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Archive for category text2broadcast
While 50,000 people enjoy the 5 hour event of concerts and presentations tomorrow, I’ll be stuck in a trailer operating our text2screen services for the Jumbo-trons and the three web site that will be live streaming the event from the National Mall in Washington DC.
We’ll be doing 20 polls throughout the day. I’d invite you all to participate, but quite frankly, we don’t need to max our servers any more than necessary. To do the web polls, go to the EartDay site and click below our little widget. http://earthday.net/
Additionally, they (Earthday Network) decided last minute that they needed to offer a text petition for the Waxman-Markey Bill. So, superman MobileCause Operations Director, George Morales set up two keywords and shortcodes in speedy time!
Join the Green Generation by texting GREENGEN to 27138
and texting EARTH to 27138.
I’ll keep you posted on more to come!
Why ask potential donors to pull out their checkbook or credit card when they are inclined to give?
As I mentioned in a blog post months ago, Micro-Giving will be the hottest fundraising trend of 2009. According to an article today, VeriSign and the Mobile Giving Foundation expect that more than $5 million will be raised this year via mobile charitable giving.
Text donations (MobileCause is one of the few ASPs provisioned thru all major carriers) take a matter of seconds for web-savvy Gen-Y-ers and the charge shows up on their phone bill.
As MobileCause has been doing for the past 3 years with our Text2Broadcast platform, more nonprofits will also encourage donors to opt into mobile programs to receive alerts, updates and news of events through SMS messages. Personalized messages will also improve the relationship between nonprofit and donor, especially in these hard economic times when charities normally struggle for funds and attention.
Read more about this and other mobile trends in today’s article on Mobile Marketing.
Worldwide communication in the future will be done through mobile devices.
According to TNS Global, 74% of the world’s digital messages were sent through a mobile device in January 2009, a 15% increase over the previous year.
In emerging markets, the trend is even more dramatic; nine out of 10 messages are sent via mobile.
Some of the growth can be attributed to mobile instant messaging. Thirteen percent of all mobile subscribers used the feature, but 41% of smartphone users did so.
Other increases in mobile usage can be attributed to the abandonment of fixed-line telephones.
“As mobile devices slowly take away usage share from fixed services in developed markets, in emerging markets consumers are more likely to by-pass fixed communications altogether and go straight to mobiles,” said Sam Curtis of TNS.
As for developed countries, the PC e-mail remains the most popular message method, but its use is waning.
In Japan, 40 out of 100 e-mails sent are from a mobile device. In North America, 69% of those using e-mail on their mobile phone use it daily, high compared with 43% worldwide.
From Mobile Marketing Watch.
With advertising spending drastically spiraling downward across most sectors of print and television media, it is no surprise that the anticipated 40 percent increase in mobile marketing budgets for this year could give a huge boost to radio broadcasting,
According to a group of “mobile marketing professionals” at the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) conference, the mobile segment will attract more than six billion in ad revenues by 2012.
If the mobile marketing geniuses are correct, radio’s biggest potential lies in trying to “stop selling only 30 or 60 second spots and to begin creating a conversation between the station and/or deejay and the audience.”
According to Katz360 President Brian Benedik, “There are 145 million mobile media consumers in the U.S. today, defined as anyone who uses a cell phone for text messaging, downloading content or accessing the Internet. Hence, advertiser appetites for mobile are growing as the market grows. Seventy-six percent of listeners use text messaging, and 66 percent want to text with your radio station.”
Last week, the Nielsen Company reported that advertising in the U.S. in 2008 was down 2.6 percent compared to 2007.
This post is a response to a commentary made by a traditional fundraising consultancy.
“One major question we continue to ask ourselves is what is the value of a $5 text donation? Our traditional fundraising research shows us that donors who give low dollar amounts (such as $5), have a commensurately low lifetime donor value. Often, we’ve found that the cost to cultivate (i.e. mail, email, call, etc.) these donors exceeds the donation income they provide. In other words, we end up LOSING money in cultivating donors who give very small amounts.”
First of all, I’m glad they’re bringing attention to micro-giving. We believe (along with Forrester Research, Mobile Marketer, and others) that micro-giving will be one of the trends to watch in 2009 and following. They are correct that in previous “traditional research,” small one-time donors may have a lower lifetime value, but these studies have not accounted for the new developments in text donations.
Here are 10 reasons why Text Donations will be the be the trend to watch and why every Cause should consider adding Mobile to their Donor Engagement tool belt.
- Turns a mobile phone user into a donor in less than a minute (no credit card, web access, phone operators necessary!)
- Donation is tax-deductible and shows up on the caller’s phone bill.
- Engages the donor at the closest point of emotional engagement. (we carry our phones at all times!)
- Caller can text-donate up to 5 times per month (5x per billing cycle)
- $10 donations are now possible (as of March 2009)
- Recurring donations will be available soon. That means sending a one-word text message instantly turns a caller into a $120/year donor! Wow.
- The Call-to-Action couldn’t be easier to remember–across all types of media channels. Pick up your mobile phone and try this sample: text GIVE to 27138. (no donation will be transacted. It is a sample to show how easy it is)
- Used in conjunction with other mobile engagement tools (like text2broadcast and text2screen), organizations can build consistent and lasting relationships with donors.
- As of 2008, all major carriers have waived 100% of their fees for approved 501c-3 orgs who partner with a qualified service provider like MobileCause. (Elsewhere in the world, the carriers still charge up to 50%)
- Response rates have shown to be 10%-40% compared to 1% – 3% for direct mail and other types of donor acquisition methods.
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Things are moving extremely fast with Mobile Technology and we are thrilled to partner with the Mobile Giving Foundation to help organizations like Open Doors, Focus on the Family, Invisible Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Sparrow Clubs and so many others fulfill their mission in effective new ways.
Follow us on Twitter and let us know how we can help you Mobilize your Cause.
According to Nielsen Mobile, we know the typical U.S. mobile subscriber sends and receives more SMS text messages than telephone calls. Be honest. Do you know anyone (with a pulse) who doesn’t have a mobile phone? They may not all be “textperts” but we all know the audience is huge and growing rapidly (roughly 500% increase in two years).
The big advertisers are paying attention: Coke engaged over 1 million mobile customers in Q3 of 2008 for the My Coke Rewards program.
Politicians are listening: Obama revealed his pick for running mate via SMS (text message) to millions of anxious mobile subscribers.
Hotels are getting heads in beds: Marriott reported more than $1.25 million in gross revenue in the first 100 days since the hotel chain introduced direct mobile Web bookings.
Restaurants are putting mobile where the mouth is: Papa Johns Pizza reported $1million in revenue from mobile phone pizza orders in just 6 months.
Charities, however, may be the biggest winners: According to 2009 forecasts, charities will benefit from micro giving. Donors who normally write checks or call in with a credit card can now text in a donation and leave their wallet and checkbooks alone. 2008 marked the first year a non-profit organization could receive a donation via text message without the carriers taking a cut. The result? Donations made via mobile phones this first year surpassed all donations made online in its first year (1997). Annual online donations have grown to a whopping $10 billion for 2007, but you can expect exponential increases for mobile giving as well.
According to Nic Covey, Chicago-based director of insights for Nielsen, “The text-message audience is there, it’s now up to marketers to create a reason that consumers would want to relate to them through such a personal and immediate medium.”
In addition to the core financial needs facing non-profit organizations, Causes have struggled with the perception that they are simply advertisers trying to sell us something. The audience is there. The means to communicate are in place. Now it simply comes down to the Message.
This is what has us here at MobileCause so excited. It’s the ability for causes to reach a large audience with a convenient, timely message and allow them to interact and give wherever they are.
What will that Message be? We’ll keep you posted.
The audience is all ears.
…and all thumbs.
Big Brothers Big Sisters implements new technology that allows donations to be made via mobile phones
Kansas City, Mo. — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City announces today, that they will be among the first non-profits in the country to use mobile phones as a way to contribute financial gifts via text messaging.
BBBS-KC has partnered with MobileCause and the Mobile Giving Foundation to offer this technology to their members and supporters. BBBS-KC has partnered with the Mobile Giving Foundation to provide another avenue for individuals to help match kids in Kansas City with adult role models and friends. Interested people simply text the word give (G-I-V-E) to the number 20222 from their mobile phone. They will instantaneously be sent an opt in message in which upon approval will donate $5 to BBBS-KC. The $5 fee will be added to their mobile phone bill at the end of the month. Each user may text this message up to five times per month.
“There has never been an easier way to donate to a good cause,” Micheal Lawrence, Executive Director of BBBS-KC said. “By simply texting us you will be donating $5 to our agency. A small amount, that over time will add up for our agency, allowing us to reach more children. We urge any one out there that has ever been a Big, a Little, or a friend or family member of a Big or Little to help support us in this small donation that could go a long way.”
T-Mobile has decided, effective immediately, that it will no longer require marketers and other senders of commercial, non-premium SMS to have double opt-in for their subscribers.
Double opt-in, in case you don’t know, is the process in which a marketer ensures that a subscriber really did mean to sign up to receive marketing SMS messages. Usually (including in the case of T-mobile) it means that after the consumer sends a keyword to a short code, the marketer sends the person message asking to confirm the subscription by texting back the word YES.
There’s two sides to this news. On one hand, Mobile Marketer
However, legitimate marketers know the importance of double opt-in; it’s even part of the Mobile Marketing Association’s
Well, best-practicers don’t need carriers or other authorities to tell them the most proper way to conduct themselves. They’ve been engaging in double opt-in longer than carriers had required it. So they can should still choose, on their own, to make double opt-in part of their campaigns. As a First Amendment kind of gal, I like the idea of letting the industry regulate itself, rather than impose censorship.
Meanwhile, those who say that double opt-in turned off potential subscribers now have nothing to blame when consumers don’t sign up for their messages.
