Monday, November 24, 2008

T-Mobile no longer requires double Opt-in

T-Mobile has decided, effective immediately, that it will no longer require marketers and other senders of commercial, non-premium SMS to have double opt-in for their subscribers.

Double opt-in, in case you don’t know, is the process in which a marketer ensures that a subscriber really did mean to sign up to receive marketing SMS messages. Usually (including in the case of T-mobile) it means that after the consumer sends a keyword to a short code, the marketer sends the person message asking to confirm the subscription by texting back the word YES.

There’s two sides to this news. On one hand, Mobile Marketer notes that application program briefs will be much simpler, and in turn could result in quicker approvals of new short code programs. (Short code provisioning is a major issue for marketers, you may recall from a recent guest column .) And T-mobile was the last major U.S. carrier to drop the double opt-in requirement.

However, legitimate marketers know the importance of double opt-in; it’s even part of the Mobile Marketing Association’s best practices guidelines. Double opt-in ensures that people want to receive messages before they’re sent out. It’s a way to soothe consumer fears of getting SMS spam.

Well, best-practicers don’t need carriers or other authorities to tell them the most proper way to conduct themselves. They’ve been engaging in double opt-in longer than carriers had required it. So they can should still choose, on their own, to make double opt-in part of their campaigns. As a First Amendment kind of gal, I like the idea of letting the industry regulate itself, rather than impose censorship.

Meanwhile, those who say that double opt-in turned off potential subscribers now have nothing to blame when consumers don’t sign up for their messages.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Earthday Web Polls

Below is a Draft of the Web Polls for the Jumbotrons at the EarthDay Celebration in the National Mall in Washington DC (4/19/09). If you would like to try out the Text versions of these polls, click here. We appreciate your comments!

Provided by MobileCause, the mobile fundraising specialists

________________________________________________


________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

MobileCause EarthDay Polls (be patient while they load)

Below is a draft of the Text Polls for the Jumbo-trons at the EarthDay Celebration in the National Mall in Washington DC (4-19-2009). We expect 50k-100k people! We appreciate your participation...and comments! If you would like to try out the Web versions of these polls, click here.
________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

Friday, April 4, 2008

DMA’s Nonprofit Federation tests mobile for fundraising

The Direct Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Federation is taking its first stab at raising funds through mobile marketing.

The Washington-based federation has partnered with MobileCause to enroll the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, Food for the Hungry and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City in the first phase of a pilot program for mobile fundraising. All participating organizations are Nonprofit Federation members.

"The nonprofit sector, which counts on public support, always needs to look at the next generation of donors and donor choices and we believe mobile marketing has a great deal of potential in terms of fundraising, advocacy and engagement," said Senny Boone (pictured here), executive director of the Nonprofit Federation. "The potential supporter is double opted-in so that we have a good idea of their interests and support."

MobileCause, Tustin, CA, helps nonprofits and charities with strategies and tactics geared to raising funds for causes through mobile marketing.

In essence, MobileCause provides strategy, relationship management with the wireless carriers, execution and support, and reporting of the mobile components for this program. It offers the same level of services to all clients.

Read more

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Nonprofit Federation/MobileCause’s pilot program to launch soon!

Mobile marketing is maturating, rapidly expanding from its core base of Millenials to capture those born before 1980 to include soccer moms, Fortune 500 executives and everyone in between. National TV stations and events around the globe are finding success and more using mobile marketing. The steadfast and true marketers are now figuring out what the younger generation has known for a few years: times are changing.

With email delivery getting tougher, nonprofit organizations have to find a way to engage, entice and excite younger generations, turning them into the next wave of donors. Creating a mobile extension of their nonprofit brand may just be the way organizations can develop a larger and younger global interactive community that solicits an immediate response.

Through the power of the mobile phone, content can be downloaded anywhere and the reach of both mission and message is extended around the globe. As a bonus, mobile allows organizations to display their mobile content on their websites.

The joy of Mobile is access. It’s everywhere, it’s got 100% delivery and it’s always on, allowing you can create emotional spaces anywhere any time.

Watch for the Nonprofit Federation/MobileCause’s pilot program results later this spring, where we will showcase nonprofit member participants in a case study. If your organization is interested in participating, please click here.
Sean Hulin, Chief Marketing Officer, MobileCause
Jill Murphy, Senior Manager, Member Services, Nonprofit Federation

ShareThis

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog. This blog will focus around what is going on in the mobile space, cause marketing, and to be honest whatever else we care to share :)

We at MobileCause have over 50 years combined experience working with non-profit organizations, ministries, and causes. We are not only a mobile service provider with decades of marketing, media and telecommunications experience, we have fundraising in our DNA.

Our three core areas are:
-Text2Screen
-Text2Give
-Text2Broadcast

We'd love to work with you to meet your mobile goals.
Cheers!
~The MobileCause Team
steve(at)mobilecause.com
george(at)mobilecause.com
doug(at)mobilecause.com
danny(at)mobilecause.com
jon(at)mobilecause.com
hendre(at)mobilecause.com