Unlike any other Mobile Marketing company, SkyWire Media offers the ability to track Viral SMS campaigns using Patented Technology. This entry will outline how this technology works, list advantages to tracking viral offers, as well as offer suggestions to effectively implement a viral SMS campaign.
How It Works:
To understand this viral tracking technology, you must first understand the logistics of a mobile marketing campaign. Typically, when using SMS Marketing, a company will have what is called a “call-to-action”; you have probably seen one before.
For example, a restaurant may have “Text BURGER to 56242 to receive special offers” posted in their window, or on table tents, in print ads, or on a billboard – This is considered a “call-to-action”. When broken down, there are two key parts to a call-to-action:
- The “keyword”, in this example BURGER is the keyword.
- The short code, in this example 56242 is the short code.When diners text BURGER to 56242 they opt-in to receive coupons and other offers from the restaurant. Typically companies will send out either Dynamic Coupons (unique to each person) or Static Coupons (everyone uses the same code). SkyWire’s Viral SMS offers use dynamic coupon codes, meaning all subscribers receive their own code, specific to them.As shown in the picture to the left, a viral SMS offer will come across as two separate messages to encourage sharing! The first message is an offer with a dynamic coupon code “… receive $20 off your meal on checks over $100. Use code: DISC0042T” (note: this offer can be a percent off or a dollar amount off of the purchase, with the ability to set thresholds which must be met to use the coupon; in this case the threshold is $100). The first message also encourages the subscribers to “virally” share the offer stating “Forward the next message to your friends or post on FB”. The second message then comes through stating “Check out this great deal I just got! Text DISC0042T to 56242 for $20 off…” As you may have noticed, the subscriber’s dynamic coupon code (DISC0042T) is now the keyword that their friends text to the short code (56242) to receive their own coupon. By using dynamic coupon codes as keywords, we can then track which customer’s have had the biggest impact on your campaign. You can visually see how many friends they had opt-in, how many friends actually redeemed their coupons, and even better yet, see how much revenue each person brought in for you!
Viral SMS Campaign Flow Chart:
5 Advantages to Tracking Viral SMS Offers:
There are some MAJOR advantages to tracking SMS offers that go viral! Here are our top 5:
- You can visually pinpoint your company’s biggest advocates
- You obtain your subscriber’s friends information for future marketing efforts
- Easily determine the financial impact or ROI of the campaign
- Understand what offers are meaningful to your subscribers – the further it goes, the more they like it!
- Your customers do your marketing for you!
3 Ways to Successfully Implement a Viral SMS Campaign:
- Clearly explain how it works to the end user
- Offer a reward for the biggest advocate of each campaign
- Incorporate social media outlets