Archive for the ‘System Details’ Category

Multiple Keywords in TextBoard

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

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TextBoard allows you to run unlimited texting campaigns, using multiple keywords from a single, easy to use dashboard.

One big advantage of using multiple keywords is the ability to track your offline (or non digital) advertising. By seeing which keywords receive the most subscribers, your agency can understand and share with your clients which advertising materials are best performing.

Let me quickly show you how to add one or more keywords to your existing TextBoard campaigns.

After you’ve logged into your TextBoard account, go to your campaign tab and select the campaign you would like to add more keywords to.

In this example, the “Bakers Dog Campaign” has only one keyword- “BARK” with 28 subscribers.

Select the “Add Keywords” button to add a new keyword. You can select just one, or multiple keywords.

If you do not have any unused keywords, you can add more instantly from the “keywords” tab.

We’ll select only one keyword for this example- “DOGS”.

After selecting continue, the new keyword is now assigned to the campaign. Anyone who subscribes to this keyword will receive the exact same auto-response messages as those who joined the original keyword.

With multiple keywords in your campaign, you can begin to track which keywords receives more subscribers.

With TextBoard you can target individual subscribers to keywords with additional follow-up messages or send blast messages to all subscribers across all keywords.

Posted in How-to, Marketing, System Details | No Comments »

Understanding the Basics of a Short Code with Text Message Marketing

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

Short codes are brief 5-digit number which is accessible to almost all wireless carriers in the United States. It is what ties your text message marketing campaigns between your brands, the customer and the carriers. The short code is what identifies your campaign to each of the carriers.

Short codes are similar to our individual 10-digit phones numbers but are only 5-digits long and much easier for mobile consumers to remember. An example of a short code is 55958. Short codes can be unique to your business and your clients or a short code can be shared across multiple business and multiple clients- even competing clients. Short codes can be any number within the range of 20000 and 99999.

Short codes work on all wireless service providers. However each short code must be approved on the specific carriers before a texting campaign can begin.

SMS marketing subscribers learn about your short code through different advertising mediums including radio, TV, your website or other marketing channels. The call-to-action is to send a text message directly to your short code. After a consumer initiates the sending of the text message it is routed directly to the wireless carriers to their SMS messaging server. The carrier then properly routes the incoming message to the proper application and campaign that has been associated to that short code.

The short code allows mobile customers to engage with your brand by sending text messages to TextBoard that handles campaigns like voting, contests, polling coupons, games and a multitude of other interactive texting applications.

To obtain a short code each one must be leased from the Common Short Code Administration. They are the governing body that oversees all aspects of the short code service. Think of the CSCA as a domain registrar where you purchase the domain or short code only for a period of time.

When you have an account with TextBoard and you’re ready to initiate your own short code we will assist you with the setup and billing that is needed to properly have a texting campaign running on your own short code.

The CSCA leases your short code for text message marketing at a rate of $500 per month for a random 5-digit short code. And $1,000 per month for a vanity or “selected” short code. Setup and provisioning on all carriers usually takes about 3 months.

For brands just getting started with text message marketing TextBoard offers the option of using one of our shared short codes. This allows your brands to start their own SMS marketing campaigns instantly. Once it’s time to scale multiple new dedicated short codes can seamlessly be added to your account.

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Text Message Click Tracking with TextBoard!

Monday, October 4th, 2010

We’re excited to announce a great new feature to our Textboard application– Link Tracking!

Now, when you include a short URL in your messages, we automatically track any clicks associated to it. This is a great tool to help track the effectiveness of your messages. You can even use this data to track conversion and ultimately a return on your investment!

You can get started with this feature today, at no extra cost to you.

We understand the importance of campaign data, that’s why we’re the FIRST to bring you this feature! A feature that is available on no other text messaging marketing application.

Here’s a quick overview of how everything works:

When creating a new message to be sent to your subscribers, you will see a new box that allows you to copy and paste in any long URL you wish.

Click the “Create Tiny Link” button and your tiny url is automatically created, and if room, inserted into the message for you.

Once back on your dashboard after sending the message, you can hover over the link in your recently sent message history to see how many of your subscribers clicked through to the website.

Now, this is where our tracking feature really shines! For each campaign type, you can create as many tiny URLs you wish to be included in your messages. The URLs can be in your auto response, follow-up messages, voting responses, and winner messages. Copy and paste them in any message and we’ll start tracking.

Once at least one short link is added, we’ll automatically update the campaign detail page with information about your links. If you remove a link from any of your outgoing messages, it will be removed from tracking. However, if you create that short URL again (and the long URL is exactly the same) we’ll pick up tracking from where you left off. It’s great!

Keep in mind that not all subscribers will be able to follow the link that you provide. As technology quickly grows, and new phones replace old models, more and more subscribers will be able to click through your links.

Also, when linking to a website from a phone, it’s a very, very good idea to link directly to your mobile site– you have one right!?

Posted in Campaigns, How-to, News, System Details | 1 Comment »

New Upgrades to Our Marketing Application

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Many of you might have noticed some decent upgrades to your account last week. We’re happy to announce that we rolled out a bunch of new features to TextBoard that should make managing your SMS campaigns a lot easier.

One of the key features we added is the ability to manage multiple clients from one simple dashboard. You can add/edit/delete your clients, allow them to login and manage their own campaigns and even purchase their own keywords.

We’ve then taken it a step further and made an easy to use interface for running reports on client usage so you know how much to bill them over any specified period of time for the text messages they have sent.

Notable upgrades include:

  • Easier account upgrades.
  • Client account management
  • Multiple users per client
  • Client billing interface
  • Fixed bug with zip code reporting
  • Random contest winner selection bug fixed
  • Various speed, security issues, and bugs have been addressed

You can view all the upgrades by logging in to you account today. If you don’t have an account you can create one now, or head over to the screenshots to get a better feel for what’s in store!

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