The Ultimate Guide to Email + SMS List Growth: Proven Tactics & Expert Insights (Part 3 of 5)

4. Maximize Your Reach: Offsite  Strategies for Email & SMS List Growth

When prospective customers haven’t yet made it to the site, there’s still a rich quantity of opportunity that abounds for email + SMS list growth. 

1. IRL

• Subscribing to a brand in real life still happens and can grow email + SMS lists in meaningful ways. If a brand has brick and mortar locations or if they’re doing pop-up shops, trade shows or events, there’s a huge opportunity to collect email + SMS at the point of sale or in exchange for a coupon or offer that they can redeem online. Even surveys can be used in real life to gain a better perspective of the audience and to grow an efficient email + SMS marketing list. 
• Pro Tip: Technology like Swapt can help brands capture real-life interactions by using QR codes to opt-in to email + SMS to be merchandised on signs, billboards, posters, CTV commercials, product tags and more. Don’t miss out on these opportunities to get sign-ups when prospects and customers are present!

"For brands obsessed with growing their subscriber lists in new and unique ways, QR codes offer a transformative solution for acquiring customers and expanding email + SMS lists in real-life. Swapt's QR codes, with their deep integrations with platforms like Klaviyo, empower brands to execute real-time marketing activations with greater efficiency and effectiveness. The possibilities for faster and better customer conversions are truly remarkable, making QR codes a must-consider strategy for any brand looking to expand their email + SMS lists." 
- Andrew Smith
CEO, Swapt

2. Social Media

• Brands can only market to their audience where they are, and that often happens to be on social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and the rest. These walled gardens are incredible opportunities to gain opted-in email + SMS Subscribers. Step one is merchandising copy and links on organic social media pages to encourage subscriptions, and using organic opportunities to seek new subscribers. 
• Brands can also utilize paid social media to drive traffic to their site or landing pages to grow their email + SMS list. Retarget former site visitors, lapsed subscribers, or lookalike audiences to drive traffic or to focus on lead generation campaigns, using the channels’ interconnectivity to add meaningful email + SMS subscriber growth

“Today’s consumers are on their phones more than ever before, so it is critical that your brand’s subscriber collection strategy is optimized for the mobile experience. Signup methods like text to subscribe, QR codes, social opt-in (via Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok), and pop-ups with double-tap technology encourage mobile consumers’ native behavior while helping to bridge the gap between brick-and-mortar retail and eCommerce to increase collection rates.” 
- Maggie Dunn
Senior Product Marketing Manager, SMS, Yotpo

• Social Media Contests are another way brands can get attention and followers, along with an often high quantity of new subscribers. Through partnerships with other brands, companies can do giveaways of top-selling merchandise, and in the eligibility rules and requirements have list subscription as a requirement, in addition to social follows, likes, tags, shares, etc. 
• Pro Tip: Contests often yield a lower quality list of subscribers than other forms of opt-in email + SMS subscription. Make sure to put these contacts through a dedicated onboarding experience to gauge the quality of the audience.
• Influencer Marketing has taken a hold of the world in real ways to influence purchases for products and services around the world. It just makes sense to also have them influence list growth, too. Consider a special offer on a hero product/service or a gateway offer that content creators can share with their audience to provide their email + SMS information to get the word out. For the leading creator discovery and management platform, check out GRIN, or use technology like Gatsby to find influencers in an existing subscriber base to reach out to. 
• Pro Tip: Capture this traffic in a separate pop-up or landing page campaign, so you can segment accordingly. Influencer traffic can be an impactful way to supercharge list growth, but can also be highly unpredictable and lead to atypical consumer behavior.

"Influencer marketing is so successful because of the trust their followers put in them. Funnel that into trust for your brand through ultra-personalized pop-ups. When their followers arrive onsite feature the influencer’s name, special code, or even their content in the lead capture. Use UTMs to create this experience for every influencer you collaborate with for maximum returns."  
- Erik Christiansen
CEO, Justuno

3. Search Engine Marketing

• If a brand’s lifecycle program is built strong enough to predictably convert new contacts in a short payback period, brands can unleash the power of search engine marketing to run lead generation ads to landing pages for email + SMS list growth or to dedicated product pages of high converting products with aforementioned onsite infrastructure functioning well.

Continue to "Going Solo: SMS Only List Growth Tactics" (Part 4 of 5)