Jodik

I have an opportunity on Wednesday to do a campaign for a boutique. This one specializes in upscale prom and formal dresses. She wants to target prom right now. She is completely non technical and her website is not live yet as she got a church member to do it. She has a catalogue of the dresses. I am thinking I can scan the catalogue into a mobile site? Put a tap to call and a map. She will offer a $25 discount for any dress purchased as well. She has people that have signed her guest book with email and some phone numbers. Should I do an email campaign to get them to opt-in for the mobile coupon?
I am very confused as I am new to this. I have purchased and/or studied most of th availble programs for mobile and looked heavily at Lime cellular/Trumpia/AvidMobile too.
Any suggestions? This will give me a lot of referrals. She wants to barter and if it works then perhaps subscribe. She really just opened a couple months ago. Has a large inventory though.
Please help. I need to get my biz moving ahead.
Thanks
Jodi

Perestroika

I never offer mobile marketing as the first service to new clients. I offer other stuff and once they are existing customers I talk to them about mobile marketing.

I also think you are wrong about doing a mobile site for a boutique that sells prom dresses. Would you buy a dress by looking at it from your small screen on the phone?

TrumpiaTim

I actually think mobile marketing is one of the easier services to sell initially. It's cutting edge and something that business want to get into, but simply do not know how to go about it.

You should do an opt-in campaign where customers text PROM to 99000 and this way the customer will get $25 off and the business will also be able to build their mobile database.

Jodik

Yes I love the opt in short code idea. How do I get that out in the schools and the community?
Looking for a quick way to hit the demographics also

Jodik

It seems at least here that the majority of teen girls are glued to their phones. They live by texting!! So capturing this market may be easier by SMS. However, how to get those numbers and quickly?

Steve Solem

Have to say I agree with everything there for a number of reasons.

For one, prom dresses are not the typical thing people search for on their mobile phones. They might search to find a dress shop in the area and get contact info, but I don't imagine many would want to do their shopping on the phone itself. If they do and if you've got an image heavy site and people aren't using wifi, they'll quickly burn through their data plan - and if they're at home, I think they'd be more likely to use a desktop browser.

If I owned this shop and were trying to get ready for prom season, I'd probably be doing a number of online/offline things trying to get people into my store, but i don't think I'd place a huge emphasis on mobile or sms.

I'd be researching to see how many people are searching online for prom dresses and working to improve my position on the first page of the search results. I'd also be thinking of ways to partner with local, non competing businesses that might be able to send some visitors my way, and think of all the ways I could get my message out to teenage girls who would be my ideal prospects for dresses.

Think about who else already does business with your ideal prospect and see if you can advertise with them. Maybe a local movie theater or some other place local teen girls hang out?

Once you get prospects to your site I think it's important to capture the names, emails and maybe cell phone numbers of your prospects so you can keep in touch with them especially before prom season - but when you've got a small window to get some business now before prom season is over, I don't think I'd focus on mobile/sms first.

HTH some!

Steve

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Perestroika

Finally a voice of reason

You also have to think how many of them will be repeating customers. You might get some teenage girls to signup to your SMS list in order to receive a $25 off coupon. Since they are teens they do not have the ability to purchase stuff over the phone and even on the Internet. The best they can do is go to the store with their parents. After they purchase the dress they will not be returning to the store for at least a year if ever.

Mobile marketing can work for some businesses but I dont think it will work for a boutique selling dresses. Since these are tangible items costing few hundred dollars it would make sense that buyers would want to see large pictures on the website first. If they like something they would have to go to the store and try it on. The dress might also have to be adjusted.

Jodik

The store also has a lot of accessories and gorgeous clothes for the moms!! However her pain point is moving those dresses.
A friend told me I should go to the local high schools and do a fundraiser for the school with the store donating some of the profits.

Perestroika

Going to the high school you are reaching the customers directly. It would be a great place to find customers who are interested in her products.

sbishop

Use the email list of course. Tel them to check out the new dresses for this year's Prom. Do facebook ads asking if they have the perfect dress for prom get them to opt in. Start sending newsletters talking about prom ides and info. you need you get their name infront of possible customers often so they will atlest go to the store and check out some dresses.

Make sure there is an offer for something free at the store so the owner will see them asking for it and know you sent them to her store!

AdwordsMogul

Here is one thing you can do for you to make money and succeed with this.

You need to structure your campaign properly... so let's just say you want people to walk into your store to buy prom dresses.

Well, as you have rightly observed, these girls are glued to their phones. However, the trick is, you can only get them to opt-in to your SMS list by using other media.

So, create a simple SMS Contest, say "Sexy Prom Queen SMS Contest". Then you create a whole lot of flyers that say "Here is how you can be the most beautiful and sexiest girl at your prom". Then you offer them a FREE dress worth $500 or whatever as the price for the contest.

All they need to do is to text "SEXY" to your short/long code.

If you do this in all the schools in the local area, you will have a lot of entries. Then you can start marketing other offers to them as well.

P.S. Whatever you do, make sure that you think of other media (besides mobile) that you can use to generated leads for this business.

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barbotoole

Hey, Jodik: Did you already think of using Facebook? Someone said that a lot of the girls are "glued" to their phones - because they're on Facebook!!

If the shop already has a fanpage they want to promote, you can use that, but it might be more effective to set up a new fanpage for each of the major highschools in the immediate area and call each page (name of highschool)___SEXY PROM DRESS CONTEST. Then you can think of a contest idea and if they text the shortcode like "SEXYDRESS" or whatever, then they get on the SMS list. Or, just run the whole contest through Facebook.

I don't think we're supposed to put any promotions in here, but there was a recent WSO product that talked about this type of promotion you might find helpful.

Sounds like fun and good luck! ~ Barbara

Barbara O'Toole
http://irishlionmedia.com

Jodik

I am thinking the word sexy and high school girls is a nono these dresses are gorgeous and yes some are sexy and some elegant. Jeez I am old!! I love the facebook idea.
Thanks

kalens99

I wouldn't argue that mobile media is ineffective. I think it can actually be hit or miss. I think people can search for prom dresses through mobile. Keep in mind, many people don't even want to use their computers to search at all. In fact, I know people who don't have computers at all and do all their searching online. Others just don't find it convenient. So you could certainly reach people through mobile searches. However, I agree with other people on the thread that it isn't likely to be as high as an impulse purchase (such as finding the nearest pizza place or a good bar to hit up for happy hour).

I wouldn't say it isn't worth doing, but I wouldn't prioritize it over other IM methods. However, some keyword research may show you that competitors aren't optimizing for mobile and you can easily go in and exploit it. In that case, it may be a good thing to work with.

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HypeText

Keep in mind that SMS Messages can be viral!

If you two put your heads together an make an offer they can't refuse I bet you could enlist some High School girls to forward the Offer to their Friends and their Friends can then forward the offer to their friends, etc. You get the idea!

Before long EVERY Teenage Girl in that school will have received the offer!

UZMarketing

Great question. I can give you my opinion, since some of our mobile marketing clients are big churches.

I'd say connect with businesses which are hotspots for teens, and ask to do a cross promotional banner or advertisement which combines the hotspot information as well as your shortcode opt in service.

Also, see if you can connect to people involved in the prom committee to cross promote.

-K

Meyowza

If her target marketing is Prom, then I would do a Raffle. The crazier the offer the better her results.

text PROM to 90210 and receive 25% of your prom attire plus be entered in our raffle to win a chance to get a full refund on your purchase!*

*30 prom outfits must be sold before announcing raffle winner.*

Then go viral with FB, Twitter and letting everyone she knows.

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rainingproblems

I've seen the reference of schools at least twice on here....are you talking about advertising on premises? Will schools allow a marketer to do that?

chrisnotes

I agree with TrumpiaTim, using a simple text opt in will work wonders because it is fast, simple, and effective.

Neil

This may be too late for this year - but this thread is pretty evergreen.

You should really be able to create a viral campaign with facebook. The existing customer database she has should be enough to launch a FB contest. You can also track down key people by looking for FB pages for organizations and groups (scouts, local teams, highschool clubs, etc.)

Outfits like Wildfire are approved for running FB contests and they are CHEAP... less than $20 for a 10 day campaign. Using them will cover your butt for legal issues.

Don't forget that you can advertise on FB by demographics and affinity (high school name, zip code, female, organizations, etc).

You could have them "like" the contest page to enter, and optin for the text for contest updates and a chance for a second tier of prizes.

Just some ideas.

Neil