Minus6 is a privately held company out of Baroda, that provides targeted SMS advertising to brands. Brands can filter and target their SMS campaign by the subscribers age, location and income levels. They claim to honor the National Do not Call registry and can send personalized messages to each subscriber.
This is quite different from the permission based SMS marketing companies like mGinger, where subscribers get paid to receive SMS advertisements.
Check out a couple of sample campaigns for restaurants below – Great incentives for the subscriber, targeted advertising for the brand.
AdDoot which harnesses the best of both Internet and mobile telephony medium to plan, create and execute precision SMS campaigns is the pioneer of such low cost high impact campaigns. AdDoot lends a cutting edge to your promotional mix with sharp, clutter-free SMS advertising consisting of crisp, concise and compelling creative copy.
Give a cutting edge laser sharp focus to your mobile marketing campaign.
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What’s the way out? Well, its time to identify low cost high impact marketing avenues which reach only those people who are really interested in your products, thus lowering your ad spend and at the same time enhancing the number of genuine leads.
How do you get that? The answer lies in some highly targeted SMS campaigns. Here I am not talking about the bulk SMS pushing which targets everybody whether they need the advertised products/services or not and which, more often than not, results in resentment and negative publicity. Here I am talking about the SMS campaigns which reach out to your real customers with laser-sharp precision.
This kind of campaign will never be affected by any budget cut as it not only provides a cost effective way to get the marketing message across. Plus, they typically out-reach other mobile medium such as the Internet which is just beginning to get traction only now.
Dear Gupta,
I cannot say how precise you are in what you’ve just said. And these are basic ideas with which we’ve started minus6. Because, when an auto driver gets an SMS to visit goa for 6,999/-, it doesn’t make him or the advertisers happy.
We’re trying to be matchmakers here. Matching brands with their target audience. And we’ll dive deeper into understanding these customers further. That understanding can be the edge that marketeers are looking for.
Thanks for your time and comment!
Best Regards,
Manan Pandya
minus6 interactive
Hi Manan,
Can you put some figures to the so called “better ROI” in comparison with the conventional methods of advertising?
I am asking you this question because I doubt how responsive mobile advertising really is. Till date, I have received about 400 messages from SMS GupShup but I haven’t responded to any one of them till now. And to be frank, I don’t get any “targeted” feeling about those SMS. On the other hand, I feel that I respond more to the paper inserts or pamphlets put through my door.
Also, 75 paise/SMS is on the higher side I feel.May be because of the technologies and hardwork involved, but still not a prominent choice for the buyers I guess.
Dear Rohan,
Sure. For some of our campaigns where we promoted fine dining restaurants coupled with a “free drink” offer that stood valid on presentation of the message, we’ve seen response rates as high as 3.9%.
You’re right that so far there has never been a targeting effort by advertisers. And we’re trying to change that.
My honest and candid reply to anyone who wants to get through SMS marketing is: this is not a branding platform. I do not offer you full color CMYK advertisements where you can put jazzy photographs. I offer you 160 characters that you can send to a targeted set of people. 160 characters is only good enough for a solid value preposition to your customer.
And while 75 paise may seem to be on the higher side, that’s the price of the database that we maintain.
We offer specialized solutions to our clients. So an Audi dealer can come to us and send out an SMS to people making more than 25 lakhs a year in his city – with things like “free test drive at your home!” Imagine trying to do that with a million messages, sent to virtually anyone who has a mobile phone!
Thanks!
Manan
Manan, I got some more questions for you.
Can you guide us on how the mobile no. are obtained? Since you offer no incentive for receiving ads, how come the users enroll with you? Apart from “Do Not Call” registry, have to obtained permissions from individual users to sends ads on their mobile? I know a lot of unethical “marketing agencies” who send bulk SMS in “series” to every no. Few do respect the DNC registry, but most don’t.
Why there is no mention of any person’s name of the website, except of hypothetical “we”?
How come the “sales office” and “headquarter” are located in two different states. Do you have a proper office setup or its just a home/web based operations?
Hi Rohan,
There are ways to get mobile numbers of the “target audience”. One of the most easy and effective way of obtaining mobile numbers is buying them. And you’d be surprised to know that there is a flourishing market already.
This is how it works…
When a keyword is obtained from short code vendor (eg indiatimes’ famous 58888*), all the messages hitting on that sort code are up for sale. Eg, if I were a short code vendor giving you keywords like MATCH on my SC 56565*, my number is up for sale. Each contact obtained through this is available in the market for 25p to 30p. One can have ‘n’ number of keywords on the same SC and hence the number of contacts obtained through this are significant. Since the consumer has opted for more info and sent an SMS on a particular keyword, it is bluntly assumed that the number can be used for promotional offers and bulk SMS.
*The Short Codes used above are only for demonstrative purpose.
Regards,
Bhavresh.
Hi Bhavresh,
Thanks for the insight. Good to know that you don’t spam like some do.
that was one of the questions that came to me as well — on how the numbers are obtained.
however, found out that just like bhavresh mentions below, it isnt difficult to get a subscriber database.
Hi Rohan,
Well – we’ve taken almost a year to compile this database – asking for permissions wherever required.
Some of our databases were acquired from people who already had persmissions for affiliates to send marketing messages to their customers, and some were acquired by us.
I don’t believe in incentives to subscribers, because let’s be honest – what’s your possible buying power if you sign up to get 30 paise from me on every sms! I give my subscribers relevant offers on their mobile phones. We reject campaigns from our customers if we feel that they wouldn’t be well recieved by our subscribers. At the end of the day, if my subscribers are happy, then my advertisers are.
All in all, we recieved a database of 2 million that is now down to 750,000 (and change) after NDNC filtering and all that.
Why is there no name on the website? Well – point taken. Will make sure we put something up there to remove the mystery. Our database management office is based in Gujarat with 7 people working in a real office
. We’re also incorporated there.
When we started out, a lot of the client traction appeared to be out of Bangalore/Hyderabad/Mumbai. So, I decided to move our sales operations (which to be honest is only me, supported by my assistant) to Hyderabad. We don’t have an office set-up here, but I work out of a business center.
A lot of businesses do not need walk-in’s these days, since there is no physical product to be sold. We pay a lot of attention to building trust with clients that we work with, and I really appreciate all the help this forum is giving me!
Warm Regards,
Manan Pandya
“highly targeted SMS campaigns” is a challenge! One which will come up closer to that will be winner. So folks, keep innovating and you never know when you meet that killer idea! cheers
a normal SMS campaign costs about 12 p per SMS and the response is disappointing i must add.
we have tried both email and sms and my suggestion is to do google ads instead of email or sms.
i dunno how good they are.
btw…mGinger also sends a lot of spam mails…
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Dear A,
While I would agree with you that your response has been disappointing – allow me to show you why it was probably so.
(1) The price that you quoted is usually from one of the low-end service providers who sent out a huge number of SMS’s to people without knowing who they were.
(2) There was virtually no study of the target market that went in the campaign.
(3) The “value” that needed to be brought out to the customer in the 160 character message was likely not there.
An SMS campaign is no different from any other medium. You need to research into it significantly to be able to make a meaningful return on your investment.
Let me give you a comparison:
Scenario 1: A fine dining restaurant sends out an SMS:
“Indian Lunch Buffet@ Rs. 599/- only” and blasts it to a couple of million people in your city.
Scenario 2: A fine dining restaurant sends out an SMS
“Dear Manan, enjoy a free cocktail of your choice with our delicious lunch buffet – only for Rs. 599/-” and sends it to people who are making more than 5 lakhs per annum in the age group 28-38.
Which one do you think will be more succesful? Where will you get a better ROI for your campaign? Any guesses?
Hi Bhavresh,
In theory sounds good. But, Im skeptical on how you are able to achieve the targetting just from the mobile number (from the short codes and keyword)?
Your site says, it can be targetted via income groups, where do you get those info from?
Dear Boomerang,
Do look above for my answer to this!
Thanks!
Manan
Hi Manan,
I still don’t get how you are gonna target the age groups and income groups?
Also, can you put some figures to your claim of better ROI?
Dear Rohan,
Think of it this way. Every shop and website that you register with and provide your data will most likely put it up for sale.
Unfortunately, I cannot disclose precise details on how we exactly source and verify our data, but we have over 170 data sources across the country who feed in lists to us every month. These are then verified and added to the main database after NDNC filter screens.
Also, one of our large sources of data is through our B2C product, http://www.mOffers.in where people register to get updates and exclusive offers from our partners and advertisers.
ROI hugely depends on what kind of campaigns are your executing. A lot of campaigns are simply informative – they don’t call for action. For campaigns where we sent discount coupons, response rates have been as high as 4.5%.
As a client, you get 160 characters to tell your story convincing for a call to action. What you write there is what makes the difference between a high response and a lukewarm one.
Best Regards,
Manan
oh ok,
Thanks, now I fully get that thing.
Actually I misconceived that you groups the ages only on basis of the data from shortcode providers.
Nice of you
Thanks
I spend a lot of time reading blogs and I have to say I’m impressed with your posts. It’s refreshing to find a blog that has valuable content such as yours. I’ll be a regular reader from now on, you can count on it.
Thanks,
Dennis
Hey,
I work for a media company in hyderabad.I would like to bundle up this sms to my clients as well.Can you tell me how could we work on it.
Arun.S
Do you accept guest posts? I like the technique how you wrote Minus6 provides targeted SMS advertising to brands | StartupDunia, I am in this topic for ages and I would love to write several articles or reviews here when you agree.
Hi,
I like the post here, and it provides good info, for small business marketing. I have multiple fitness center locations based in Hyderabad, and want to use the SMS service aiming at different customer base. Can you please provide the costs associated, and the best marketing strategies in this segment to target audience. Also the ROI, if you have already sent adds in this segment.
Your response is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Sridhar.
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