Using Mobile Marketing to Promote your Events

Mobile marketing is one of the hottest new forms of marketing communication. It is especially exciting because everyone has their mobile close to hand 24/7.

What’s more, advanced smart phone technology has made it easier to get creative with design, improve customer interaction and integrate additional marketing channels such as email and social media.

Mobile marketing is a fantastic way to reach customers when they’re on the move and offer them time sensitive promotions via SMS, MMS, mobile web pages or on location-based social media sites like Foursquare and Facebook Places.

It’s also true that many of the more traditional aspects of mobile marketing such as simple ‘text-in’ or ‘text-out’ campaigns are still useful ways of collecting mobile data and running special offers.

How to Promote your Events with Mobile Marketing

The slightly higher cost of mobile marketing is offset by the huge benefit of having constant access to customers, no matter where they are. Recent developments like location based social media are less established but consumers have been quick to adopt these services so marketers are quickly trying to discover how best to target customers using these platforms.

Here is a simple introduction to the different ways mobile marketing can be used to target customers and boost attendance of your events.

‘Text-in’ campaigns

A text-in campaign is a ‘pull’ marketing method because you are ‘pulling’ customers in with a great offer and prompting them to get in touch with your brand. If you don’t have any customer phone numbers, are unsure of the quality of your mobile database, or would only like to communicate with interested customers then a text-in campaign is the right choice for you.

How to run a ‘text in’ campaign:

1) Create your offer, exclusive guest list, or other service that customers will have to text-in to receive and set up your mobile campaign.
2) Promote your offer with an SMS keyword and shortcode for customers to text in.
3) Interested customers text in the keyword to the shortcode to receive the offer.
4) Customers receive a text message confirmation back and the option to click through to a mobile-friendly web page.
5) Customers can view the web page for additional details and features (maps, polls, etc).
6) Include the details for your text in campaign on any online event listings, within email newsletters, social media and your website to increase the potential customer base.

‘Text-out’ campaigns

A text-out campaign is a ‘push’ marketing method because you are texting-out or ‘pushing’ messages to subscribers. This is a great way of communicating with your customers once you have a squeaky clean opted-in list of subscribers.

How to run a ‘text out’ campaign:

1) Create a promotion that you wish to offer to your customers.
2) Draft your offer in a text message with the option to link through to a mobile web page and don’t forget to include unsubscribe information.
3) Send your message to your clean, opted-in list of customers. These numbers can be obtained easily at your events or via newsletter sign up forms on the web.
4) Customers can respond by taking up your offer, or clicking through to the web page for more information and additional features (e.g. maps, polls etc.)

Location-based event promotion

Foursquare was the market leader in location-based social media, offering consumers a rewards incentive to ‘Check-in’ in at different venues to receive badges. However, Facebook was quick to jump on this new technology and rolled out its own location based service called Facebook Places. One of the most useful aspects of Facebook creating it’s own competing service is that it ties in with existing marketing channels that you’re probably already using, like Pages.

What’s location-based promotion all about?

- Using Location based social media to promote events is easier than you may think
- Facebook requires a business to claim a Place to include on their Page, once this is done the number of check-ins will appear on the side tab as will the Deals section.
- Using Facebook Deals is relatively simple but a good way to interact with customers and reward frequent appearances with discounted tickets or drinks. These services act in a similar way the traditional loyalty cards offering a free gift after say 5 purchases within a set time period.
- Check-ins and Deals act as a great incentive for repeat visits to your event or venue. In order to keep customers interested you should regularly update your deals or provide rewards with a progressively increasing value.

You can find out more about using Foursquare to promote your business or using Facebook Deals, on the Bullseyehub blog.

5 Steps To A Successful Mobile Marketing Campaign

1. Build your audience

Before you can get started with mobile marketing campaigns, you need to build a list of people to send your messages to. But don’t worry, there are many ways to start growing your audience:

- Put a sign-up form on your website to collect the names and mobile numbers
- Collect mobile numbers from attendees of your next event
- Purchase reputable lists of mobile numbers of people who enjoy similar events and send them a message asking them to opt-in or opt-out of receiving future messages.
- Design a ‘pull’ marketing campaign that encourages fans to text in their numbers to win a prize and promote this via your exisiting channels (email, social media etc.)

2. Choose the type of mobile campaign that suits you

Different types of messaging allow you to promote events, create competitions, run polls, or perform a combination within a single campaign. It’s important that you choose the correct campaign for your event.

- SMS message: an outgoing plain-text message sent to your contact list
- Mobile flyer: an outgoing text message linking to a mobile-friendly webpage
- Guestlist: a text-in service which generates a unique promotion code
- Mobile Webpage: incorporates polls, maps, images, and promotion codes

3. Personalise your offers

Even when customers have given you permission to market to them, you need to personalise your offers to keep them interested. If you keep sending offers that customers have no interest in, they will likely start opting-out. If you send relevant offers or information that appeals to your customer’s lifestyles, then you are more likely to start seeing rewards and a better response from this channel. Spend some time thinking of offers that provide something compelling and valuable to your customers.

4. Be flexible

You might not get your marketing campaigns spot on first time around so be flexible with the style, content and tone to achieve the best results. Try sending your campaigns at different times of day or segmenting your subscriber list to test different offers. Researching your target market will also give you a better understanding of what types of offers will appeal to them.

5. Play it safe

It’s important to always ask for permission before bombarding customers with potentially unwanted mobile marketing messages. Customers are used to being asked whether or not they would like to receive any additional print or online offers this should be the same for marketing on mobiles.

Generating trust is another important part of mobile marketing and one easy way of doing this is to give customers the opportunity to opt-out of receiving future messages at any time. By providing customers with the control to enter and exit your campaign at any time, you will build a highly accurate database of loyal and interested subscribers.

Read some more of our article about Mobile Marketing on the Bullseyehub blog.