Selecting a partner for your mobile marketing needs can be a daunting task. As the industry moves at warp-speed
and mobile platforms all begin to look alike, it’s more important than ever to cut through the clutter and identify what
truly differentiates one vendor from another in their ability to deliver long-term digital marketing success.
This guide covers important mobile topics that a company should consider when selecting a mobile provider,
including:

Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) compliance

Reliability/deliverability

Digital Marketing capabilities

Segmentation/personalization tools

Global SMS support

Tracking/reporting capabilities

Short code/keyword activation services and management tools
In addition to the enclosed RFP questions, below is a checklist to help you select the vendor that’s right for your
business.
Look for a Digital Marketing Solution
Gone are the days of running mobile campaigns independently of other marketing campaigns. Mobile is known for
driving traffic from one marketing channel such as email, social media, or web, to another. Pursuing a digital
marketing solution provider will help you achieve one view of the customer across multiple messaging channels
Look for a Mobile Marketing Expert
Your SMS messaging vendor should be dedicated to the mobile channel and have a solid understanding of:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Database growth strategies
All fees and processes associated with short code acquisition
First-hand knowledge of carrier regulations and industry best practices
Message relevance, frequency, and sending tactics
Have a good reputation with a solid list of clients
Look for a Product and Services Mix
Companies that offer a combination of products and services will truly adapt to your needs using their expertise in
both areas. The mix should include capabilities such as:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
API support to integrate with in-house systems
Tracking and reporting functionality
Secure platform and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Strategy and implementation services
Look for SMS Marketing Best Practices
SMS marketing campaigns, though easy to create, have many moving parts and it’s critical to select a vendor that
has in-house mobile marketing expertise and knowledge of MMA Best Practices.
Look for Short Code Provisioning and Management Capabilities
Finding an SMS vendor that will help you find, acquire, and manage your ongoing short code needs is crucial. A good
SMS vendor will help you plan and secure a short code with aggregators/carriers and provide recommendations
around strategies to help you get to market as quickly as possible.
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Recommended RFP Questions
Important Company Information
1.
Tell us about your company’s background. That includes your company’s history or ownership structure.
2.
Present your company’s financials.
3.
Provide biographies of your company’s executive team.
4.
Describe your global presence. How do your products and services enable digital marketing for a global
organization with multiple brands, geographic areas, and/or lines of business?
5.
Describe your approach to thought leadership and global research. What types of research did you publish
in the past year? How is it distributed?
Collaboration on Strategy
1.
What current trends do you see in digital marketing marketing around the world?
2.
Does your company offer strategic services for clients? If so, describe them.
3.
What process or methodology do you employ to grow an organization’s program over time?
4.
What can your strategic services team do for our organization?
a.
b.
Provide an example of how you have accomplished this for a global organization and what results
they achieved.
Provide an example of how you quantifiably improved a client’s digital marketing program.
Augmentation with Current Technology
1.
Provide an overview and details of your mobile offering.
2.
What type of SMS programs do marketers typically run using your mobile platform?
3.
How can your mobile technology help us improve the relevancy of our global messages?
4.
Can you share how clients have used your software for:
5.
a. Personalization
b. Segmentation
c. Short-code/keyword management
d. Planning and testing SMS programs
What types of tools do you provide to produce and manage sophisticated content in your application?
6.
Please provide whitepapers, case studies, or examples of your current clients, showing how you improved
their programs.
7.
How can you help us ensure that our SMS program is MMA compliant? Are there any specific opt-in best
practices (within the MMA guidelines) that you have found to be most important in maintaining relationships
with mobile customers and operators?
8.
Provide an overview and details of your product roadmap.
9.
Does your technology platform rely on a third party to operate its mobile solutions? If so, with whom and for
what services?
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Integration & Message Deliverability
1.
How does your platform connect with each of the mobile carriers—are some direct and others accessed
indirectly via an aggregator?
2.
What information are you able to get from the mobile carriers? For example, are you able to retrieve data
such as time of message delivery, opens and click-through rates?
3.
Do you have a standard/recommended set of processes/filters to help ensure your clients achieve high rates
of message deliverability?
4.
Do you have standard SLA’s for availability of the mobile platform or access to mobile carrier networks?
5.
What is your typical message send speed or throughput rate? Can this be adjusted for us?
6.
How do you encourage the ongoing development of third-party aggregator integrations with your platform?
7.
Are you open to transferring short codes from one aggregator to the other?
Tracking & Reporting
1.
What type of tracking and reporting capabilities do you offer? What type of data can you help us track? Can
you give us examples of these reports?
2.
How can you tailor reports to our specific business needs?
3.
Does your system create a single view of the subscriber and provide details of how they interact with
messages through multiple channels (email, mobile, social media, etc.)?
4.
Describe your capabilities to report on an individual’s subscriber engagement over time.
Digital Marketing Capabilities
1.
Can your company independently provide SMS, social, and email services? Can they be integrated?
2.
How can we maintain multiple conversations with one customer through different channels? What tools do
you offer to support this?
3.
How do you assess the current sophistication of a global multi-channel marketing program and provide
recommendations for future improvement?
Services & Training
1.
Describe the process for implementing a new client and the training you provide to onboard global
organizations with multiple brands, geographic areas, and/or lines of business.
2.
How many implementations did your services team complete last year?
3.
Explain your approach to professional services and identify how clients can access a full suite of services on
a full-time or as-needed basis.
4.
How do you support the following service needs with your solution?
5.
a. Full-service campaign deployment
b. Collaborative services model
c. Self-service model
Explain how you provide global clients with access to training, documentation, and client support.
6.
Do you offer complimentary client educational opportunities on market trends and best practices?
Overall Pricing
1.
Describe your pricing structure for a client.
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