05/24/12 by David Wachs | Jobs | No Comments »
Cellit, a division of ePrize and a leading provider of mobile solutions, is seeking an experienced app developer to lead the team. The Mobile Applications Developer leads the entire app lifecycle from concept stage until delivery and post launch support.
Key responsibilities:
- Develop native apps for Android and Apple devices.
- Deliver across the entire app life-cycle; concept, design, build, deploy, test and release to app stores.
- Standardize the platform so that the apps can deliver across multiple brands with minimal duplication effort.
- Optimize performance for apps.
- Understand requirements around functionality and translate requirements into final product.
- Work directly with clients to create a compelling user experience.
- Keep up to date on industry trends through research and by attending industry events/conferences.
Job Specifications and Competencies:
- Education: BA/BS degree in computer science or equivalent experience
- 2 years of programming in Objective C and Java
- Excellent knowledge in information architecture, human computer interaction and usability design principles
- Strong understanding of PHP, Linux (bash) and MySQL
- Passion for new consumer technology and emerging media landscape
- Ability to multi-task and good time management skills
- Excellent communication skills
To apply for this position, please send your resume and cover letter highlighting experience to careers at cellit.com.
ePrize is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for all persons. ePrize recruits, employs, evaluates, and considers for promotion employees without regard to race, gender, religion, national origin, age, marital status, height, weight, medical condition or physical handicap or disability, or any other legally protected class, all as required by local, state, and/or federal
03/23/12 by David Wachs | Blog, Industry Blog, Marketing Blog | No Comments »
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak at SXSW about QR codes, and how they can often be terribly ineffective. Well, guess what? Text messaging (our bread and butter here at Cellit) can often be misused too. Here the top five ways text messaging programs can suck.
5. Siloing Customer Databases: It’s often a necessary evil when we start working with a client to get a program up and running without access to the client’s master CRM database. In the beginning, it’s not a huge issue; with only a few thousand numbers, segmenting the subscriber base doesn’t really make that much sense anyway. However, when the subscriber lists grow to the hundreds of thousands or even millions, it is necessary maximize the value of these lists through segmentation, A/B testing and other empirical analysis. Proper segmentation involves pulling purchase data, preferential data (from a web site’s communication preference center), and email communication histories. All of this data lies outside the “silo” of mobile data that Cellit or other vendors in our space can easily collect. As such, brands that do not tie the data of their mobile programs to their other databases are not only sub-optimizing their campaigns, but also running the risk of annoying the customer by not catering to their communication preferences.
4. Failing to Understand Cadence. We’ve written about it before, but it’s important to mention again. Having the wrong cadence associated with your program can be an audience killer. Message too frequently and you will annoy your base. Messaging too infrequently and your subscribers will forget you care about them. It’s about striking a balance we call the “Rule of 1′s”:
Communicate no less that once a month, and no more that once a week.
Of course, there’s always exceptions to the rule, but if you’re hitting your base every day, or every other day, perhaps you need to put yourself in your subscriber’s shoes. If you feel a daily message is important, then segment your list; have a list for daily messages, and a list for weekly. It’s just that easy.
3. Sending Messages at the Wrong Times. In addition to frequency or cadence, the actual timing is critically important too. We’ve had clients send their “free dessert” offers at 9 am and complain that their mobile program wasn’t driving sales. “Really???” We suggested switching the time from 9am to 5pm, and (wouldn’t ya know it!) all of a sudden people started redeeming. A less obvious example is an entertainment group client of ours. They were sending out their weekly blasts during the work week, around 3pm. Their unsubscribe rate was fairly high. We suggested switching the messaging to the weekends, and the unsubscribe rate dropped dramatically. It was as simple as understanding that people don’t want to get interrupted at work for these messages, but they’re happy to get them during their off hours.
2. Blasting Dumb Messages and Offers. If you’re sending offers for 5% off, you’re probably not going to get anybody out of their chairs. That’s obvious, but the opposite is also true. We’ve seen campaigns where the brand is literally giving away the farm: gift cards and other high-value items for being a part of the mobile program. While these offers are are fantastic incentive, just make sure you’re not constantly giving the same subscribers free product; at the very least, track who’s redeeming and curb the offers to over redeemers.
1. Not Promoting it Properly. Mobile is not “if you build it, they will come”. It has got to be promoted, and your staff have to be educated on the benefits. Recently, I walked into a client’s store and asked the teenage store clerk about their mobile program, after he educated me on their email program at checkout. He said “don’t join that, you’ll get spammed”. There are so many issues here it’s hard to count. Your staff has to be educated on your mobile program and its benefits. They have to help the customers understand that they won’t get spammed. Additionally, your staff should push the program, and there needs to be in-store signage or other messaging to drive adoption. We’ve seen so many programs fall on their faces because they aren’t promoted. It’s obvious, but it’s so often missed.
Like Head and Shoulders ads say, “you only have one chance to make a first impression”. Make sure your mobile program leaves the correct impression and drives the huge results we see when these 5 mistakes are avoided.
02/06/12 by David Wachs | Blog, Marketing Blog | No Comments »
Today, there is no “mobile”. That’s redundant.
To label one thing “mobile” and another thing “not”, is–quite honestly–labeling one thing relevant and the other antiquated. Everything must be mobile. You must be able to participate with a brand–whether through a promotion or an ongoing CRM program–on your desktop, on your laptop, on your tablet and on your cell phone. You must have a strategy that enables fluid communication and interaction with the user regardless of the device. If your brand doesn’t do this, it doesn’t need a “mobile strategy”; it just needs a strategy!
Today, the iPhone–not Apple, just the iPhone!–is bigger than all of Microsoft. It’s bigger than the Xbox gaming division, the Microsoft Office productivity division, the (profitless) Internet Explorer division combined. Why? Because the iPhone is demanded by consumers because it can do all of this. We live in a world where gaming lives on the phone, email lives on the phone, and browsing lives on the phone. So why is there a distinction between mobile and desktop? There shouldn’t be. Mobile shouldn’t live in a silo.
Mobile shouldn’t live in a silo, and neither should Cellit!
In order for Cellit to help consumers create robust mobile programs — um, I mean robust programs — we must think bigger. We have to provide solutions that drive the user online, offline, to their phone and to their desktop. We have to provide solutions that manage the entire experience. We have to create a singular view of the consumer. We have to practice what we preach. And we are.
We are now officially part of ePrize, the leader in multi-channel interactive promotions and loyalty. We are extending ePrize, combining our knowledge of the mobile experience with their mastery of the online experience and the social experience. We are building a core for promotions that don’t live in any one place, they live everywhere; just like today’s consumer.
We’re already starting to see great opportunities by combining. Client’s (both ours and theirs) are seeing the opportunities. Driving participants in a promotion to an ongoing loyalty program with rich mobile overlays. Using the mobile CRM to drive participation in online programs. It all just makes sense. The experimentation by brands is over and now the integration begins, and we’re here to help.
Look for great programs and case studies in the months ahead. Or, become a case study. Contact me. We’ll get you going and you can be our next success story.
10/19/11 by David Wachs | Cellit News, News | No Comments »
Cellit’s president, David Wachs, recently had the opportunity to speak with Small Business Technology on the user of CellitSpark for small businesses.
This cross promotion also means that small businesses don’t have to scrap their traditional media campaigns entirely. Wachs used the example of a radio spot. Even through less and less people are listening to the radio, those small businesses that already have a radio spot can simply add something at the end about the mobile program. This can encourage the radio listeners to interact with the business through a 21st century method.
You can read the full article here: http://smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2011/10/more-mobile-marketing-best-practices.html/
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