By now your wedding business should be aware that mobile marketing is on the rise. While you know it’s something your business should be doing, it’s another thing entirely to start up a mobile marketing campaign or program! You can mobilize your website, Storefront and emails, but those are not your only options for reaching engaged couples on their mobile devices.
If you’re interested in sending immediate information on a more personalized basis, here’s a brief introduction to mobile opt-in marketing!
What it is
Traditional marketing tactics do not require your target audience to opt-in because most traditional marketing tactics are 1-to-many – meaning that one business is communicating with many people with one message. Traditional marketing tactics include print advertising, direct mail or radio and television ads. With the social media revolution, social networks opened up two-way communication with their audience. Now users can “like” your business’ page on Facebook and interact directly with your business. This change caused other changes in marketing strategies to shift from sending a mass message to crafting more relevant and timely messages based on behavior.
Opt-in marketing means that users have given your business permission to send them information on a 1-to-1 basis. The best and most popular use of opt-in marketing is email marketing – if you don’t have explicit permission to email a given person (whether they opt-in through your website or establish a business connection with you) you’re likely to be marked as spam and suffer other penalties.
Mobile opt-in marketing is very similar to email marketing, except that instead of giving you permission to send them emails, users are giving you permission to send them voice, text or other mobile messages to their smartphones or cell phones. Mobile opt-ins go beyond being able to interact with your business via smartphone; the user is giving you permission to push messages directly to their phone number.
How to do it
If you’ve ever opted-into an email newsletter list for a publication or individual business, you’ve seen how easy it can be! You’ll need to create a form to collect the phone numbers as well as some simple legal language to lay out your terms and conditions. These terms will explain in detail what you are and are not allowed to do with the user’s phone number. CTIA – The Wireless Association and Mobile Marketing Association have some great best practices for messaging consumers in the U.S.
Many email marketing platforms offer mobile marketing as part of their package, or you can use online tools or specific mobile marketing products to send these messages to those who have opted-in. Because text messages are short, if you plan to text your list with a message be sure to direct them to a mobile landing page or app with more information.
When to use it
Once your audience has opted-in, you can use mobile opt-in marketing to send individual messages to clients or other more general messages. Below are a few examples of use cases:
- Send a text to alert your client immediately when their proposal or contract is ready to sign, and direct them to their WeddingWire account to complete the paperwork
- Send a text to alert your prospects about a discount on one of the services you offer, and drive them to that page of your website to check it out
- Send a text to your past clients offering them some sort of free service or discount for a future event (if your businesses has the ability to book repeat clients), and drive them to your website
- Call or text a group of your past clients to conduct a survey of your services
- Send a text to remind past clients to review your business, and drive them to your WeddingWire review URL
These are just a few examples to get you started! Do you have any other strategies for using mobile opt-in marketing to reach your prospects and clients? Let us know in the comments!
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