Friday, April 10, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Political Fundraising Turns To Mobile
In 2008, 5.3 billion dollars were spent on federal
elections. Barack Obama spent 730M and John McCain spent 333M. The average winner of a house seat spent 1.4M
on his or her campaign.
As political battles become more expensive, political
fundraising becomes more important. It
is nearly impossible to win a race without outspending your opponent. Outspending your opponent means raising more
money. Political fundraising has always
been a numbers game. The campaigns use
events, direct mail, email blasts and phone banks to raise capital.
Texting Base, a software company out of Orlando, FL is
looking to change the game of political and non-profit fundraising.
“At any given moment, 91% of people in the United States
have a cellular phone within arms reach,” said CEO Eric Beans. “98% of text messages are read compared to
22% of emails. We have created a way to
take the incredibly powerful tool of texting and make it more powerful through
personalization. The word
“personalization” is being used a lot these days, but in this case it means
group messages can be customized using any number of data fields determined by
our customers. The texts can be
personalized well beyond first name and/or last name. This is big news for the fundraising groups
and political campaigns who live and die on election results.”
Texting Base is a cloud-based software that adds efficiency
to business texting communications.
Texting Base allows you to write and schedule your text communications
for weeks, months or years in advance to all your contacts in seconds and have
each message be meaningful.
Eric Beans continued “when you compare Texting Base to the
expenses associated with direct mail or staffing and managing a telemarketing
group, it’s a significant gain in efficiency and results at a fraction of the
cost.”
Combining the efficiency of a “mass text” and the power of a
personal text message is the key differentiator. No matter how many people are in the group
you create, each one will receive a personalized message.
Finally, those who are looking for a way to use texting as a
means to raise money have a viable solution to help.
For more information, please visit http://www.textingbase.com/niches/politics
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Why Your Patrol Car Needs The Karsof™ Mobile Enforcement Identification Unit
The Karsof™
Mobile Enforcement Identification Unit is a user-friendly digital investigation
platform that rides along with you -- to a crime scene, on your beat, to an
investigation; anywhere. Its accessibility reduces effort, making it a much needed
addition for the investigator, officer or detective. The Karsof™ Mobile
Enforcement Identification works seamlessly within and alongside traditional
forensics, ensuring double coverage and the best of both digital and
traditional investigations.
Karsof™
Mobile Enforcement Complements Other Systems
The Karsof™ Mobile Enforcement Identification is highly adaptable. It's tailored to your routine and, if you’re in law enforcement, even your beat. The Karsof™ Mobile Enforcement Identification works in conjunction with our other forensic technologies and with traditional forensic methods, like dusting for prints. A dusted print can still be scanned by a Karsof™ Fingerprint Scanner and identified. The entire Karsof™ Forensics System can even work with incomplete fingerprints, and this can be implemented along with the Karsof™ Mobile Enforcement Identification.
As
an investigator, a detective or even a traffic patrol officer, this technology
streamlines your experience, so you can verify persons of interest from the
front seat of your vehicle, without wasting time. There’s no driving back and
forth to the station; there’s no false identifications.
History
Meets The Future With Karsof™ Systems
Forensic
sciences of the past have served us well. The fingerprinting of suspected criminals was
introduced in 1906 by NYPD. While it is not
the exact science we once thought it was, fingerprint evidence is still a
staple in helping law enforcement identify criminals and their crime scenes. With the Karsof™
Mobile Enforcement Identification Unit, you can get a near 100% match every time. The two methods can definitely
compliment each other!
Because all
fingerprints taken from suspects are entered into the FBI’s database (Integrated
Automated Fingerprint Identification System or IAFIS), the comparison
has near flawless results. This is what the Karsof™ Mobile Enforcement
Identification can do for your precinct, security company, or campus police
force. It gives you the certainty of
knowing you’ve apprehended the right suspect and helps secure the evidence you
need for a clear case.
California Office:
3415 S Sepulveda Blvd
Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90034-7090
Texas Operational Headquarters:101 N Highway 288B
Clute, TX 77531-3745
E-mail: info@karsofsystems.com
Tel: 877-282-7374
Fax: 800-878-2203
http://karsofsystems.com/
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Fundraising Solutions: Comparing The Options
By
Eric Beans CEO of Texting Base, Inc./www.textingbase.com
Fundraising
has been around as long as politics itself and it has become vital in the
current political landscape.
In
2008, 5.3 billion dollars were spent on federal elections. Barack Obama spent 730M and John McCain spent
333M. The average winner of a house seat
spent 1.4M on his or her campaign. In 2012 that federal election number jumped
to over 6.3 billion dollars. Obama spent
985.2M and Mitt Romney spent 992.5M. The
house number jumped to 1.5M to win a seat. The numbers are rising fast!
As
political battles become more expensive, political fundraising becomes more
important to the success of these campaigns.
It is nearly impossible to win a race without outspending your
opponent. Outspending your opponent
means raising more money. The traditional methods for campaign finance include
hosting events, direct mail, email blasts and telemarketing. With the meteoric rise in the usage of mobile
devices, texting is starting to change the way organizations target donations.
You
may be surprised to hear that direct mail is STILL the single biggest marketing
expenditure. In 2014 email was the most effective form of
fundraising. This is in spite of more
than 70% of emails worldwide being reported as spam. Text messaging was not widely used for
fundraising in 2014.
In
2012 for every dollar spent on direct marketing, the expected return was $12.18
(across all industries). Those are great returns, but where should you spend
your money?
The
following numbers are averages across all industries. Sources are listed at the end of the article. Below is a breakdown of the various means used
for fundraising:
READ RATE:
1)
TEXT:
98%
2)
MAIL:
66%
3)
EMAIL:
22%
4)
PAY
PER CLICK: 3.81%
5)
TELEMARKETING:
N/A
Text
messages have 148.5% read rates over direct mail. Pay per click is the impression and click
through. Telemarketing has no ability to
brand your entity. Either people pick up
the phone or they don’t. If you want
people to receive your message, there is nothing better than texting.
RESPONSE
RATE:
1)
TEXT:
19%
2)
TELEMARKETING:
8.21%
3)
EMAIL:
4.2%
4)
PAY
PER CLICK: 3.81%
5)
MAIL:
3.4%
Again,
text messaging comes in at over double the effectiveness of telemarketing. Keep in mind though that the “response rate”
for text messaging, email and pay per click involves clicking on a link. The response rate for telemarketing and email
involves sending in money.
CONVERSION
RATE:
1)
TELEMARKETING:
8.21%
2)
MAIL:4.2%
3)
TEXT:
1.68%
4)
PAY
PER CLICK: .22%
5)
EMAIL:
.21%
Direct
mail and telemarketing are so popular because they are consistent with high
conversion rates. Fundraising campaigns
love that they can count on consistent numbers when they start a campaign. The challenge as you will see in our next set
of data, is that there are massive costs associated with direct mail and telemarketing.
COST PER
MESSAGE:
1)
EMAIL:
$0.01
2)
TEXT:
$0.04
3)
MAIL:
$0.49
4)
TELEMARKETING:
$0.64*
5)
PAY
PER CLICK: N/A
Email
has a cost when sending through a service (as you should for compliance). Texting costs can be as high as 10 cents a
message and as low as 2.5 cents a message.
This is why email was the number one tool last year. With response rates that are around 8 times
as high as email, texting could cost up to 7 cents a text and still be a better
option.
*Paying
telemarketers $9/hour.
COST PER CUSTOMER
ACQUISITION*:
1)
TEXT:
$2.49
2)
EMAIL:
$4.98
3)
MAIL:
$51.40
4)
PAY
PER CLICK: $99.47
5)
TELEMARKETING:
$309.28
STACK
RANKING THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS:
|
MARKETING
TYPE
|
READ
RATE
|
RESPONSE
RATE
|
CONVERSION
RATE
|
COST
PER MESSAGE
|
COST
PER CUSTOMER ACQUIRED
|
AVG
|
|
TEXT
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
1.6
|
|
EMAIL
|
3
|
3
|
5
|
1
|
2
|
2.8
|
|
MAIL
|
2
|
5
|
2
|
3
|
3
|
3
|
|
TELEMARKET
|
N/A
|
2
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
4
|
|
PAY
PER CLICK
|
4
|
4
|
4
|
N/A
|
4
|
4
|
The
clear winner is text messaging.
These
numbers should make Campaign Finance Managers and Executive Directors all over
America take notice. It should come as no major surprise that email and texting
have a lower customer acquisition cost.
Staffing telemarketers takes space, resources, software, phones,
management and per dial costs. Direct
mail takes paper, ink, stuffing envelopes, management, space and postage.
The
cost of acquisition for texting is half that of email, which has the second
lowest cost. Texting is also 124 times less expensive per customer acquisition
than telemarketing and over 20 times less expensive than direct mail, which
again was the number one expense last year for direct marketing.
SO WHAT DOES
IT ALL MEAN?
Fundraising
has a new weapon. Mobile fundraising is
just scratching the surface in this arena.
At any given moment, 91% of people in the United States have a cellular
phone within arms reach. This is power
and effectiveness that should be making Campaign Managers, Finance Directors
and Executive Directors perk up.
Email
was the most effective tool for fundraising in 2014, and texting has response
rates up to 8 times higher, a 50% reduction in customer acquisition cost and a
read rate over 4X higher. Perhaps the
most amazing part of this story is how little texting base been used thus far
for politics and fundraising.
Much
like telemarketing, there are certain rules and regulations that need to be
implemented. One of the first things an
organization interested in using mobile marketing would be to change their
contracts (online and other) to allow for the usage of cellular phones. The second step would be to start collecting
more mobile phone numbers. The third
step would be to look into regulation.
More
information can be found here:
Texting
is significantly more effective when compared to other marketing techniques in
terms of cost per acquisition, read rate and click through rate but it does not
mean it should replace every other type of marketing. To the contrary, the more effective
fundraising campaigns incorporate multiple methods of contact and use the
various tools to complement each other.
For
information on 12 ways to reduce risk and stay within compliance for texting
campaigns, please visit:
For
more information, please visit:
Sources:
Eric
Beans is CEO of Texting Base, Inc., out of Orlando, Florida. Texting Base is a cloud-based software that
adds efficiency and power to business texting communications. Combining the
efficiency of a “mass text” and the effectiveness of a personal text message,
Texting Base uses patent pending software to allow businesses to build
relationships with their customers like never before. Prior to Texting Base, Eric Beans owned
Premier Mortgage Capital, Inc., a nationwide state charted mortgage company.
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