Watch the video real quick and then go check out his review. I hope they make this app for the Palm Pre to break me out of my Budweiser in a bottle and Pinot Grigio rut.

Awesome review on Attention Digital:
Drinkspiration should provide other major brands with mobilespiration
(I even love the title of review!)

Sadly, some people are taking advantage of today’s economic news and fraud is reaching an all-time high. Crimes such as online identity theft, credit theft and so forth are all peaking. No matter what the economy is doing, this problem impacts consumers and companies of all economic cohorts and business domains.

If the worst does happen and someone steals your credit card account information to go on a buying spree, the consumer protection department of your credit card issuer will attempt to contact you, most commonly through voice, as that is the default for most consumers, especially older consumers. Email is also frequently used.

However, both voice and email introduce delays into a process where timely outreach is critical. If the number of record is a home landline, the message may not be picked up until well into the evening. Even if a business line or cell phone is being contacted, people often defer calls from unknown numbers to a more convenient time. Meanwhile, the fraudulent transaction which triggered the alert process may still go through. Even if it is declined, the identity thieves are free to try again. Conversely, if the transaction is legitimate and the account holder is unavailable to confirm it, the desired purchase may be stalled or declined.
This opens an opportunity for mobile messaging to become a value-add to consumers experiencing account fraud. SMS delivered to the handset is not just a fun way for friends to stay in touch — in cases like identity theft alerts it provides a valuable business benefit.

Many users who have adopted SMS as an ordinary communications channel will typically check their messaging as soon as possible – at a stoplight, on a meeting break, walking down a hallway – even in situations where they may not be willing or able to take a voice call.

The consumer whose account information is suspected to have been stolen can receive a text message to contact a fraud hotline immediately. Valuable time is saved in a fraud management process where minutes can count – minutes that can prevent further damage to the consumer’s credit.

Opt-In Strategies
The sticking point with commercial SMS messages in the U.S. is getting consumers to opt-in to receive such messages in the first place. A multichannel media strategy for garnering opt-ins can provide big payoffs for both lenders and consumers. Examples include SMS opt-in opportunities at the end of agented or automated voice calls, point-of-sale messaging at branch banks or lending offices, Web-based check-box options within the customer’s account profile, statement messaging or inserts and print advertising campaigns.

When consumers are given the opportunity to opt-in for fraud alerts via SMS, businesses can create stronger customer relationships through protecting everyone in the transaction chain – consumer, merchant, processor, and lender – while improving profitability through a more efficient fraud management process. A simple mobile messaging campaign, delivered in these difficult times, reaps dividends for everyone involved.

If it sounds intriguing just sign up to be kept informed here in the upper left corner.

Not sure how, but I had forgotten about this comment that was made to me immediately after my talk at The System Seminar in March. Today I was reminded of it when Billye Thompson sent out this email about my call tomorrow night as a part of his Ultralist Jam Session.

In this series of free calls (free to listen live or $77 to get the recordings) you can hear amazing folks like David Bullock, Shama Hyder, Gina Bell, Marc Harty, Shannon Cherry, Lou Bartone and me talk about how to build your list.

Each of us has our own take and specialty around how to build your list. Of course I will be talking about how to build your SMS (text message) list and how to use SMS to build your email list.

Check it out at Ultralist Jam Session.

Click here if you want to learn more Text Messaging for Internet Marketers

The Challenge:

This week I’d like to issue a challenge to you. It is to participate in mobile marketing from the consumer side. If you are going to work in mobile marketing, you need to CONSUME mobile marketing.

I challenge you to sign up for at least 2 text message campaigns and visit at least 2 mobile websites (from your mobile browser) this week. These should be new campaigns to you.

If you don’t have a text message plan or a data plan on your phone yet, go get them. There is no excuse for being in mobile marketing and not having a text and data plan.

As you do this I’d like you to stay aware of what caused you to sign up for campaigns. What were the factors that you had to see present to feel safe to give over your mobile number? What made you excited to get a message?

My Challenge Report:

To be honest I have to say that I was only able to accomplish half of the challenge – I used one text messaging campaign and visited one new mobile site. On a brighter note I did upgrade my mobile plan to Sprint’s Everything Data Family Plan. Turns out we get 100 extra minutes and unlimited texting and unlimited data on all three phones for $2 LESS per month. Check your plan – it might be cheaper to have unlimited now.

Anyway, there we were on a road trip driving across New Mexico. For those of you who don’t live out West, or even in the US at all, here is a visual image. It looks like this for hours at a time.

I had just about given up on being able to execute the challenge when we were wondering how to get to the restaurant we heard had awesome green chili in Santa Fe.

We were too far out in the middle of nowhere to get the mobile web to come up, but then I remembered I could text Google for the info. I didn’t have the Google short code memorized or programmed into my contacts so I had to bring up my on screen key pad to figure out the numerical equivalent to GOOGLE which turns out to be 466453.

I bring this up so that you know when you ask people with smartphones to spell out the short code, it doesn’t work. The number pad we use on our QWERTY keyboard doesn’t match the phone dialing numbers and letters combo. Just use the numbers.

Since I knew the name of the restaurant and that we were going to Santa Fe, I texted “Tomasito’s Santa Fe” to 46645. Yes, I accidentally left off the last 3 and it worked anyway. It sent me back the correct name (Tomasita’s) and the address with a click to call phone number.

Once I had phone call level cell service I clicked to call the restaurant and got directions off the freeway from the hostess. Worked like a charm. The best part was that my friend who was driving thought I was just brilliant and a Techno Goddess. Turns out that texting Google can impress your friends AND get you where you want to go.

Now about that mobile site…

I had decided that I wanted to be marketed a mobile site in the real world and not search for one on my mobile or find out about it from a mobile marketing oriented source. The only site that I saw with this criteria this week was the Disney mobile site, specifically one for the show called Phineas and Ferb. (Don’t get me started on the show itself. Suffice it to say that this is not one of the shows on Disney that I actually like.)

A full mobile site review is not in order here as I’m not sure if anyone reading this, myself included, actually cares how the Phineas and Ferb mobile site worked – which it did. Let me just point out a couple of things that were great about this mobile campaign.

First, the domain name was great. I saw the site promoted on the Disney Channel while we were getting ready to head to the competition. I was literally tying my shoes when the commercial aired. It caught my attention because I was trying to find a mobile site and I worried that I might not be able to remember the domain name. Not to fear. It was www.disney.mobi/pf which I successfully remembered without writing it down or using it for 4 days.

My daughter also got excited initially but then remembered she doesn’t have internet access on her phone so she turned away from the TV and kept getting ready. Now that we have that new unlimited plan she can check it out for herself.

The other great thing about this campaign was that it was being marketed to the right audience (Phineas and Ferb viewers) from a trusted source – the Disney Channel. Keep these concepts in mind when you start marketing your mobile site. Start with your current customers who already know and trust you. Build from there.

OK, what about you? Did you accept the challenge? What text campaigns did you participate in and what mobile sites did you visit? What did you find interesting and/or noteworthy?

Choosing a text message company can be daunting. There are so many choices with a wide variety of services available by each vendor.

Once you have eliminated any company that only offers SMTP email based texting (see why here) you can move on to choosing a provider based on the types of features a particular company offers and whether or not their service will work for what you want to do.

Need help getting started with text messaging? Want to be sure you are developing a smart campaign before you hire the vendor to get it done? Check out my Mobile Marketing Launch Kit which includes a module about creating a successful text messaging campaign.

Listed below are several text message companies that I have either personally used or have gone through an in depth tour of their platform.  Full disclosure: In some cases I will earn a referral fee if you choose to do business with them. However, no company is listed here that I wouldn’t personally do business with myself or suggest to a dear friend.

You will find companies that are Self-Service, Specialty Self-Service and Managed Service.

SELF-SERVICE

The following text message companies are set up so that you can sign up and handle your own campaign. Whether that means you are doing it yourself or have your in-house marketing team taking charge.

Texting Forward
Texting Forward is owned by Jerson Daganzo, a very smart and savvy marketer who also owns a Cold Stone Creamery franchise. His real world business experience translates into a very powerful text message platform that includes mobile coupons, a loyalty club with automatic tracking and reward delivery and the ability to create a variety of sublists for smarter marketing.

All campaigns are created and monitored in the easy to use campaign control center. Reports are built with a business owner mindset. It is easy to see what is working with your text campaign and what needs attention. The Texting Forward platform includes a coupon redemption module that makes every campaign trackable in a very easy way.

I highly recommend TextingForward, especially for businesses doing mobile coupons with staff who will be responsible for redeeming them. It is the business owner’s dream program because the reporting is so detailed. The easy to use user interface and powerful campaign features (including a social networking component) and robust reporting make this a knockout platform.

More Info

markUmobile
markUmobile is run by Kathryn Rose, a smart businesswoman who understands that it is technology’s job to do what we want and then makes it happen. Her platform is set up to work for any type of business but she has specialty platforms for realtors (HomeSearchMobile), mortgage lenders (RateWatchMobile) and banks (Mobile Banking).

The admin panel is easy enough to find your way around in to get done what you want. Plus, Kathryn will walk you through it in your demo, so you’ll know what you’re doing.

There is an online widget available that you can use to capture text message sign ups from your website. This allows for the markUmobile platform to help you build your subscriber list from multiple sources.

More Info

TxtWire
TxtWire, run by CEO Doug Moss, has txtdispatcher which is their service for schools and universities to send text message alerts (emergency and otherwise) to their students and faculty. They also have txtnet which is a network that lists participating schools, businesses and organizations in a given geographic area. Consumers sign up to receive information from only the entities of interest to them.  They also offer custom solutions for businesses.

One really great thing about TxtWire is that through txtnet consumers get to choose exactly what they want to receive – event alerts, coupons, other offers – and from whom. It works well for everybody.

More Info

Mobivity
Mobivity is an excellent platform for small businesses that need a cost-effective way to get started in text messaging. The Mobivity platform has a lot of features, but is not as user friendly as it could be. Mobivity 2.0 is said to be coming out shortly which should solve that issue.

Campaigns are created in the admin site, but there is not much that can be monitored there.  (This is ironic because the Mobivity team is also responsible for Mobilytics, the best mobile web analytics available.)  Within Mobivity you can do SMS autoresponders, text clubs, mobile coupons, polling/voting and contests.

The best feature of Mobivity is its small business friendly pricing and variety of features. If you are open to figuring out how to use the admin panel, then Mobivity is a solid, smart choice. I use Mobivity for my Mobile Marketing Text News Brief and am very happy with their service.

More Info

i2SMS
i2SMS is an Australian company with a U.S. branch office run by Giff Gfroerer. Their program handles text blasts, text clubs, mobile coupons and mobile originated information requests. I2SMS is the best text company to go with if you have a database of information that you want to serve up to customers via text messaging upon their request.

The admin panel is easy enough to figure out and there is some level of reporting you can see. When you sign up you will get a complete walk through of the system by someone from the company. That is one of the best reasons to go with i2SMS.

You also get unlimited secondary keywords that can be used to crate sub-lists and make campaigns more trackable.  A very cool feature of 12SMS is that you can send messages to your subscribers by using your phone.

More Info

mobileStorm
The most robust and multi-channeled platform presented so far, mobileStorm helps you pull out the big guns. You can do mobile coupons, autoresponders, scheduled texts and text clubs. You can even use their platform to create a Text to Screen. Additionally, the mobileStorm platform does so much more than text messaging. It handles email, voice, faxing and also video promotion. They even have an RSVP Manager that is wonderful for clubs & restaurants who can use it to get more people in the door.

Customer service is high touch at mobileStorm. You will likely get a personal call from someone there when you sign up to make sure you are getting started OK. There is a lot of data and information about your campaigns you can access in the admin panel.

I highly recommend mobileStorm because their platform is more than text messaging and so it gives you more marketing channels in one. Plus they are a top of the line company with affordable introductory pricing to get started.

More Info

SPECIALTY SELF-SERVICE

PhindMe / EverywhereIGo
EverywhereIGo is a mobile site building service with integrated text messaging. This is very smart to combine the two mobile marketing tools. The website builder is fairly robust and easy enough to use. As with all mobile site builders it feels a bit like wearing new shoes.

The user interface is mostly intuitive and you can certainly get at least a preliminary mobile site built in less than an hour. It will help to have a clear cut idea of what you want to create before you start using the site builder. Integrating in the text messaging component is super easy. Most of it is built in for you.

If you need a mobile site with a text messaging component, I highly recommend EveryhwhereIGo, especially because they have a fully functional free version so you can try it out.

More Info

JitterGram
JitterGram is a local-oriented mobile coupon provider. You can very easily set up a mobile coupon offer and then send out coupons via this service. Their back end software takes care of everything you just plug in your initial offer and then you can send text message on a set pre-programmed schedule or whenever you want to send one.

There is a basic report for each JitterGram sent but you have to manually input the redemption numbers. JitterGram gets huge kudos for being super easy to use. Another bonus is that consumers who are signing up to receive JitterGrams from their website will see all the offers in a particular area.

If you need the easiest, fastest way to create a basic mobile coupon campaign, JitterGram is it. They offer the first month free as well, so there is no risk to give it a try.

More Info

MANAGED SERVICE

The following are companies that actually do the text messaging for you. They work with your marketing team to create the campaigns and then they implement it for you. The minimum budget you need to work with a managed service company is $10,000 plus you need marketing support for your campaign.

Blast Companies / Smart Reply
If you are looking for a company that will handle the text messaging campaign for you, instead of you doing it yourself, then Smart Reply is the place to go. They will take care of every detail of your campaign from start to finish. In addition to text messaging they can also help you with a voice campaign.

More Info

Confused by how to get started with text messaging? Want to be sure you are developing a smart campaign before you hire the vendor to get it done? Check out my Mobile Marketing Launch Kit which includes a module about creating a successful text messaging campaign.

Not Listed Here?
If you are an SMS text message company provider and would like to be listed, please contact me to set up a tour of your platform. I am open to reviewing companies worldwide even though right now I only list U.S. companies.

PAY-PER-CALL
With approximately 14 million businesses in the U.S. and less than 300,000 of these engaged in click-based online advertising, it is clear that the “one size fits all” approach to online advertising doesn’t work—especially when it comes to local merchants and service providers who do not have or operate e-commerce websites. Ingenio Pay Per Call offers an innovative twist on the traditional method of search-based online advertising: it enables you to attract millions of small, local and service based businesses to pay-for performance advertising with an online solution that delivers a phone call instead of a click.

Ingenio Pay Per Call is an ideal solution for the millions of local businesses who know the value of a phone call lead—studies show
that these small businesses prefer incoming calls to website clicks by a ratio of 2 to 1. With Ingenio Pay Per Call, these businesses can acquire new customers online—and pay only after they receive an incoming phone call. Click here for more information.

ABBREVIATED DIALING CODES
SingleTouch offers the ability to get a three digit code that consumers can dial to get information directly from a brand. An example is #WMT for WalMart’s savings alerts program. Dialing this code from your mobile phone gives you a voice recording option for signing up for their weekly savings alerts.

MOBILE ADVERTISING RESOURCES

Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd, Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords
(Entrepreneur Press, 2006)

You need a mobile-friendly site NOW. The fastest way to get that it is to miniaturize your site. This makes your site easily accessible via mobile but does not change the content. Just makes it smaller to fit on a mobile screen. While it is not the ideal solution, at least it is a start.

The miniaturizing solution often includes an advertising revenue model. If you are looking to create a business model around generating revenue with advertising these are great options.

FeedM8
Takes your RSS feed and builds a mobile site with your posts. Includes a text alert option so that your site visitors can be alerted via SMS text message whenever you update your blog. FeedM8 is an advertising supported service and advertising will appear automatically on your mobile site. You can get 60% of the revenue generated from the ads, but you must verify your site to be eligible. There is also an affiliate program whereby you can earn money by suggesting FeedM8 to others and get paid when they start generating ad revenue.

The interface is very easy to work with and the mobile site that is created works well. There is a nice selection of mobile banners / widgets you can embed on your site to alert your readers that you have a mobile site. Reports show visitor count only.

There is no capacity for building a mobile site from scratch within FeedM8.
More Info

MoFuse
You can use MoFuse to miniaturize your blog or you can use it as a mobile site builder. MoFuse also offers a piece of script that you can put on your blog that will allow it to serve the proper version of the site based on how any particular visitor is browsing. Mobile browsers will trigger the mobile site to show and a desktop browser will be served the full sized site. (This is a great feature!)

Using MoFuse is very easy and the site builder is fairly robust. You can do a lot with it, creating different types of pages and reordering them easily. The stats program built into MoFuse is basic but it works well. With MoFuse you can create up to 5 mobile sites on one account.

The advertising revenue split on MoFuse is 50/50 and they support AdMob and Google Adsense. You can choose either one. You can also specify whether you want your advertising to show up at the top of your site or the bottom.

More Info

Winksite
WinkSite is a mobile web builder with the ability to build in a community aspect around the mobile site. Although I haven’t been able to see that many folks are actually using the community feature effectively. That said, WinkSite has a lot of cool features you can use to build a mobile site quickly.

Winksite offers its publishers the ability to monetize their mobile sites using Google Adsense, AdMob, mKhoj, BuzzCity, GetMobile, Admoda, Adshandy or Mo’Jiva. Your Revenue Share is 100%. Winksite does not take a share of your revenue that your mobile site generates.

With WinkSite you can also generate your own self-service ads. You can create a landing page, click to call option, link to a video, survey or another mobile site. This opens up the option of selling ads for a fixed price to sponsors or creating your own ads for you own products.

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GetMobile Juicer
This Works for sites, not just blogs. It is not an exact science and your site will not be perfect, but it may be better than doing nothing. The best thing to do is head over to Get Mobile and input your site URL into the Publishers section where you can submit your site to be “juiced.” It will do its best to mobilize your site and let you preview it.

Once you see if the mobile version is acceptable, you can sign up for an account (its free) and then add advertising to your site if you wish. Or just launch your mobile version.

Get Mobile also has a mobile site builder available with templates you can use to jumpstart your site building. As with all mobile site builders you will likely find you want it to do more than it can. That’s normal right now.

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MOBILE PLATFORM PROVIDERS

If you are looking to develop a mobile site on your own domain that is a true mobile media property, you will need a mobile platform. These are services provided to businesses with at least $10,000 available to invest in their mobile site. You do get what you pay for as the mobile sites produced by these companies are fabulous.

iLoop Mobile
iLoopMobile’s mFinity platform is a multi-channel platform that builds mobile sites and has an integrated text messaging component as well. The iLoop platform can also build out a mobile content storefront allowing you to build a mobile site to sell ringtones. iLoopMobile is a very strong option for your needs.

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Crisp Wireless
CrispWireless specializes in mobile sites for media companies – newspapers, magazines and television. Their robust mobile sites are top notch and perform well. If you choose to work with Crisp Wireless you are in good hands.

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MOBILE WEB DESIGNERS

If you don’t want to do it yourself with a mobile site builder or go with a platform builder, then you are building your site from scratch. In that case I recommend working with a web designer with mobile experience. Here are a couple designers I can recommend.

Fling Media
Brian and Cyndi Fling are the mobile design team at Fling Media. They do excellent work and have great creativity. They also do iPhone app work as well. You can’t go wrong with Fling.

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Little Springs Design
Barbara Ballard and her team in Lawrence, Kansas are top mobile web designers. Barbara has even written books about mobile design and they host a Mobile Design conference. They know their stuff.

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Need Mobile Website Help?
Need help with your mobile website strategy? Do you need to figure out how to drive traffic to your mobile site once it is built? Check out my Mobile Marketing Launch Kit which includes a module about creating a successful text messaging campaign.

Not Listed Here?
If you are a mobile site designer, have a mobile platform or have a mobile site builder and would like to be listed, please contact me so I can find out more about what you offer. I am open to reviewing companies worldwide even though right now I only list U.S. companies.