Growing your Phone List

The best SMS marketing campaign ever imagined won’t deliver much of an impact if your phone list is too small. Let’s face it, all lists start out small. So how can you, as a restaurant owner, travel agent, or retailer build up a list that delivers the traffic you need to succeed?

Here are four ways our experts recommend so you can generate more names and numbers for your SMS campaigns.

Go Social

If you’ve got any social media presence, use those channels to cross-promote your SMS offers to your followers. Create Facebook posts, tweets, and LinkedIn posts where you promise something of value to any followers who text an opt-in keyword to you.

The key here is offering something of value. It can be a discount code, special sale offer, or free side of fries with purchase.

For your post, create an image showing the offer, alongside the number they need to text to receive the offer. The better the offer, the more shareable it will be, making it more likely to get attention from your audience.

Run a Contest

Create a quick SMS contest, where entrants can win a prize by sending you an SMS, or by filling out a form and including a phone number.

Be sure that the prize is relevant to your business. For example, if you’re a travel agent make sure that the prize relates to travel. If you give away an iPhone, you may get a really great response, but many of those people might not be interested in travel. However, if you offer a lightweight 4-piece luggage set, you’ll fill your list with individuals who are ready to fly and see the world.

Email Your List

If you’ve already developed an email list, add some CTAs for your new phone list in your next newsletter. Present the service as a VIP SMS list, where your customers can get limited time offers and exclusive SMS offers if they sign up.

There is real value in having your customers on both email and SMS lists. SMS messages are more likely to be read than emails, so by encouraging your customers to opt in to your phone list, you’ve increased the likelihood that they will see your messages.

Check Out Time

For online customers, add a pop-up box or opt-in check box at checkout. If your customers valued the service they received from you, they’ll be happy to give you their number, and continue patronizing your store.

Brick-and-mortar stores can also collect numbers at the point-of-sale (POS). For those with advanced POS systems, they can ask consumers for their mobile number during check out. Stores with older POS systems can simply have a sign-up sheet, or a sign encouraging users to send an SMS for future store discounts.