The two most powerful applications of mobile marketing campaigns are to:

Mobile marketing is extremely effective in acquisition and promotion campaigns and cost-effective as well! Below are some successful campaign ideas that will create additional brand awareness and increase sales for your organisation. If you do not already have a mobile database, the first step is to collect cellphone numbers.

Ways to build your mobile database:

1. Ensure your website has a mobile sign-up box as well as an email one.
2. Advertise your new SMS service in print and radio mediums through one of the campaign ideas given below.
3. Use your packaging, till receipts to posters and billboards to let your customers know that you have gone mobile and ask them to text in for inclusion in a prize draw or to support a particular campaign.
4. Use promotional specials to ask customers in-store or online to sign up to your mobile services to receive the discount.
5. Offer a VIP service through SMS alerts with exclusive news.
6. Competitions – run ‘text-to-win' competitions whereby customers reply to SMS questions. This mechanism can also be used for customer profiling.

Once you have gathered the mobile numbers of existing and new clients look at ways that you can increase your sales through mobile messaging:

Offer an information service

• daily premium content such as news, weather, quotations etc.
• product info on the go – topical information that a consumer might need.
• a business or branch locator or tourism information about specific areas.

Offer a service that is of benefit

• quotations on flights, insurance, product offerings.
• discount vouchers and coupons.
• the purchasing of virtual gifts.
• auction bidding.
• the sending of access codes for premium online material.

Sell something directly

• ringtones, wallpapers and cellphone downloads.
• pre-paid coupons and virtual vouchers.
• accept orders for your products or services through SMS messages.

Run a marketing or PR campaign that will drive sales in-store

• notify clients of in-store promotions, launches or special events.
• promote your web-based or print newsletters or publications.

You need consumers to subscribe to your mobile messages and the messages must therefore add value. Run viral SMS mobile marketing campaigns to increase your customer reach. ‘Forward to a friend' is the most used viral marketing tactic. By including this phrase in your message with an incentive you effectively double the reach of your mobile message.

Through the use of premium-rated SMS messages, it is possible to use mobile as a direct income generating stream or at the very least recoup some of your marketing costs. This service also allows you to offer subscription-based services to consumers who do not have access to credit card facilities.

If you are ready to go with a mobile campaign and want something simple, easy-to-use and accessible from anywhere in the world, try out the web-based Communicator 2 Clickatell now. For organisations with more complex and specific needs, check out our developer-friendly API's.

All of Clickatell's products use our award-winning SMS Gateway to connect you to your customers. And Clickatell operates through all South African networks as well as 700 operators in over 200 countries. This means the sky is the limit for your mobile messaging campaign!

Keeping your customers happy…

Retention campaigns using SMS mobile marketing are easy to set up and use and the benefits far outweigh the costs. Below are some of the ways in which you can add value to your customers and keep them coming back for more.

"Clickatell's SMS API solution provides us with a quick and convenient way of giving information through to our customers." Cecilia van Huyssteen, Senior Analyst Programmer, Foshinidata

Add value to your existing offering

• allow them to SMS for after-hours assistance.
• offer a SMS call-back service to cut time spent waiting on hold.
• offer a SMS service for refund requests.

Offer notification alerts

• booking confirmations, mobile tickets, banking transaction alerts.
• appointment reminders, collection notifications and more.

Invite them to interact with you

• offer polls via SMS where they can vote on their favourite product.
• offer a SMS service line for customer complaints.
• research gathered can be used to understand customer needs better.

Reactivate lapsed customer relationships

• offer them special incentives to use your services or buy your products again.

Build a relationship with them

• send birthday and festive greetings.
• offer tips that that they will find useful such as an ‘Ask the Experts' service.

Increase the spend that you currently receive from them by

• cross-selling to them on different products with incentives.
• up-selling, encouraging them to buy more than one item through incentive schemes such as the collection of redeemable vouchers.

How do you know which of our SMS products is for you?

If you want to run sales promotion campaigns, mobile surveys, ‘text-to-win' contests, offer mobile discount coupons or text vouchers or want to try your hand at viral mobile marketing, then click here for a trial run of Clickatell's Communicator 2.

Customer relations messages such as personalised birthday and anniversary SMS texts, financial notification texts and the sending of password reminders need to be structured in specific ways within specialised API's. You need to test-drive our SMS Gateway API's now.

Click here for some of Clickatell's Top Tips to successful mobile marketing campaigns…