Mobile Messaging

I’ll make this quick, because I know you want to get back to your bracket and trying to figure out where it all went wrong...

According to MBA@UNC, more than a quarter of March Madness fans used mobile as their main viewing source during the 2012 finals—and more than two-thirds of consumers used their mobile devices in conjunction with watching the tournament on TV. See the specific mobile activity below:

Mobile Marketer confirms that mobile makes it even easier this year by giving fans 24/7 access to March Madness with live streaming. Turner Sports views mobile as a complement to...

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With all the buzz about NFC and the mobile wallet still swirling post-SXSW 2013, I’ve been particularly interested in the consumer’s take. I know SXSW-goers and marketers are hyped about these possibilities and boldly proclaim that mobile is the future of retail, but is this a case where marketers are from Mars? Let’s take a moment to ground ourselves and learn more about the mobile shopper before going futuristic.

A poll by eMarketer shows the mobile wallet services that mobile Wi-Fi users have used to make in-store purchases. In Q4 2012, one-third of mobile Wi-Fi users had used PayPal, 20%...

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There were so many inspiring sessions at SXSW this year that it’s hard to narrow it down to a couple highlights. Since it was impossible to attend every session, I bounced the “favorites” question off my two colleagues, David Galante and Doug Wilson, who divided and conquered the Austin conference with me. Here’s our highlight reel from SXSW 2013:

1. Identity in 30 Years: Sam Lessin, founder and CEO of Drop.io and current Director of Identity Products at Facebook, gave a very interesting talk on the evolution of identity management. He made some bold statements about how, in the future, your...

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SXSW’s inaugural day devoted to all things mobile, Mobile Saturday, will take place on March 9 at Wanderlust in Austin, TX. Our partner, Urban Airship, is spearheading this event that will bring together many brands and thought leaders from across the mobile industry. The impressive lineup includes:

ABC News                                     Redbox

Atimi                                             Stabucks

BET                                              Walgreens

Beyond the Rack                           Wal-Mart

Bottle Rocket                                 World Wrestling Entertainment

Brandin...

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Jen Timmerman of Precision Dialogue (a partner of ours) recently posted about ExactTarget’s MobileConnect product: MobileConnect: Past, Present and Future. Jen is an eMarketing consultant, a seasoned email marketer with expertise in implementation. I’m thrilled to read her report on our mobile product and hear that she is “ready to shout about [her] love for MobileConnect from the rooftops”—and she’s even more enthusiastic about our 2013 product roadmap!

She starts out with a quick look back at MobileConnect when it launched last year, giving marketers a big opportunity to plan, automate, and...

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Mobile World Congress in Barcelona kicked off in full force on Sunday. In addition to presenting at Pepcom, the ExactTarget Mobile team had the chance to talk to hundreds of press and analysts about our expanded mobile platform—all while eating wonderful Spanish food and enjoying some Catalan music!

We also attended the MWC Show, with its eight different exhibit halls. One of the highlights of the show was the Connected City, which included examples of all the ways our lives are—and will be—impacted by mobile across home, health, work, entertainment, and more. The high point for me was the...

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Mobile World Congress convenes just one week from today in Barcelona, Spain (February 25-28). We are excited to make the trip to the world’s premier mobile industry event and round out what seems like a mobile world tour, after already hitting CES, Mobile Insider Summit, and MMA this year.

The theme of Mobile World Congress 2013 is “Explore the New Mobile Horizon” and will center on trends like contactless payments, augmented reality, embedded devices, and connected cities. There will be over 1,500 product and technology exhibitors and an App Planet dedicated to the mobile app...

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On Monday, Twitter and Compete published results of a study on Twitter’s primary mobile users. According to this study, 60% of their 200 million active users log in via mobile at least once a month. To improve engagement with mobile-age consumers, here’s what you should take away from the study:

1. Primary mobile users on Twitter are 57% less likely to use Twitter on desktop, and 15% use tablets to access the app. Hint: Optimize your content for mobile and link to sites that are mobile optimized.
2. 18 - 34 year olds are 52% more likely to access Twitter via mobile. Hint: Consider targeting mobile...

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Kyle Lacy recently posted a compilation of 140 Mobile Marketing Tips collected from marketing professionals via email, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media outlets. These are great 140-characters-or-less nuggets of knowledge you can apply to your mobile strategy. I’ll dissect a few favorites here:

#6 – Always include a call to action in push or SMS
It’s mind-blowing how brands invest so much in advertising yet leave out a simple call to action. As an example, only two Super Bowl ads included a mobile CTA! In an analysis on these pricey misses, Jeff Rohrs discusses how “branding only” ads...

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It has been an exciting few days at this year’s MMA Forum in San Francisco with mobile at the center of every conversation. Michael Becker, North America managing director of the MMA, set the stage well: “We are progressing the dialogue from ‘why mobile’ to discussing mobile as it relates to the centerpiece of the consumer experience.” Since mobile has proven itself as a powerful channel for marketers, the content and sessions were more focused on what is working regarding mobile practices. I was most fired up about these featured topics:

Cross-Channel. It’s great to hear how brands are taking...

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This week at the Mobile Marketing Association’s forum in San Francisco, leading marketing pioneers will discuss the power of a mobile strategy and how it can support and strengthen your existing marketing channels. ExactTarget is excited to be part of this event, as we are eager to announce the launch of our new mobile marketing solutions—MobileConnect redefined and MobilePush. These solutions will let you manage every aspect of mobile—SMS, push messaging, mobile email, couponing, and more—from one easy-to-use interface. We will be celebrating this launch at the MobilePush Launch Party.

By...

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Marketers will need to clue into user context to create successful mobile applications in the future. Forrester Research, Inc.'s January, 2013 report entitled: “The Future of Mobile Application Development” stresses that you should understand your consumer's total mobile experience, or “context,” to be able to target your message based on the complete picture of your mobile user. Context includes the situational, attitudinal, and preferential habits of your user.

This so-called context is directly linked to the state of the app, and you can leverage in-app analytics and turn it into predictive...

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The United States Postal Service is encouraging marketers to integrate mobile campaigns with direct mail in an upcoming promotion that will offer businesses a two percent discount on qualified pieces. From March 1 through April 30, the USPS will let marketers place SMS calls-to-action, mobile bar codes, and digital watermarks on direct mail.

There are two ways that marketers can receive a discount—by including a mobile coupon or a click-to-call feature directly on the mail. For the mobile coupon, mail can be marked with an SMS short code, QR code, or digital watermark. For click-to-call offers,...

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More than half of consumers owning a mobile device plan to use a smartphone or tablet to tackle their holiday shopping this year. According to Prosper Mobile Insights’ online poll of 333 smartphone users, among those 55.3% of mobile holiday shoppers:

• 62% say they plan to use their devices primarily to purchase products and compare prices
• 50% say they are most likely to use their devices to plan and research while making their holiday lists
• 43% say they are most likely to use their devices while shopping in-store or online

eMarketer shares a statistic from Chase Paymentech that US retailers with a...

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I've been telling my friends that I'm headed to the MMA Forum in New York City in early June and they ask me about my karate skills. No, not that MMA. Yes, this is a tired old joke for those not the mobile space, but we all know I'm referring to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) annual forum. It'll be filled with the "who's who" of mobile marketing--top brands, agencies and solution providers all gather to listen, learn, advise and collaborate on the future of mobile. Plus, there are all of the events and parties to attend!

This is my third MMA Forum in New York City, and I can't wait...

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Recent mobile research publshed by Pew Internet & Research came like a text message from my mother: initially as a huge surprise, but one I knew was going to happen sooner or later. The industry has been talking about in-store mobile experiences for long enough, but the data spelled out the staggering facts.

The zinger for marketers: according to Pew Internet & Research, half (52%) of adult cell phone owners "used their devices while in store to get help with purchasing decisions." Whoa.

I'm one of them. When I purchased a refrigerator for my new home recently, I called another store to price...Read More »

Recent legislation passed in Brazil could result in employers being required to pay overtime to employees checking email or taking phone calls after work hours. This law seems to follow some global employers' efforts to limit the time spent on email while not at work--going to such extremes as shutting off email servers during non-work hours. You can read more of the original Mobiledia article that reported this data here.

Since much of the non-work email checking takes place on smartphones, this news feels like a potentail speedbump in the global acceleration path of mobile email--with many...

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If you watched ExactTarget's Twitter timeline last week, you might have noticed two new hashtags popping up: #ETTPK or #ETTPK11. Both hashtags were used by the Product and Technology teams who attended ExactTarget Technology & Product Kickoff. Imagine 250 developers, infrastructure experts, product managers, product marketing managers, QA engineers and security experts in one room. . .add a pinewood derby, and you've got a pretty solid picture of how the day-long meeting went! 

We ended up with a pumped-up product and technology team, a renewed dedication to the product vision of the Hub, and a...Read More »

So, what's happening right now? 

Well, I'm sitting in the weekly product development review meeting. The developers are showing off the latest product development on Automation Studio, ExactTarget's real-time automation application. Today, our customers run nearly a million monthly automated marketing programs, and now ExactTarget is making its automation capabilities even better! Woot!

Automation Studio is designed for marketers, technical marketers and anyone else who wants to unlock the power of data and use it to drive real-time marketing campaigns. I bet you want to know how Automation...Read More »

Every Monday, inside the ExactTarget Global Technology Center, the Product Team meets in a series of weekly meetings to review current status of all product innovation. If you're not on the Product Team, you don't get to see any of that progress until the products are complete and ready to launch. Not anymore! 

As a way to get the word out--in real-time--about the product development, Beta feedback and overall launch plan for the Interactive Marketing Hub, I'll be working with the Product Management and Product Marketing teams to get you behind the scenes as we develop these products. Finally,...Read More »