Americans are hooked on their cell phones. Those little handheld devices started out as mobile phones, but quickly sprouted other capabilities like text messaging, calendars, and address books.

When you leave the house in the morning to start your day, what are the two things you always make sure you have?

If you are like most people, the answer is - your keys and your cell phone. The cell phone has become an essential piece of standard equipment for our daily lives.

In fact, Americans are so hooked on their cell phones that:

• 52 percent keep their cell phone turned on all the time and 24 percent keep their phone charged most of the time
• 29 percent say they make more calls with their cell phone than with their home phone.
• 15 percent of adults surveyed say they aren’t quite ready to cut the cord, but are somewhat likely to get rid of their landline. Eight percent say they are very likely to ditch their landline in favor of a cell phone-only existence.
• 40 percent of those ages 18-29 say they are likely to get rid of their landline. In fact, 49 percent in this age group say they make more calls with their cell phone than with their landline.

I suppose we all had some idea that America is hooked on cell phones, what with 225 million subscribers in the U.S. and all. But as a business professional with goods and services to market, did you realize that mobile phones are the fastest, most reliable marketing channel now available to businesses?

Think about it. How many text messages do you get per day?

Probably at least several.

Now, how many of those text messages do you read?

You probably answered, “All of them.”

Most people are just like you. In fact, research has determined that 98% of all text messages are viewed, and 90% are read within the first two hours. This fact correlates into faster and higher results for marketing campaigns than you can get from any other channel.

Over 1 Billion Text message a day are sent in the US alone, which means that nine times more text messages are being sent out than emails each day. Text messages are changing the way people communicate, and businesses with goods and services to market are taking notice.

How big a commecial opportunity is mobile text marketing? Let’s put this in perspective by comparing it to a widely used marketing technology – email marketing.

CorFun has been a leader in eNewsletter and opt-in mailing strategies for years. (Opt-in means the customer signed up to receive the emails from the company.) We have worked extensively mapping out solutions to get customer newsletters delivered to the people who want them. And despite our best efforts, there is never a 100% guarantee that people who subscribe (opt-in) to a newsletter we’ve designed will ever receive it. Spam filters and other impediments to delivery block an amazingly high percentage of marketing emails.

Just getting information into a customer’s in-box is a daunting challenge. In fact, in 2008 businesses lost an estimated $500 million dollars in earnings because of lost opt-in emails. These are messages that customers wanted, asked for, and never received.

We’re not talking about spam here. We’re talking about your customer wanting to hear about your sales, your events, and get your coupons - but not being able to because spam filters are blocking your emails.

At CorFun, we are not going to discontinue email marketing campaigns. Their results are far better and more cost-effective than traditional advertising methods like the common newspaper ads. Email marketing campaigns have worked well for our customer businesses, and we will continue to use them extensively as one leg of well-rounded marketing strategy. But the marketplace is changing, and new opportunities are surfacing that can complement and improve on email marketing campaigns. One of these is mobile text marketing, where the new possibilities are amazing.

CorFun’s new mobile marketing solutions are designed to capture of the power of the emerging mobile marketing channel.

Among our services are:

• Text Message Campaign to up to 25 Million Cellular subscribers. Service includes supplying the list,developing the custom message and correlating the data to get to prospective customers based on geography and demographics that you most want to reach. The same customers are available for email campaigns as well.
• Calls to Action in conjunction with traditional advertising vehicles such as billboards, print ads, classified ads, radio ads, television spots and internet based products any company big or small. Add a ‘Text for more information’ option to your advertising and watch the response rate go up along with your profits.
• Custom widgets for your Website to enable customers to sign up for text messages such as coupons, more information, etc. A widget is a simple sign up form that allows visitors to your Website to sign up for information to be sent via text message.

Mobile Text Marketing Campaigns

CorFun has access to a database of over 25 million opt-in subscribers. This list consists of US based consumers who have asked to receive relevant third party text messages relating to sports, finance, fashion, home decorating, and social information.

Our database is scrubbed and cleaned daily insuring our consumer text list provides current and significant data regarding people’s preferences. Email and text addresses are available for every consumer in the database for a multidisciplined approach. Campaigns can be structured so that you send both emails and text messages to the same target group to reinforce the marketing message.

Depending on the needs and goals of the marketing program, we can provide custom lists based on demographics such as: Age, Occupation, Religion, Interests, Location, Presence of Children, Residence Info, Income, Occupation, Language Spoken, Hobbies and more.

Below, you will find the pricing for setting up and running a text marketing campaign.

Long Code Call to Action Program

An example would be Text “Coupon” to 212-555-1212 for a coupon to get 10% off next purchase.

CorFun can also provide eNewsletter sign up and eNewsletter mailing systems. To find out more, click here.