First of all there are just a few different ‘carrier approved’ methods in which a marketer can collect an SMS database; Enter a phone number online, Click a button on a mobile webpage, Send an MO message containing an advertised keyword and Sign up at a POS location.

Each of these methods of cell phone collection is acceptable by the carriers and falls under the term ‘express written consent’ which is now a strict requirement according to the newly amended TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act).

For this blog post let’s get into the first two methods listed above; enter a phone number online and Click a button on a mobile webpage. These are basically web form opt-ins; a website that has a registration form and there is a space for entering ones cell number. When using a web form in this manner there are two rules you must follow:

1. You must display the proper ‘carrier required language’ in close proximity to the cell phone submit field (box).
2. You must verify the handset (cell phone) owner’s possession for the actual handset number being submitted in your cell phone number ‘submit’ box.

In a nutshell, items 1 & 2 simply mean that you need to let subscribers know some basic program details and then send a confirmation text to the cell number being submitted to you. Number 1 can be accomplished by adding a couple simple lines of text ‘in close proximity to’ the cell submit field. There are several items that you need to include in this ‘carrier required’ language:

• Program Description ( Alerts, News, Special offers etc.)
• Messaging Frequency ( 5/messages a week, 2 messages a month)
• Messaging costs (Msg & Data rates may apply)
• A link to ‘comprehensive’ SMS T&Cs or Privacy Policy
• If the Program is recurring then STOP instructions are required
• Help instructions

All of these items can be summarized very succinctly into a few lines of text that look like this:

• mobileStorm Weather Alerts: News and Forecasts for local weather. Msg&Data rates may apply. 4 msg/mo. Text HELP for Help or text STOP to end messages. Terms & Conditions. View our Privacy Policy.

As far as Item number 2 is concerned, “Verifying handset owner possession” this is simply a matter of sending handset an immediate confirmation text message as soon as a cell number is submitted on your web form. This confirmation message needs to contain all the above bullet points listed for the web form registration and must have a ‘Reply Yes to confirm your subscription’ call to action.

Sounds like a lot of work? Well, the good news is that mobileStorm can do both of these things for you automatically. Our web forms can be easily enabled to send a confirmation message and we have customized boilerplate language on our web forms that include all the necessary carrier required language. This article is just the first in a multi-part series on how to acquire, message to, advertise for and maintain a healthy, opt–in SMS Database. Stay tuned for more!

The post How to Properly Collect an Opt In SMS Database (Part 1 of 2) appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Why did the CTIA SMS marketing rules change? In January 2014, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile agreed to stop billing customers for premium short code messaging. With a considerable amount of the previous rules regarding SMS marketing being about premium messaging, getting rid of premium messaging gave the CTIA the opportunity to rewrite the rules for SMS marketing, allowing them to focus solely on standard SMS messaging, multimedia messaging service (MMS), and free-to-end-user (FTEU) short code programs. 

You can download each SMS marketing template in PDF form by clicking on the images below, or you can download the entire set of SMS marketing templates here.

SMS Advertising Blueprint – Use the following template to remain TCPA & CTIA compliant when advertising your SMS campaign to customers.

(Click Here to Download PDF Template)

SMS Terms & Conditions Blueprint – Use the following template to remain TCPA & CTIA compliant in your SMS campaign’s terms & conditions.

(Click Here to Download PDF Template)

Web Opt-In Message Blueprint – Use the following template to remain TCPA & CTIA compliant in the SMS message a customer receives when they opt-in from the web.

(Click Here to Download PDF Template)

Opt-In Message Blueprint – Use the following template to remain TCPA & CTIA compliant in the SMS message a customer receives after they opt-in.

(Click Here to Download PDF Template)

HELP Message Blueprint – Use the following template to remain TCPA & CTIA compliant in the SMS message a customer receives when they text the word “HELP” to your short code.

(Click Here to Download PDF Template)

STOP Message Blueprint – Use the following template to remain TCPA & CTIA compliant in the SMS message a customer receives after they unsubscribe from your campaign.

 (Click Here to Download PDF Template)

If you’re interested in downloading the actual revised CTIA Short Code Compliance Handbook, you can do so by clicking here.

The post CTIA Updates SMS Marketing Rules – Is Your Campaign Still Compliant? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

According to the company, calls are a “critical way to measure offline ad engagement and, for many categories, are a must-have part of the attribution toolkit.”

“Most digital and mobile ad campaigns help drive offline purchases, making it critical for today’s marketers to ensure they have strong attribution programs in place to effectively prove the offline impact,” said Bill Dinan, president of Telmetrics, who recently spoke about mobile attribution at SMX East 2014. “Calls are a powerful piece of the offline attribution puzzle as rich call analytics can help marketers not only accurately identify the source of the lead but also reveal purchase indicators and conversions.”

What does Telmetrics suggest? Here’s their sage counsel from a provided statement this week:

1. Include contact information up front – Clear contact information is one of consumers’ most sought-after mobile features and more than 60 percent of mobile consumers say it is very important to be able to call a business in the purchase phase.

2. Go beyond the last click – Click to call or tap to call is commonly used to track how many consumers connect to the business they are searching, but attribution shouldn’t be based on clicks alone. End-to-end call measurement technology can reward with rich lead generation data and qualify lead quality.

3. Close the online-offline gap – Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) seamlessly replaces phone numbers with call tracking numbers on an advertiser’s website or landing pages based on how the visitor arrived at the site or page. This practice allows marketers to tie calls back to the specific originating digital or mobile campaigns.

4. Track calls for all digital programs, including display – Call attribution isn’t just for search programs. Attribution best practices should be used for display ad programs as well: 30 percent of display ad secondary actions are calls.

5. Complete the purchase loop – Call attribution metrics can help optimize advertising programs in a number of ways. Marketers should measure and test campaigns using multiple variables, e.g., various display creative, ad networks, distribution partners.

6. Ensure quality calls are delivered – Spam and telemarketer calls (and even wrong number calls) are not only a nuisance but also can dilute advertiser call response data. A call-blocking feature is essential and marketers should test their provider’s success.

The post Telmetrics Talks About Call Attribution Best Practices appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Most of the recommendations involve making sure that consumers get timely, easy-to-understand disclosures about what data they collect and how the data is used.

To read the new report, click here.

“The mobile world is expanding and innovating at breathtaking speed, allowing consumers to do things that would have been hard to imagine only a few years ago,” says FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “These best practices will help to safeguard consumer privacy and build trust in the mobile marketplace, ensuring that the market can continue to thrive.”

The report in question makes recommendations for a comprehensive slate of industry participants: mobile platforms (operating system providers, such as Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry, Google, and Microsoft), application (app) developers, advertising networks and analytics companies, and app developer trade associations.

Today’s FTC announcement regarding the aforementioned guidelines follow the body’s hefty fine levied against social networking app Path.

Path was fined $800,000 as a result of the company’s alleged privacy violations against its underage users.

The post FTC Cracks Whip with New Mobile Guidelines, Dishes Out Hefty Fine appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

A new undercover investigation is shedding light on some highly questionable practices, including advertising on pirated copycat apps and selling user data to mobile ad agencies.

Based on details of the CCTV report obtained by CNET, plentiful examples of unethical tactics abound.

A representative of Wooboo mobile advertising agency told reporters they advertised mostly on pirated apps, but it was not a copyright problem since they did not develop the pirated apps, but just served ads. It then split the profits with those developers.

The full extent of these and other practices in China isn’t known. But industry statistics dragged into the report state that 73 percent of malicious advertising “would attempt to get user location information, while 47 percent of them would target users’ phone number, pointing to higher security risks for users.”

Although it isn’t yet clear how these practices will be curbed, the growing media and consumer awareness will likely result in some degree of positive influence.

The post Are Ethics in Mobile Advertising Out of Whack in China? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The MMA is currently establishing a new mobile video committee to “review current standards and develop best practices for mobile video advertising and measurement.”

Media Post covered MMA’s latest efforts in this regard on Wednesday in an interview with Greg Stuart, the global CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association.

“Mobile video is probably one of the fastest growing areas and it probably needs some legs, so we want to develop insights about how marketers are looking at the opportunity in mobile video,” Stuart says. “We believe there is a heightened level of engagement on mobile phones and there are a lot fewer ads so that would boost effectiveness, but we also want to look at how we control frequency and generate effectiveness.”

Members of the MMA video committee include Collective, comScore, Mindshare, Nielsen Company, Turner Broadcasting, Univision Interactive, Verizon Wireless and others. The two co-chairs of the committee are Anne Schelle of Acta Consulting and Will Kassoy of AdColony.

“Brand advertisers are mostly guessing as to actual consumer usage of mobile media, are uncertain about how they can manage mobile marketing in a cost-effective manner, and are further unsure about what they can do with mobile that is incremental to existing activities on the conventional web,” adds Brian Wieser, senior research analyst at Pivotal Research Group.

To check out the report in full, click here.

The post MMA Taking Mobile Video Standards Very Seriously appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The FCC declined to adopt any regulations or best practices, but stated it would “continue to monitor industry compliance with applicable statutory requirements and evolving industry best practices.”

According to details outlined in the report, the FCC has identified key privacy issues implicated by location-based services. Such issues include:

Notice and transparency. After noting the importance of companies informing users of what the company is doing with collected LBS information, the FCC recognized various industry efforts by CTIA, the Mobile Marketing Association, the Direct Marketing Association, and private companies to provide users with notice of how location-based service information is used. However, the FCC cited numerous reports that concluded many apps lacked basic privacy policies.

Meaningful consumer choice. Consumers should have an opportunity to tell a company what it can and cannot do with their information. The FCC noted that most choice is provided as “opt-in,” i.e. the user must consent before the information is used, but that challenges arise between real-time meaningful choice and user experience. Industry standards, such as CTIA, are identified by the FCC as providing guidance on consumer choice.

Third party access to personal information. Noting that many entities, such as the carrier, operating system, and app developer, may have access to LBS information, the FCC identified app developers in particular as possibly not having privacy standards in place. The FCC noted that entities like the Future of Privacy Forum and TRUSTe are recommending app developers adopt privacy practices, and that mobile operating systems and carriers are requiring apps seek permission before using location-based services.

Data security and minimization. The FCC noted that because location-based service data is considered particularly sensitive information, heightened security requirements can be reasonably expected of the industry. The FCC also noted that as little data should be stored for a short a period as possible to lessen security breaches, although there is a tension because law enforcement would find location data valuable suggesting longer storage times would be valuable.

For now, the FCC concludes that the immediate course of action for the agency primarily involves monitoring these issues for the foreseeable future.

The post FCC Dishes on Location Based Services in New Report appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This latest report is part of Cellit’s ongoing series on best practices by industry vertical, covering Retail, Hospitality, Entertainment, QSR Dining, Bars & Nightclubs, Broadcast, Print and Small Businesses.

Among the countless pearls of wisdom in the new report, Cellit reveals that QSR clients surveyed used a range of tactics to acquire new mobile subscribers to the programs. “While diverse,” the report reads, “they are generally cost-effective and fall into one of four categories: on-premise, social media, advertising and refer-a-friend.”

According to Cellit, leveraging existing social media and email databases to convert customers into mobile was the most effective tactic, while the refer-a-friend consistently delivered program growth.

On average, 21 percent of subscribers participated in the refer-a-friend programs Cellit analyzed, while the average conversion rate for referred friends was six percent. The average increase in database size after one refer-a-friend program was 16 percent. Most subscriber growth for a new program takes place between days 31 and 90 after launch, which is when the marketing and social media efforts start to take effect.

To get the full report from Cellit, click here.

The post Cellit Publishes Insightful Best Practices in QSR Mobile Marketing Programs appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The MMA says that the white paper explains in a concise, easy to understand fashion how marketers can leverage mobile barcodes to give their customers access to information, multi-media content, promotional opportunities, retail store locations, discounts and coupons, samples, and more.

And the timing of the white paper’s release couldn’t be more opportune.

According to a study by 3G Vision, the US is showing mobile barcode usage nearly doubling in the first quarter of 2011 alone. As marketers become more savvy and adopt best practices, growth is expected to continue at a rapid pace – especially as consumers become more “barcode knowledgeable.”

“Mobile barcodes offer unmatched opportunity to increase brand value by adding measurable interactive functionality and richer consumer engagement,” says Nicole Skogg, CEO of SpyderLynk and Co-chair of the MMA’s Mobile Barcode Task Force, which authored the document. “Mobile barcodes make static media – like packaging, print ads, broadcast TV and billboards – interactive, and our white paper explores the many possibilities of mobile activation functionality.”

“Mobile Barcodes: an Overview for Marketers” includes definitions, attributes and examples of Mobile Barcode services currently in use in the marketplace. The white paper gives an overview of marketing with mobile barcodes, with concentration on cross media engagement. It also delves into choosing the right mobile barcode for your campaign by outlining considerations and examining barcode types and formats.

“The MMA created this document to educate the industry on the exciting potential of mobile barcodes, and to encourage marketers to experiment,” adds Michael Becker, MMA Managing Director, North America. “We invite companies using mobile barcodes in their campaigns to share their experiences and best practices to influence and help direct future MMA guidance.”

To check out the white paper for yourself, click here.

The post Mobile Marketing Association Publishes ‘Mobile Barcodes: an Overview for Marketers’ White Paper appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

On Thursday, the MMA revealed hopes that the committee’s findings will help govern the practice of mobile analytics and the evolution of mobile into a marketer’s eCRM efforts.

“The opportunity for companies and brands through SMS programs, mobile sites and applications is staggering, yet there are no clear metrics or measurement standards to guide a brand’s marketing efforts today,” the MMA said in a press release.

In addition, the committee will be charged with creating definitions and guidelines for data collection, which – the MMA contends – may help fuel the continued growth of mobile marketing and mobile advertising.

Charter committee members include:

• Co-chair Michael Ricci, vice president of mobile, Webtrends
• Co-chair Doug Busk, Mobile Brand Strategy – Global Connections – The Coca-Cola Company
• Barbara Williams, mobile marketing global practice leader, Microsoft
• Jeff Torgerson, senior product manager, mobile.Microsoft.com, Microsoft
• Paul Strupp, senior analytics product manager at RIM
• Chris Wayman, vice president & GM – mobile at Merkle
• Eric Rickson, director of mobile analytics, Webtrends

“There are no clear standards today for marketers to measure their mobile efforts, and this is an issue we have been asked to address by our member companies,” says Michael Becker, Managing Director of the Mobile Marketing Association. “For the practice of mobile marketing to continue to thrive, it’s imperative that the same analytics rigor that exists for the Internet, email, search and social media become a key reality in this industry’s evolution. Through the formation of the mobile analytics committee, we are providing a much-needed forum to address the needs of the industry today.”

The post Mobile Marketing Association to Establish Best Practices for Mobile Analytics with New Committee appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.