How to Use Text Message Marketing to Grow Your Business with MobileMary

[KATHRYN]: Hey hey super excited to have Mary Burnett on the show, also known as MobileMary, who is going to talk about mobile marketing or text message marketing, which is something I think we don't talk enough about. It's another really amazing tool to get in front of your clients and your audience. So I'm just going to turn it right over to Mary right now to give us a little bit of an introduction. Who are you? What do you do? And why do you do what you do? 

[MARY]: That's my story. I'm sticking to it. But we're involved in traditional marketing for the first 20. And then I was starting to tell you a little bit before the show that one of our clients was Kawasaki, and they were complaining that their dealers were complaining to them, like we did events and promotions and things for the corporation. And I said, I was kind of sassy. I said, you know, of course it was after a trade show. So a few drinks may have been involved. I said, Well, how do you market? You know, your? And they're like, Well, you know, our agencies do all the things, you know, the website and the ads and the, and the direct mail and the email and there's new market, this new thing called email, back in 2007. I was laughing I'm like, Okay. And I said, Well, your aren't your customers mobile. I mean, literally, on their motorcycles driving around, like they're not at home waiting for your postcard. They're not letting the computer with email, because by the Zuly, flip phones back then, like maybe a few smartphones. The iPhone had just come out that year 2007. So I'm like, this is a computer by the way. So we can actually send links that would lead in their life, what I was like, yeah, and they're like, Well, it sounds good. But you need to convince our agencies. So I was like, Well, you're the client, like, just tell me how to do this. Yeah, that way, of course. So I spent two years basically building software, every time they would tell me, you can't do this. And you can't be like, You're not the boss of me, you know, because I'm the baby of six kids. Okay, so that's like my mind, right? Anyways, and so when we finally launched in 2009, we drove 93,000 new customers to their 1500 dealerships across the country. Wow. And we learned so much about, you know, consumer habits, all this stuff that was like, but I have never gotten that kind of response on any marketing campaign I've done in 20 years. So I dove headfirst into mobile marketing, and people looked at me with a head cocked with with, like, we have a family phone, we leave our phone in the car, like, all these days, and I'm like, You know what, there's gonna be a day, or you won't leave the house without your phone, your wallet and your keys. And they would look at me like I was crazy. And I was like, okay, see in five years. Yeah. And so now today, right? You literally don't leave the house. If you panic. If your phone isn't within arm's reach. 

[KATHRYN]: So it's proprietary to your business. Awesome. So I would love for you to share with our listeners. And I love that you reference the year that you did this in 2007. And then 2009. And obviously, there's early adopters that will jump on things like that, right? We saw that with the clubhouse this year, everyone wanted to get in the clubhouse when it first rolled out only the iPhone users. So I was left, I was left in the dust because I had an Android. I do have an Android. I know. I know. But baby. Yeah. And when I graduated commerce and like, for my marketing degree in 2003, like E commerce wasn't even a thing. And so I just love that you're referencing, kind of when you first started to introduce this because I think again, the marketing world has changed the way in which we can, you know, get our products and services in front of our clients and customers and audiences changed. And we are so attached to that phone that is the thing that like you said, we do not leave our house without it. And if we do, it's like, oh God, where did I leave my phone? Or did I leave it at home or leave it at the grocery store?

[MARY]: Do you call home to see if it's home? Yeah, if there's no payphones anymore, see the flick stops on the street? Can you seriously call my house seriously like we're so addicted? Do it. But yeah, as soon as you specialize in messaging, which I think is phenomenal, because that's what I think is the thing that ties everything together. Mobile Marketing or text marketing or SMS via whatever you want to call it is such a personal thing, like something that I've been saying for years, and everyone's smile when social media goes down. I'm like, Haha, I told you, you know, I'll be like, please don't 100% rely on social media. I mean, it's awesome. We have classes, social media is a great way to promote your text marketing campaign. Because the whole thing is we want to build our list. So we own a list of people who know, like, and trust us. Yeah, who wants something unlike what we offer, who wants to get messages from us, right? Yeah, I don't want to bother, just like with email. Now, of course, email is a little slow to up take. Now, you know, because that's why we have all this spam. They didn't have the can spam act in place. But the beauty of mobile marketing, is that right from the beginning, the SEC, clamp that down? So you can't buy a mobile list? If you do, It's legal. I mean, it's against the law. Yeah. And so they'll shut you down so fast. It's crazy. So we could talk all about that. But what I'm saying is like when someone gives you permission to text them, they're giving you rights to their personal device. So that's a big responsibility to make sure that you're communicating and engaging them in a way that they feel empowered and loved. And then it looks, you mentioned in your in your thing that when your energy is magnetic, it's the most irresistible force in any crowd without using a word. And that's so true. And people love feeling like a personal connection with you. Yeah. You know, and it doesn't have to be a small business, it could even be a brand like Kawasaki when they feel like they're taking the time to say, hey, we, we hear you, we see you. Yeah, we know what you want. And in this, creating this whole thing with that campaign, we learned like, where these people live, because you could literally we did like secondary campaigns so they could text when they're in the stores. We know when John Jones was standing in the Tempe, Arizona store on third and temple. And we knew based on questions, we asked them things they answered, what color bike, what style bike, what brand, or you know, they have all these different things. We knew their customers so well that we could send them targeted. Like, oh my gosh, your lucky day, we have a red x five in green or whatever green trim, waiting for you. And here's $500 off if you buy it today. Brilliant, right? With a link that takes you to a map that leads you right back to the store. It's like, oh, and people are so back into those nine freaked out like, Oh, me, yeah, Toby in a positive way back then.

[KATHRYN]: So I want to back up a bit in terms of like, how does it even work? Right? So like for somebody that's like, I've never, you know, I understand email marketing, and people get on my list, and I send them an email, but like, how do people opt in to get on a text message list? Is it the same as email?

[MARY]: Very similar. And that's a great way of explaining it, because I feel like, oh, my gosh, this seems like so you know, scary. I said, No, when you click to enter your email, or you know, email, boom, they send you what you want. And they now have your email. Same thing with text marketing, you neither text and a keyword. So as an example, I just signed up a customer yesterday, who has this big event, it's like an entrepreneurial event. So if you text the word spirits to the certain keyword, I won't say because we don't want people or not, they're going to be entered to win $100. And during the event, they'll get a link to donate, which they can choose to give $100 back if they want or not, or be bailed, like when the auctions are open, you know, there'll be half a communication device, right? So then you text the keyword to it, or we have a QR builder, at least in our software and other software's might, that you can scan it and it basically opens up your text marketing with the keyword already pre populated, you just hit sin boom. And that's the thing. There's no data entry, right? Like the marketer doesn't have to sit there and type out like the myth of business cards. 

[KATHRYN]: Yeah, going to an event and having business cards thrown in like a fishbowl basically and then having to go home or someone entering a draw your booth and you're like, then going back and I mean, I I don't have it anymore, but I know a store at the wine store that I used to own my listeners will know this and if they don't they know now but but I had a draw once and I had all these names and I think that jars sat literally in the back of the store forever because they just didn't have the time to input their email and their customer information. And so that's I love how simplified that is and how it takes it like the work away from the marketer or the business owner. So does that work for service based and product face or Like, what does it work best for or both?

[MARY]: Either or, because we have clients that are, of course, brick and mortar, right? So restaurants and retail stores do well, because you're trying to drive back foot, track it, track it, traffic. But also online businesses when you have E-commerce, as you mentioned, to remind them that they have a product waiting for them, you know, that they have liked in the past, or something's in the shopping cart. I mean, you could use text marketing for things reminded, I even have consultants, well, a couple reasons. They'll send out a text saying they have an email waiting for them. They'll check their email. Yeah, so you've done all this work, creating this beautiful email with all these graphics in the newsletter, whatever. And then nobody reads it. Hello. But emails are still great, because it's a long form communication tool. Yeah, which is really important. But if you want to catch someone's attention, send them a quick text. And with a little link, boom, that goes to their email, right. And the other thing consultants use it for is accountability. So they might have a program set up where they have to, you know, watch certain videos or or fill in certain reports on certain days to hold them accountable. So they can actually send a text out to say, Oh, this is what's due today, or Oh, you need to do this today. So it's just again, as you mentioned, so very similar to email. And you can also set up web forms on Facebook on your website. But the whole point is, once you get them into your world into your funnel, right, we call the texting funnel, then it starts a conversation. Yeah. And I think that's what's different about it. I mean, we talk about social marketing as social, right? Yeah. But sadly, not enough people understand how to be social. Yeah, right. They're just like, blast, blast, blast. It needs to be a conversation. So the beauty of text is because you're getting them on their mobile device, or I'm looking for my phone. It's because you're getting your personal device. When you have a conversation, and it doesn't seem like a salesy weirdo. Yeah. People feel like, as we say, like heard, yeah, you know, they feel like their opinion matters, their input on polls, or questionnaires or, you know, or they'll enter their information like, Oh, I love green. Yeah, whatever I love, or here's my, here's my email, and then it integrates directly into your MailChimp or your contact or whatever, then it just becomes a seamless comprehension. It takes marketers shoulders out of their ears. Yeah, that's some comment and just enjoy their business. Because like you said, you had a wine shop and never had time to do the market. Because you're so busy. And you're going to do Yeah, yeah. Which is my dream. It's like, I want people to be able to do what they love to do. Yeah, don't worry about all the tech in the background.

[KATHRYN]: Yeah. And that's, I mean, it's, it's such a big thing for I think any business really, I think, and a lot of the women that I work with, or businesses that I work with, come to me, and they're like, I started this business, because I love helping people, or I, you know, really passionate about the products I'm selling, or whatever it is, but they didn't sign up to be the marketer or the salesperson and I and it's so true with social like, right? It's like this. We've lost our ability to be human and have real conversations. So I want to dive a little bit into that, because I know you talked about long form and short form communication. And some of our listeners might be like, Well, what, how long can a text message be like, how long? Is it only short form? 

[MARY]: Well, that's preferable because sadly, we have less of an attention span than a goldfish now. Yeah. Remember, that used to be a thing like, oh, that those goldfish short does that now ours is even shorter sound. But yeah, a typical shortcode usually has 160 characters, which is like the old Twitter. Now Twitter is now extended. But 160 characters, which it's amazing how much you can get done in 160 characters. We also are getting 800 numbers for customers because the carriers are wanting to build more privacy. So we're complying and so eventually, they're going to start shutting off like shared shortcodes. So we get our customers or own 800 numbers. And that goes up to 250 characters, believe it or not a little bit longer. But we can also this is really cool for a lot of our larger customers who need customer service and they might have an established like, you know, 909 plumber, you know, it's like a landline they can act. We actually can activate a landline to take texts. So it still can make phone calls. But now if they put a slap on the side of the van, this is text or call, you know 909 plumber or whatever, people can actually text which they're already doing by the way I don't know about you but I've texted businesses saying hey, what time are you open and then I get an error bounce back this number is not alert you know? So those messages or any landline that's also 160 characters I know I'm getting into the weeds but yeah, so underseas characters but you can also in the last thing I'll say is MMS, which is multimedia service, so SMS is simple. Yeah, and mmm that You can send 500 characters, so it's really long with a picture of a video clip and audio clip. Ah, but it's now like you look at that and go, Oh my god, this is obnoxious like you hate those long texts like my daughter, like, Mom, stop speaking into your phone because the texts are like 15 inches long. I'm like, I'm sorry.

[KATHRYN]: Yeah, it's so true, though. And I think that that's partly why even society has gotten awkward in some way. Like, you get into the DMS with someone and it's like these like six messages that are like Duke, Duke, Duke air is just like, I can't I don't even I have to come back to it. Like, I don't have time to read it. Right. Right. And so I think short, snappy is great. But I also think in combination with email, right, having people on an email list where you can send long forms if you want, or posting longer forms on Instagram, or Facebook, if you want. But I'm just so intrigued by the text message. I had a guest on a couple episodes ago. And she's implemented text and her business mainly to create a community around her podcast, if anything, and it's and and I was like, This is crazy. And then literally two days later, you reached out and asked to be on the show. And I was just like, I have to have you on the show. Because I think it's not a new concept. But it's something that I think is new, specifically in the online space online coaching consulting space, we don't see a lot of people kind of using that. And even product based I still think it's like not I remember when we had the brick and mortar, somebody had come in and said we could send text messages to people that were even in the vicinity, like how does that work?

[MARY]: Well, I think you're talking about geo targeting or geo fencing. Yeah, yeah, we have the ability to do the same thing. But they have to opt in already, because it's permission based. Gotcha. So what they might have been talking about in your store is that there used to be a thing, and I don't think anyone even does it anymore. I was called a beacon, literally set up a beacon, it looked like an Apple TV or a Google like, you know, whatever those little pucks are called? Yeah. Anyways, but you could set those up, because I remember we had clients who wanted us to put them up in their stores. And then they had like a Bluetooth beam that would go out. And if someone was walking by, they and phones are all set to default to accept that kind of stuff. So if you didn't set it to couldn't accept it, supposedly, when you walked by, he could go and get $1 off your cup of coffee, look to your right, you know, you're like, oh, and then that freaked people out? Yeah, you know, because they were like, you know, and so I remember one of my engineers so that they worked on a campaign for Home Depot, and they would put these beacons out. And so if you were even driving by a Home Depot, it would be like, you know, on the freeway, we like being come on into the end there. And but I think it was cast too negatively to people thinking that they were being watched. Yeah. Yeah. Even though truth be told, we're all being watched all the time. We've talked about that social dilemma. But you know, when you just plug into the board, you know, yeah, check the reference.

[KATHRYN]: Cool. And so, um, why do you think like this? Why do you think it's so important for businesses to consider this type of marketing for their business? Good question.

[MARY]: You need to own your own data. Yeah. When, you know, at the end of the day, when they said, that person who dies with the most toys wins, it's the person who dies, the biggest list wins, right? Yeah, you want to have that sound morbid, but you want to own it, because like, two or three weeks ago, when Facebook and Instagram went down for five hours, I don't know about you, but I had people texting me saying, you know, is everything okay? What's going on? Like, I own fate, I'm like, you know, it's just that it's what happens, they said, and this is why you need text marketing, because you would own your list, and you could send out so all of my clients sent messages out saying, hey, just so you know, Facebook might be down, but we're not come on in for a, you know, a free slushie when you buy whatever, like there was actually messaging around the shutdown. And then of course, those five hours, I was sending out emails and text messages saying, Hey, if you're freaking out right now it's because you don't have the confidence. Because you don't have a list built. Let me help you build a list. Yeah, that's the thing. You need to own that. So you have control of your messaging, which of course, you're the expert at, like, yeah, you need to know how to talk to your people, and make them feel loved and appreciated. And text marketing means that you have that ability. You know, again, there are limitations. You're not supposed to send a text in the middle of the night. So yeah, it's 7am and 9pm. You know, you can do whatever you want. There's not, there's just there's so little though, you actually because I do have some bots as well. Yeah, for clients, because we can tire text messaging platforms into bots. But what's interesting is that bots have so many rules. Like if you haven't messaged somebody within 24 hours, you can't talk to them again, like, all this weird stuff will text. No, you're the boss. As long as you keep between 7am and 9pm. You know, you could talk to people anytime you want to. You're the boss.

[KATHRYN]: I think again, I think there's so much space right now, like I said, especially, I mean, with products for sure. But in the online business, space consultants, coaches like to really build a community. And I get a lot of people coming to me that are like, how do I build a community off Facebook? How do I build a community off Instagram? Well, emails, a big one, right is like you can create that community there. There are other platforms that you can, you know, mighty networks. I think this is one, I don't use it. But there's other platforms. But I think text messaging is like, there's such an opportunity. Like you said, it's personal. We normally only get text messages, like from family and friends, right? Like we don't get, it's just it's such a new concept. And I love it. So I would love for you to share a little bit about, you know, how could a coach or consultant implement this in their business?

[MARY]: Sure. That's a great question. So as I said a little bit before about accountability. So let me give you one example. And this really isn't a coach, but I guess you could call it that. But there's a gentleman who owned a brain psychologist. Yeah. For people who had brain trauma, he helped them basically build back the synapses in their brain, right. So he went through the challenge he had, and again, kind of like a coach challenge he had is that every time you'd give them a new direction, because they had brain trauma, they couldn't remember it right? Badly. So he'd have to start over again, always going back, and he couldn't move the needle. So it was frustrating to him as a therapist, that he couldn't make it. I mean, they made headway, but it just was so slow, because you'd have to go back, you know, take two steps back, one for two steps, one for it, right? Also, he was paid by the insurance companies, right, to help their clients get better. So he had to prove how he was helping them, right. So it was like this poor guy was a dichotomy. So I was like, Okay, well, how can we create a series of text mark text messages, and we'll set up like an automated funnel, right? So the day they get into therapy there, you enter them with their permission, or they enter themselves, whatever their family member, and then either every day, or let's say, on day to day, for day, eight, day 12, you have an assignment for them, like, here's something to read for the day, here's the exercise they have to do. And maybe like one day, it was just go outside, look to the sky, breathe deep, and say something out loud that you're grateful for, like just something like that, you know, another day was make sure you're taking your vitamin C, you know, I mean, little like goofy stuff like that. But he set it up where if everything was automated, and then we would take that include that entire funnel for a different kind of treatment. So now he had very targeted messaging to the specific patient who needed this. And now he could track because they would have to click on a link and say, Oh, I was grateful for this, or I did the exercise and a date stamped it. So now we can actually go to the insurance company and say, hey, look, I not only have gotten them to do this, here's proof that I did it right. So very similarly, consultants can do the same thing. They have a group program, they can hold their people accountable, they can get feedback, because I don't know. But other software, ours has two way texting. So you could literally text back and forth with your landline number or the shortcode or 800 number, and answer their questions back and forth. And again, it's all contained. There's a paper trail, so to speak a digital paper trail, right. And then you can create like inside the software landing pages and mobile sites and things that they can interact with. Create a community, like you mentioned, but makes them feel personal, that you're not part of the masses that they're talking personally to each customer, or client or whatever, because you can personalize text, you can collect all the different data and then feed it back in a way that again, they feel seen and they feel heard, which I bring, I get shivers because I've seen the difference that it makes, you know, ah, it makes me really happy.

[KATHRYN]: I love that with a therapist, and I again, I think, you know, for me and the business that I do is like I'm so passionate about client results. And I think again, there's lots of programs and courses out there that are just sold to the masses and there's like 4000 people in them and it's like if you go through it great if you don't whatever but I'm so about like my clients result and really helping them get it and I just I think that's such a cool little layer that you could add as a coach or consultant where it's like, you know, progress reports or even like just like quick little updates like you know, goal for the week or, you know, set, what are your steps for success this week, or, you know what I mean? Like some ideas and the therapist thing is brilliant, right, like really playing into the struggle of his clients, or patients that they can't remember. And so it's like little cute, cute and funny things, light hearted messages. It doesn't always have to be selling. And I think that's the thing that a lot of businesses think like, oh, you know, if I do the text messaging thing, or the email, like in every email, I have to be selling, or I have to put this like sales hat on, but you can create a really lovely community just with some lighthearted stuff to you. It doesn't always have to be like, by now. But that's the fastest Yes. And he walked in the door to bagel? No more, right? And he's like, You say something funny, right? Well, that's what we want. We want people to feel like normal cheers. When they get a text message like, Oh,

[MARY]: Yeah, we have a little cookie company that uses text marketing. We do social and mobile for them. So when they send out a thing, it's only they only send that deal out to those mobile VIPs. So when they get that seriously, their cookie display, she'll take pictures, right before the next goes out. And then 15 minutes later, I mean, literally gone, people drive over there and buy everything up. And I'm like, so make more the days you want to do that. Right. And so when she introduced a lotto, oh my god. I mean, it was rare. They were like, like, it was crazy. So yeah, it's just, it's just a fun instant way to communicate on demand with your customers that you control. 

[KATHRYN]: So brilliant, where can our listeners find you?

[MARY]: If you google MobilbeMary you’ll find me on Facebook or Instagram.