For those of you on the fence about the importance of text messaging here’s some encouraging news:

According to a new survey published last week by Dialogue Communications, just over 80 percent of people said they would also be interested in a customer service text call-back request capability.

Users also indicate a high willingness to opt-in to SMS alerts for everything from appointment reminders to bill payments.

The study, which asked participants if  they would like to receive appointment reminders, found that although only three percent of people currently receive reminders by text – with 83 percent coming in the mail – over 67 percent would be happy to receive text reminders or alerts in the future.  Furthermore, nearly 60 percent would actually opt-in for a text reminder service.

Respondents cited text messaging’s convenience over email and if you recall one of my posts from last year, there is a growing group of younger adults who don’t even use email.

I have been mulling this over for a few months and this report establishes what I think will be the new “normal” in customer service.

It’s this: I don’t call you…..you call me.

Think of the convenience of no longer dealing with an IVR. Who invented these things in the first place? Then, think of no more muzak. Add to this no more waiting on hold. Voila! A ready made opportunity to change the customer service paradigm.

Imagine you run a hardware store. You have a free Ruxter site and you leverage Ruxter’s ability for anyone who visits your site to send you a text-to-email message. It’s springtime and your customers want to know if you have dandelion control products. The visitor to your Ruxter site simply sends you a message with their callback number and their question. All you have to do is call them back and say yes, we do have what you’re looking for.

Frankly, I would love this and it’s a great way to demonstrate you’re thinking like your customer.

Get yourself a free Ruxter site today. Your customers are ready for this kind of change.

Dale Knoop is a mobile multimedia patents holder and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.

I came across this article snipet while reading the daily inflow of mobile industry articles.

Universal Music Group announced it will team with mobile publishing platform Netbiscuits to expand its direct-to-consumer mobile content and services. Per terms of the agreement, UMG will leverage Netbiscuits’ B2B web software platform to introduce artist-branded mobile websites, promising consumers opportunities to interact and share personal media with other fans as well as purchase content directly from their handsets. In addition, UMG and Netbiscuits will introduce applications optimized for platforms including the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile. UMG first teamed with Netbiscuits in late 2009 to launch a mobile website for rockers Bon Jovi.

I think this is a great undertaking by UMG and I hope other labels follow. While I would have picked another inaugural artist other than Bon Jovi, it nonetheless signals the need for an optimized mobile experience when reaching your audience on their mobile phones.

Taking this announcement a bit further is the notion that, like anything in the recording business, if you’re not selling Bon Jovi levels of product you likely won’t get attention from the label in this regard. Surely Netbiscuits is not doing this for free and the labels are likely using tours and new albums as fuel for these mobile optimized sites. Stated another way, if your label won’t help you reach your mobile audience what do you do?

You could go text message only but this limits you to 160 characters and if this is all you want to do, Twitter would be a worthy choice and I’m going to bet that most bands and their members have already established large Twitter followings.

Where it gets interesting from a mobile presence perspective is that Twitter is tough to use on the go due to the sheer volume of off-message content and the fact that you can’t link to other content via a consistent destination.

When we created Ruxter we definitely had bands and music artists in mind and as evidence of this, anyone can link to a music or video file from their Ruxter site. What’s more, Ruxter’s free to use and your site is easy to share via the free keyword you choose.

Most mobile phones support MPEG4 video and AAC audio and any band or artist can share this content via their Ruxter site by simply linking to the encoded file on the server where it’s hosted. Other Ruxter elements like the ability to share with friends and the ability to have your audience send messages to you allows for a two-way connection via your Ruxter site.

Venues and independent acts can have Ruxter sites as well. The former can connect to artist Ruxter sites and the latter can connect to the Ruxter sites for the venues they will appear in, thereby creating an interconnected array of mobile optimized content for the music fan when they’re on-the-go.

There’s no need to wait for the label to create an optimized mobile experience for you and there’s no need to worry about creating an app. A free Ruxter site gets you the same level of connection. Shoot us an email if there’s anything we can do to help you get connected to your audience by mobilizing your band or music career via Ruxter.

Dale Knoop is a mobile multimedia patents holder and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.

Contradictions always catch my eye especially if they are from a single person or news source. I found one last week and it wasn’t from the same source but it was about the same company and this company has a big brand-Yahoo.

Maybe you saw it too. Nielsen reports that Yahoo was the top mobile brand accessed on mobile phones in 2009 followed by Google. Then, in the Morgan Stanley 424 page Mobile Internet Report, Yahoo’s future in mobile is listed in the lowest category of “Unclear”.

So there it is-a top brand with an unclear future in a nascent market with a growth trajectory like a Saturn IV rocket.

First of all, and not like it’s any kind of salvation for Yahoo but…..they ain’t alone. How many times have you seen Microsoft is dead when someone talks about their mobile future?

This kind of scenario is what makes some C-level folks go bonkers and for others it makes titans out of them. So, any of you C-level folks reaching for the mood enhancers please take heart and follow these simple rules.

1. Throw out what you know. Don’t try to make your mobile presence just delivering your PC presence to a mobile phone. Start from a clean slate without the baggage of legacy competencies and business models. You have to remember there is a growing cohort out there who don’t use email for personal purposes and they rely on Facebook more than Google. I think we all know that some big internet brands won’t be big in 5 years. Alta Vista? Lycos? The list goes on and on.

2. Don’t fall for the “wouldn’t it be cool if” model. Solve a need of a mobile user before you fall into this geek-riddled trap.  I remember sitting through a presentation by a very bright young man once telling me how inference engines were going to basically rule and change the world. Granted, it’s kind of cool that Amazon knows what I’ve bought and that it points out things I might be interested in but it’s not life changing. Moreover, supporting “cool” on mobile phones means addressing only part of the market or writing for 8 mobile OS. Yikes. Where’s the money in that?

3. Start simple and go from there. Less than 1% of you have mobile sites that will render on a mobile phone. Get a mobile site that will render no matter now simple you may feel it is. Don’t lose a lead, don’t lose a sale and please don’t frustrate your mobile visitor. Stats show they won’t come back if your site won’t render quickly. Once you have a presence on any mobile phone you can experiment with what works and get feedback from your users. You will pat yourself on the back for taking this approach because you are learning and preparing for the not-so-distant future when more folks visit you on their mobile than on a PC. Do you want to learn it all then when it suddenly dawns on you?

I’ll even go one step further-if any of you want any counsel on the mobile internet and the transformation we are about to go through, please email me. I want to help dramatically raise the levels of satisfaction with the mobile web. For sure, Ruxter’s already here to help you get started but seriously, if I can help in any way let me know.

Dale Knoop is the President of Ruxter, a mobile multimedia patents holder and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.

The good folks over at MediaPost send out a series of emails which are aimed at segment marketing and have titles like “Engage:Gen Y” or “Engage: Moms” and I find them to be informative and fun to read. Here’s an excerpt from the December 18, 2009 Engage: Gen Y email:

Gen Y is said to have the attention span of a gnat. Having never studied the attentiveness of gnats, let’s all agree that this means that Gen Y is easily distracted. They (we) are distracted away from your brand, and they (we) are distracted towards your brand. But how can you make sure that your brand is flypaper and your followers are flies?

The solution: a five-second brand. For example, the average Gen Yer lives life buried in a mobile device. Therefore, your five-second brand must resonate on this emerging platform. Can your message be conveyed across a Droid or iPhone? If you are trying to reach Gen Y, then it better. Gen Y is the generation that never had to deal with a dial-up connection; they aren’t going to tolerate a brand that takes 30 seconds to explain. The five-second brand is all about meeting your audience half-way.

If you follow this blog you may know what caught my eye. “Can your message be conveyed across a Droid or iPhone?”

Looking at the big picture I would say that Gen Y isn’t the only one with ADD. I have it and I’m supposed to be a Boomer. I’m not “buried in a mobile device” but I think I’m close. I think it would be safe to say that in a world where 160 character messages dominate speaking to each other that all of us want any message in any medium conveyed to us very, very quickly.

Scaling this notion beyond a brand and the 2 out of 8 mobile phone platforms listed in the Engage email is that anyone wanting a presence on a mobile phone which can be shared with customers, fans, members, etc. had better have a presence which will quickly render on any mobile phone and it had better get to the point fast. Unfortunately, this rules out your PC-based website.

On a mobile phone you have 5 seconds to show your site and explain your message. Moreover, like the Gomez research from earlier this year pointed out, if you don’t have a mobile site which will render on a phone quickly your customer won’t come back.

Try a Ruxter site today and experiment with how you use it to share information and get your point across. You’ll be making the most of the 5 seconds and soon, when more people access the mobile internet versus the PC internet, you’ll be so experienced in conveying your message in 5 seconds that it will seem like at least a minute.

Dale Knoop is the President of Ruxter, a mobile multimedia patents holder and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.

First I read this:

According to the November 2009 “2010 Marketing Trends Survey” of business leaders by StrongMail, 69% of business leaders are going to increase their spend on email marketing in 2010.

Then I read this in MediaPost’s Marketing Daily:

“Clara Shih, a former Google marketer who started her own Facebook marketing firm and wrote a book about that social medium, says there are now some 350 million active Facebook users, and people spend some 8 million minutes a day on Facebook.

While she does not say email is dead exactly, she says that over 96% of the students she interviewed for her book don’t use email at all, but use texting and Facebook messages and wall posts. “We need to communicate through the channels they favor, and for more and more cohorts, this is becoming Facebook.”

Uh oh. A group where 96% don’t use email!

I think we all know who is on this group. It’s the customer of today customer and the customer of tomorrow. While I understand going with what you know, it’s also very important to make sure there is someone at the other end of the communication. Add to these figures above that it is estimated that 33% of email addresses in your email lists have been abandoned and I can’t say that I would sleep well at night upping my spend on email. Add in poor open rates on email and email becomes even murkier as a communication tool. Moreover, (seriously, I’m not trying to pig pile on email but…..) even smart phones like my Blackberry Curve don’t show HTML formatted emails properly and after a few times of trying to open and read them I just delete them from sources that use HTML formatted email.

I am not saying email is dead but I will say that as a marketing medium it may have run out its string. As Clara points out you need to “communicate through the channels they favor” and added to Facebook I would add text messaging.

Imagine this scenario from Christmas 2010. Your company uses email to deliver bargains to your email list. Your competition uses text messaging and an optimized mobile website to share bargains with their customers. Which of you will attract customers while they are out shopping on Black Friday? If you answered your competition you’d be right. If you think like your customer, imagine the power of delivering a deal to them while they are already out shopping. I don’t bring my PC shopping but my mobile never leaves my side. Factor in the impulsivity of the mobile platform as a marketing vehicle and there is a clearly a case to be made for not relying solely on email.

Never to leave one wondering what to do and being something of an idea guy here’s suggestion of what to do with your email lists. Use them to deliver deals and at the same time ask those people on your email lists the to text your Ruxter keyword to the short code 63636 so they can opt-in to your Ruxter site. With a free Ruxter site you capture the ability to alert your customer to information you want to share via a text message, they’ve opted-in to your text messages so you know you have a better-than-average chance of being relevant and your Ruxter site gives you more room than 160 characters to deliver the message.

Dale Knoop is the President of Ruxter, a mobile multimedia patents holder and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.

Repeat the following 3 times each morning as you think about leaving 1994 behind and becoming part of the mobile internet revolution and using mobile marketing to connect with your customer and your audience.

They just granted me access to their personal communication device.

They just granted me access to their personal communication device.

They just granted me access to their personal communication device.

A person’s mobile phone never leaves their side. They (hopefully) know where it is at all times. They freak when they lose it. It holds vital personal information. They don’t share it with other people. They only give out their phone number on a selective basis.

I could go on and on with these points but we all know them because we all feel them ourselves. Spam on my personal device? No way. I remember getting a text alert from some company to buy a Michael Jackson ringer right after he died. This does speak to the impulsivity of mobile but I didn’t ask for this and some company had misused my permission from another service. I have an idea who it was but won’t name them here because it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that because of the highly selective nature of the mobile consumptive experience, marketing to a mobile phone becomes a loyalty platform all to itself.

What does this mean? 2 things:

1) Make the offer you deliver to a person’s mobile phone an offer that they cannot get elsewhere. Make the offer you send to their personal communication device an exclusive offer. Not only will this keep them coming back for more but among their peers they will appear to be “in-the-know” about great deals. In our new-found frugalism this is key. Your customer wants to be seen as savvy and smart. If you help them with this they will reward you with loyalty.

2) Make the offer relevant-a great example of this would be for a bar to send out a text message to their Ruxter site at 3PM on a Friday to come in and get a free appetizer. Or a grocer who sends out an alert at 4PM for a ready-to-eat meal prepared for a busy mom. Or a convenience store owner sending out gas prices for the day at 7AM so they are there on their customer’s phone when they wake up. Or a church who sends out a reminder on Saturday for a food drive the following Sunday so you can remember to pick up an extra item or two when you are out shopping on Saturday.

This is what is meant by thinking like your customer.

Mobile marketing is not like talking to someone’s house like you do with direct mail or to their PC like you do with email. Mobile marketing is about connecting with your customer on their most personal communication device and if you treat it as such you will turn your mobile internet presence (hopefully it’s a free Ruxter site) into a highly effective and rewarding loyalty platform for you and your customer.

Dale Knoop is the President of Ruxter, a mobile multimedia patents holder and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.

This from Gord Hotchkiss writing on 12-3-09 for Search Insider: Marketers: Shift your paradigm

About a year ago, at the Search Insider Summit (I’m actually at it again as I write this) I saw this clearly in a session on mobile advertising strategies. From the audience, which was made up entirely of marketers, there was frustration that the carriers wouldn’t allow targeting of mobile users through their account information. “You have all the information, why don’t you allow us to use it to target our messages?” was the cry from more than one frustrated marketer. I asked for a show of hands of all who thought, as marketers, that this would be a good move on the part of the mobile providers. Every hand shot up.

“Okay, as mobile users, who still wants to have ads targeted to you by your personal information.” Several hands suddenly wavered, hit by the force of shifting paradigms. Many went down. Others dipped noticeably as their owners realized their own hypocrisy. Suddenly, they were seeing the world as a customer, not as a marketer.

That’s some good stuff there. “Seeing the world as a customer, not as a marketer.”

In the brave new world of mobile marketing Gord’s point cannot be lost on anyone especially since you are dealing with the one thing in a person’s life that freaks them out when they lose it. If my TV breaks or when my ancient laptop gives me fits….no biggie. My cellphone starts acting up and I will get uppity in a hurry.

When it comes to marketing to a person via their cellphone,  put yourself in your customers shoes. Think of your favorite restaurant, brand, non-profit….whatever you patronize and wherever you shop and think about how you would want them to talk to you on your mobile phone.  This is what Gord is talking about. Moreover, when someone is on the go they will give you a chance to say one important thing to them so make it count.

Specifically, you need to ask for their permission to talk to them on their mobile phones. Might this be one of the reasons behind folks dumping their landline phones? Even with caller ID they find their way to me on my landline but on my mobile? No way.

How do you do this? With Ruxter you ask them to text your keyword to 63636 to opt-in to messages and content from you via your free Ruxter site. This is becoming an industry standard practice for getting permission to market to a person’s cellphone. In a few days we’ll be launching Ruxter PSI which will help you get folks opted-in to your Ruxter site via your PC website, via an email you send them using your email list or via your Facebook page. (I’ll write more about Ruxter PSI after it launches. PSI stands for “PC Subscriber Interface”.)

Once they have opted in, think of the one thing you want to tell these customers about what’s going on with you that they would care about. A special, an event, an exclusive offer, an urgent message, a new product, new pictures or video…..whatever you want to tell them but you need to think of it as the one thing you most want to tell them. Keep it relevant. Your customer is on the go and won’t take the time to peruse your PC site on their cell phone. The good folks at Gomez have already warned us about how little patience mobile customers have with balky websites.

The beauty of mobile marketing, and Ruxter is all about this, is that’s it’s highly personal to the user, it’s very dynamic for both parties and perhaps most importantly-it’s as cheap or cheaper and typically has a higher ROI than most every other form of marketing out there. Oh, and I forgot to mention-it’s with your customer at all times. Paradigm shift indeed.

Dale Knoop is the President of Ruxter and an industry-recognized pioneer of mobile data services. In 2005 Dale won an Emmy while serving as the GM for Sprint TV. In August 2009 he launched Ruxter which allows anyone to quickly and easily become part of the rapidly growing mobile internet with a free, fully optimized mobile website they can share with anyone. You can contact him here. Follow Ruxter on Twitter.

We’re now entering our sixth week since Ruxter was launched way back on July 12th. We have been exceptionally pleased with how things are shaping up. As is typical with any new application, there have been a few bugs to work out, fortunately, none of them have been major and most have been fortuitous to have come across in these early days. Among the most visible:

- A problem with opting in to Ruxter sites using a keyword through Verizon’s network. This was an issue we had during the first week where several iPhone users could not text a keyword to 63636 and get a confirmation SMS back from the Ruxter site. Opting in was possible through searching and clicking “opt-in” through Ruxter.mobi, just not through a keyword. This was a straightforward fix and has been working fine ever since.

- A more recently reported problem was an issue with accessing Ruxter.com. This was a peculiar bug in that it wasn’t consistent and didn’t affect everyone all the time. Working with our partners at Trilibis, we ultimately traced it to a balky router. John and Trilibis did whatever technical magic was required to kick the router in gear and that problem is no more.

Other than these two irritants, our technical concerns have been minor. We’ve used our weekly updates to clean up some UI issues, optimize code and fix various small items in the .com and .mobi areas. The feedback we’ve been getting from Ruxter site owners and people connecting to those sites through Ruxter.mobi on their phones has been overwhelmingly positive.

Every bit of the feedback we receive – good, bad, and indifferent – helps us to keep improving Ruxter – to make the very best tool for mobilizing your message even better.

So keep your comments coming and keep texting those keywords to 63636 to spread the word about your Ruxter sites!