Derek: Hello, everyone, Derek Johnson with Tatango.com.
It is the weekend, I'm doing a video, as you can tell, I'm not in the office.
Why am I doing a video on the weekend?
Well, on Friday, Gary Vaynerchuk, if you are on the internet, most likely, you are familiar
with him.
If you're not, go check him out, subscribe to his YouTube channel, it's really great.
He does a vlog, a video blog, and they're like 45 minutes.
It really gives insight into his world and owning a social media agency or just an agency
in general.
So yesterday, Friday, he released a video from...it's a little snippet of a video from
his vlog.
And he's talking to a bunch of people, and I'm gonna play it because my DMs, my text
messages were blowing up last night saying, "Hey, have you seen this video?"
And I think, as you run through the video, you'll realize why.
I'm gonna look at this from my experience 11 years in text message marketing, break
down what he's talking about, give some insight into what he's talking about, and kind of
give some context to why, you know, he thinks the way he does about text message marketing
and why this video is coming out right now.
Gary: One of the biggest things, I believe, that's happening right now that I'm excited
about, as a marketer who likes to ruin every organic platform, is that text messaging is
opened up for business.
So, in the last year, the amount of text-messaging opportunities that brands and personalities
have had through superphone and...
Derek: Okay, I'm gonna keep breaking up the video here because he goes through a lot,
which I love his videos because, you know, they're very candid and he talks about a lot
of information.
You know, if he's talking about your industry, it's really an insight into his mind.
So first off here is he's talking most likely about the opportunities that are being presented
to his clients at VaynerMedia.
VaynerMedia is the marketing agency that he runs.
And then, SuperPhone is that company he just mentioned.
That was a company he invested in and they do text message marketing for celebrities
and artists that wanna reach their fans.
So Tatango, we do mass text messaging for retail restaurants, large organizations.
SuperPhone was specifically for a rapper or a guitar player or a band to send messages
out to their fans to tell them where to buy stuff, where to see them play, things of that
nature.
And then what was interesting, he dropped this information without giving any context
to it, a new platform called Community.
I reached out to some people, they actually didn't even know what this was.
I went to community.com, that's usually the first thing, obviously, on my mind, and it
looks like, from reading the terms and conditions, again, I haven't talked to anybody, it looks
like he, or maybe him in partnership with SuperPhone, are launching a new text message
marketing platform.
It looks like it's going to be focused on kind of the celebrity text messaging kind
of market.
But who knows, that's all I could read from the terms and conditions.
So I'm gonna keep it plain but it's interesting that not only has Gary invested in SuperPhone...
And also he invested in a text message marketing company a few years ago.
I'm totally blanking on the name right now, but it's interesting that you kind of see
a trend line.
He invested in a couple companies, now he's kind of partnering or maybe investing in a
new company called Community, whatever it is, he is very bullish it seems like on text
message marketing.
Gary: A new platform called Community.
And if you just look at the macro data, we've now seen the opening, the first glimmers of
people giving up their cell phone numbers to get text marketing.
And that was something that three years ago, I didn't see coming.
Has any...
Derek: Okay, we're seeing the same thing at Tatango.
Unfortunately, it's been 11 years for us at Tatango, and we've been surviving off the
glimmer, as he calls it, of hope for text message marketing.
Now it is big.
Text message marketing is large.
A lot of large brands use text message marketing.
But as I say, I go through the mall and maybe one out of 60 brands are using text message
marketing.
So I think he thinks, and I agree with him on this, that it is a glimmer yet and there's
so much more essentially white space to occupy for text message marketing.
Gary: Anybody here started getting marketing on text?
Together: Yeah.
Gary: Actually...
Real quick.
Male 1: I didn't ask for it, but I somehow...
Gary: No no.
Not Spam.
Derek: All right, this is the depressing part, and I experience this all the time when I
go to a cocktail party, a networking event, is you say you're in text message marketing
and there's always that person or maybe a lot of people that say, you know, "Well, great,"
you know, "are you the one that is spamming me?"
Now what's interesting about this is in the United States, it is illegal, under the federal
law, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, to send text message spam from a brand to
a consumer.
So there are huge consequences.
So a consumer can sue a brand from anywhere from $500 to $1,500 per text message.
That's why you usually don't see brands spamming their customers or potential customers via
text message.
It's interesting though, just from my personal experience, if I would've asked this guy,
"Okay, can I see your phone?
Can I see that text message?"
Usually, it's very hard for them to find that text message.
Maybe it happened once in the last year and it just stood out to them.
The reason it stands out is because we have the federal law under the Telephone Consumer
Protection Act, there is not that much text message spam.
We don't have spam folders like we do in email marketing.
So I think usually what happens is when a person gets one spam text message, they remember
it forever.
That's been kinda my personal experience.
So, unfortunately, it sucks that even in this video, you know, Gary Vaynerchuk and I have
something in common is that when I talk about text message marketing, usually the first
thing is, you know, spam.
That's always the first topic with text message marketing.
So, unfortunately, that is what it is.
But it's interesting to see how many people at this table have received text message marketing
messages.
Now I do caution you that a lot of people think text message marketing is also like
transactional, like your Uber is here or your doctor appointment.
I'm guessing a few of these people are thinking that's a text message marketing message, so
they're raising their hand for that.
So I don't think it's as big as it looks like at this table, but I know that, over the course
of 11 years, the last year or so, we've just seen an explosion of text message marketing
interest from brands.
So I do agree, I think more brands are using it, and it's taken 11 plus years to get here
I think.
And now that Gary Vaynerchuk is kind of acknowledging it, I think maybe this could be the tipping
point.
Gary: Not spam, not spam.
You're getting marketing on text.
Of the people that just raised their hands, how many of you did not have that situation
three years ago?
Together: Yeah.
Gary: Yeah.
So I would argue that this is probably the most interesting conversation because...let
me give you...from somebody who has hundreds of thousands of people on text...
Derek: I love these videos because, for anybody, I love these videos because of the fact that
they're unscripted and these people say a lot of stuff that maybe they don't even want
made public.
I don't know if he wants it made public but, essentially, he said a couple hundred thousand
people on text message.
So, again, pseudo-celebrity, I'm not trying to be mean, but somebody that, you know, is
not in the movies, he's a social media kind of personality, he's a business personality,
he's been able to get, non-celebrity, he's been able to get hundreds of thousands of
people to give him his phone number and give permission for those people to receive messages
from him.
Think about a true celebrity like a Tom Cruise or a band, somebody that has like millions
and hundreds of...you know tens or maybe a hundred million fans, how many phone numbers
they could get.
I just think it shows that even somebody like Gary Vaynerchuk, I know he has a ton of fans,
but even him can get a couple hundred thousand fans.
And I know he started his SMS campaign maybe within the last year or so.
I started kind of seeing it.
He can get hundreds of thousands of people to give up their phone.
What do you think a Gap, Chipotle, Macy's, or even your local business could get, you
know, in terms of how many phone numbers could they get to sign up?
Gary: I'm getting 98% open.
Derek: It's interesting.
I don't know why he did that, I think maybe he realizes that with text message marketing
currently, you can't see the open rate.
At Tatango, our customers, anybody, when you send a text message, you don't know if it
was opened or not, you know if it's sending via shortcode, if it was received on the phone,
but you don't know if it was opened.
Ninety-eight percent, it comes from a study done 10 years ago and it really wasn't that
scientific of a study.
I think they were looking at the phones, and then questioning the people after they received
the text message, did they open it.
I know for a fact though that, on my phone, there are no text messages that go unanswered.
And I think that's true for most of you that are watching this, I bet it's true maybe for
Gary Vaynerchuk as well.
So I think the open rate is 90% to 100%, no matter what it is, it's way better than email
marketing or posting something in your feed on Facebook or Twitter.
So I think that's why he was saying 98% because I think he's citing the study.
But his platform, his messaging campaign, he does not know if it's 98%.
Gary: Ninety, let me just say this very carefully, ninety percent engagement.
This was actually high...
Derek: Okay, this is interesting.
I love that Gary Vaynerchuk is talking about text message marketing.
I caution people though on looking at something like when somebody says engagement.
That could mean so many different things.
I do not want to put out there that if you're a business or even a celebrity and you started
a text message marketing campaign, you'll get 90% click-through rates.
I don't know what he means by what he said.
You know, it could be click-through rates, it could be all-time click-through rates,
it could be people replying to the text message.
We don't know what he's talking about so be a little cautious.
We see click-through rates anywhere from like 5% to 30%, but I've seen as high as like 65%.
It really depends on, you know, everything.
It depends on how long the phone number has been in the list, it depends on how they opted
in, it depends on what the message was, what time it is, what time zone they're in.
There's all these different kinds of variables.
So don't think you start a text message marketing campaign, you should get 90% engagement rate
or click-through rate or 90% really anything, except maybe open.
I think it's a little high but just wanna caution people on that.
I love text message marketing but I don't like to oversell it.
Gary: Higher than I expected, hands, that get marketing on text.
I would argue this is probably the most interesting thing brewing.
Because if you ask me what the counterpoint of social media is, it's text message marketing.
Very personal, in your own world.
What...
Derek: Counterpoint to social media.
The one thing that always throws off text message marketing kind of on our trajectory
is social media, unfortunately.
You know, text message marketing was getting kind of its rise.
And I think actually Gary Vaynerchuk invested, if anybody remembers, drop the name of the
company below, it no longer exists, but he invested in a text message marketing company.
And then as we saw in the industry Twitter took all the spotlight and everybody kind
of went off text message marketing and went to Twitter.
Then after Twitter, then people started going, "Oh, text message market," and then Instagram
came up and Facebook ads.
Every couple years, we think it's the year of text message marketing.
It isn't though because something in social media derails that.
Because usually, social media is free too.
Text message marketing, there is a cost to do it.
And social media marketing, usually, at the start, it's free, and then they usually tax
the businesses eventually to reach your users, which is why text message marketing email
is so great because you own the database, you're not essentially renting it from Facebook
or Twitter.
Gary: What brand is first gonna get to a million subscribers on text?
Derek: That's an interesting one.
It shows, obviously, he's new to text message marketing.
I saw in the comments below, on this video, on LinkedIn, there were a few people that
were like, "We're a text message provider.
We have brands that have a million subscribers."
If you're a Gap, a Chipotle, a Macy's, you know, any big large brand and if you're doing
text message marketing correctly, you should have a million plus subscribers.
I've seen some campaigns in the four to six million range.
So I just think, for him, you know, he's at like a couple hundred thousand.
I think it's interesting that maybe the market is even a little faster than he sees.
So maybe he's catching it at the tail end of kind of the inflection point.
But either or it's just interesting to hear him say that it'll be interesting to see when
a brand hits a million subscribers," it already has happened.
I think it's gonna be when they hit 10 million plus or something a little bit bigger or when
you see every brand at the mall, 90% of brands, using text message marketing.
That's gonna be, you know, a huge kinda...not tipping point, but it'll be when text message
marketing has arrived.
Gary: The numbers are staggering.
Like my platform, SuperPhone broke.
Like it was an entrepreneur, it broke.
Derek: Okay.
This, and I'm not throwing SuperPhone under the bus here, there are two reasons usually
why people say, "Text message marketing platforms broke."
I have no clue what he's talking about, but I'm just guessing here.
I can give you a little context.
Number one is the software platform cannot send messages fast enough.
So a lot people don't realize this.
If you send one message, you know, one message to each of you watching this video at one
message per second, sounds really fast, like ding-ding-ding-ding, like that sounds very
fast, but when you're sending to a million subscribers or 200,000 subscribers, it could
take days.
If you're sending one per second to get the message out fully, that means also you're
gonna be sending at night, early in the morning, you know, that's a horrible experience.
That's one reason why people say it broke.
Number two, which I think is true for SuperPhone, I'm not sure and they may be changing things
or have changed things, I think he was using what we call a long code.
That's like a regular phone number.
Those regular phone numbers are limited right now to one per second.
So either it's the software or essentially the wireless technology that people are using
that is broken because they can't get the message out fast enough.
That's why people use short codes.
Short codes can send thousands of messages per second so thousands of times greater than
a long code.
So just to give you a little context there, kind of why he's saying it's broken.
What's interesting is the next part of this video, he says, "Because my text message marketing
is broken, I'm losing money."
You don't really hear that a lot with email, like if it goes down, it's not the end of
the world.
It's crazy that he associates text message marketing with revenue and when he cannot
send a text message, he loses revenue.
I think that's one of the most powerful parts of this video.
Gary: And I felt it.
The last 3 months, we're on a new one, we're about to roll out, but the last 3 months,
I've not been able to sell as much stuff.
Wine, sneakers...
Derek: I think, and you can kinda hear the context there, maybe as much stuff.
He might be sending messages but not to the whole list because it just is not fast enough,
you know, the long code or the software provider for that kinda scale, so maybe he's sending
it to people only on the East Coast or only on the West Coast or only females or males.
He may be talking about that, that's why he's selling some stuff but not all his stuff.
Gary: ...books because I don't have my text messaging platform.
Derek: Okay.
So I didn't want this video to be crazy long but I just wanna give you a little context
from somebody like myself that's been doing this for 11 plus years now.
It has been a hard 11 plus years convincing brands, convincing people like Gary Vaynerchuk
to do text message marketing.
That is pretty much my number-one job, that's why I do these videos.
But it's great that people like Gary Vaynerchuk, brands like Chipotle, Macy's, Gap, they are
now kind of understanding that text message marketing is not only a good to have or a
nice to have, it's essential.
Like he said with his revenue, because he's not able to use his platform for the last
3 months, he's not able to make money.
And for any business out there, making money is one of the top priorities.
So anyway, [inaudible 00:17:13] this video, I'd love your guys' feedback.
Drop a comment below.
Go check out Gary Vaynerchuk, check out his YouTube channel, it's great.
Subscribe to my channel, subscribe to his channel.
And I'll let you know if I hear anything about community.com, any updates.
If any of Gary Vaynerchuk's people or VaynerMedia wanna drop a comment below to talk about what
he meant by, "The 90%."
I would love to know what that context is.
And hopefully, everyone's having a great weekend.
Again, my name is Derek Johnson with to Tatango.com, and we'll talk soon.
Thanks.