Welcome to another Tatango Customer Spotlight. Today we interviewed Scott Meyer from 9 Clouds about a restaurant client of theirs that has seen amazing results after implementing an SMS marketing campaign through Tatango. Lets jump right into the interview…
Client Name: 9 Clouds
Client Campaign Name: Nick’s Hamburgers (Text NICKS to 68398)
Location: Sioux Falls, SD
Industry: Restaurant
1. Lets jump right into it, who are you and who do you work for? Whoa… sorry, forgot this is supposed to be an interview not an interrogation.
We are 9 Clouds, Inc., a social marketing firm that connects businesses with customers using the Internet and digital technology. My brother John and I founded 9 Clouds over a year ago and have been helping educate business owners and market businesses from California to South Dakota to Norway.
2. 9 Clouds sounds like the city the Care Bears lived in, am I close?
Close. That would be Care-A-Lot, but 9 Clouds does care a lot about customers, so it’s essentially the same.
3. So tell me about this client that you helped implement a SMS marketing campaign for.
We helped Nick’s Hamburgers, a 90-year-old small town hamburger shop, use SMS marketing to increase return visits from existing customers and to attract college students to build brand loyalty with the new residents.
4. Can you give us an example of one of the SMS campaign your client sent out to their customers?
An example of an SMS campaign would be: “Buy one hamburger get the second free with this text message. Valid until 6/20. Reply STOP to opt-out.”
5. What were the results of that SMS campaign?
Nick’s Hamburgers saw 4-5 customers redeem that SMS coupon each day. The list has grown in the past four months to 260 members, so on average, Nick’s sees 15% of its SMS marketing database come to the store because of the coupons.
6. What was so attractive for this specific client about implementing an SMS marketing campaign?
This client was attracted to SMS marketing because of the contrasts in the strategy. It is a 90-year-old hamburger shop that looks like a barber shop. It is definitely old school. Attracting young people into a classic hamburger shop took a new type of marketing that would show that even though it was a classic shop, it was still hip and open to young people.
7. I know everyone at Tatango loves to receive SMS campaigns, but what were the customers’ reactions to this SMS marketing campaign?
There has been a positive response to SMS marketing with the customers. Customers are more than happy to get an SMS coupon and since they can opt-in or opt-out at will, they have few complaints. In the course of four months, we’ve sent 20 messages and have had 34 opt-outs. This means that for every 400 messages we have roughly 3 people opt-out, or a churn rate of less than 1% (.75% to be precise).
8. Any advice for other businesses looking to explore SMS marketing?
Off-line promotion of the SMS marketing is essential. A dynamic business person who mentions the SMS advertisements to customers and encourages them to sign up sees significantly better results than those who just post a sign and don’t actively push it off-line. Combining the SMS marketing with other marketing efforts on social media (with a company like 9 Clouds!) or print ads makes it work even better.
9. I know you and your company are heavily into this whole social media thing, where can people find you on Facebook and Twitter?
You can hunt down 9 Clouds on at: http://facebook.com/9clouds
If you prefer Twitter, find us at http://twitter.com/9clouds
And of course, our website: http://9clouds.com
