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Local SMS Plan: I Would Greatly Appreciate Your Feedback!

by westhope84
8 replies
Hello Warriors,

First of all, allow me to extend a gracious "thank you" to all of the kind and generous folks who make this forum something truly inspiring. Your work and commitment to your art is extremely valued. Although I'm very new here, browsing around these threads has provided some very valuable information.

I would like to share an idea I have to garner whether or not it is feasible, and also hopefully elicit some constructive feedback.

I am quite intrigued by the frontier that is Mobile Marketing for local businesses. I have a plan that I am rather excited about, but being a "newb," I thought it wise to ask for some feedback. Here's the plan:

1. Create a Facebook Fan Page titled something like "(local city) Foodie Texts." Work until I have amassed at least 3000 phone numbers (I live in a metropolitan area of a bit over 500,000 people). The page would emphasize the necessity of acquiring at least 3000 "likes", but more importantly 3000 cell phone numbers, before the benefits of joining really kick in. The schtick is that as a part of this group, you receive daily, exclusive offers via text message from local restaurants that can be redeemed by going to the given restaurant and providing a promotional code included in the text.

2. Assuming I am nearing the 3000 mark for local sign ups/phone number list, mail an intelligently assembled marketing letter to at least 75 respected local restaurants, offering them the opportunity to have TWO text messages per month sent out to the 3000 or so EXTREMELY TARGETED potential customers. Restaurants would be encouraged to create an exclusive, special offer to be texted by my SMS service to members of this list. Restaurants would be informed that only 15 local restaurants would be chosen for this venture. After some research, my preliminary price per restaurant per two mass texts per month would be $497.

All that being said, I want to know if you guys think that this could work.

Specific questions that i have:

1. What might be the best method for building a list of around 3000 phone numbers in my community that are interested in this service? Could this all be done via Facebook?

2. Is my price point, given said parameters, reasonable?

3. What is the most economical SMS tool to accomodate such a venture?

Any other feedback would be tremendously appreciated. My dream would to make this sort of gig a full time income.

In closing, thanks again for all that so many of you have already inspired with. I hope to someday be in a position to give back to this community.

-Chris
#feedback #greatly #local #plan #sms
  • Profile picture of the author zenyatta
    Originally Posted by westhope84 View Post

    Hello Warriors,

    First of all, allow me to extend a gracious "thank you" to all of the kind and generous folks who make this forum something truly inspiring. Your work and commitment to your art is extremely valued. Although I'm very new here, browsing around these threads has provided some very valuable information.

    I would like to share an idea I have to garner whether or not it is feasible, and also hopefully elicit some constructive feedback.

    I am quite intrigued by the frontier that is Mobile Marketing for local businesses. I have a plan that I am rather excited about, but being a "newb," I thought it wise to ask for some feedback. Here's the plan:

    1. Create a Facebook Fan Page titled something like "(local city) Foodie Texts." Work until I have amassed at least 3000 phone numbers (I live in a metropolitan area of a bit over 500,000 people). The page would emphasize the necessity of acquiring at least 3000 "likes", but more importantly 3000 cell phone numbers, before the benefits of joining really kick in. The schtick is that as a part of this group, you receive daily, exclusive offers via text message from local restaurants that can be redeemed by going to the given restaurant and providing a promotional code included in the text.

    2. Assuming I am nearing the 3000 mark for local sign ups/phone number list, mail an intelligently assembled marketing letter to at least 75 respected local restaurants, offering them the opportunity to have TWO text messages per month sent out to the 3000 or so EXTREMELY TARGETED potential customers. Restaurants would be encouraged to create an exclusive, special offer to be texted by my SMS service to members of this list. Restaurants would be informed that only 15 local restaurants would be chosen for this venture. After some research, my preliminary price per restaurant per two mass texts per month would be $497.

    All that being said, I want to know if you guys think that this could work.

    Specific questions that i have:

    1. What might be the best method for building a list of around 3000 phone numbers in my community that are interested in this service? Could this all be done via Facebook?

    2. Is my price point, given said parameters, reasonable?

    3. What is the most economical SMS tool to accomodate such a venture?

    Any other feedback would be tremendously appreciated. My dream would to make this sort of gig a full time income.

    In closing, thanks again for all that so many of you have already inspired with. I hope to someday be in a position to give back to this community.

    -Chris
    Hi Chris,

    Welcome to the forum. Your plan/business model is definitely viable. I just wonder about people signing up for a daily text. If they have an unlimited plan I guess it wouldn't be an issue. Regarding your questions:

    1. The best way to build the list is use the restaurants to do this. Offer them a free ad/text spot if they will give a free dessert or a 2 for 1 deal. The customers have to optin to the list in order to get the mobile coupon since they have opted in you can market to them going forward. The platform I use is integrated with Facebook so I look for restaurants with Facebook fanpages that have lots of fans. When we text an offer it is linked with a mobile coupon that pushes out to their Facebook wall as well as all of their fans. That is how to get your list growing virally.

    2. This can be a valid price point based on results. Our platform tracks how many coupons we send, how many are viewed, and most importantly how many are redeemed. This way the restaurant owner knows their exact ROI for an offer. With this system since we track redemptions you can use this for pricing. My idea is to price your offer based on actual redeemed coupons. Tell the restaurant owner you will bring him customers for $5 each or whatever they will agree with. If you push 200 people his way you just made $1k. We see redemption rates of 10%+ depending on the offer so you could easily do this once your list is in the thousands. Businesses pay a lot more than that with Groupon and other daily deal sites. So offer free spots to start the list, then a set fee($497?) as you build the list, then monetize your list per coupon or a % of actual traffic in their restaurant.

    3. There are a lot of great platforms for selling SMS. I looked at 30+ before choosing Lime. They are true SMS, offer free incoming texts and only 1-1.5 cent outgoing texts, their platform is fully featured and one of the best out there with mobile coupons, mobile ads, qr codes, text sweepstakes, appt setter, and lots more. You will cover the cost with 1-2 clients and then everything else is profit.

    Good Luck Chris! Your plan can work. Take action and make it happen!!

    Zenyatta
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonthewebmaster
    Banned
    This sounds almost exactly like my WSO here:
    http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...al+mobile+guru

    LOL except I have answered most of your questions in it
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  • Profile picture of the author dtang4
    I think that's a pretty solid idea. However, you will need an easy and intuitive way to let your facebook fans provide you their cells.

    I do think the price point is a bit high. It's essentially $250 to broadcast to 3K people, which is about 8c/person. Since each person is receiving about 5 of a these a day, I imagine most of the messages will be ignored, so the cost per text read is actually much higher. Then, I assume the conversion rate will also be low (less than 1%), so the cost per customer acquisition for the restaurant is pretty expensive.

    This is a pretty popular and economical service to do what you're looking for. Their whitelabel option has a flexible API:
    SMS Marketing for Business

    Another related idea... in addition to the facebook fan page, maybe create a mobile app that can push out restaurant coupons/announcements.
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    • Profile picture of the author ShivaLingam
      I think that it's a good idea, but just using facebook alone to get to 3000 numbers can take a bit of time.
      Do as zenyatta suggested and get help from local restaurants.
      Since it's maily a local thing you can also use flyers, direct mail, and all the marketing tools that work offline.
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      • Profile picture of the author sprks79
        Originally Posted by ShivaLingam View Post

        I think that it's a good idea, but just using facebook alone to get to 3000 numbers can take a bit of time.
        Do as zenyatta suggested and get help from local restaurants.
        Since it's maily a local thing you can also use flyers, direct mail, and all the marketing tools that work offline.
        Exactly this. I used Facebook, flyers, direct mail, localized twitter, newsprint, and even other local sites to help promote the list. In the end, approximately 3 months, 31,000 opt in numbers. I only send texts twice a week, usually midweek and Fridays for weekend deals. In getting these numbers I also got the email address and use it for my groupon type site. The two combined is ridiculous. To many texts through the week and you WILL see a huge amount of opt outs. Price it accordingly.
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        • Profile picture of the author cybernet
          The problem with OPT-OUTs should be addressed on a software development level.

          Why not develop an app that will allow people to set the number of text messages they are willing to receive in a given time period (e.g. no more than 20 messages per month).

          I would even take it one step further... Allow people to choose which restaurants they're willing to receive coupons from.

          The less annoying we (marketers) are to the consumers the better off we and our clients will be in the long run.

          I hope Lime Cellular is already working on these "consumer friendly" features.
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    • Profile picture of the author steve solo
      I would like to add that if you plan to send text ads once a day to a client you will discover that you will have a huge opt outs,..from experience I have discovered that once a month text ads are very safe,..its fair to say that you wont have opt outs,..so you want to some how increase you opt in list and try not to send too many text ads,..this will keep you in business for a while,..lol..hope this helps,..

      Originally Posted by dtang4 View Post

      I think that's a pretty solid idea. However, you will need an easy and intuitive way to let your facebook fans provide you their cells.

      I do think the price point is a bit high. It's essentially $250 to broadcast to 3K people, which is about 8c/person. Since each person is receiving about 5 of a these a day, I imagine most of the messages will be ignored, so the cost per text read is actually much higher. Then, I assume the conversion rate will also be low (less than 1%), so the cost per customer acquisition for the restaurant is pretty expensive.

      This is a pretty popular and economical service to do what you're looking for. Their whitelabel option has a flexible API:
      SMS Marketing for Business

      Another related idea... in addition to the facebook fan page, maybe create a mobile app that can push out restaurant coupons/announcements.
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      Www.offerfortune.com A Mobile Marketing Empire.
      5K 100% Opt In fresh mobile phone number Lists in any city, state and niche market for only $49..get signed up today and grab your free SMS marketing report!{check out the SMS marketing software for $45 one time fee}
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  • Profile picture of the author TycoonRob
    This idea is very similar to Jason's WSO, as he says, but this has the Facebook twist to it. I think this could work, but I might start at $300/mo which is about 10 cents a text. If you price it at 10c/text, then you could start charging right away. For example, if you promoted it and had only 300 people but had 15 restaurants on board for 2 texts/month, $30 x 15 = $450 minus your SMS costs to send would still clear you a couple hundred bucks. This way as you grow subscribers, you're not always changing your cost to the restaurant - just tell them up front it's 10 cents a text.

    But like Steve says, once a day texts - even if people agree to them - would probably end up having a lot of them opt-out eventually, especially if they don't visit the restaurants in question.
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