The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) reported that 9.8 billion text messages were sent in the month of December 2005, up 109 percent from December 2004. Five years ago, only 33.5 million text messages were sent per month. These numbers are up over 10 billion per month currently.
    And that’s just the icing on the electronic cake, as e-mail’s household presence only grows.
    “People check their e-mails an average of three to four times a day,” says Ziad Gappy of Email Media Group Inc., a firm specializing in e-mail communication tools. “People are checking their e-mails from their cell phones. Promoters can reach 10,000 people in 10 minutes compared to passing out 10,000 flyers which could take them weeks.”

Text, Drinks and Rock ‘n’ Roll
        The majority of mobile phones currently support the ability to send and receive text messages without the need for additional enhancements to the mobile phone, and increasing numbers of bar patrons are open to marketing messages. If a venue’s demographic is text-savvy, there is no good reason for not utilizing the medium.
       “Text messaging is a tool that is easily integrated into current marketing programs to work in force with all forms of advertising including print, e-mail and direct mail,” says Michael Lamb of Opt It. “One of the reasons for text messaging’s increased effectiveness is that messages can be sent and received immediately on customer’s cell phones. This allows you to send out reminders the night of an event to draw additional people into your bar or nightclub.
        “Providing localized and exclusive content to customers is the hot trend in text messaging right now. This includes VIP list entry, on-premise redemptions and two-way interactive campaigns,” Lamb says.
        “You can set up a call to action, where a consumer texts in to win a prize and then sticks around to play a game or enter a trivia contest,” says Alex Campbell, CEO of Vibes Media, a mobile marketing provider based in Chicago. “Some of our more successful programs average anywhere between 50 and 100 messages per person.”

Tread Lightly, with Meaning
    As with any electronic communication, it’s important to make sure you don’t wear out your welcome.
    “In order to gain the trust of your customers, it is important to demonstrate that you are doing mobile messaging the right way,” Lamb says.
    Ron Masters, owns three venues Mt. Clemens, Mich. — the Emerald Theater, Hayloft Liquor Stand and Johnny G’s —with plans to open two more, Full Kilt and Bedrdaze.
    “I try not to inundate them with messages,” he says. “Every time I send one, I give them something of value, such as free food, no cover or drink specials. I also try to be witty. They love it when you make fun of yourself.
    “I let them know about everything that I do,” Masters says. “I’ve noticed that some people won’t read them; they’ll just come in. So if I say $1 shots every time the Red Wings score, they miss out. So we’ll make announcements during the night, which makes other people sign up.”
    The text campaign is just one element of Masters’s marketing, but it’s an element he feels is unique.
    “I use radio, local club papers and flyers. I like text the best for seeing results. It feels good to see someone pop their phone open at the door and get in free, then forward it to his friends. One example is Tuesday nights at Johnny G’s. We were (messaging) 50 people. I did only text marketing. Within two months, we were up to 400-plus and have stayed that way for over a year.”
    Staying organized and tracking results is important.
    “The savvy operators are doing two main things to make effective use of (text messaging): they’re building lists and tracking ROI,” says Scot Talcott, director of marketing of TextPromoter, a mobile marketing platform for the service industry.
    “The first, list-building, is a process that is done continually over time,” Talcott says. “The best operators are training their entire staffs — security personnel, waitstaff and promoters — on how the text message campaign works and are encouraging them to assist customers in signing up. These operators also add the response component — i.e., the free cover callout — in every ad and on every flyer they order. It’s a relatively small investment, time-wise, that can yield huge results and profits for the operator.”

E-Mail Arrows
    If text messaging is the tool for reaching patrons on the run, e-mail continues to hit them at home base. Actually, it even hits them on the go these days as well. But operators must find ways to cut through the clutter bombarding their target audiences and hit the bullseye.
    “This is really important,” Gappy says. “When building an eye-catching e-mail newsletters, they have to have some flair to them ... images, logos and a lot of color behind them to make them appealing to the eye.
    “They also should have lot of reference links back to the Web site for more information, like links to the their picture gallery, future calendar of upcoming events, driving directions to get to the club, VIP info and whatever else they want people to know more about.
    “Also, it’s important to not have to it be to long and wordy. People are visual by nature, they don’t want to read unless they have to. You don’t want to send out a newsletter just to send one out; people will delete themselves off of your mailing list if you are not sending them relevant info, which will end up hurting your mailing list size overall.”                                 NCB