One of the most important aspects of an SMS marketing campaign is the delivery of the call to action. This is where the potential subscriber will see something that directs them to text a keyword to a 5-digit shortcode. Obviously you want them to see this when they have a chance to pull out their phone and text.

We always tell clients to think about their existing media first. TV, radio, print, and outdoor are the easiest and usually most effective places to put a text in call to action. However, traditional media can be expensive so looking for more unique opportunities can be very advantageous.

Take for example a coffee sleeve I spotted during a recent trip to Baltimore which directed people to text in for Ravens football text updates from the Baltimore Sun newspaper. Anyone who's ever been to a coffee shop will tell you most people whether they are with someone or not are usually messing with their phone while downing their favorite latte (I saw several good examples while we waited for our order). The placement of this text message marketing campaign on a coffee sleeve is "prime real estate" when it comes to attracting the attention of a potential SMS subscriber. It was almost impossible to put the cup down and not read the call to action from the Baltimore Sun on the sleeve. It was almost just as impossible for me to resist texting in and signing up. The response message thanked me for joining and informed me I signed up to receive "up to 2 msgs per day". That's quite a few messages so if that's the norm I may be opting out soon.

While it was good to see this type of creativity in a text message marketing campaign it would have been nice to see the coffee shop building its own mobile marketing list from the cups they hand out. I hope they got more than free sleeves for giving up that spot!

Justin Mastrangelo is President of JA Interactive, a mobile marketing company in Pittsburgh, PA that helps clients start and manage text message marketing campaigns through their proprietary JA.TXT SMS marketing software.