The impact of mobile marketing can’t be overstated. According to IDC, more people in the U.S. will access the Internet through a mobile device than through their PC by 2015. In this new series, Elite Email takes a look at highly successful campaigns to uncover their mobile marketing lessons. This week’s case study: How the Women’s Southern Show brought SMS success to the Jacksonville, Florida area, all thanks to an innovative cross channel approach.
There must be something about the warm Florida sunshine that brings out the best in mobile marketing practices. After making the trip down to Jacksonville once in this case study series to chronicle the success of the Nimnicht Family of Dealerships, our attention now turns to the Southern Women’s Show – a traveling shopping and entertainment expo based out of Charlotte, North Carolina. To find out exactly how this exhibition put on an SMS show to remember, let’s spend some time breaking down the particulars of this campaign and what these lesson mean for your brand moving forward.
The Basic Plan
As no strangers to the power of SMS marketing, the team behind the promotion of the Southern Women’s Show in Jacksonville decided to spread the word thanks to a series of smart and effective text messages. At the heart of this campaign was a simple focus – connect with women, age 18 to 40, who like to shop.
While this might sound as easy as shooting fish in a barrel, the truth of the situation is that women in this area, and across North America in general, have a plethora of options when it comes to spending their hard-earned money. To sweeten the deal and entice these shoppers to make a visit to the show, the Southern Women’s Show campaign offered new contact list sign-ups a chance to win a $250 shopping spree at the event, as well as a guaranteed $2 off the price of admission.
Additionally, the team involved in this initiative decided to spread the word via energetic radio commercial spots and physical promotional material, such as tent cards and posters, located within participating stores in the area. As a nice finishing touch to the basic plan, each participant in the mobile marketing list received a “bounceback” message thanking them for their registration, as well as a friendly reminder about the show two days before the event kicked off.
Doing Your Homework Matters
Of course, if you’re familiar with this case study series, you know that sticking to the basics isn’t good enough to earn you a spot in the limelight. To ensure that this promotion went above and beyond the normal level of results, the Southern Women’s Show decided to optimize its text message content by researching keywords and phrases that perform well in other marketing channels. This in-depth research helped uncover a variety of inclusions that resonated with viewers and listeners, generating additional interest and interaction.
Reaping the Rewards of Hard Work
So what did the Southern Women’s Show team get in return for their hard work? To start, the digital $2 coupon garnered a 20 percent redemption rate, further proving the point that mobile marketing creates more opportunity and interaction than traditional coupons. In this case, the increased redemption rate correlated directly to a massive turnout at the Jacksonville rendition of this traveling event.
Outside of the immediate boost the Southern Women’s Show received from this expertly executed promotion, the organization as a whole gained some invaluable consumer data that would later serve other campaigns in different markets. First, even in predominately radio oriented markets like Jacksonville, printed tent cards drew a ton of attention thanks to easily understood written instructions. From here, learning about optimized keywords created a reusable foundation for future promotional content.
Putting These Lessons to Good Use on Your End
Even if your brand is not in the business of setting up expos in major cities across North America, that doesn’t mean you can’t pull a lesson or two from this example of outstanding mobile marketing. First, the recurring theme of giving your customers something worthwhile pops up again. Gaining contact list members is all about the value proposition, so offer up some enticing freebies in addition to interactive text content.
As far as promotional materials go, don’t be afraid to optimize this content with a little keyword research across several channels. By doing your homework on this front, your organization can generate stellar results and boost opt-in numbers significantly. Considering how well this worked for the Southern Women’s Show, it’s far from a bad thing to count your brand in this kind of company.
