How Not to do Mobile Alerts – The Perfect Case Study
We like to keep things positive around here and part of being positive is learning from negative experiences and doing it better the next time. While doing a bit of research to see how companies in different industries are executing mobile initiatives, I came across perhaps the worst execution that I’ve seen in any industry. The following example comes courtesy of a ski resort in the Rocky Mountains.
1. The Call to Subscribe
Whether trying to drive email or mobile subscribers, the call-to-action should be prominently displayed, not buried in the header or footer in font that is easy to miss. This particular resort completely misses the mark with their design and has the “Text Alerts” link buried between the “Employment” and “Sitemap” links. Clearly not prime real estate.
2. The Sign-up Page
Signing up for mobile alerts should be a simple process and it should NEVER involve making the subscriber select their mobile carrier. Any mobile marketing agency worth their salt can determine this on the fly if they are sending the messages via SMS. Asking for the carrier shows that your mobile agency is not doing their job or they are sending the messages via email. Sending messages to phones via email = bad!
In addition to a poor user experience, the resort also does not include the “standard messaging charges may apply” copy on the page. Again, not good.
3. The Sign-up Process
Once the site visitor submits their mobile number, a confirmation message should be sent to the phone asking for them to confirm their subscription by replying to the message. However, this lovely resort sends a confirmation number to the subscriber which then must be entered into the website. Yes, subscribing to their mobile alerts program involves having to revisit the site to enter a code. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen this done by another company.
4. HELP
HELP is a universal keyword in the mobile world and you should be able to send HELP to any short code and receive a response with relevant information about the program. As the resort is clearly not sending messages via SMS, there is no way to respond with HELP for additional information or STOP to opt out. In order to opt out, you must visit the website and enter your mobile number.
5. Short Code
In trying to figure out what mobile company the resort is using for this ghastly execution, I quickly found that they aren’t using a short code and are sending the messages via email. By doing research on the number from which the messages come, Google returned multiple pages of complaints from people receiving spam text messages from that same number.
Please be careful when selecting your mobile marketing agency.