their answers as they relate to SMS marketing.

#1 What is mobile geofencing?

Mobile geofencing, which is sometimes called Geotargeting, is a location-based service (LBS) where layers of location intelligence allow a brand to make decisions or take some action based on a geographical area of an SMS subscriber. Mobile geofencing isn’t a new technology either, and as our society becomes increasingly mobile, developers and brands are realizing the added value that mobile geofencing can bring to their SMS marketing campaigns.

#2 What’s an example of an SMS campaign using geofencing?

Creating a geofence for an SMS campaign will allow a brand to tailor SMS promotions to an SMS susbcriber’s real-time location, increasing SMS marketing open rates and SMS redemption rates. For example, Locaid recently powered the technology behind a location-aware SMS marketing campaign for Easton Mall, in partnership with Alliance Data.

The SMS campaign was targeted at cardholders of select branded credit programs, which ran from Black Friday to New Year’s Eve in 2012. The SMS geofence was created around Easton Mall in Ohio and was designed to trigger an SMS text promotion to SMS subscribers when they were within a predetermined proximity of the mall.

The SMS promotion encouraged SMS subscribers to use their store-branded credit cards for a chance to win a shopping spree at one of the participating retailers. Following the pilot SMS program:

• 39% of SMS subscribers said that the location-based mobile marketing campaign influenced their purchase decisions.
• 37% of SMS subscribers said the SMS promotions influenced them to visit a specific brand within the mall.
• 68% of SMS subscribers indicated they would sign up for future location-based SMS promotions.
• Card holders that received the location-aware mobile marketing messages spent on average 24% more in a shopping trip than the average card holder that didn’t receive the location-aware SMS promotions.

#3 How do you determine where SMS subscribers are located?

As I said earlier, a mobile geofence is a layer of intelligence that allows you to make decisions or take some action based on a geographical area. A mobile geofence can circle anything, or any area, such as a retail store, a stadium, or even a neighborhood. Locaid uses a Network-based Geofence, which uses carrier-grade location data to determine where SMS subscribers are located. You can see an example of this below, where this SMS subscriber is 22 miles outside of the geofence that Starbucks had setup for their Mountain View store location.

#4 Do customers have to opt-in first to receive location based SMS messages from a brand?

Yes. The number one rule for location-based marketing is that you need permission to locate a mobile device. Permission can be obtained in multiple ways, from customers replying to a text message confirming they want to share their location with a brand (see below for an example), to customers giving permission within a web opt-in form that captures their mobile phone numbers.

#5 Once opted-in, is this technology always tracking SMS subscriber locations?

Not with network-based geofencing– it’s simply not required. The correct way to use a geofence for an SMS campaign is to use it as an additional data point for your SMS subscribers in order to send locally-targeted, relevant content. This will then increase SMS redemption rates, and thus the return on investment on any SMS campaign. For example, with location-aware SMS marketing, restaurants only need to look up the location of their SMS subscribers once a day around happy hour if they’re interested in sending SMS promotions to increase traffic during happy hour, as they would only focus on sending promotions to those subscribers within the geofence during that specific time.

#6 How accurate is the SMS subscribers location?

Locaid advocates the use of network-based mobile marketing geofences that uses carrier-grade location data to pinpoint the location of an SMS subscriber.

Accuracy depends on a number of factors, including whether the SMS subscribers’ wireless carrier supports the use of A-GPS location capabilities, which are extremely accurate in outdoor environments, to less accurate options for mobile phones that use G-CID, Cell ID and Enhanced Cell IDs, which will produce a mobile geofence location accuracy ranging from one to five city blocks, or 100 – 5,000 meters.

Other considerations that affect location accuracy of an SMS subscriber include the wireless carrier network technology, including GSM, UMTS, CDMA, HSPA, and LTE deployments, in addition to the topography of the area, such as if the SMS subscriber is in a dense urban, suburban or rural area.

#7 How big or small can the geofence around a business be?

A geofence for an SMS campaign can be as big or as small as the business wants. The size of the geofence depends on the SMS campaign requirements and the expected accuracy of the underlying location method that will be used i.e. A-GPS VS G-CID, which we discussed above. A business can also create multiple SMS geofences, which would be useful if they had multiple locations. 

#8 Can we create an SMS geofence based on a city, state or a zip code?

Yes. The best use case here is for online gambling where location data is a key requirement for any wage-taking gaming app, or mobile lottery. Obtaining approvals from regulatory agencies and gaming testing labs require that a users physical location within a state or territory with legalized online gambling be verified to allow bets to be placed. GPS location can be easily spoofed, and wifi or geoIP are insufficient to provide validated location beyond country level. Network location accuracy, reach and un-spoofability make it a requirement for authenticated, verified location compliance.

#9 Does this technology work on all mobile phones, carriers, and all plans?

With network-based Geofencing you can reach 100% of your SMS subscribers regardless of mobile phone type, carrier or plan. Locaid has the widest reach in the industry and can locate over 400 million mobile phones across the US and Canada through our unrivalled relationships with the tier 1 and 2 wireless carriers. The best part is that adding location based targeting to an SMS campaign doesn’t cost SMS subscribers any additional money, as the only costs are to the brand sending the SMS messages. 

#10 How much does it cost to add this type of capability to an SMS campaign?

The costs for adding a network-based geofence to an existing SMS campaign depends on how often a brand wants to lookup the location of their SMS subscribers, so pricing can vary. It’s also very easy to increase or decrease how often an SMS subscriber is located, which can be adjusted based off the results a brand experiences. The best part is that this type of technology can be implemented on existing SMS campaigns with only a minimal amount of work.

Have more questions about how to leverage location based mobile marketing services like geofencing to increase mobile redemption rates in your own SMS marketing campaigns? Call Tatango at (888) 778-9414 or send us a message, and we’d be happy to discuss the capabilities of this exciting technology.

What was astonishing was that emails collected by Chuck E. Cheese’s through a text message opt-in had an open rate 10-to-20 percent higher than other methods, and coupon clicks were also 8-to-10 percent higher.

So how does Chuck E. Cheese’s collect email addresses through text messaging? To start off, Chuck E. Cheese’s told customers to text their email address to the SMS short code 35505, as you can see below in their advertisement.

After Chuck E. Cheese’s customers texted their email address to 35505, they received a text message response thanking them for joining the Chuck E-Club, and instructing them to check their email inbox for an exclusive welcome coupon.

By allowing Chuck E. Cheese’s customers to opt-in to their email marketing list on the fly through a simple text message, Chuck E. Cheese’s has been able to significantly grow their email list. Are you interested in collecting email addresses from your customers by text message? contact Tatango and let us help you grow your email list by using the power of text messaging.

What’s even better is that Papa Murphy’s saw a sizable return on all of their text messaging campaigns over the course of six months, resulting in 11, 12, and 13 percent redemption rates. And that was just for the test market!

When Papa Murphy’s launched their text message campaign in Kansas City, the goal was to bring in more customers in more ways. By using the SMS keyword “MYPAPA” to the SMS short code 95323 customers were rewarded with special text message deals up to four times a month.

Text message deals like a $5 Chicken Bacon Artichoke pizza generated redemption rates of more than 9 percent, while deals like a $5.55 taco pizza on Cinco De Mayo (5/5) generated redemption rates of 11.5 percent, and half-off pizzas generated redemption rates north of 12 percent.

But the highest redemption rates Papa Murphy’s saw with their text message marketing campaign was with a $5, 3-topping pizza, which generated a 17.9 percent redemption rate.

In Papa Murphy’s text message test market location, Kansas City, the franchises reported bringing in 16,000 new SMS subscribers in just one year. Papa Murphy’s used strategies like in-store signs, tent pop-ups and an online opt-in to build their text message campaign database, which they now estimate to be more than 100,000 SMS subscribers since they expanded the text message marketing campaign across 26 other states. To opt-in to Papa Murphy’s text messaging campaign, click here.

Want to learn how your business can generate redemption rates as high as 17% for a single campaign? Contact the experts at Tatango and find out how we can help you supercharge your text messaging campaigns.

What’s really interesting about the Bulls’ SMS campaign is what’s at the bottom of the text, which says “Provided by BMO Harris Bank.” By partnering with BMO Harris Bank, the Chicago Bulls are able to offset the cost of running a text messaging campaign with advertising from a third party. This is a win-win for everyone, especially the fans as their able to get their scores and player highlights at anytime with only a simple text message.

We’ve seen a lot of sports franchises starting to explore text message marketing to connect with their fans, like the recent MLB text-to-download campaign powered by Tatango, which helped the TBS increase app downloads for their MLB’s social dugout app.

Want to find out what an SMS campaign can do for your sports franchise?  Sign up for our free 7 day trial and feel free to ask our sales team any questions about how we can help make your SMS campaign a slam dunk! See what I did there, pretty clever huh?

Benjamin Moore agreed, and did just that with their most recent SMS campaign, when they offered a free sample pint of paint when customers texted their SMS keyword “CARPET” to Benjamin Moore’s vanity short code 44144. You can see the advertisement for this campaign below, which appeared in-store and in traditional media like magazines.

With 44% of customers willing to provide personal information like their mobile phone number to a brand in exchange for a reward, coupon or deal, this is a great way to grow your SMS subscribers extremely fast. What’s amazing about offering an opt-in incentive like this for your SMS campaign is that we’ve found the retention rate for SMS subscribers after receiving the initial opt-in incentive is 98%.

Do you offer an incentive to your customers to join your SMS campaign? What type of incentive do you offer? What type of results have you seen in both the growth and retention of your SMS subscribers? Let us know in the comments section below, thanks!