Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Use Text Messaging to Receive Receipt Codes

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Wish there was a way to let your customers submit survey codes, redeem receipt codes for future benefits, or enter rewards codes from product packaging…all instantly using text messaging?

Well, OTAir can fulfill your wishes. Today, OTAir published an enhancement to our web based platform to receive such codes from consumers via an incoming text and validate the code using a pre-populated database or by querying a POS system in real-time.

The received codes can be in a variety of different formats, can often be submitted without the need for consumers to start the text with a client specific keyword, and we can ensure that only one valid code is honored for each phone number submitting a code.

The new functionality is an effective way for restaurants, retailers, personal service providers and product manufacturers to enable instant engagement by their customers in an effort to foster increased loyalty to the product, service or brand. Enablement of the capability takes less than a week and, since it uses text messaging, works on every carrier OTAir has connectivity with and almost every mobile device…not just smart phones.

Email sales@otair.com or call 888.898.8247 today to learn how incoming code receipt by text message can help lift sales, cost less than competing code redemption methods, and boost customer loyalty.

UPDATE (May 12, 2010)
The capability was recently utilized by a national restaurant chain on one of the busiest dining days of the year…Mother’s Day. The vast majority of customers correctly submitted the code printed on their receipt and received the promoted significant discount for a future visit by email.

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Dynamic Text Message Content a Value to Marketers

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Today, OTAir innovates their powerful web-based mobile marketing and communications platform again with the ability to insert dynamic date and other data into text messages configured in response to an incoming consumer inquiry.

For example, a restaurant that offers a welcome promo to consumers that join their mobile VIP club, can specify a date formula, such as [date+3d] for an expiration date rather than a static expiration, such as 03/31/2010, when that might be weeks away for a consumer texting early in the month or hardly useful for a consumer texting on that date.

A dynamically generated, variable “rolling expiration” provides incentive for rapid redemption of the promo for all consumers regardless of when they text in, thereby keeping it fresh. The marketer does not need to remember to update a static expiration date to keep it valid.

There are a number of other variable data placeholders that can be inserted into pre-configured response messages. We won’t list them here as we certainly don’t want to help our competitors out. But, if you are a retailer, restaurant or other company or organization that can benefit from such enhanced mobile messaging, please email sales@otair.com or call 888.898.8247 today.

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Promo Code Distribution Has Never Been So Easy

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Show your customers some love and appreciation. Track your customers’ interests. Or, take advantage of consumer impatience with instant rewards gratification.

All possible with automated distribution of unique promotional, redemption, source or virtually any type of tracking code using text messaging. OTAir mobile solutions has pushed text messaging to new capabilities once again with this innovative means of benefit your customers while also tremendously aiding your ability to track their actions that lead to increased sales.

OTAir can distribute virtually any type of alphanumeric code, even those containing symbols, in response to a consumer texting in to receive such a code. The consumer may be initiating mobile engagement due in-venue signage, a print ad, a direct mail piece, or an ad on TV or the radio…doesn’t matter…but we can track that too.

Codes for distribution can be pre-populated into the OTAir platform in advance or queried from a POS system in real-time. The OTAir platform will record the distribution of each code to make sure it is sent only once and online reporting shows the mobile numbers receiving the codes, along with date/time of distribution and even the consumer’s email address and/or zip code, should they be asked to submit such info.

Along similar lines, we will soon be adding the capability to RECEIVE unique codes from consumers. The reverse will serve as a great way for consumers to text in survey, rewards and source codes that may be printed on receipts, product packaging, direct mail pieces and more.

If your company can benefit from such granular tracking of media effectiveness, marketing message and consumer follow up, contact us at sales@otair.com or call 888.898.8247 today.

UPDATE (February 22, 2010)
A month of implementation of unique code distribution has proven how powerful this functionality is. A national tax preparation firm has successfully utilized this latest OTAir innovation to track the lift in branch visits stemming from radio and print ads inviting college students to text in for free tax prep services.

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100% Response Rate - Guaranteed!!!

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

As a mobile marketing firm, we are often asked for our input on the participation levels expected for a marketing campaign. For good reason, marketers want reassurance that their marketing investment will pay off, delivering at least a minimally accepted response rate to a promotion.

In a mathematical way of speaking, the core of the question we use a variety of experiences, collected stats and case studies to answer is simply this… what x% response rate ABOVE ZERO are we likely to realize?  Oh, and of course marketers would just absolutely love us if we could guarantee the result we predict.

What I find interesting is that the only question that ever seems to be considered is the response rate IF mobile marketing IS implemented or a marketing campaign IS launched.  What is never considered, never questioned, and therefore never answered is the response rate realized IF mobile is NOT implemented, if the instantaneous response mechanism is NOT available for the target audience to engage the marketing message.

Well, I’m not only going to answer that question today, but I’m going to go on a limb and guarantee the results!  You heard me right… I am willing, after many years of marketing experience and based on the many campaigns we have executed, to guarantee marketing results… that you absolutely will realize a 100% of your audience NOT texting in, NOT instantly engaging your ad using their mobile phone, NOT going to your mobile web site anytime and anywhere, IF mobile marketing is NOT included in your marketing strategy, tactics, and media buys.

We’ve seen that there’s rarely a good reason now for not including a mobile call to action within virtually every aspect of a long-term marketing strategy and short-term specific campaigns/promotions.  Our society is comfortable with the promoted response mechanisms of a phone number and web site prominently displayed in most ads. We know that not every one is going to call the phone number, not every one is going to go to the web site, yet they are displayed anyway.  Why?  Well, we want to make sure the consumer is aware of the response options.

With over 55% of Americans using text messaging weekly and upwards to 45% using the mobile web, we are long past the point of it being an important and strategic move to include a mobile call to action in every ad as well.  Why? Well, we want to make sure the consumer is aware of the response option… an option which has the benefit of being significantly better, in many ways, for both the marketer and the consumer to take advantage of.

If you are a marketer and are satisfied with the 100% response rate you are getting by NOT including mobile in your marketing mix, then please don’t contact us.  But, if the opposite is true… if you are looking to realize an improved ROI with your limited marketing dollars, if you are struggling with the effectiveness of your current marketing efforts, if you feel the need to better engage your audience, if you want better results, increased sales, and decreased marketing costs… then please give us a call or click the link to our Contact Us form.

In full disclosure, we are not going to be able to guarantee, or even deliver a 100% positive response rate by including mobile marketing in your marketing efforts… but we can at least work hard to get considerably away from the 100% negative response rate to mobile that you are currently realizing in your marketing efforts!

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Ouch! Media to Retrench in 2009 - Time for Mobile Reinforcement!

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

FitchRatings is out with an annual forecast of what marketing and media buying across multiple mediums will look like in the new year. Given economic conditions, it is unsurprising that 2009 is forecast to be one of the worst years in the past 50 years for a decrease in local and national ad spend.

Certainly, this is very bad news for most media outlets. Anything print related is going to continue getting slaughtered…newspapers, magazines, yellow pages and other directories are all looking at significant declines in revenue. TV will be impacted due to the high cost of the medium. Direct mail, outdoor and radio will also likely see some decline, but not as bad because of the relatively low cost for such campaigns.

Digital media is likely to see an uptick, though. Online advertising, email marketing and mobile are all very, very inexpensive versus the cost of traditional media. Digital marketing formats are also much more capable of facilitating efforts to target a marketing message to a niche group. Digital formats allow the intended audience to converse with the marketer or brand, providing an engagement opportunity and, is therefore, much easier to measure ROI against.

But, there’s three very significant advantages that mobile has over the other forms of digital marketing…
1) mobile marketing can be integrated in almost any other form of advertising…TV, radio, print, outdoor, direct mail, product packaging, promos, etc.
2) mobile marketing reaches the individual and is ever-present, always available to the audience
3) mobile marketing provides a wide breadth of engagement options…there’s mobile web, installed applications, mobile advergaming and more…it’s not just about text messaging anymore

So, for marketers looking to have the best possible ROI from their marketing dollars…it’s time to look at mobile!

And, for traditional media outlets needing to fight off a decline in revenue, remain solvent, and develop a competitive advantage…it’s past the time to look at mobile, there’s plenty already doing so, so you better take action now!

The mobile solutions architects at OTAir are ready to provide reinforcements to your marketing woes in 2009. Whether you represent a brand pressured to do more with your advertising but with fewer dollars, an agency concerned or already hit with client drop-off, or a media outlet struggling in these uncertain times…we are here to help, give us a call today at 888.898.8247 or click “Contact” at the top of our site to use our online contact form.

Oh, and if you are interested in the FitchRatings report…

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.printFriendly&art_aid=97404

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When the Market’s Lean…Lean on Mobile Marketing

Friday, December 5th, 2008

Though the economy is in a troubled state…well, let’s face it, it sucks…marketers still need to promote their products or services, retailers still need to get coupons into the hands of shoppers, and restaurants still need to get warm, hungry bodies in the seats.  In fact, during these tough times, the urgency for communication of promotions, deals, and offerings are even is even more astute.  But, what’s a marketer to do when faced with a reduced marketing budget and a demand for increased effectiveness from the marketing dollars he or she does spend?

Well, when the market…your market as a business…is lean, it’s about time to lean on mobile marketing.

There are four primary flavors of mobile marketing:

1. SMS or text messaging
2. Mobile web site launch
3. Mobile web advertising
4. Installable branded applications, like on the iPhone

There is substantial data now that shows ALL four of the above methods of mobile marketing to be highly effective…and typically much more effective than comparable marketing efforts using traditional media. In fact, there’s now way too many case studies, research papers and stats to share in a brief blog post; but for instance…

- 90-95% of received text messages are read; more than half within 15 minutes of receipt
- Over 150 million Americans use text messaging on a regular basis…it’s not just a teen thing
- 35% of those receiving a marketing message by text will typically respond to it
- Roughly 40% of U.S. cell phone users now access the mobile web
- Average click-thru rates for mobile web ads range from 7%-15% depending on the ad type
- Mobile applications have been shown to result in a response rate 9 times that of PC based internet advertising, which itself solicits better response rates than traditional media
- 35% of mobile marketing campaigns cost less than $10,000 to execute…actually, the vast majority of them cost less than that with OTAir

Lean times necessitate more effective and more efficient investment of what marketing dollars remain. While mobile is not the perfect solution, nor the only solution, it has the sole, unique position of being personal, instantaneous, multimedia, inexpensive, highly effective, portable, and viral at the same time, while also operating solo or as an integrated medium alongside TV, radio, print, direct mail, outdoor, live event promotions, etc.

The most important requirement for an effective mobile marketing campaign though is appropriate execution, via managed solution, from an experienced mobile solutions provider, with an appropriate understand of both the marketer’s needs, as well as, the target audience preferences. You will find those traits in abundance at OTAir, so please give us a call or fill out our contact form.  We can get you quickly started with a sensible, guided crawl-walk-run approach.

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Growing Pains - New Home, New Site, New Products and Soon a New Year

Saturday, October 25th, 2008

I’ve heard it said a number of times that growing a business is like raising a child. There’s lots of excitement at “birth” or launch. Then, there’s some growth that’s natural and great to experience, but the realization of the dangers of the real world slowly set in. As the “child” develops further and moves beyond the initial stages of life towards adolescence, new and complex challenges arise. Some of the changes encountered are good…even great, while others are not so welcome. For both kids and businesses, this process is often referred to as growing pains.

We have experienced some good growth at OTAir in the past few months, in business, messaging traffic, campaign complexity and staff. The growth is welcome, but has also forced some changes. We realized just how much our almost two year old web site revision was no longer an accurate reflection of our services, solutions, technologies and differentiators.  We needed to devote time to finding a new home with our lease expiring on the offices in which we brought OTAir to life and the challenges of not having sufficient conference areas for meetings and webinars. We also realized that we needed to add to our ranks with more great people. Finally, we knew we had to expand our product lines with utilization of the mobile web finally growing, the opportunities made available by the iPhone and similar devices, and our confident prediction that 2009 will be an incredibly rapid year of growth for mobile marketing.

Within the past few weeks, OTAir has welcomed our first outside investors, moved to new offices that are three times the size of our previous location and better position the company for client access and recognition, launched development on new products in the mobile web and applications space, and restructured a bit our roles and processes to prepare the way for a handful of new hires in the next few months.

These changes bring considerable challenges in many ways, primarily as a strain on existing time, system and financial resources.  But, these changes also serve to further strengthen the foundation of our great company. The OTAir team is even more passionate, determined and better equipped than ever before to offer the best, comprehensive mobile marketing solutions available considering price, service, value, capabilities and support.

Soon, probably sooner than we would all like, the calendar will advance yet another year, and even in the uncertainties that exist with today’s global economy, new presidential leadership, and continued foreign threats, society marches forward with ever increasing demands for greater quantities and improved quality of communications, commerce, productivity and efficiencies. Mobile devices are without a doubt the most advanced, capable and prolific means with which to meet those needs, whether between individuals, among groups, or in exchange between businesses, organizations and governments and the varied audiences with which they interact.

At OTAir, we mean business, in more ways than one. Our existing clients and partners can attest to our strengths. With great anticipation, we look forward to experiencing OTAir’s adolescence and the excitement that will come with the company’s maturity in the next year or two to a purposeful position of strength, innovation, and leadership within our industry as we creatively and steadfastly serve our clients and partners beyond their expectations.

With a new home, a new web site, new products and new team members, we welcome a new stage and soon a new, and very important year for mobile and OTAir.

With this in mind, whether you, the reader, represent a brand, a marketing agency, a potential reseller of mobile marketing services, an organization, or might be looking for a career in a company like OTAir, I strongly encourage you to give us a call, send us an email or fill out our online contact form.  I have no hesitation in predicting that you will be glad you did.

Thank you for your attention to this lengthy post,

Jim Washok
Co-founder & CEO

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