Hi! I am an intern at Lois Geller Marketing Group and it is my second week here. Lois asked me to do a guest post on her blog so I sought the advice of our Creative Director, His most regal majesty- Mike. He suggested that since I have little experience and only a small (but rapidly growing) knowledge base, I might consider writing about something that I know.
So here goes….
I signed up as a “Guess List” member along with a group of other shoppers who agreed to receive texts about special offers and new products.
Today, I got a text and what a mess!
It was too long; way too long to hold anyone’s attention. The main point was on page two. Page Two! Texting operates on an entirely different level than direct mail copy which is fine if it’s long, even very long. How do I know this? Well, there’s common sense, of course, but I’m a near-addicted texter. Just ask my friends.
So I decided to tell you about Mobile Marketing: My Experience.
Messages to-on-the-go mobile devices can wield a lot of marketing power, assuming they’re messages that people want to read. Most texters are like me, average Joes with smart phones, tablets, navigation systems, e-readers, and MP3s. We’re not known for long attention spans and We wrt lk ths (we write like this).
So, using common sense, I developed The Intern’s Short List of four points for effective commercial text messages:
1) Texts under 160 characters. For one thing, 160 is the max set by phone companies. And readers like messages that are that quick, at-a-glance easy and right-to-the-point. Plus, we don’t want to pay for several pages of texts just to get to your promotion! We’re big fans of direct marketing … and we’re looking forward to location based real-time marketing.
2) Wandering off topic is annoying. It’s OK to be inspired by an approaching holiday or current event, but a lot of marketing texters seem to get carried away. Readers can get uninterested and even disoriented trying to follow their thoughts.
3) Texts should look interesting, don’t you think? Consider the differences between these two versions of the same message:
a) Come in tonight for an exclusive release party at eight.
b) Come in TONIGHT for an *exclusive* release party @ 8!!!
You know that b) is texter-style, right?
4) And I do wish they wouldn’t harass us! Prospects are wary of deals because it seems that every other offer is not real. Unless we specifically ask for more, I suggest that texts be limited to perhaps four or five a month. We like to see message inboxes filled with texts from buddies — not businesses!
So please comment and tell me about your mobile marketing ideas. I beg you!
Your friend,
Lemar Scott: The Intern
