Adva Mobile integrates Email Marketing into Fan Relationship Platform for Musicians (Press Release)

Leader in Text Marketing for Musicians unifies Email, Text, Web App and Fan Database and Engagement under a single, integrated Fan-centric Platform

Wayland MA October 27, 2015

Adva Mobile, the leading mobile marketing portal for Artists using mobile technology to acquire, engage, and sell to fans, announced today the launch of their email marketing service for Artists. Through the Adva Mobile Fan Engagement Marketing Platform, Artists can create marketing activities and campaigns and reach fans with a combination of SMS Text, Email, web, mobile and social outreach. The Adva Mobile platform uses multiple outreach services to drive engagement across multiple digital channels, and, as Fans engage the Artist on these channels, the fan discovery engine helps Artists collect, analyze and act on Fan data.

Artists want to be Fan-centric, however they lack the tools to and technical ability to do it. The Adva Mobile platform helps Artists collect and analyze Fan data, and act on it, optimizing the relationship between Artist and Fan. Incorporating email into the existing Adva Mobile service helps Artists better understand Fan behavior at an individual level, and empowers Artists to be Fan-Centric across web, social, email, text and mobile channels.

"Artists have Fan data, but it's difficult for Artists to separate and target their outreach campaigns from Fan to Fan - until now." said Jack Kelly, CEO of Adva Mobile. Across the integrated service platform offered by Adva Mobile, Artists can now stitch together behavior and activity across engagement channels, helping Artists understand who their "True Fans" are, how many they have, and how many they potentially could have. "By understanding what works to engage their best Fans at an individual level, Artists can replicate their best Fans."

At shows, or through social media, Fans Text In to the Artist and are automatically opted in to receive texts and emails. The new email service provides template designs for Artists to create custom emails that reflect their brand, and different layouts optimized for newsletters, show dates or music release announcements, and other Fan engagement news. As with the text service, emails drive Fans to the Artists' mobile Web App that provides Fans with a rich media experience on their phones, including news, music, videos, photos, concert dates and tickets, a mobile store (and links to other stores including iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, Google Play, etc.) and contests, surveys, and exclusive content. By capturing Fan engagement levels and behaviors through these digital channels, the relationship between Fan and Artist can be optimized.

Artists on the Adva Mobile platform can set up their own marketing automation schedules, adjusting the frequency of text and emails to fans based upon what's most relevant to Fans. The email marketing service is bundled into Adva Mobiles's existing pricing models, which starts with a Free service for emerging Artists.

About Adva Mobile

Adva Mobile is a marketing services and technology company dedicated to helping Touring Bands, Recording Artists, Labels and music industry professionals acquire, engage and sell to their Fans on mobile phones. The Adva Mobile suite of products includes Text Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Web Apps, Fan Database management and mobile engagement tools designed to help Artists build relationships with with Fans. More information can be found at www.advamobile.com

www.advamobile.com

What is the Open Rate for SMS Text?

Shift Communications is a data driven PR Agency (and not affiliated with Adva Mobile.) SHIFT commissioned Google Consumer Surveys to collect responses from a representative sample of 1,000 respondents who answered the question “Do you read every SMS text message sent to you?”. This survey collected 1,907 impressions and 1,030 responses for a 54% response rate with an RMSE score of 1.8%. SHIFT Communications was the sole investor in the study. The survey population was the adult Internet user population of the United States who are active smartphone owners, ascertained by survey deployment in in-app advertising. The date of the survey period was 9/26/15 – 9/28/15.

So that's pretty good. For Artists on the Adva mobile platform, where fans either read every text or read them from an Artist they are opted in to, it seems reasonable safe to conclude 98 percent of your texts are being read by your fans.

Check out the report from Shift Communications here.

We Love Text

Getting ready for a MAJOR NEW ANNOUNCEMENT (coming soon) about eMail. Meanwhile, here's why WE STILL LOVE TEXT!

45 Texting Statistics That Prove Businesses Need to Take SMS Seriously

BY Gigi Peccolo  on business2community.com

Texting has been around for over 20 years, but it’s only now just hitting its stride when it comes to business. Formerly just a way to send silly photos and emoticons (and to some extent, it still is), text messaging is now being viewed as a powerful way for businesses to connect with their customers .

For example, it’s widespread, affordable, real-time and flexible. It’s also brief, preferred, and can be used in any industry to satisfy customers.

What’s not to like?

At OneReach, we’re not shy about singing text messaging’s praises—it’s a great way to interact with friends, family and customers alike. However, we know it’s important to back up our opinion with some cold hard facts, so that’s why we’ve compiled 45 texting statistics on why text messaging is such a powerful business tool. Check them out below, then let us know what you think of texting for business in the comments.

General Texting Statistics

1. Texting is the most widely-used and frequently used app on a smartphone, with 97% of Americans using it at least once a day. (Pew Internet)
2. People worldwide will send 8.3 trillion text messages in just this year alone. That’s almost 23 billion messages per day, or almost 16 million messages per minute. (Portio Research)
3. Over 6 billion text messages are sent in the U.S. each day. (Forrester)
4. Over 80% of American adults text, making it the most common cell phone activity. (Pew Internet)
5. Text messages have a 98% open rate, while email has only a 20% open rate. (Mobile Marketing Watch)
6. Text messaging has a 45% response rate, while email only has a 6% response rate. (Velocify)
7. Texting takes up 14.1% of cell phone users’ time. (Nielsen)
8. 90% of all text messages are read in under 3 minutes. (Connect Mogul)
9. Text messages are read on average in under five seconds. (SlickText)
10. 75% of phones worldwide (4.5 billion) are text-enabled (DuoCall Communications)
11. 96% of smartphone users text. (Acision)
12. Americans sent 69,000 texts every second in 2012 (CTIA)
13. The average adult spends a total of 23 hours a week texting (USA Today)
14. The average Millennial exchanges an average of 67 text messages per day (Business Insider)
15. On average, Americans exchange twice as many texts as they do calls (Nielsen)
16. Only 43% of smartphone owners use their phone to make calls, but over 70% of smartphone users text (Connect Mogul)
17. 55% of heavy text message users (50+ texts per day) say they would prefer to receive a text over a phone call (Pew Research Center)
18. In 2011, 31% of Americans said they preferred text messages to phone calls (Pew Research Center)
19. It takes the average person 90 minutes to respond to email, but only 90 seconds to respond to a text message. (CTIA)
20. American women text 14% more than men. (Nielsen)

Business Texting Statistics

21. 79% of companies believe customers want SMS/text support. (ICMI)
22. 38% of contact centers currently offer SMS, and 23% have plans to add it in the next 12 months. That means 61% of contact centers will offer SMS support in 2016. (Dimension Data)
23. 80% of people are currently using texting for business. (eWeek)
24. One in five consumers is just as likely to prefer a text message from a business to a phone call. (ICMI)
25. The activities people with text capabilities would most prefer to do via text are: check order status (38%) schedule or change appointments (32%) and make or confirm reservations (31%). (Harris poll; link below)
26. Over half of customers said they would be likely to text with a customer support agent. Similarly, 52 percent would prefer texting customer support over their current preferred form of communication. (eWeek)
27. A 2012 study found that text was the highest rated contact method for customer satisfaction out of all other customer communication channels. Text earned 90 out of 100 points, while phone earned 77 out of 100 and Facebook earned 66. (CFI Group)
28. Millenials prefer automated text messaging over IVR, including speech-based solutions (Frost & Sullivan)
29. Over one-third of business professionals say they can’t go 10 minutes without responding to a text. (eWeek)
30. SMS text chat converts a $6-$20 call to a chat that costs pennies per session. (Forrester & ContactBabel)
31. At least five types of social media channels are used in more than 50% of call centers, including SMS/texting (VoIP Info)
32. Sales prospects who are sent text messages convert at a rate 40% higher than those who are not sent any text messages. (Velocify)
33. Over 80% of people use text messaging for business, and 15% said that more than half their messages are for business purposes. (eWeek)
34. Almost 25% of marketers are currently using text messaging. Over 65% of them report SMS as being “very effective.” (ExactTarget)
35. 70% of U.S. consumers appreciate getting texts or emails from healthcare providers. (Loyalty 360)
36. 75% of people would like to have offers sent to them via SMS. (Digital Marketing Magazine)
37. Over 80% of people would only like to receive a maximum of two marketing messages per month. (Digital Marketing Magazine)
38. 44% of consumers with texting capabilities would prefer to press a button to initiate a text conversation immediately, rather than waiting on hold to speak with an agent. (Harris Poll; link below)
39. Texting in the sales process can lead to conversion gains of more than 100%. However, sending text messages before establishing contact with a prospect can adversely affect both contact and conversion rates. (Velocify)
40. 20% of financial services companies use mobile messaging to ensure business continuity and add to their multichannel capabilities. (Loyalty 360)
41. 77% of consumers with texting capabilities aged 18-34 are likely to have a positive perception of a company that offers text capability. (Harris Poll; link below)
42. 44% of consumers would rather receive product details and other marketing messages through text over any other channel. (Direct Marketing Association)
43. 72% of business professionals prefer texting to messaging apps. (eWeek)
44. Nearly 70% of employees think their organization should use text messaging to communicate with employees, and 86% say it should not be reserved for just customer communication. (Vitiello Communications Group)
45. 64% of all consumers are likely to have a positive perception of a company that offers texting as a service channel (Harris Poll; link below).

So, what did you think of the texting statistics? Do you think more companies should start offering text messaging? Is there another, better channel that we’re missing, or are you just not fond of text messaging altogether? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to download our 2014 Harris Poll report detailing why 64% of customers want to text your business.

Read more at http://www.business2community.com/mobile-apps/45-texting-statistics-prove-businesses-need-take-sms-seriously-01324616#ODLl0255OQMJfRZh.99

Nice Hypebot Promotion

A nice bit of promo for the Adva Mobile Service on Hypebot. Their new feature THE PITCH  showcases promising tech startups in the music industry. Check it out at http://bit.ly/AdvaPitch

Less Money, Mo' Music & Lots of Problems: A Look at the Music Biz

Jul 26, 2015

Jason Hirschorn, CEO and Chief Curator at REDEF, recently published a comprehensive and lengthy discussion about the music business. I've started his Article here, and linked to the full Article. Well worth the read!

The disruption of the music industry has undoubtedly benefited consumers, but for many on the inside, its consequences have been both profound and painful. Artists finally have direct connections to their audiences, but they must fight through more noise than ever before. Distribution is no longer constrained by shelf space or A&R men, but a stream or download generates royalties many artists decry as untenable. Audiences can now enjoy more music, more easily and in more places – yet the amount they spend is at an unprecedented low.

Music may have been the first media format to be upended by digital, but it remains deeply challenged even as video, publishing and gaming continue their path forward (however modestly). If the industry hopes to restore growth and fix the problems with today’s streaming models, it needs to confront its evolution: how have ecosystem revenues – from albums sales to concerts, radio plays, digital downloads and streams – changed and been redistributed? What is the underlying value of music? Did streaming erode this value or correct it? What’s the logic behind streaming royalty models and where are its flaws and decencies? How can it be improved? After 15 years of declining consumer spend, it’s time to stop focusing on what was or “should” be. Industries don’t rebuild themselves.

PART I: HOW WE GOT HERE: 

The Decline of Recorded Music Sales

Since the RIAA began its comprehensive database of US music sales in 1973, the category has never commanded less in consumer spend than it does today.

Continue reading this excellent research and Article HERE. 

The Future of Musician Marketing

The digital age has revolutionized marketing, making it more complex but also creating the opportunity to dramatically improve fan experiences, especially away from the concert experience. The rapid advancements in technology that enable the possibility of always-on connectivity between Artist and Fan have made it so that marketing as a discipline is now inextricably tied to tech—and mobile tech. For artists this transformation both challenges and empowers like never before.

Artists are brands and like brands, are starting to realize the insights and power that technology can bring to their fan marketing initiatives. Artists can, for the first time, use digital insights to power optimized fan interactions.

Outside the music industry, brands get it. The marketing technology landscape is exploding. In one survey, 68 percent of organizations had a separate digital marketing budget that averaged a quarter of the total marketing budget.

One key enabler of marketing technology is the capability to identify, understand, and interact with fans on an individual level. The early analytics from digital interaction with fans focused on aggregate metrics. How many visitors to your web site? Now, new tools allow you to drill down to individual fans and their interest in you. You can now separate the right data from the big data. This all starts with the creation of a comprehensive user profile.

Customer Profiles

Your fans are constantly creating more data. Clicking, searching, swiping, tweeting, and many other actions provide information in real-time about their interests. Marketing technology can capture and analyze these fan interactions in a profile so that you can make better decisions on when, how, and with what message to engage your fans.

Your fan profiles can be either known (you have their name, e-mail address, phone number, location, age, gender), or anonymous (the profile lacks identity details). And even data in the aggregate – preferences over watching videos compared to streaming music, for example, show that you can improve your marketing to your audience. Activity on your web app / web site can help tailor the Artist to Fan engagement experience accordingly.

Programmed Interactions

The last step is delivering the engagement to the fan, which takes two forms. The first is how you engage with your “new” fan, and this needs to be programmed based on a logical sequence and delivered in real time to the fan.  The good news here is that we are rapidly approaching where technology can automate this activity, so you don’t need to interrupt your day every time a fan opts in to your mobile fan base or email list.

The second engagement form is scheduled outreach to your community. Whether it’s location targeted to announce an upcoming show or a broad email/text/social post about a new video or music release, these communications need to be regular and relevant to the interests of your fans. While not purely automated, scheduling eliminates much of the marketing burden required to sustain a fan engagement campaign.

This is the future of marketing technology for musicians. Using the right data to understand your fans well enough to predict, prepare for, and deliver what they want from you. Using data to stay one step ahead of fans will enable you to develop extremely strong fan relationships that foster loyalty that will keep fans coming back again and again.

Smartphone Ownership Hits 75%

comScore is reporting that smartphone ownership in the United States has hit 75%, which means that 182 million Americans now have a smartphone. Three of every 4 US mobile subscribers aged 13 and older now own a smartphone. And it's even better for your audience. Almost 9 in 10 (88.9% of) mobile subscribers aged 25-34 owned a smartphone, with those aged 18-24 (88.6%) right on their heels. And smartphone adoption in the 18-34 age group is growing fast - as recently as January 2013, the adoption rate was 73.5% and 72.2%, respectively.

Why is this great news for Artists using SMS text marketing? Because as mobile phones get smarter, the effectiveness of SMS marketing increases.

Why are SMS messages sent to smartphones so much more effective than SMS messages sent to non-smartphones? While the SMS messages sent to smartphones & non-smartphones are the same, with smartphones you're able to direct your fans to an experience outside of 160 characters of plain text. And this is totally built into the Adva Mobile Platform. Since most texts you send to fans automatically link to your own branded Web App, your fans experience a powerful collection of different mobile experiences. Your fans...

Watch your videos.
Listen to your music.
Check out your photos.
Take your mobile survey.
Shop your mobile website.
Enter your contests.
Read about you.
Follow you on social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)

 Isn't that great or what???