Last year we asked you how you used Club Texting - what's great, what needs improvement, and your suggestions for new features. Well, after many months of hard work we're exited to tell you all about our biggest upgrade to Club Texting yet. Want to take a sneak peak?

A Brand New Interface

Club Texting has looked the same for a while now - so the first thing you'll notice is that we've cleaned things up a bit. This is more than a superficial upgrade. Our new interface is designed for you to use Club Texting faster and more efficiently. 

Enhanced Messaging

Personalize your texts by inserting your contacts' names into each message.

Want to add image attachments? We've upgraded the interface and removed all extra fees.

And there's more...

Upload Your Contacts

No more copy-and-pasting (you still can if you want to)! If you've got a spreadsheet of opted in contacts that you want to add to your list, pick a group, pick a file, and click 'ADD CONTACTS.' We'll do the rest.

There's a lot more to come, and we'll let you know all about it in an email very soon! If you have any questions, you can always contact us.

There's an important story over at Mobile Marketer about a recent InsightExpress report:

Digital marketing research firm InsightExpress found that mobile ad campaign norms were four-and-a-half to five times more effective than online norms.

...

“Far from being a one-trick pony, mobile is effective in rich environments like mobile video, minimal environments like SMS and the area in between covered by mobile display,” she said. “Add to this the findings that all verticals are seeing mobile impacts greater than online campaigns and the arguments for not adding mobile to a media plan fall away.”

Some more details about Text Message Marketing in particular:

SMS is also effective at increasing upper level purchase funnel metrics such as awareness measures.

SMS campaigns generated increases of 5 percentage points for unaided awareness, 10 percentage points for aided awareness and 18 percentage points for ad awareness.

Mobile video is still emerging, but shows campaign impact on par with SMS across most key brand metrics.

This channel drove especially strong results against brand favorability.

With an increase of 13 percentage points, compared to 12 percentage points for Mobile Internet and 7 percentage points for SMS, mobile video is demonstrating promise as a way to move the important brand favorability measure.

Head over to Mobile Marketer to read the full report.

In the last year SMS marketing has taken off in the real estate industry. Why the surge in usage? It's no secret that residential real estate is going through a (ahem, major ) slump. SMS Text Message marketing allows real estate brokers to cheap and effectively market properties to interested sellers. So how does it work?

Club Texting's Real Estate Text Messaging Software System allows house hunters to request and instantly receive property listing information using their mobile phones.

Home buyers text in--upon seeing a sign on the front lawn or in your agency's window--requesting more information. Our text messaging software system replies in seconds, delivering relevant info including beds, baths, and price. If interested, our two-way system allows the potential buyer to set up a showing or a call back.

Learn more about SMS marketing for the real estate industry at Club Texting.

We wanted to relay to you a quick bit of news that will certainly excite many of our customers. Earlier this week, MetroPCS provisioned our short code, 25827 on their network, making us one of the first mobile marketing firms to support true two-way messaging for MetroPCS customers!

See our full carrier coverage list at Club Texting.

Mobile Marketer has an interesting case study up about a small shoe store, and the wider implications of its successful mobile marketing campaign:

Go Mobile Now Or Regret It Later indeed.

Read more @ Mobile Marketer
Learn about SMS mobile marketing for retail @ Club Texting

Mobile Industry Review received a query from a reader, wondering who were the best 'tier 3 SMS aggregators in Canada.'

They're opening up the question to readers, so you'll have to head over and check out the comments to find out who has been getting the nod.

You also might want to check out this list of sms aggregators.

This week brought some more of the much talked about 'Green Shoots,' this time in the all important housing market:

At Club Texting, in the last few weeks, we've also seen a giant uptick in the number of real estate brokerages signing up for our mobile marketing services. What can mobile marketing do for real estate brokerages?

You also might want to check out our sister company, Ez Texting's profile of UAS properties, a Chicago development firm that uses text messaging to generate leads and manage internal collections, saving over $100,000 dollars a year by their estimate.

Mickey Alam Khan has written an editorial @ Mobile Marketer titled 'How to answer skeptics of mobile marketing.' You should read the whole column, but here's an excerpt:

You'll have to find Mickey's analysis by clicking here, but suffice to say, the man makes a strong argument, coming at the skeptics from a novel angle.

Some Friday thoughts: Yesterday, while reading a mobile marketing white paper, we came across the phrase 'text blasting software.' It was pretty obvious that they were talking about bulk text messaging software. Still, it was interesting to see some phraseological development in action...email blast to text blast. Our linguistic knowledge is a bit rusty, but perhaps it's time for a text messaging entry in the WordNet database?

More info about text blasting software from our sister.

Bulk SMS powers thousands of mobile marketing campaigns. There are other ways to do mobile marketing, but none of them offer the reach of simple, bulk sms text messaging.

What is the definition of Bulk SMS? It's actually very simple. When your company or organization needs to get the same information to hundreds (or often thousands) of people, whether clients or customers, the easiest way to do so is by sending them a text message. We've spoken with hundreds of customers who used to do this by hand. They would spend hours sending the same message out over and over again. Now, they type their message on the computer, select the groups of contacts that they want to reach...and hit send. In minutes everyone will have the message.

Club Texting is all about letting small to medium-sized businesses control their own mobile marketing campaigns. For thousands of companies, Bulk SMS is the answer. When you want to get your message in the hands of your customers, quickly, cheaply, and easily, Bulk SMS is the answer.

Want to learn more about Club Texting's bulk sms messaging platform? Click here to start reading.

Wondering how other businesses have succesfully leveraged the power of bulk sms text messaging? Check out our Case Study for PACHA, the international chain of nightclubs.

Ad Age has an interesting take on mobile bar codes. Have they finally arrived?

Read more @ Ad Age.
Visit Club Texting to learn more about mobile marketing solutions for retail.

We recently heard about an innovative Dutch insurance firm, over at textually.org:

Read More @ Spring Wise (via Textually)

Head over to Club Texting to read our Emergency SMS Alert System Case Study.

TMCnet provides some important info on mobile marketing, courtesy of Valista:

Offering a text messaging emergency alert system has become the norm, though not all systems are created equally:

Read More At The Daily Illini.

Learn more about emergency text messaging alert systems at Club Texting.

As Las Vegas casinos struggle through the current economic downturn, we are likely to see more stories like this one:

The Rio is testing an opt-in mobile marketing campaign that sends customers text message alerts for real-time promotions to their cell phone during their stay at the hotel-casino.

Here is how it works: Visitors to the Rio text message the word "Rio" to a phone number posted throughout the property. The customer will then receive no more than 12 text messages during the next four days, the average length of a visitor's stay.

The customer also can send "stop" to the same number to halt the flow of messages.

The messages alert the customer to special deals, usually drink, food or show tickets at a discount.

Katrina Lane, vice president of channel marketing for Harrah's Entertainment, Rio's owner, said the company is trying to find a more direct way to communicate in a more real-time fashion and strengthen the property's relationship with the customer.

When marketing dollars are scarce, cost effective mobile marketing is essential. Read more @ Casino City Times.

Visit Club Texting to learn about mobile marketing solutions for the hospitality industry.

About two years ago Porsche launched a marketing effort designed to let consumers know that their cars aren't as out of reach as they might believe. Seeking to reach a young, savvy audience, Porsche launched a mobile marketing campaign:

The results were impressive:

Read more @ RCR Wireless

As the mobile banner advertising space takes off we're like to see more stories like this one:

A recent UPS Store ad campaign on CNN.com Mobile is said to have generated significant lift in brand awareness, ad recall and intent to recommend and to use.

Aided brand awareness among people exposed to The UPS Store mobile ads was 75 percent higher than it was among people not exposed to the ads. That finding was one among from a custom research study that CNN Digital conducted in partnership with UPS Store agency Doner, Southfield, MI.

Read more @ Mobile Marketer.

Air2Web, Inc., a market leader in commercialized text messaging, has been selected to power a text-to-win mobile marketing campaign during the 2009 Super Bowl for Johnsonville Sausage, the number one national brand of brats, Italian sausage, smoked links and breakfast sausage links.

The campaign will run through February 28, 2009 and fans can enter by mailing in an entry form, entering online at www.johnsonville.com/gameday or via SMS on their mobile phone. Fans that enter have the opportunity to win one of three packages sponsored by Johnsonville Sausage and Coleman Outdoor Products.

The Super Bowl is the most watched television event of the year, and Johnsonville Sausage is capitalizing on the event’s high level of visibility for their first foray into mobile. To enter, all fans need to do is text “football” or “gameday” to 48775 on their mobile phone and let the games begin.

Read more here.

We hear H&M just launched a full-fledged mobile campaign in their hometown of Amsterdam:

Swedish clothing company H&M launched a mobile marketing campaign on its home turf to promote its latest collection.

The campaign includes SMS coupons, mobile banner ads placed on major carrier portals and media sites including Tele2, Telenor and TV4, and a mobile site with click-through slideshows and animated GIF images of the retailer’s latest garments. For the campaign, H&M tapped mobile marketing agency Mobiento and its sister company Adiento, an ad network, which use mobile ad network MADS’ technology platform.

Read more at Mobile Marketer.

Recently, Club Texting had a run-in with World Wrestling Entertainment, and was pleased to find the entertainment giant is getting deeper and deeper into the mobile marketing business. Apart from recently appointing Unanimis to handle its online and mobile ad sales accounts, there’s much more rumored to be in the works.

After their recent layoff of an estimated ten percent of the WWE workforce, the titans of professional wrestling are hoping that mobile marketing will be helpful in drawing in viewers who have lately been tuning out.

The upcoming WWE Hall of Fame ceremony will reportedly give fans a chance to learn via text message when the “major announcements” are made as to whom will be inducted into this year’s graduating class.

Read the full report here.