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What Killed the Buzz of Mobile Marketing?

What Killed the Buzz of Mobile Marketing?

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Less than 1% of all leases can be tracked to social media marketing efforts. Of course, those leases are signed by companies to actually do social media marketing.

Yet, if you’re not talking about Twitter, Facebook, or “social media”, it’s hard to be heard.

The marketing tool with the highest potential for property managers is mobile marketing, which seems to have suffered from the greatest buzz kill of all. For the point of this discussion, let’s just think of mobile marketing as the use of SMS (text messages) to deliver a message to your audience.

Why does Mobile Marketing matter? According to Nielsen’s Mobile Advertising Report, over 78 million U.S. mobile subscribers have been exposed to mobile advertising. The report states that users send “an average of 357 text-messages per month, compared with 204 phone calls” and that text messaging alone has increased by 351%. Between the ages of 25-34, that translates to an average of 331 texts sent and received in one month. For teenagers, that number jumps to a whopping 1,742, in case you’re wondering what your 14-year-old is up to right now. The study also mentions the short code marketing to this audience, in which abbreviated phone numbers are used to offer services or information to anyone who texts to these numbers.

So, how can the multifamily industry use Mobile Marketing? Here are a few ideas:

  • Follow up with prospects. Get permission on your guest cards to follow up via text messages. Send coupons, such as a discount off your application fee.
  • Engage your residents. Run contests for rent discounts. Having a movie night? Give the first 20 residents that text back free popcorn. Try not to be too intrusive — you don’t want someone opting out because of multiple texts sent in one day.
  • Deliver emergency messages. Does the water need to be turned off tomorrow? There’s no better way to let your residents know than a text message. Follow up after maintenance requests.

There are many services to help you get started, including 84444.com which is run by a team based in suburban Philadelphia familiar with multifamily market (e.g. they provide the mobile services on apartments.com).

Even I am guilty of having caught Social Marketing Fever, but let’s not forget to consider the other new possibilities to improve our marketing programs, including Mobile Marketing!

Sources: http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/insights/consumer_insight/issue_12/flying_fingers

photo credit: http://everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=315422

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About the author

Ellen Thompson

Ellen Thompson

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Founder/CEO of 4 Walls. ILS, web dev & social media marketing for the multifamily industry. SEO expert. Wharton grad.
 
  2. #2236
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Mobile is slow to adopt because just like social media its use should not be for push marketing. For some reason with social media and with mobile, companies feel like they have to push a message at consumers. Especially with mobile, the customer doesn't want that. I don't want you to follow-up with me via SMS and push a message at me. I don't want to get opt-in to a gimmick and then find myself later getting spam via SMS. (As you pointed out that just leads to opt-outs.) The only point you made that makes sense is the emergency messages if you're going to push a message.

The technology is there, the problem is that marketing people are trying to use these tools to push a message and interrupt people with spam. We get enough spam over email, we don't want it on our phones. Until marketers realize that pushing a message doesn't work with social media or mobile marketing, it will continue to lag behind and be classified as not working.

  Mark Juleen
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  2. #2237
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I can see text as an effective means for prospects to reach out to apartment communities. Also, I agree with the above comment that the last thing I want to begin seeing is adds pushed to me via text. I can't imagine anyone feeling differently.

Blake Ratcliff[url]
http://www.apartmentmarketingsolutions.com[/url]

  Blake Ratcliff
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  2. #2238
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This is the generation gap of today. I text and I use social media but not to the extent that the 20-somes do so it's difficult for me to understand the impersonalization of communication today. That being said... I'm not the age of the average renter so it's important to adjust. Having a spot on a guest card, next to cell phone, asking contact preference wouldn't be a bad idea. I have a friend (also not in his 20's) who hates getting text messages because it cost him 10 cents per message.

  Pat Daly
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  2. #2239
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I'd like to think that my college freshman daughter is a good indicator of today's communication style....she averages 3,000 SMS/text messages per month (yes, we REALLY get our $10 worth out of that unlimited text plan) while using less than 100 minutes/mo of actual "talk time", could care less if she had internet on her cell phone and only uses email to communicate with her grandparents. Let's look at this from another angle: mobile marketing is not something that is "pushed" at us - it feeds our need for immediate gratification: convenient and timely information that is targeted to me and customized for me, my needs, my life. After all, you're collecting all that info on me, aren't you?

  Brent Williams
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  2. #2240
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This is a great conversation and a great article—thanks for writing this! In the interest of full disclosure, I represent IRIO, and we work with many of the leading property management companies nationally for mobile marketing to one degree or another. We agree with much of what’s been said here, but there’s a key point I think is missing from the debate: it’s not the medium that wins, it’s the application of the medium. I’ll just focus on mobile, and text messaging in particular.

IRIO developed products for marketing/lead generation and for resident communication, and we’ve developed best practices based on our 4+ years experience in the text marketing arena. We would agree that advertisements are a bad idea, the the message must be relevant to the receiver, and we know that there’s an optimal number of messages to push to residents each month, among many other findings. But we’ve taken all that and created enormously successful programs that our customers tell us generate more leads at a lower cost per lead (!), allow for more innovative programs, extend easy calls-to-action to traditional marketing practices, save time and money (no more flyers and instant delivery/read) and are more effective in communicating to residents (in terms of both time, money, and resident satisfaction). In sum, it’s not the medium, it’s the application within the medium, and that’s why so many of our customers are so successful with mobile marketing.

It’s important to note that in all cases with IRIO, the prospect or resident INITIATES the text conversation – there is no SPAM, and there are no ads—we believe both are damaging to the user experience and the medium; and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) guidelines are instructive here. Further, it’s important to use a vendor that uses a shortcode to ensure that SPAM is avoided (and avoiding other legal complexities). IRIO developed industry-specific solutions that have been embraced by scores of customers in the...

This is a great conversation and a great article—thanks for writing this! In the interest of full disclosure, I represent IRIO, and we work with many of the leading property management companies nationally for mobile marketing to one degree or another. We agree with much of what’s been said here, but there’s a key point I think is missing from the debate: it’s not the medium that wins, it’s the application of the medium. I’ll just focus on mobile, and text messaging in particular.

IRIO developed products for marketing/lead generation and for resident communication, and we’ve developed best practices based on our 4+ years experience in the text marketing arena. We would agree that advertisements are a bad idea, the the message must be relevant to the receiver, and we know that there’s an optimal number of messages to push to residents each month, among many other findings. But we’ve taken all that and created enormously successful programs that our customers tell us generate more leads at a lower cost per lead (!), allow for more innovative programs, extend easy calls-to-action to traditional marketing practices, save time and money (no more flyers and instant delivery/read) and are more effective in communicating to residents (in terms of both time, money, and resident satisfaction). In sum, it’s not the medium, it’s the application within the medium, and that’s why so many of our customers are so successful with mobile marketing.

It’s important to note that in all cases with IRIO, the prospect or resident INITIATES the text conversation – there is no SPAM, and there are no ads—we believe both are damaging to the user experience and the medium; and Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) guidelines are instructive here. Further, it’s important to use a vendor that uses a shortcode to ensure that SPAM is avoided (and avoiding other legal complexities). IRIO developed industry-specific solutions that have been embraced by scores of customers in the multi-family space for both the results they produce AND the innovative nature of the programs in that they’re technologically advanced and customized to the industry.

There are a thousand other angles we could discuss, and it’s a conversation we’d love to have with anyone interested in the topic.

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  Marshall Porter
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