Vol. 4: “Nothing helps you get your second customer like your first,” says Professor Duff. In this installment of Entrepreneurship 101, the discussion centers on choosing a market and how niches can help you gain early success. There is a great deal of opportunity in niche markets where competition is usually less and prices for services are typically higher than in cluttered markets with several competitors.
John Duffy, 3Ci’s founder and CEO, is a serial entrepreneur having started several businesses in a wide range of industries. He was asked to speak to a group of Florida Atlantic University students as part of their celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Entrepreneurship 101 is a break down of that panel discussion into topical segments meant to be informative and hopefully useful to potential entrepreneurs. Duff is not a professor he just plays one on TV so take his advice at your own risk.
Vol. 3: In this installment of Entrepreneurship 101, Professor Duff expounds on why he thinks you should always try to eliminate the need for outside capital and why you’ll always be better grinding it out on your own.
John Duffy, 3Ci’s founder and CEO, is a serial entrepreneur having started several businesses in a wide range of industries. He was asked to speak to a group of Florida Atlantic University students as part of their celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Entrepreneurship 101 is a break down of that panel discussion into topical segments meant to be informative and hopefully useful to potential entrepreneurs. Duff is not a professor he just plays one on TV so take his advice at your own risk.
John Duffy, 3Ci’s founder and CEO, is a serial entrepreneur having started several businesses in a wide range of industries. He was asked to speak to a group of Florida Atlantic University students as part of their celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Entrepreneurship 101 is a break down of that panel discussion into topical segments meant to be informative and hopefully useful to potential entrepreneurs. Duff is not a professor he just plays one on TV, so take his advice at your own risk.
Course: ENT 101
School: 3Cinteractive
Faculty: Professor Duff
Credit Level: Beginner
Course Description: This course strives to provide students the knowledge and tools necessary to understand what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Please be advised, it is not for the faint hearted. This course will give future entrepreneurs a small glimpse at what to expect and some of the pitfalls to look out for and hopefully avoid. Although this course focuses on entrepreneurship the lessons learned can be taken into all aspects of business and life. Topics covered will include: Motivation, Selecting Partners, Outside Capital, Choosing a Market, Creating Value, Scalability, Oscillation Curve, First Steps, Strategy and Ideas.
Vol. 1: Mark Dixon, former NFL offensive lineman used to say, “I don’t care what motivates you, just be motivated“. In the first installment of Entrepreneurship 101, Duff discusses what motivated him to be an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur is a lifestyle you have to live 24×7. If you want to be successful, passion and motivation are a must.
The following is part 2 of a 3 part introduction to mobile marketing best practices. You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.
The beautiful thing about mobile marketing is its ability to act as both a capture medium and a conversion medium. Ideally, successful mobile programs will serve as a revenue generator rather than a marketing expense. Other applications leverage text messaging as a more direct, less expensive alternative to achieve traditional marketing or communication objectives. Once your programs have reached critical mass, you can begin considering methods to convert your database into revenue.
Just as we do not recommend buying third party lists, selling your opt-in list is a poor way of monetizing your hard work. If possible, construct your mobile marketing message to have a response that occurs on the handset. This has proven to be an extremely successful approach in mobile marketing for content providers offering ringtones and wallpapers as the call-to-action, download, and product were all received on the handset. Conversions are still very high when the end-user is required to convert outside of the handset by visiting a website or store, however, a conversion that happens on the handset, keeping a user in his/her context, limits the barriers to entry.
Users love the convenience and instant gratification of mobile technology. Appeal to that desire, and your conversion rates will directly reflect ease of use and immediate gratification.
If you are driving consumers outside of the handset, such as visiting a full html website, be very clear with the offer to the end users. While a baited call-to-action may receive more conversions from handset to website, the conversion from website to product will not be any better. An honest call-to-action will have great conversion rates and leave consumers satisfied with your mobile offering.
Finally, send good offers! You’re participating in one of the most direct and powerful marketing mediums ever: a billboard in consumers’ pockets! Send users something that makes them feel like a VIP. Remember - text messages, even on an unlimited plan, are a cost to the consumer; don’t take advantage of that. Send reasonable offers to your targeted groups and your consumers will happily reward you with high response rates.
The following is part 2 of a 3 part introduction to mobile marketing best practices. You can find part 1 here.
To run a successful text message marketing campaign, it is important to provide information and content that is considered valuable to consumers. Be sure to avoid third-party lists; building a database of consumers interested in your brand is the most successful strategy. In addition to not being carrier or MMA compliant, third party lists will also generate complaints. For consumers to join a mobile marketing program, they must opt-in or confirm their intent to receive your content. Carriers have two types of opt-ins; single and double, determined by the type of program. These opt-ins are limited to the particular program and short code and are not considered blanket approvals for other programs and short codes that you are marketing.
When a mobile subscriber opts into your mobile marketing program they are agreeing to receive information or mobile content from the offer you described. The best mobile marketing programs opt users into programs when demographic information can be inferred directly or indirectly. Having deeper levels of demographics allows your program to be selective when sending out future marketing messages. The more refined your marketing message is, the more receptive your end-users will be to your offer. For example, a sports radio station would benefit from individual lists for the area’s sports teams rather than one combined list of sports enthusiasts. Using this method, more general sports messages can be sent out to applicable lists but the targeted messages can be sent to the receptive users.
Be straightforward about the content and messages that users are going to receive. At a minimum include pricing, terms and billing intervals, and a notice that the cost will be charged to or deducted from their mobile phone. Do not use “free” or “bonus” terminology as end-users are still subjected to standard text messaging rates from their carrier. Including “standard carrier and other charges may apply” in your text message properly notifies the consumer of charges when joining a mobile program. Stay tuned for the wrap up…
At 3Cinteractive, we design campaigns around the motto that our company is named for: Create, Capture, Convert. First, you Create compelling, targeted “calls to action” to engage consumers via mobile. Next you Capture that consumer’s mobile number and any relevant demographic information into a consumer database. Lastly, the mobile consumer database is Converted into a new marketing channel, one that helps you achieve new and existing marketing goals. Utilizing this system and the best practices associated with each step, you will ensure a successful campaigns that build revenue and consumer loyalty for your brand.
The following is part 1 of a 3 part introduction to mobile marketing best practices.
When the US mobile carriers established a ubiquitous system for sending SMS messages, they adopted a standard for end-users to manage the content they receive. As I’ve preached (here, here, and here), this is one of the main reasons that SMS has avoided the SPAM fate of e-mail. Unless you’re dealing with a newsletter, most e-mail SPAM does not have a clear sender or working unsubscribe options. On the e-mail front, SPAM filtering has become a “reactive” habit and, while most e-mail users are losing time, SPAM doesn’t have a measurable monetary penalty. Consumers pay for text messaging, even unlimited-messaging consumers so it is important to give them the correct methods to manage their subscription.
All US shortcodes must have universal keywords to receive help and to opt-out of a program. These keywords are designed to allow the user to receive additional information about a mobile campaign or remove themselves from receiving any additional charges and messages.
Stop, End, Cancel, Unsubscribe, Quit
Because users receive a standard rate fee for text messaging, they are more likely to complain about unwanted text messages. A properly structured initial message neutralizes complaints by giving users a clear and working way to unsubscribe. If a user texts a platform with “STOP”, the platform must prevent the end user from receiving any additional messages from that campaign. If the user is opted-in to several campaigns on the shortcode, an additional tiered response to clarify the correct campaign is acceptable; “STOP ALL” should opt-out the user for all campaigns.
Help
End-users should have clear information about the messages they are signing up to receive. A user who texts in “HELP” should receive a message back that includes:
Vol. 4: “Nothing helps you get your second customer like your first,” says Professor Duff. In this installment of Entrepreneurship 101, the discussion centers on choosing a market and how niches can help you gain early success. There is a great deal of opportunity in niche markets where competition is usually less and prices for services are typically higher than in cluttered markets with several competitors.
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