Text Marketing Services

When Seth Godin introduced the concept of permission marketing in 1999, it was a big idea: ask customers to accept marketing messages from you. Looking at the best uses of mobile, I believe we are at a new crossroads; one where customers request marketing messages.

Never forget that digital messages rendered on mobile devices are personal and intrusive. On the Advertising Aggravation Continuum (shown below), they are most comparable to telemarketing. We all know what happened to that traditional marketing channel and the impact on brands that abused it.

In the middle of the continuum, people...

There’s no doubt that today’s consumers are mobile. They’re constantly on-the-go, sending and receiving communications of all types, and they’ve come to expect that information be (literally) in-hand at all times. Consumers in the UK and around the globe are no longer sitting at their computers searching for information—instead, they expect information to be available all around them. At the same time, they expect that information to be relevant to their lives.

The hyper-connected consumer expects brands of all sizes and industries to start meeting them where they are. It also provides new...

It was no suprise to us that Australians are leading the world in their adoption of technology, and in partiular how they connect with brands on mobile devices. The unparalleled adoption of smartphones in Australia (49% of us own one!) means that today’s always-on, hyper-connected consumer is placing demands on marketers that can often seem bewildering. What was once seen as the "multi-channel opportunity" is now a "cross-channel imperative" as our audiences continue to adopt technology that opens up an increasing array of brand engagement mechanisms.

SMS is just another way to adapt to the...

Permission-based email has become the foundation of successful one-to-one marketing, and a company's database of email subscribers is one of its most valuable assets.

And with good reason! As our 2012 Channel Preference Survey revealed, 66% of US online consumers report making at least one purchase that was triggered by an offer received via email. And for BtoB marketing, nothing tops email for aiding the customer’s buying decision. In a 2012 article, BtoB Magazine reported that 59% of BtoB marketers say email is their most effective channel for generating revenue.

At the recent 2013 MarketingShe...

STRATEGY OVERVIEW:
Providing superior service for your customers should be your number one priority. But keeping your customers satisfied can be challenging and requires ongoing maintenance. That’s why SMS can be an invaluable weapon in your marketing arsenal during those times when it’s necessary to get a quick communication out to your customers.

By launching an SMS response program, you make your customer service representatives available to assist your most critical customer interactions and provide a more convenient experience for those choosing to accept assistance via SMS. It’s a win-win...

If Client Experience (CX) experts are right, companies that use surveys heavily to monitor the opinions of their customers will find their effectiveness wanes over time. This “Decline of Surveys” was highlighted as the number one CX trend to watch for 2013 in a recent blog post by the Temkin Group.

As they point out, “As more companies thirst for customer feedback, the number of surveys has escalated. But there is a limit to customers’ willingness to complete surveys. As completion rates get more difficult to maintain, companies will become more efficient with the questions they ask, target...

In case you hadn’t heard, ExactTarget launched the Orange Partner Network to our partners at Connections 2012. The Orange Partner Network includes three partner programs with which companies can participate – the HubExchange Partner Program, the Channel Partner Program (which includes our referral network), and the Services Partner Program. 

Happy Birthday to SMS! On this day 20 years ago, Neil Papworth sent the phrase “Merry Christmas” from his computer to the Orbitel 901 handset of Vodafone’s Richard Jarvis, and so began the great SMS race.

According to the Wall Street Journal, “In the developing world, where smartphone penetration is low, SMS remains a key technology, enabling mobile money transfers, the sending of alerts on weather and planting advice for farmers, and distribution of health information for consumers. Globally, SMS traffic is continuing to grow and stood at 7.4 trillion messages in 2011, up 44% from the year...

Recent comScore data has seen a shakeup in the rankings of the big three email providers in terms of worldwide usage: Gmail has now ascended to the top spot; Hotmail tumbled to number two; and Yahoo! Mail settled in at third place.  It is no surprise then that there has been a rumored revamp coming to Yahoo! Mail as they try to revitalize their service to retain existing users and attract new ones. While the latest version of Yahoo! Mail just rolled out to the general public in the middle of last year, new leadership at the company has renewed the focus on one of their most popular services....

Each Thursday at 11am EST, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget user community on Twitter for a conversation about trends and campaign ideas across the interactive marketing industry.  We call the virtual coffee chat the ExactTarget Café. 

Marketers have forever been lost in the false belief that personal communication preferences and marketing communication preferenes are one and the same. The fact is, we've found time and time again that personal communication habits are a misleading proxy for marketers looking for the best way to communicate with consumers.

This is because consumers don’t truly consider brands to be their friends. Yes, they might love your products and services. They may even love the fact that social media allows them to interact with real, live human beings who work for your company. This does not mean,...

At Connections 2012, I hosted a panel featuring Joel Ballezza of Brooks Running and Allison Gonzalez of Carter’s. We spoke about the top three ways you can manage social conversations more effectively, using SocialEngage:

1. Staff for Success
2. Plan Ahead
3. Track and Adapt in Real Time

In case you missed it, this blog series will bring you up to speed on the best of the session, including attendee feedback. Leave your own tips in the comments section!

Planning is critical to social media success. If you or your company first got involved in social media as a response to conversations your customers were...

The research team at ExactTarget embarked on a mission to discover how consumers' used different technology, channels, and media when it came to their purchase behavior. In order to better understand how channel preference translates into action (buying), we asked our survey respondents from our 2012 Channel Preference Report to identify the channels where marketing messages had actually inspired them to purchase. While email and direct mail topped the charts, we saw telephone, Facebook, text messaging, mobile apps, and Twitter register significant purchase influence even though they may not...

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...

Connections 2011 was all about the “Power of One,” and Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer and co-author of Digital Impact: The Two Secrets of Online Marketing Success lit up his keynote session with a witty and insightful presentation full of real world examples and great cross-channel marketing strategies.

Here are four key strategies for digital marketers that Geoff recommends.

1.    Personalize your media

Studies show the No. 1 priority of marketing executives for this year has been to improve segmentation and targeting efforts. Email is among the best medium for personalizing messages, generating the...