Thew New Shortcode 444999 - What it means

It was weeks of planning, hundreds of lines of new code, and an education for us (and we've been doing this for 6 years!) about the many ways different companies implement SMS Text technology. We were a bit late, but we're up and running successfully and a number of you have already run both incoming and outgoing campaigns on the new shortcode 444999.

The company we are now working with offers a number of attractive features that you will find useful. We're introducing the first of these today in the Adva Mobile Blog and our Artist newsletter - Custom, Flexible Keywords. 

This company has a number of impressive capabilities that are an advantage over our prior text provider (who we love!). Their reports engine is outstanding, and as we integrate our system with theirs, you'll see even more information that will help you understand your fans.

Coupons

Ever take a minute to stop and think about how ubiquitous coupons are in our lives? They're everywhere! I'm not a coupon guy, but even I can't ignore that, like advertising, they must work, because everyone is using them.

There's a really cool way to use coupons as part of your mobile marketing efforts with the Adva Mobile platform. A number of our Artists have discovered this and are promoting sales at the merch table with coupons that are part of an Adva Mobile marketing activity. Here's how:

First, create a simple coupon and save it as a jpeg image. Here's a simple example.

Second, many of the fan engagement features of the Adva Mobile platform including Exclusive Content, Voting, and Contests, include the ability to offer something to the fan as a thank you for participating. That can be your coupon. Here's a picture of where you set that up on the Voting & Contest setup pages.

Now, fans that participate in one of your marketing capaigns, especially at shows, can show the coupon they downloaded at your merch table. This promotes more sales.

This marketing tool is especially effective with Artists that are using the Contest feature during live shows. They run the contest, and the winning fan(s) get free merch for winning, and the other participants that didn't win get a discount coupon.

Get in touch with us here at Adva Mobile if you need any help setting up or executing a marketing campaign with coupons. 

Artist Insight - Driving Your Fans at Shows

Rock masterpieces from the White Album to Dark Side of the

Moon reinvigorated by electric strings, bass, drums and a touch of jazz improv. Founding member, composer, arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist and father of 3 Will Taylor drives the band and promotes no boundaries - form doesn't matter as much as passion, fun and creativity.

Will Taylor & Strings Attached has been creating innovative music and supporting a music career since 1993, so he knows about the mix between creative and business in forming a musicians career. He's helpful and willing to share his insights with other Artists - there's an entire YouTube channel of helpful advice in the form of 5 minute tips you can find at his YT channel. 

When he joined Adva Mobile and we saw a rapid uptick in the number of fans opting in to receive mobile texts from him, we were curious as to how he was attracting fans. His solution: Sign Up Sheets distributed at every show to every audience member.  "I keep all of the sign-up sheets that my fans submit at shows." Says Will. "We have a very high success rate with guests  filling it out because we usually offer them a free bootleg CD in exchange." They include the request to be put on the text list,  their cell phone number and their wireless  provider. Will has been adding fans into his mobile database and, combined with the fans that join by texting in, over 300 fans are now part of his database in less than a month, with more added all the time. 

Will was also willing to share more info about how he's collecting fan info. Here's a link to a You tube video -  http://youtu.be/BAQpv7WcJvQ  (its about how he specifically captures fans with the form at shows, and here's a picture of the form he has fans fill out.  

Get Will's Free 5 Min Tips to Tame Creative Life so You Can Make More Art and Have a Life. Will's tips here are here: http://budurl.com/subscribew5mt

Sean Ardoin Update

Unusual for us to repeat a story about an Artist having success with the Adva Mobile platform, however Sean Ardoin' continued promotion of his mobile web app is producing some stunning results. In last month's newsletter, we showed this chart - his fan growth from February through May:  

Over 250 new fans in a little over 2 months. Here's today's chart:
 

Over 800 fans!

Most of this is from Facebook posts, telling fans they can get his new cover and video of Pharrell's Happy by texting getkool to 88704.
  

Sean Ardoin is killing it

Zydekool front man Sean Ardoin started using Adva Mobile in mid February, telling fans at shows, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on the streets of Lake Charles (and NOLA) to text GETKOOL to 88704 to connect with all things in the Kooliverse. Check this out:

He's over 250 new fans in a little over 2 months he can connect with now on mobile, through text, email, and social with new music, show dates, news, videos and merch. That's killing it.

Introducing LYRICS!

We've added lyrics to the Adva Mobile platform. Now your fans can access lyrics to all your songs from their mobile phone, on your mobile web app.


The Lyrics section is in Content, where fans also find your music, videos and photos. Keeping fans engaged on your site with new, interesting content is the best way to grow a loyal fan base that will support you, buy your music and merch and come to your shows.

You add lyrics from the portal also under the Content section. There's a new tab called Lyrics, it works just like the News feature. Enter your song name and the Lyrics in the Text editor. Alternatively, you can paste in the lyrics (probably easier) or enter a URL link to another web site, like Lyrics.com, that present your lyrics.

Digital music has long gone without the art, credits, and lyrics that accompany physical packaging. Integrating these features into an existing digital destination - your web app - is the best alternative to help fans understand your message and learn more about the myths that surround your songs.

Adva Mobile Infographic - You're CRAZY if you're not using Mobile Marketing