I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted,” a famous ad man once said. “I just don’t know which half.” While this scenario has certainly been the case for broadcast TV and radio for decades, the arrival of the internet in the 1990s did deliver a medium far more measurable than its predecessors – and got marketers excited about the idea of advertising delivering more ‘bang-for-buck’.

What they didn’t realise 10 years ago, however, was that it would actually be texting – the unexpected mobile phone killer app – that would deliver on this promise. Fast forward to today, and the local launch of TXT2GET – a start-up mobile marketing business aimed at using SMS/text to add huge value to the interaction between consumers and businesses.

The way it’s done is simplicity itself. For a traditional advertisement like a print ad in a magazine, newspaper or on a billboard, TV or radio ad, marketers add a prominent TXT keyword to the advertisement, prompting the viewer to text the keyword (for example, CAR or GAS) to a three digit short-code number. The viewer then receives a text or email response back with more information about the product or service, such as a brochure, voucher, pictures and/or a website URL.

According to TXT2GET CEO Peter Barrett, most consumers today are using the internet to research purchases before they make a buying decision (particularly in the case of more expensive items). Advertisers and agencies are realising that no matter how entertaining, exciting or groundbreaking the creative execution of an advertisement might be, there is still a “disconnect” between advertising in traditional media like TV, radio and print, and where it wants to send consumers to – namely, the web.

Think about it for a moment. How often do you see an ad and think “wow, that might be something I’d be interested in getting,” and then the next ad comes on or you turn the page and forget all about it? The fact is, for advertising to be truly effective, consumers need to be able to respond to it the moment it takes their interest.

But typically, Barrett says, people don’t have a PC in front of them when they’re watching TV or reading the newspaper in a cafe, so the moment for action is lost. Advertisers have to spend a fortune on delivering ad ‘frequency’ (a fancy way of saying, “repeat the ad over and over again for months”) until the consumer finally remembers to grab a pen and write down a URL or phone number.

“That’s where text keywords come in,” says Barrett, “because everyone has a mobile phone and is familiar with texting.”

By incorporating TXT2GET keywords in their advertising messages, Barrett says organisations can expect to overcome the key pain-points of: getting higher response rates to advertising; delivering more sales leads (typically up to 30 per cent); building actionable databases; and measuring which advertising is working, i.e. which creative message or execution delivers the most response.

“Ultimately, it results in increased revenue, smarter marketing, lower costs and higher profits,” he says.

The same but different
As many readers will of course realise, adding textable keywords to advertising, while still in its infancy, is an idea that has been around for a few years now and has been well used by a wide range of organisations in promotions & competitions.

In almost every case, however, the text campaign has been created and managed by a specialist ‘new media’ advertising agency. And although these campaigns may have delivered the results the advertisers were looking for, they also came with a sizable invoice from the specialist agency for services rendered – in many ways negating the added value the campaign delivered.

This is where TXT2GET is very different to those who’ve come before, says Barrett. TXT2GET clients simply log into the TXT2GET website (www.txt2get.co.nz), set up their campaigns using simple templates, click ‘launch’ and they’re under way. Typical campaign set-up time is around 15 minutes.

“We’re taking what has previously been a product of big business and making it affordable and easy for smaller organisations,” says Barrett, “but with an enterprise grade system. That’s the benefit of Software as a Service (SaaS). Campaigns can be set up in minutes, customers can own a keyword (similar to the way they would own a web address), and for the risk averse, there’s also the option for businesses to try it for free.”

TXT2GET’s IT infrastructure has been built to scale internationally, and uses the same secure hosting centre as several major New Zealand banks.

So who’s using text response in their advertising? A couple of excellent (and diverse) examples are the NZ Government, urging youth voting enrolment in the 2004 election, and baldness cure Propecia makers Merck Sharp & Dohme.

The Electoral Office tagged much of its youth-targeted advertising during the 2004 election with text keywords to encourage young ‘mobile’ voters to request a voter registration pack. Chief Electoral Officer Murray Wicks says the pack requests by text option delivered a huge response from hard-to-track-down youth voters.

In the case of Propecia, giving prospective customers the option to request additional information by text successfully removed a major barrier to purchase – namely the potential for embarrassment felt by many men when enquiring about Propecia face-to-face at a pharmacy or via a call centre.

While commercial sensitivity prevents us from naming them, other prominent users have included several major car manufacturers, banks, hardware suppliers and real estate companies.

With evidence suggesting that including keywords can increase responses to advertising by up to 30 per cent, Barrett says the technique is the logical progression for marketers looking to increase ad effectiveness.

“You can’t afford to pay to have a consumer see your ad, desire your product or service, but not take action for want of an easy response mechanism,” says Barrett. “After talking and emailing, text messaging has become the next big way people communicate, so it just makes sense to offer this option on ads for those that prefer to interact with brands that way. Twenty years ago advertisers promoted 0800 numbers; in the last 10 years it has been websites. In the next 10 it’ll be text keywords.”

For more information, go to www.txt2get.co.nz or txt ‘TXT’ to 244 (texts cost 20c).

11 keyword mobile marketing strategies

Adding text keywords to advertising and signage isn’t only about distributing further information to consumers.

There are a wide range of marketing strategies that can be employed once consumers start interacting with you via their phones. Here are eleven other strategies:

1. Web & mobile internet site promotion
If your ads push people to a web site, you should add a text option, or forget the address itself, when they hear them on radio or see them on signs or ads. A simple keyword that they text immediately will overcome this. This converts people who see your ads or signage into web and mobile internet (.mobi) site visitors even when they don’t have their PC in front of them. Your text response to enquiries will get your .mobi site address into their phones, and links to your web site into their phones and email inboxes. Then they are a click away from the web resources you want them reading.

2. Database build
You can build opt-in email and text-push databases that you can send information and offers to by incentivising people to text your keyword. Just ensure you make it clear that people are opting in and you comply with the spam laws.

3. Call back
Rather than staffing a call centre or manning the phone 24/7 when your ads run at night, you can promote having a rep call consumers back the next day. Consumers can text your keyword, followed by a day and time that’s best to call.

4. Surveys/competitions
Using text, you can also run very high participation surveys to research markets, get insights and engage audiences. Just promote your keyword with a number (1 - 9) on the end and assign each numbered keyword to one of the survey/competition options. E.g. Ask audiences to text ‘poll l’ to vote for Labour to win, ‘poll 2’ to vote for National. Results will show the breakdowns of each option. Alternatively, use multiple keywords e.g. Text ‘National’ to vote National, etc

5. Ad measurement
Text keywords are an efficient means of comparing media types for effectiveness and to measure cost per lead. Use the technique described Surveys/Competitions above.

6. Vouchers
You can let consumers text to get vouchers to provide a call to action to encourage them into your store. For example, a text response could be: Thx 4 txting Spa Treatments - show this txt voucher 4 $25 off yr introductory session - valid until 30 Oct08. You may forward this to 2 friends. Notice this provides a convenient voucher they won’t lose; there is a call to action; it is for first-time customers only (drives new business) and there is a subtle viral marketing prompt to send it to friends.

7. Call centre managers
Analyse the most asked questions or problems and make texting your first line of support. E.g. Electricity retailers and other utility providers use text-response to update people with a fault on outages.

8. Text to sample/taste
Promote your keyword to gather a database, including postal addresses, where you send samples.

9. Text to apply
Texting is a highly effective means of distributing application forms. Examples could be to enroll at University or to vote, to apply for a loan, to get a product order form, to apply for a drivers license, or to get an IRD form. Having the updated form available via text-initiated email can save on printing forms which tend to become outdated and discarded.

10. Drive e-commerce sales
Text keywords are a high effective way of connecting consumers from the products they experience to the e-commerce sites where they can buy that product. For instance, clothing designers can put keywords on labels, artists and photographers can put them on photos and art, and wine makers can put them on bottles – all so that those that have experienced the products can have direct access to the means of ordering them.

11. Educators/trainers
How often to you reference or recommend further reading, a book, paper or web site during courses or on course material? With text keywords, you can make it easy for people to find and order these by providing a keyword that people can text to get an email with this referenced material attached or linked to.