In honor of the 2012 Olympic games starting at the end of the month, I thought I’d highlight the use of mobile SMS 
marketing for the athletics/sports field. Whether it be a huge, athletic undertaking like the Olympics or a junior sporting event, texting offers a great way to connect with fans, parents, friends and athletes.
Mobile Marketing Spotlight: Health/Fitness Industry
This month’s mobile marketing spotlight will be on the health/fitness industry, such as natural/organic food stores, 
nutrition clubs, gyms and weight loss groups. If you’ve been following this monthly series, I’m sure you’re already brimming with ideas on how this industry can use simple text/SMS messaging to grow a dedicated and more connected customer base.
So you own or run one of these ventures. The first order of business will be to get members to opt-in to your text alerts. The opt-in is key! Never assume someone wants to be on your text system just because they are a member of your club, etc. You can offer them several incentives to being on the list: [Read more…] about Mobile Marketing Spotlight: Health/Fitness Industry
Mobile Marketing Spotlight: Restaurants/Dining
This month’s mobile marketing spotlight will highlight the restaurant/dining industry. SMS/text marketing is particularly useful for this group – especially since there is so much competition in this arena. Long lines? Bad food or customer service? There’s a place across the street where people can eat instead. But assuming you serve great food and your waitstaff is happy, how can you generate more exposure and traffic for your eatery? Here are just a few ways that I came up with to help keep your dining area stay full.
Fast Food
- A VIP club for coupons, give-a-ways and new menu options would be a great start.
- Do surveys to find out what menu items people like the most or would like to come back on the menu.
- Use it to push info for employment so potential employees can fill out applications or come to open interviews.
- Send employee schedule or training reminders.
Restaurants
- Do a contest for loyal customers to win one free meal a month for a year.
- If you have live music, let subscribed customers know what bands are playing and when.
- Announce special events like wine tastings, auctions and benefits for non-profit groups you host.
Bars/Clubs
- Build excitement for special events.
- Do a raffle during events for cool stuff like TVs or tablets.
- Hold your own American Idol like contest where people can text in to vote.
- Offer drink specials for those that opt in.
There are a myriad of different ways one could run the promotions. The key will be to either have an incentive or a promo that motivates people to subscribe. Then let the fun begin! As long as you keep it creative and don’t abuse your subscribers with spam or selling their information, you will see increased traffic and engagement at your place of dining, and build a loyal following that is guaranteed to spread your cool marketing to their friends and family.
Mobile Marketing Spotlight: Event Planning/Trade Show
There are plenty of creative ways one could use simple SMS/text marketing for various business industries. For this month’s mobile marketing spotlight we look at those in the event planning or trade show industry.
Event Planning
Event planning can range from wedding or birthday parties to corporate retreats or events. Today’s RSVPs are via email. Any event changes or further announcements would have to be handled via email too. But who reads email any more? While the ROI for email is still pretty high, the event planner would still have to battle the spam filter, the timeliness and the possible apathy that can still hover around email – especially if the individual is receiving masses of email.
How cool would it be as an event planner to offer your clients the added feature of doing contest, hyping the event, or communicating event changes via text marketing? The database can be maintained for future events or scrubbed for the next client event.
Trade Shows
Have you ever been to a trade show? Or maybe you’ve actually been the person with a table or display. They’re usually a combination of education and lead generation. The attendees are there to learn about new industry tools and the exhibitors are trying to collect contact data for follow-up after the event.
Bingo.
Old ways of doing it were collect business cards or having the attendee fill out little forms. Some shows have gone electronic and boiled it all down to swiping a registration card (albeit an extra fee for the exhibitor).
Text marketing allows an easy way for exhibitors to collect cell numbers, choose one or several numbers for raffles, and still leaves the door open for communication after the event. And with that 4″ of real estate always being within arms length, the immediacy and effectiveness of communication makes it more alluring. Even the event host can use text marketing to hold contests, alert the audience to any important information and announce future events.
Mobile marketing is not the way of the future – it is NOW. The event planning and trade show industry has the ability to utilize the basic mobile technology of text messaging to differentiate themselves from the competition and open a channel of communication that is instant and relevant.
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Shameless plug:
If you are interested in brainstorming creative ideas or starting a SMS/text marketing campaign business, call us at 419-318-9881 or fill out the form on the Contact Us page.