Another great example of a brand using text messaging to increase app downloads.As you can see in the advertisement below, Starbucks is instructing customers to text APP to 697289 on their mobile phones to download the Starbucks Mobile Payment App.

What other brands are using text messaging to increase app downloads? Glad you asked, as I’ve put together the following examples of brands using text messaging to increase their app downloads. Click each brand to see an example of that brand using text messaging to increase app downloads. Enjoy!

• Square
• Macy’s
• Target
• ShopKick
• 7-Eleven
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Walmart

Why are all these brands encouraging consumers to text to download their app? It’s because of the high click-through rates hyperlinks get when in a text message. See how Pirq is getting a 92% click-through rate for their app download link in their text messages.

SMS marketing and email marketing go together like bread and butter. Speaking of bread and butter, we have a great example of a restaurant using SMS to capture customer’s email addresses.

First off, why would a restaurant want to use SMS to capture customer’s email address? Assuming that the restaurant wants their customer’s email addresses, it’s hard to collect them from customers when they’re not at their computer. When a customer is at a computer it’s easy, as all they have to do is type their email address into a field on a website. What about though if that customer is sitting down at your restaurant, and they want to give you their email address? Much harder huh?

One solution is to have customers text your their email address. As you can see in the example below, Elephant Bar is doing just that, telling customers to text “rewards” then their email address to the short code 73757.

Want to be able to have your customers text message you their email addresses? Check out Tatango’s Email Partner Program.

Looking for other examples of businesses using text messaging to grow their email databases? Check out the examples below that we’ve written about on the Tatango blog.

• RedBox
• Denny’s
• Chuck E Cheeses
• Applebee’s

Whoever is running Redbox’s mobile marketing efforts needs to win some sort of award, if they haven’t already! This winter, Redbox took their SMS marketing campaign to another level by incorporating an SMS autoresponder into their campaign. I’m serious, whoever is running Redbox’s SMS marketing campaign is quickly becoming an SMS marketing blackbelt with these moves.

So how is Redbox integrating SMS autoresponders in their SMS campaigns to not only improve engagement with their SMS subscribers, but impress even me with their SMS marketing mastery? First they set up an SMS autoresponder with the keyword “BIG”, and everyday during their 10 days of deals campaign, they’d switch out the text message received in response to a customer texting their SMS autoresponder keyword “BIG”. Then they messaged all their current SMS subscribers to tell them about how they can text their SMS autoresponder each day to receive a surprise deal. You can see an example of their use of an SMS autoresponder below. How cool is that?

Oh yea… we forgot to tell you that over 400,00 customers participated in the SMS marketing promotion, generating over 1.5 million SMS messages in just 10 days! Yea, whoever is running the SMS marketing campaign at Redbox needs to win an award for kicking so much butt.

This isn’t the first time that Redbox has blew my socks off. Check out the other times we’ve caught them being straight awesome below.

• Redbox Launches SMS Campaign
• Redbox Promotes SMS Campaign on Facebook Fan Page
• Redbox Tests Interactive Mobile Coupons on SMS Subscribers
• Redbox Spices Up Holiday Mobile Marketing Campaign
•  Redbox Uses Text Messaging to Grow Email Marketing List
• Redbox Launches Holiday SMS Campaign

Check out how Starbucks is advertising their SMS loyalty program in-store.

Click images to view larger versions.

Email marketing and text message marketing go together like two peas in a pod. Need a good example of a retailer using text messaging to collect customer’s email addresses? If so, we’ve got a treat for you today, as retailer Wet Seal is doing just that, and they’re doing it really well.

First off, why would a retailer want to use text messaging to capture their customer’s email address? Assuming that the retailer wants their customer’s email addresses, it’s hard to collect them from customers when they’re not at their computer. When a retailer’s customer is in front of a computer it’s easy, but what about when they’re not, and you want to collect their email address? That’s where collecting email addresses by using text messaging works really well.

For example, check out how Wet Seal is using text messaging to collect their customer’s emails below. As you can see in their advertisement below, they’re telling customers to text WETSEAL to 77053.

When the Wet Seal customer texts WETSEAL to 77053, they’re sent the following text message. In the text message it confirms that the Wet Seal customer has signed up for their mobile marketing program, but to get the 15% discount, they’d have to respond via text message with their email address. You can see this user flow below.

Want to be able to have your customers text message you their email addresses? Check out Tatango’s Email Partner Program.

Need more examples of businesses using text messaging to collect their customer’s email address? Check out the blog posts we’ve done on the following businesses that have used text messaging to collect email from their customers.

• RedBox
• Denny’s
• Chuck E Cheeses
• Applebee’s

I’m impressed with Wet Seals SMS marketing efforts not only because they’re using text messaging to collect their customer’s email addresses, but as I was doing research for this article, check out how many different SMS advertisements I found for this retailer’s SMS marketing campaign below. Pretty impressive for a retail SMS marketing campaign.

Oh yea, they also are pretty gangster when it came to migrating their customers to a new SMS short code, as you can see here.

How can I hire the mobile marketing manager for Stage Stores to come work for Tatango? Why would I want to do this? It’s simple, whoever is managing the SMS marketing campaign for Stage Stores is truly an SMS marketing ninja, and that’s the only types of ninjas we hire here at Tatango. Well besides the ninja that guards our front door, but that’s a different story.

Check out the text message Stage Stores sent to shoppers 3 days before Christmas below.

How freakin’ cool is that? That’s one hell of an SMS marketing ninja move if I’ve ever seen one. I think this even beats out Redbox when they used their SMS campaign to grow their email marketing database.

My advice to SMS marketers, opt-in to this SMS campaign by texting “STAGE” to 38228, as I can only imagine what this SMS marketing ninja will release on us next. You can also click here to join.

Nowadays it seems like everyone is using the Uber mobile app to zip around the city. Did you know though that in certain cities like Seattle, you can order lunch Monday through Friday from within the Uber app? It’s true, and it’s called UberEATS. How does it work? It’s actually very simple. To order lunch, a customer would first open the Uber app on their mobile phone, and in participating cities, select the meal icon at the top of the app. Then you enter your location and tap “View Menu”. You’re then presented with a handful of menu options within the mobile app, as you can see in the photo below.

Once the order is placed within the app, it’s only a matter of minutes before an UberEATS driver is pulling up to your curb to deliver your lunch. Pretty cool huh?

That’s all fine and dandy, but lunch quickly sneaks up on people, and UberEATS users were finding themselves midway through the line at their local deli before remembering that could have just used the mobile app to order lunch. Whoops…

This is a big problem for UberEATS, as every meal ordered outside of the app, is a meal that isn’t being ordered within the app… Unless you really have a big appetite for lunch. The solution to have the mobile app be top of mind when users are making a lunch decision… SMS marketing!

Yep, you heard me right, UberEATS is using SMS marketing! Monday through Friday, Uber is sending text messages to users that have opted-in, not only to remind them that the app is on their mobile device, but also to let them know what’s on the menu for the day. The SMS marketing campaign started when Uber sent the following email, encouraging users to subscribe for updates via text message.

As you can see in the text message below sent by UberEATS, Wednesday’s menu for Seattle included congee (no clue what that is – sounds healthy though), a Korean beef sandwich, or a delicious salad. At the end of the text message, they’re including a link, allowing hungry UberEATS users to simply click to order their lunch.

UberEATS is using a deep link in the text message, that when clicked, opens up the Uber app on the recipient’s mobile phone. Seriously how can Uber make it more simple to order lunch? The only thing that comes to mind that would make UberEATS more simple is if they hand-delivered my lunch right to my desk. Unfortunately for now UberEATS only delivers curbside, but let’s be honest… I need the exercise to offset the amazing Korean beef sandwich that I’m going to enjoy.

What’s interesting to note is that UberEATS isn’t the only food delivery service in Seattle using SMS marketing. Peach also uses SMS marketing to generate business, but they do it a little different than UberEATS as you can see below. To be accurate, Peach is actually using MMS marketing, as they’re including an image of the daily lunch special they’re sending customers. Unlike an SMS message, which is limited to 160 characters of text (which can include hyperlinks), an MMS message allows a food delivery service like Peach, to send an image or video, and more than 160 characters of text. The coolest part about Peach’s usage of MMS is that unlike UberEATS where you click through to open the app and place your order, Peach allows you to simply reply “YES” via text message to place your order. Peach also uses a hyperlink in their message, allowing recipients to see more information about the dish, and to place their order on the mobile web.

While it’s very common for mobile apps to use text message marketing to increase app downloads, especially when text-to-download campaigns are generating 92% conversion rates, it’s relatively rare for them to use text message marketing to keep their users engaged with the app. It’s no wonder that a company like Uber, who’s been known to break the status quo at almost every turn, is exploring this communication channel.

After running a pilot program that generated redemption rates as high as 17%, we’re excited here at Tatango to hear that Papa Murphy’s, the world’s leading take ‘n’ bake pizza franchise, is now rolling out their SMS marketing campaign nationwide. Papa Murphy’s SMS marketing campaign is being implemented at a corporate level, and at an individual franchise level, with Papa Murphy’s reporting that all franchisees will be onboard by the end of 2015.

By implementing this two tiered approach, Papa Murphy’s corporate headquarters is able to get visibility into the SMS marketing efforts of each franchisee, but also allow each franchisee the flexibility to plan and execute their own SMS marketing campaigns. By using both SMS and MMS messaging, Papa Murphy’s hopes to drive foot traffic into physical store locations, in addition to increasing online orders.

What’s exciting here at Tatango about Papa Murphy’s rollout of their SMS marketing campaign, is that the pizza franchise has been been heavily promoting the campaign, advertising it to customers in-store, online, on Facebook, and even on Twitter. Ok, let’s get into the mechanics of how this SMS marketing campaign works, and the strategies Papa Murphy’s is using.

First off, the entire SMS marketing campaign is based around customers’ location, which is done by collecting the zip code of mobile phone opt-ins. There’s two different ways Papa Murphy’s is collecting customers’ zip codes during the opt-in process. The first is through their web form at http://www.papamurphys.com/deals/, which you can see below.

After Papa Murphy’s customers submit their information on the web form, they’ll receive a text message on Papa Murphy’s dedicated short code 90421. This text message as you can see below, asks the customer to reply “Y” to join Papa Murphy’s SMS marketing campaign. This SMS message is required by the CTIA, as it ensures that the mobile phone number entered into the web form, is owned by the customer.

After customers reply “Y”, they’re sent an SMS confirmation message. To reward customers that opt-in to Papa Murphy’s SMS marketing campaign, after the SMS confirmation message is received, customers then receive an SMS coupon for free cookie dough, with the purchase of any pizza. Providing an incentive for customers to opt-in is a great strategy to grow new subscribers, as a recent study showed that it can grow new subscribers by as much as 520%. To incentivize customers to use the coupon, the text message tells customers the offer expires in 2 days. As you can also see in the text message below, Papa Murphy’s is customizing each SMS coupon by placing the customer’s city name in the text message, telling customers at which locations the SMS coupon is valid.

The second method Papa Murphy’s is using to collect their customers’ zip codes is being implemented when a customer opts-in to the SMS campaign on their mobile device. As we said earlier in the post, Papa Murphy’s is advertising their SMS marketing campaign everywhere, including in-store, as you can see in the call-to-action below, found in one of their store locations.

The call-to-action encourages customers to “Join the Papa Murphy’s Text Club”, for “coupons and special offers”, by texting “PAPAMURPHYS2” to their dedicated short code 90421. Each Papa Murphy’s franchisee uses a different SMS keyword in order to segment their mobile subscribers in the SMS marketing software. The SMS keyword “PAPAMURPHYS2” is being used by a franchisee in the Orlando area.

As you can see in the text message below, customers that are opting in on their mobile device will text a Papa Murphy’s SMS keyword to their dedicated short code 90421. The first text message customers receive back is an opt-in confirmation message, asking the customers to “Reply Y for mktg txt msgs from autodialer to this #”, while also including the following TCPA & CTIA language “Consent not req’d to purchase. Msg&DataRatesApply. Text STOP to end; Text HELP for help.” After a customer replies “Y” to Papa Murphy’s short code 90421, they’re asked to reply with their 5-digit zip code, to receive local offers based on that zip code.

Similar to when customers opt-in through the web form, customers that opt-in on their mobile device through the dedicated short code 90421, will receive an SMS coupon for free cookie dough with any regular priced pizza purchase. As with the web opt-in form method, the SMS coupon is customized to the customer’s location (in this case Orlando), based on the SMS keyword that was used. This franchisee also has an expiration date for their SMS coupon, and is displaying it in the format of MM/DD/YY, rather than saying “Exp. in 2 days” as the Seattle franchisee had.

Remember how we said that Papa Murphy’s is doing a great job of advertising the SMS marketing campaign to customers? To prove our point, check out how the campaign is being advertised on the web, on Facebook, and on Twitter below (above image is of in-store advertisement). Lets first start with Papa Murphy’s website, which you can see in the image below. Look at the double placement in the image slider, and on the bottom right, both encouraging web visitors to join the new text club. Both of these advertisements link to the web form, which can be found here: http://www.papamurphys.com/deals/

Now let’s move onto how Papa Murphy’s is advertising their SMS marketing campaign on Facebook. As you can see in the screen capture below, Papa Murphy’s is using a Facebook photo on their fan page to encourage fans to join the text club. What’s great to see from Papa Murphy’s is that they’re not only posting once to their Facebook fan page about their new text club, but they’ve been posting consistently about it. As you can see see in the screen capture below, they’re linking fans interested in joining the text club, to their website, and using a link shortener to track the results of each Facebook post.

Lets not forget Twitter! As you can see in the tweet below, Papa Murphy’s is using a Twitter photo to encourage fans to join the text club. Like with Facebook, Papa Murphy’s is regularly tweeting from their twitter handle @papamurphys about their new text club. Similar to how they’re promoting the text club on Facebook, in Papa Murphy’s tweets they’re directing followers to their website form, and using a link shortener to track the results of each tweet.

So how’s the SMS marketing campaign doing so far? We’d say pretty good, being that Papa Murphy’s is seeing double-digit response rates for such SMS promotions as a spin-to-win campaign, where text club participants were encouraged to spin a virtual wheel on their mobile device to win prizes. Double-digit response rates!

Are you a restaurant looking for SMS marketing case studies, and strategies built specifically for restaurants? Download Tatango’s free guide to restaurant SMS marketing here.

Have you ever wondered if you could use text messaging to increase job recruitment efforts at your company? If so, have we got great news for you here at Tatango. It’s totally doable, and some of the largest brands are already doing it, including our good friends at Target. Check out the advertisement Target placed on their front doors recently to advertise that they’re currently hiring.

The recruitment poster at Target instructs prospective employees to “Text JOBS and your email address to: TARGET (827438)” to learn more about seasonal opportunities.

After texting JOBS and your email address to the SMS short code 827438, a prospetive employee receives a text message in return with a link directing them to target.com/careers and also telling them to look for an email about job opportunities.

The day after a prospective employees has texted Target, they receive the following email in their inbox.

This is a great example of a brand using text messaging to increase their recruitment efforts, especially during seasonal times. Looking to recruit students? Checkout how the Academy of Design & Technology used text messaging in their recruitment efforts to generate student leads.

Here at Tatango we’re always amazed at how our clients are able to come up with so many different ways to use an SMS autoresponder. Brands use autoresponders for a variety of ways, including app download campaigns (ShopKick), SMS giveaways (Julep), and they even use SMS autoresponders to engage already subscribed phone numbers, such as RedBox did in their 10 Day of Deals campaign.

Maybe before we go any further, we should explain for the SMS newbies what an SMS autoresponder is exactly. SMS autoresponders are actually pretty easy to understand, as most SMS autoresponders simply return one text message to a customer, in response to that customer texting an SMS keyword to an SMS short code (5-6 digit phone number).

Back when we started Tatango in 2007, SMS autoresponders were kind of boring, as smartphone penetration was only at 10%, meaning that autoresponders were just returning plain old text. A lot has changed since then, and now most SMS autoresponders that our clients use include a click-to-call phone number, or a hyperlink. Why is a hyperlink in an SMS autoresponder so powerful? It’s because a hyperlink in an autoresponder can take a consumer almost anywhere on their mobile phone nowadays. Hyperlinks within an SMS autoresponder when clicked, can open up an app, a web page, direct someone to a form, a mobile coupon, a passbook, a mobile video, etc.

So how is New York Times using an SMS autoresponder? It’s actually pretty cool, the New York Times is using an SMS autoresponder to deliver a text message to readers, that includes a link to get access to the Times digital experience for the remainder of the day. The campaign is advertised on the front page of the New York Times, with a sticker instructing readers to see page 2 for details on getting the Times digital experience. You can see the sticker below. If you’re wondering, the New York Times used a special adhesive for the sticker, so that readers could easily remove it, to read the words in the articles it was covering.

After turning to page 2, you’re given instructions on how to get access to the Times digital experience. The newspaper instructs readers to text the SMS keyword NYTX897 to the short code 79922 to get started, as you can below.

When a reader texts NYTX897 to the short code 79922, they receive back the following text message: Thanks for texting for a New York Times digital day pass. Click here to redeem your offer: XXX Access is valid until 11:59pm EST. Txt HELP4help. You can see the SMS autoresponder message below.

Do you have any other interesting examples of brands using SMS autoresponders? If so, let us know in the comments below and they may be featured on our blog in the future.

You know text message marketing has gone mainstream when even Justin Bieber is launching a text messaging campaign. On October 30, 2015 Justin Bieber tweeted to fans to “Call me 231 377 1113 on my cell phone”.

Fans that called the phone number were greeted by Justin saying “What do you mean it’s not like that? Oh, you’re sorry?” Bieber says over the track’s beat. “Well, where are you now that I need you? But girl, lemme just tell you something”, and then launching into his very own remix of Drake’s popular song Hotline Bling. After the remix is over, an announcer is heard plugging Mr. Bieber’s album, Purpose, which launches on November 13.

The best part… The announcer then tells fans to press one to “stay in touch with Justin’s bling bling”. After pressing one, the mobile phone user is opted-in to Justin Bieber’s new text messaging campaign.

Can’t get through to Justin at (231) 377-1113, no worries, you can still opt-in to Justin Bieber’s text messaging campaign by texting PURPOSE to the dedicated short code 28259 on your mobile phone. If you aren’t aware, “Purpose” is Justin Bieber’s new album title. You can see below what happens when you text PURPOSE to the shortcode 28259.

In the first text message, it requires fans to “Reply YES to optin”, in addition to promoting his new album “Purpose”, and even gives fans a hyperlink to pre-order the album. After texting PURPOSE to 28259, the text messaging campaign thanks fans for signing up, and tells new subscribers that they’ll be receiving up to 5 text messages per month.

Are you a big fan of Justin Bieber, or maybe just an interested SMS marketer? I’d highly recommend texting PURPOSE to 28259, as this text messaging campaign is most likely going to be pretty fun to follow.

Interested in tracking which retail locations are driving opt-ins? If so, have you thought about using different SMS keywords for each location? Need an example of a brand that is implementing this SMS marketing strategy? Check out how Old Navy is using different SMS keywords for each of their 1,000+ locations in the United States.

As you’ll see in the two images below, customers are encouraged to sign up for the Old Navy mobile alerts program to receive exclusive offers and sneak peeks at new arrivals. To do so, customers text a store number to the dedicated short code 653-689. In each of the images below, you’ll see that they’re using different SMS keywords. The first image advertises the SMS keyword “6046” and the second image is advertising the SMS keyword “3090”.

On a side note, you notice that the Old Navy dedicated short code 653689 spells “Old Navy”, cool huh? Another thing to note about how Old Navy is advertising their dedicated short code, is that they’re separating the first 3 digits from the last 3 digits of the code by a dash. They’re doing this because “Old Navy” is two words, but it brings up an interesting strategy when you’re advertising a 6-digit dedicated short code. Here at Tatango we highly recommend that if you’re using a 6-digit short code, you separate the first 3 digits from the last three with a dash, because customers will have a much tougher time to remember 6 digits all in one sequence, as compared to three digits, then another three digits.

What happens when you text any of Old Navy’s SMS keyword to their short code 653-689. You can see the opt-in process below.

Want another example of a brand that is using different SMS keywords to track SMS opt-ins per location? Check out this blog post we did on Jamba Juice awhile back, and how they’re using unique SMS keywords for each of their locations.

Are you a brand that has amassed a considerable amount of SMS subscribers, but unfortunately don’t know much about them, except for their mobile phone numbers? Old Navy had the same issue with their SMS subscribers, which is why recently they devised a plan to fix that.

This plan allowed Old Navy to connect an already collected phone number, with a whole host of subscriber data, including the subscriber’s first name, email address, zip code, birthday, and even what type of SMS alerts they prefer. Interested in learning how Old Navy was able to do this? Find out below.

While many brands like Redbox use SMS responses to capture subscriber data, Old Navy wanted to collect more than just one piece of subscriber data. To do this, they decided that collecting the subscriber data through a form hosted on a mobile website would provide the best customer experience.

To get current SMS subscribers to the mobile form, they sent out the following text message from their dedicated short code 653689. In the text message, they asked current SMS subscribers to tell Old Navy a little about themselves, in order to help Old Navy send only the SMS messages subscribers wanted.

If you’ll notice in the Old Navy text message, the hyperlink they sent is using a unique subpage for each SMS subscriber. For example, the hyperlink I received in my text message had the following subpage: /u00ZnWw. This subpage is a reference ID for a specific SMS subscriber in the Old Navy database. This allows Old Navy to not only track which of their SMS subscribers clicked on the hyperlink, but also allows them to connect a subscriber’s mobile phone number, with the information filled out on the mobile form, without having to actually ask for the subscriber’s mobile phone number. Pretty cool huh?

When an SMS subscriber clicks on the hyperlink, they’re taken to the following mobile form, where Old Navy asks for the SMS subscriber’s first name, email address, zip code, birthday, and even what type of SMS alerts they prefer. It’s not pictured, but the URL of the mobile form contains the subscriber’s reference ID, which for myself is “u00ZnWw”. This allows Old Navy to associate the information collected in the mobile form, with a specific mobile subscriber in their database. After a subscriber enters their information into the mobile form, that information is then stored with that specific subscriber in Old Navy’s SMS subscriber database.

The rest of the mobile form is below.

Once the mobile form is filled out, the subscriber then clicks the “NEXT” button, and is shown a mobile thank you page, which is below.

Remember how we told you that by using a unique reference ID for each SMS subscriber, and including that in the URL, Old Navy would be able to tell which subscribers clicked on the link? By using a unique reference ID for each Old Navy SMS subscriber, and including it in the URL of the mobile form, Old Navy is then able to tell which SMS subscribers filled out the form. If Old Navy knows which SMS subscribers fills out the mobile form, they then are able to send a thank you text message to those specific mobile subscribers. You can see their thank you text message from their dedicated short code 653689 below.

Why is Old Navy interested in collecting a subscriber’s first name, email address, zip code, birthday, and even what type of alerts they prefer? Below I’ve listed out the various reasons why Old Navy would want to collect this information.

• First Name: Having a subscriber’s first name allows Old Navy to customize SMS marketing messages, by including a subscriber’s first name in the content of the message.
• Email Address: A subscriber’s email address is valuable to Old Navy, as they can use that email address to send email marketing offers to that subscriber. In addition, with an email address associated with a mobile subscriber, and vice-versa, Old Navy will have a better holistic understanding of their customers, and how they react to certain communication channels.
• Zip Code: Old Navy can use a subscriber’s zip code to not only target subscribers in specific locations, but they can also use a subscriber’s zip code to send time appropriate messages based on their timezone.
• Birthday: A subscriber’s birthday is used not only to send age appropriate SMS promotions, but it’s also very common for a brand like Old Navy to use a subscriber’s birthday to send a birthday SMS message.
• Alert Preferences: This is an easy one! By asking Old Navy customers what type of SMS promotions they want to receive, the brand knows for sure that what they’re sending customers is exactly what they want.

Want another example of how Old Navy is customizing the SMS marketing experience for their SMS subscribers? Click here to read how Old Navy is using unique SMS keywords for each of their retail locations, to localize their SMS messaging.

It’s no surprise that with a recent poll finding that one in five voters (19%) said the best way to reach them was with a text message, that presidential candidates for the 2016 election are using text messaging. Not to be left behind, Bernie Sanders is using text messaging to communicate to his supporters. Just how fast is Bernie Sanders’ SMS campaign growing? According to his digital organizing director, Claire Sandberg, within hours of their live streamed houseparty event, which drew more than 100,000 supporters nationwide, Bernie Sanders had received nearly 50,000 mobile phone numbers from supporters texting “WORK” to 82623. That’s almost a 50% opt-in rate!

Based on his SMS marketing success with the live streaming houseparty event, Bernie Sanders’ SMS short code 82623 has made appearances at almost all of his events. The image below is a scoreboard display at a Bernie Sanders rally in Portland Oregon, encouraged attendees to text “BERNIE” to 82623. The image at the top of this post is also from the Portland Rally.

Bernie Sander’s SMS short code 82623 is also showing up online. Below is an ad to join the political revolution by texting “BERNIE” to 82623 to sign up for important mobile alerts from the campaign.

And of course Bernie Sanders is using Twitter to promote his SMS campaign, as you can see in the tweet below, using the hashtag #TeamBernie

So what happens when you text BERNIE to 82623? I thought you’d never ask. Check out the screenshot below of the opt-in process for Bernie Sander’s SMS campaign. It’s interesting to note that Bernie Sanders is collecting his supporters’ zip codes after opting into the SMS campaign. Why is this important for a political campaign? Besides national events like debates, the majority of presidential campaigning is done state by state, and city by city. By collecting subscribers’ zip codes during the opt-in process, Bernie’s campaign team will be able to mobilize supporters based on their location. For example, more than 27,000 Bernie Sanders’ supporters turned out last week in Los Angeles for a campaign appearance, after supporters in the area received a text message promoting the event.

What surprised us most was Bernie Sanders’ use of MMS, which we’ve never seen a presidential candidate up till now use. MMS allows the Bernie Sanders’ campaign to send both static images, videos, and our favorite, animated GIFs. The below MMS was sent by the Bernie Sanders’ campaign to promote his appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show on NBC. How cool is that?

Last night was a huge step forward for text message marketing for political candidates in the United States, with both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates launching text message donation campaigns at the Iowa caucus.

It’s no surprise either that text message marketing continues to grow in popularity as a communication channel for political candidates, as a recent poll found that one in five voters said the best way to reach them was by sending them a text message. Also, with many non-profits using text messaging to raise donations, as we saw with nearly 20% of all money raised for Hurricane Sandy relief coming from text message donations, it’s a no-brainer that political candidates would want jump onboard the text message donation bandwagon.

You may recall that back in 2012, after the Federal Election Commission (FEC) approved the use of text messaging to raise funds for political candidates, both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama launched their own text message donation initiatives. Below you can see Barack Obama’s text message donation call-to-action, which was to “DONATE $10 TO OBAMA FOR AMERICA BY TEXTING GIVE TO 62262”. Obama used the dedicated SMS short code 62262, as it spelled “OBAMA” on a phone’s dialpad.

Mitt Romney’s campaign quickly followed Obama’s lead, and within weeks launched their own text message donation initiative, encouraging supporters to text the SMS keyword “GIVE” to the short code 37377 to make a $10 donation.

Both 2012 candidate’s text message donation programs were very similar, requiring supporters to first text the candidate’s SMS keyword to their SMS short code. Then supporters would receive a text message asking them to confirm their donation, and that they’re eligible to make a political donation. To confirm, the mobile phone user would simply respond “YES”, and the $10 charge would be added directly to the user’s mobile phone bill. You can see how this would look in the mobile phone screencaptures below.

When the FEC approved the use of text message donations in 2012, they capped donations at $50 per mobile phone, for each billing period, or $200 in total donations per mobile phone. Also, political donations via text message were limited to $10 per donation. Also, when the FEC approved text message donations, they approved two different variations of text message donations for political purposes. The two different variations are below.

1. The first method approved by the FEC would require a mobile phone user to text message a premium SMS short code, registered to the political campaign. Then that mobile phone user would receive a text message back asking them to confirm their intent to engage in the transaction, and to certify that they were eligible to make a contribution. The political donation would then be added to the mobile phone user’s monthly cellphone bill.
2. The second method approved by the FEC would require a mobile phone owner to enter their number on a political campaign’s website in lieu of using a credit card number to make their donation. To get to the political campaign’s website, candidates would tell supporters to text a specific SMS keyword to a short code, which then would return a link in a text message directing the user to the website. After the mobile phone user confirmed their eligibility to make a political donation, and submitted their mobile phone number, a text message would be sent to the owner’s mobile phone with a pin number. The mobile phone user would then enter that pin number back into the political campaign’s website to confirm the transaction. The political donation would then be added to the mobile phone owner’s monthly cellphone bill.

As you can see in the Mitt Romney and Barack Obama text message donation user flows above, those candidates were using the first option, but since the wireless carriers banned the use of premium SMS messaging in 2013, 2016 presidential candidates are forced to use the second option to collect mobile donations from supporters.

Interested in learning more about the requirements set out by the FEC for political groups and candidates to accept text message donations? Scroll to the bottom of this post, where we outline all the FEC requirements and rules for political groups and candidates to accept text message donation.

Ok, now that we’ve covered the history of text message donations for political groups and candidates, let’s see how 2016 presidential candidates are using text messaging to solicit donations from their supporters. First off, which presidential candidates are using text messaging to raise money? The good news, both Democratic hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders, and Republican hopeful Senator Ted Cruz, are using text messaging to solicit donations from supporters. So how is each presidential candidate using text messaging to solicit donations? To help answer this question, we’ve separated each candidate’s usage of text message donations below, starting with Republican hopeful Senator Ted Cruz.

Senator Ted Cruz

First off, Senator Ted Cruz is no stranger to text message marketing, as he kicked off his presidential candidacy by telling supporters to take out their mobile device and text GROWTH to 33733 to join his SMS campaign in support of his new leadership PAC, the Jobs Growth and Freedom Fund. Cruz gained over 16,000 new SMS subscribers during his speech, clocking in at nearly 7 new SMS subscribers per second during his 40 minute keynote speech.

So how is Senator Ted Cruz now using text messaging to solicit donations from supporters? At the recent Iowa caucus, he instructed supporters to text “DONATE” to the SMS short code 55022. You can see this in the below image taken at his Iowa caucus victory speech.

We’ve taken screenshots of Senator Ted Cruz’s text message donation process below, after supporters text DONATE to 55022 on their mobile phones.

Senator Bernie Sanders

Like Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Bernie Sanders is also no stranger to text message marketing. Senator Bernie Sanders’ SMS short code 82623 has made appearances at almost all of his events, and he’s actively encouraged attendees to text “BERNIE” to 82623 to join his SMS campaign. How fast is Senator Bernie Sanders’ SMS campaign growing? According to Claire Sandberg, his digital organizing director, within hours of their live streamed houseparty event in 2015, Senator Bernie Sanders had almost 50,000 join by texting “WORK” to 82623.

So how is Senator Bernie Sanders using text messaging to solicit donations from supporters? At the recent Iowa caucus, he encouraged supporters to text “GIVE” to the SMS short code 82623, to contribute $10. You can see this in the ad below found on Twitter.

We’ve taken screenshots of Senator Bernie Sanders’ text message donation process below, after supporters text GIVE to 82623 on their mobile phones. The one big difference between Senator Ted Cruz’s text-to-donate campaign, and Senator Bernie Sanders’ text-to-donate campaign, is that with Senator Bernie Sanders’ text-to-donate campaign, donations are currently limited to $10 as you can see below. It’s interesting to note that on both text-to-donate campaigns, both candidates give the option for donors to agree to receive additional text messages from the candidates.

FEC SMS Donation Requirements

As discussed earlier in the blog post, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced in 2012 that they approved the use of text message donations for political groups and candidates. Unfortunately for political groups and candidates, the FEC approval comes with a lot of requirements, and that doesn’t even include what the wireless carriers require when soliciting donations that will eventually end up on a mobile phone bill. Below are the requirements set out by both the FEC and the wireless carriers for political candidates that want to solicit donations through text messaging.

• Political groups and candidates can only provision SMS short codes for use in the United States. This was done to prevent foreigners from sending in SMS donations, which is a violation of campaign regulations.
• When engaging an SMS provider for SMS donations, there must be a contract between an SMS provider and the political group or candidate, which includes special provisions that require compliance with the requirements set forth by the Federal Election Commission.
• Each political group or candidate must be registered and in good standing with theFederal Election Commission, and relevant State authorities to be able to collect SMS donations.
• Each political group or candidate must only receive SMS donations through a single SMS short code. This means political group and candidates can’t switch SMS short codes, or use multiple SMS short codes.
• Mobile phone users may not donate more than $50 per month to any one political candidate or committee.
• Confirmation text messages must include a web link, that when clicked, opens a mobile webpage that includes the un-abbreviated attestation required by the FEC. The mobile web page would also explain terms such as “foreign national” and “Federal contractor.”
• SMS donations must be sent to the campaign’s treasurer within ten days of receipt. Because wireless carriers can take up to 60 days to remit SMS donations, a process called “factoring”, must be implemented.
• SMS donations must be remitted to political candidates or committees on a weekly basis.
• The SMS provider, or the payment processor will be prohibited from sending the political candidate or committee any identifiable information associated with the phone number number that made the SMS donation.

As you can see, there are a lot of rules and regulations that a campaign manager has to think about before starting a text-to-donate campaign. Don’t go at this alone, contact Tatango and let us help you navigate these issues and make your political campaign a success.

Want to stay up to date on how political groups and candidates are using text messaging?
Sign up for our newsletter below.

We’ve seen real estate agents use text messaging to generate more real estate leads, and even the International Academy of Design & Technology using text message to generate student leads, but we’ve never seen a culinary school use text messaging to generate leads. Well… Not until today. Check out above how Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School is using text messaging, by advertising to potential students to “Text FAFSA to 94576” to learn more about the culinary school.

When potential students text FAFSA to the shortcode 94576, they receive a text message back asking potential students to reply “YES” to give their consent for Le Cordon Bleu to use auto dialing technology to txt/call them. What’s cool about this text message is that Le Cordon Bleu is using a phone number merge tag, which is pulling the potential students’ mobile phone number into the text message as you can below.

When a potential student replies “YES”, they receive a second text message telling the potential student that they have two questions for them, the first question being the potential student’s first and last name. After the potential student responds with their first and last name, they’re asked to reply with their 5 digit zip code. The zip code is being used to send the text message lead to the right Le Cordon Bleu advisor.

After the potential student has responded with their zip code, they receive a text message confirmation text message saying that an “LCB advisor will contact you soon”. What’s really cool about how Le Cordon Bleu is using text message to generate more leads is that a potential student can respond “CHATNOW” to start a chat with a live LCB advisor.

Have you seen any other brands using text messaging to generate more leads? If so, let us know in the comments below.

Brands use text message autoresponders for a variety of purposes, but with the explosion of mobile apps, it’s extremely common for app marketers to use text messaging autoresponders to increase app downloads. With text message autoresponders producing a 92% click-through rate to download an app, it’s no wonder why mobile app marketers are relying on text message autoresponder to increase app downloads.

Need more proof that text message autoresponders are increasing app downloads? In this post, we spoke to Keegan Hall, the Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Pirq about using a text message autoresponder to increase app downloads and he told us the following:

“These banners have contributed considerably to the growth of our user base in the Seattle area, and the text messaging CTA has allowed us to simplify the download processes since the reply text includes a single link that can detect which device they’re using (iPhone or Android) and then direct them to the Pirq download page within appropriate app store.  This allows us to cut out several steps from the typical download process.  This make a huge difference in conversion.”

Being no stranger to text message marketing, Chegg is also using a text message autoresponder to increase app downloads. So how is Chegg using a text message autoresponder to increase app downloads? It’s actually pretty cool, Chegg is using an autoresponder to deliver a text message to students, that include a link to directly download the Chegg app to their mobile phones. The text messaging campaign is advertised on the front of CheggDeals books, telling students to text “Chegg to 33733 to download the FREE app”. You can see the Chegg Deals books and their use of the text message autoresponder in the images below.

Looking for more great examples of brands using text message autoresponders to increase app downloads? Check out the following articles about other brands using text messaging autoresponders.

• Macy’s
• Target
• ShopKick
• 7-Eleven
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Walmart
• Starbucks

Looking for additional ways to use text messaging to increase app downloads? Check out here how brands are using text messaging to increase app downloads directly from their websites.

Do you have any other examples of apps using text message autoresponders? If so, let us know in the comments below and they may be featured on our blog in the future.

Did you notice that Chipotle’s across the country were closed on Monday for lunch? What does this have to do with SMS marketing you ask? Instead of Chipotle just closing their doors, turning away loyal customers, they decided to use an SMS autoresponder to offer a free burrito, burrito bowl, salad, or order of tacos, to those customers that were inconvenienced.

How did it all work? Let me show you. First, when a Chipotle customer approached one of the locations that were closed, they were greeted with the following sign on the door. The sign read “We’re closed for lunch today to attend a meeting with all the other Chipotle employees. But don’t worry, we’ll be back open at 3pm. If we messed up your lunch plans, let us make it up to you: visit chiptole.com/raincheck. See you soon.” You can see a photo of the Chipotle sign below.

FYI – Every Chipotle restaurant in the country closed for lunch on February 8, 2016, so that employees could meet and discuss food safety strategy, following several reports of E. coli linked to the popular burrito chain.

When customers visited chipotle.com/raincheck on their mobile phones, they were told to text “RAINCHECK” to Chipotle’s SMS short code 888-222, in order for Chipotle to hook them up for messing up their lunch plans. You can see this below in the mobile phone screenshot.

If for some reason you didn’t open up chipotle.com/raincheck on your mobile phone, you still could access the website on your desktop computer. A screenshot of the Chipotle website from a desktop computer is below.

The next step was for customers to text message “RAINCHECK” to Chipotle’s SMS short code, which is 888-222. After texting “RAINCHECK” to 888-222, customers received a text message autoresponder message, with a link to a free burrito. You can see the text message below.

When customers clicked on the link in the Chipotle SMS autoresponder, they were taken to the following mobile web page, where they asked for the customer’s first name, last name, and zip code. There was no need for customers to enter their mobile phone number, as that variable was passed to the mobile website when they clicked on the link in the SMS autoresponder. When the customer completed the mobile form, the customer’s mobile phone number was attached to the entry.

After a customer entered their first name, last name and zip code, and clicked “SEND MY WAY”, they were shown the following message, promising to text customers their free burrito in the next few days. They even used a little sense of humor in explaining that they were not actually going to text message a free burrito to customers, but a coupon that customers could exchange for one. You can see this in the mobile screen capture below.

Then the next day, Chipotle sent the following text message to those customers that had previously texted “RAINCHECK” to 888-222, and filled out the mobile form. As you can see in the Chipotle text message below, not only did Chipotle deliver on their promise for a free burrito, they also gave those customers the ability to receive future text messages, by reply to the SMS short code 888-222 with the word “FOIL”.

Ok, so what did Chipotle’s mobile coupon look like? I thought you’d never ask! Below is Chipotle’s mobile coupon, offering a free burrito, burrito bowl, salad, or order of tacos. As you can see, the mobile coupon has the customer’s full name on it, in addition to an expiration date and unique coupon code. The customer then simply presents the mobile coupon to the cashier, the cashier scans the QR code, and the redemption is recorded.

Unfortunately this SMS campaign was only running for a very short amount of time, between 11:00:00 AM EST on February 8, 2016, and ended at 6:00 PM EST on February 8, 2016. Instead of sending Chipotle customers to a 404 page if they visited chipotle.com/raincheck after 6:00 PM EST on February 8, 2016, they created the following message, telling customers that they just missed the SMS promotion, as you can see in the screencapture below. Never missing a chance to gain more SMS subscribers, Chipotle is telling customers that land on this page to scroll to the bottom of the website, to sign up for future offers and updates.

Chipotle is no stranger to SMS marketing, as they’ve been running SMS marketing campaigns in various forms since 2011. Below are some of the various Chipotle SMS campaigns we’ve written about here on the Tatango blog.

• Chipotle Gold Campaign
• Chipotle Boorito Campaign
• Chipotle Brown Rice Announcement
• Chipotle Gift Card Campaign
• Chipotle Customer Receipt Call-to-Action
• Chipotle Dorm Giveaway Contest
• Chipotle SMS Trivia Campaign

Do you have a restaurant, and are you interested in SMS marketing? If so, we recommend checking out these 10 restaurant SMS marketing examples, and then downloading Tatango’s free guide to restaurant SMS marketing here.

To help other text message marketers out there, we copied the survey prompt, and all the survey questions that Redbox asked subscribers that opted-out, and included them below. We recommend all text message marketers set up their own opt-out surveys, and to make things easy, you can use all or some of the reasons in your own survey that Redbox does.

We’ll miss you. Please tell us why you left so we can make improvements (select ALL that apply):

• I wanted a promo code and received my offer.
• I have trouble receiving text messages.
• I get too many marketing messages in general.
• I get news and deals from Redbox in another way.
• I’m not interested in the offers.
• Text messages may not be part of my plan.
• I get too many text messages from Redbox.
• I unsubscribed by accident & want to find out how to quickly rejoin.
• I’m using other means to get entertainment.
• Something else (please explain below).

Want more from Redbox? Check out some of the various text message marketing campaigns below we’ve written about here on the Tatango blog. Want to opt-in yourself to Redbox’s text message marketing campaign? Text JOIN to the SMS short code 727272.

• Redbox Launches SMS Campaign
• Redbox Promotes SMS Campaign on Facebook Fan Page
• Redbox Tests Interactive Mobile Coupons on SMS Subscribers
• Redbox Spices Up Holiday Mobile Marketing Campaign
•  Redbox Uses Text Messaging to Grow Email Marketing List
• Redbox Launches Holiday SMS Campaign
• SMS Autoresponder Helps Redbox Engage Mobile Subscribers

Are you a retailer looking to grow you text message opt-ins? One of the best places for retailers to collect text message opt-ins is at the point of sale, or register. Think about it, what’s a better place to collect text message opt-ins then when customers swipe their credit cards to make a purchase. The point of sale is actually a pretty common place for retailers to collect text message opt-ins, as you can see from the many examples in this post.

Not to be left behind Toys”R”Us has started collecting text message opt-ins at their own point of sale registers as you can see in the image below. Toys”R”Us entices customers to their text messaging program by telling them that by texting DEALS5 to 78697, they’ll receive exciting, new Toys”R”Us deals, coupons and events.

When a customer at the register texts DEALS5 to the SMS short code 78697, they’re asking to respond “YES” to confirm their opt-in, telling them that they’ll receive up to 3 automated marketing messages from the short code 78697 per week. You can see the text message opt-in below.

Why is advertising in-store so important for retailers? In a recent study, it was found that a retailer could expect a 2.3 – 3.2% text message opt-in rate when they advertise their text messaging campaign in-store.

Want to see another retailer doing a good job of collecting text message opt-ins at the point of sale register? Check out the post we did on how Staples is advertising their text messaging campaign at the point of sale register, and producing some phenomenal results.