When it comes to putting an advertisement directly in the hands of customers, there’s nothing quite as effective or direct as SMS marketing.

But as Spider-Man says, with great power comes great responsibility. SMS marketing is extremely effective but can also backfire horribly if it is used recklessly or without very careful planning and preparation. And sometimes even the most well crafted SMS marketing campaign can fall under the “SPAM” banner, which will not only kill your business, but it could also get you banned from cellular networks and occasionally even sued.

Thankfully, there are ways to utilize SMS marketing legally and effectively. These tips will help you get the most bang for your advertising buck while also keeping you off of the blacklist and out of the courtroom.

1. Never send messages without permission. Basically, this means the only time it is ever acceptable to send SMS messages is if each individual recipient has agreed to be contacted in such a manner. Be extremely careful if you purchase a list of cell phone numbers, as some may not have opted-in.
2. Give customers the option to opt-out. Sometimes people sign up for SMS marketing without realizing it. That’s why it’s very important to give all customers the ability to easily opt out.
3. Control how customers opt-out. Redirecting customers to your website in order to opt-out can generate tons of new business. Not only do you give them the option to receive updates in the future via other marketing avenues, but you also drive more traffic to your website.
4. Make your call to action obvious. A vague, non-descriptive text message will be regarded as spam by virtually everyone who receives it. As with any form of advertising, a direct call to action is essential for converting sales. The character limit in SMS messages can make this more challenging, but it is a crucial step in the process.
5. Make it beneficial for customers. Sending a message with nothing more than a sales pitch will turn most customers off. However, if you include an incentive like a coupon or discount code, a potential customer will be much more likely to follow up on the message.
6. Don’t use too many abbreviations. While it might be tempting to abbreviate most of the words in your message in order to conserve space and characters, you should resist. Not only does it make your message look unprofessional, but it’s also plain difficult to read. Short, concise, and correct is the way to go.
7. Send messages sparingly. Bombarding a person with messages on a daily basis is a sure-fire way to get them to opt-out. But your campaign won’t convert many sales or have much of an impact if you rarely send messages. Schedule regular messages at certain intervals throughout the month and you’ll keep your business in the thoughts of customers without being distracting.
8. Consider the time. Because SMS marketing is instantaneous and immediately calls attention to itself, you should be very careful when picking a time to send a message. Nobody wants to be woken up at 6:00 a.m. by a 15% off coupon for frozen yogurt.

Despite the potential pitfalls of SMS marketing, it is still undoubtedly one of the best ways to get a message directly in the hands of potential customers. If you play it safe and abide by the rules while at the same time delivering a high quality marketing campaign, you’ll quickly see just how powerful it can be.

The Importance of Reputation on the Web
There’s nothing that follows you throughout your life, for good or bad, quite like your reputation. You can spend years building it up to a respectable level, only to watch it crash to the ground in an instant. To put it simply, your reputation can be the key that opens new doors for you or it could slam them shut before you ever get a chance to make an impression. The reputation of your online business or brand is no different – except instead of worrying about just your close friends, family, and colleagues hearing damaging things about you, it’s the entire world.

The enormous reach of the Internet is undeniable, and while that kind of exposure can definitely do wonders for your business, it can also cause significant harm. Consider this scenario: A potential customer hears about your business and decides he needs your services. He types your company name into a search engine, and four of the top 10 results that show up include the words “rip-off,” “scam” or “fraud” in their headlines. If he’s even the least bit cautious about spending his money, he will quickly expand his search to find other businesses with squeaky clean reputations that look more trustworthy.

Restoring your company’s reputation
The unfortunate reality of doing business on the Internet is just how vulnerable you are to damaging and often baseless criticism. Even worse, those negative comments tend to make their way directly to the top of the search engine results, often right next to the link to your company’s website. It’s like buying an advertisement in a newspaper only to have someone else buy the space next to it with an ad telling would-be customers to take their hard-earned money elsewhere. In other words, it kills business.

Thankfully, the results on the top search engines are dynamic and constantly changing. The negative comments that are at the top of the page today might not be there in a year’s time. With proper online reputation management, they can be pushed back to the second page, third page or beyond. The most effective way of doing this is through SEO (searching engine optimization). By updating all of the relevant information about your business with content that is easily searchable and links back to your business, you can populate the top search results on Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc., with original content that displays you and your business in a more positive light.

5 Methods for Restoring Your Online Reputation
Using proper SEO, it is possible to bury any negative comments or reviews about you and your business deep within the search engine results – away from the first pages and out of sight from potential customers! The most popular methods for this are as follows:

1. Social media and original content. In the past decade, blogs and other forms of social media have exploded in popularity, becoming extremely powerful tools for people to quickly spread information and ideas. They can also be very useful for building up and repairing your business’s online reputation. Posting a blog on your website with regular updates is a good way to increase traffic, as is utilizing Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote your business and built contacts. The more times you get your business’s name on the Internet and the more links there are directing back to it, the more control you have over the search results.

2. Use online reviews to your advantage. Online reviews are everywhere – restaurants, schools, computers, businesses, and even doctors are all subject to intense scrutiny by anyone with a keyboard and occasionally — an agenda. Unfortunately, most reviews on the Internet tend to be negative. The customers and clients who receive spectacular service are grateful, but few think of spreading the word on the Internet. It is the people who have an axe to grind that make the most noise. However, it is possible to reverse this trend. Encourage your customers and clients to leave feedback on your website or on other review sites. Over time, the positive comments will begin to drown out the negative minority, and your business’s reputation will recover.

3. Take advantage of press releases. Press releases are vastly underused by most businesses today. While they were once only useful for journalists and newspaper reporters seeking a new story or article, they are now available for the public to read on the Internet. Digital press releases have some major perks: they almost immediately rank very highly in Google, they are delivered directly to a sizeable number of readers, and they represent a way to advertise your business. Consider purchasing a few press releases anytime you have positive news to announce about your business. Not only will you benefit by having more items under your control appearing highly on search engine results, but you will also get positive publicity. Press releases are a win-win situation for any business owner.

4. Respond to the criticism. Although it’s common for disgruntled customers/clients to post baseless complaints or to even falsify information altogether, most of the negative reviews posted online do have some basis in reality. Perhaps the customer felt overcharged or did not have the terms of a contract fully explained to them. Whatever the case may be, it is important that you respond to the customer both privately and publicly. If the complaint is on a message board, create an account and reply to the message. Many potential customers do at least some research online before spending money on a new product or service, and if they see that you have made an effort to appease angry customers or clarify the situation, they will be more likely to do business with you.

5. If all else fails, try to get the comment removed. Sometimes no matter what you do to influence a negative page’s search engine ranking, it will stubbornly remain on the first page of results. If this happens and if the complaint is truly biased or has even been resolved, you may be able to consult the webmaster and have the comment taken down. This is generally considered a “last resort” scenario as it can often fail. It’s much easier to get the comment removed if it’s from a message board or highly moderated fraud/rip-off report website. If you can provide legitimate documentation showing the problem was resolved or prove the comment is unjust, the webmaster may delete the comment entirely.

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that’s certainly true when it comes to managing your online reputation. The best way to deal with negative comments is to make sure they don’t happen in the first place. But if excess negativity does make its way online, you have the power to fight back by following the tips above.

A paradigm shift in the computing industry has recently taken place. Consumers are spending less and less time using traditional PCs and laptops and more time using their smartphones and tablets, and their purchasing habits reflect this, as smartphone sales have been dominating the sales of PCs in recent years.

Advertisers have been quick to catch on to this change, and have adapted their strategies in response to it. Now, there’s an entirely new segment of marketing called mobile marketing that is generating huge amounts of sales and profit for companies that are taking part in it.

What is mobile marketing?
Mobile marketing in its most basic form is advertising that is viewed on mobile, wireless devices. One of the first examples of mobile marketing was “text to win” sweepstakes that were utilized by big companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s in the early half of the past decade. Consumers would text a certain code to a specific number, and afterward would receive a coupon or discount code in return.

Eventually, more companies began to catch on, and some began sending SMS advertisements directly to potential customers, alerting them of upcoming deals or offering exclusive discounts. With the advent of smart phones, the game changed again. Now, mobile marketing has taken on a much more visual approach, with many ads incorporating photographs, audio, video, and flashy animations in order to entice consumers to purchase a product or service.

Methods of mobile marketing
Today, businesses utilize mobile marketing as much as they do any other marketing avenue because it can be personalized and direct. Some of the specific methods they employ include:

-          The traditional text and win sweepstakes
-          Voting and viewer participation for TV programs, such as American Idol
-          Direct advertisements
-          Coupon deals including sites like Groupon and Living Social
-          Advertisement deals with mobile video game developers
-          Branded mobile apps for smart phones
-          Targeted advertising based on GPS data
-          Ad-supported movies and television shows designed for mobile devices

These are just a few of the ways advertisers are utilizing the explosive growth of smart phones and tablets as a way to promote products and services. As mobile devices continue to grow in popularity, advertisers will begin concentrating their efforts on reaching people through these formats and less through traditional media like television, print, and radio.