The Ultimate Guide to Email + SMS List Growth: Proven Tactics & Expert Insights (Part 4 of 5)

5. Going Solo: SMS Only List Growth Tactics

Aside from the previously discussed tactics for onsite and offsite list growth for both email + SMS, many brands are still growing their SMS lists for the first time, and there are unique options for how to best approach. 

“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

• The most obvious and still often overlooked strategy for SMS list growth is recruiting your email subscribers to sign-up for SMS! At SMS program launch, a brand can send a dedicated email to engaged email subscribers announcing the content differentiation on SMS, along with a compelling offer to start growth immediately. 
• Pro Tip: After launch, include a dynamic banner within emails that can continually remind non-SMS subscribers to sign-up.
• For mobile visitors, Two-Tap SMS sign-up is a quick and easy way to reduce all friction of growing a brand’s SMS list. The taps stand for tap 1, tapping on a CTA on a mobile device, which loads up a message to deploy to sign up for the brand, and tap 2, tapping send on the SMS to subscribe!  
• Pro Tip: Check out Recart to learn more about their unique ability to provide a “restore link” on these messages to send the site visitor back to where they were! 

“Direct-to-text popups accelerate opt-ins and ensure compliance. But they also create a disconnect by forcing subscribers to leave your site, send the opt-in message, and click back after your welcome offer arrives. If that first text links to your homepage, the disconnect can become a chasm. New subscribers are forced to retrace their steps back to the thing they want to buy. Instead, ‘Restore Links’ make it easy to convert: Dynamic URLs that let subscribers pick up where they left off — e.g., the PDP or collection they opted in through — with their welcome offer automatically applied.” 
- Aaron Orendorff
VP of Marketing, Recart

• For Instagram stories, brands can also provide a clickable sign-up link that also enables Two-Tap capabilities for paid ads or organic reach to Instagram followers. 
• Getting a bit more offline, Brands can use Text-to-Join (TTJ) Keywords to quickly gain sign-ups from billboards, in-store locations, speaking engagements (like conferences or podcasts), or anywhere else where you can show an offer in real life. In these scenarios, a brand provides their brand phone number and the keyword, requesting that prospective customers, “Text ________ to join” your SMS list. 
• Pro Tip: These types of campaigns greatly benefit from Short code use as opposed to traditional Toll-free numbers (think how much easier it is to type in a 5-6 character code as opposed to a ten digit number).
• Another often forgotten method for SMS list growth is asking for sign-up on the Checkout page. By requesting that customers check a box to sign-up for SMS while processing their order, the brand receives both email and SMS consent to create the best advocacy from their customer base possible. 
• In addition, if brands are prioritizing purchasing prior to subscribing to SMS, they can place an SMS opt-in on the order tracking page. This page is checked an average of 5 times between purchase and when an order is received, making them a high traffic area for an opt-in.

Continue to "Building a Strong Foundation: The Key Elements of an Effective Lifecycle Infrastructure" (Part 5 of 5)