5 Simple But Surefire Ways to Grow Your SMS Marketing List According to Experts

You’d think SMS marketing is a magic bullet for getting your desired results.

Until you realise there’s actually a lot that goes behind it.

When it comes to SMS marketing, it all boils down to one question. How to get SMS subscribers?

Think about it. What’s the point of planning an SMS marketing campaign if people don’t subscribe for your SMS? 

We talked to a few marketing experts to gather the top tips and tricks to grow your SMS marketing list.

In this blog we share five expert-recommended ways to help you grow your SMS text marketing lists.

Let’s dive in. 

See 35+ SMS Marketing Statistics To Know in 2022

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5 Simple Ways to Grow Your SMS Marketing List

1. Put sign-up forms on your website

Alissa Taggart, Email/SMS marketer and VP at Electriq, says that opt-in or multi-step forms on the website are like bread and butter when building an text lists for their clients. 

So take advantage of your website as a platform to collect subscriber information.

We know what you are thinking. 

How do you get people to fill the forms? 

Here’s what you can do.

In exchange for your customer’s contact information, you can offer them discounts. 

If you offer your customers added value, they will happily share their contact info with you. Add opt-in forms in your website footer and ask your customers to share their contact info for a discount. 

Here’s the sample text you can use: 

“Stay connected with us! Sign up with your name and mobile number and get a 10% off discount code on your phone number immediately.”

Do you know why this works? Because it’s easy for the customers. 

Just make sure you add a checkbox with the message to ask for your customer’s consent to receive marketing SMS. See the example below: 

2. Use social media to get more people to sign up

Social media is a great way to convert your followers into subscribers to grow your SMS marketing lists. 

Staci Wallace, CEO of Fueled by Fire Mastery, says you can achieve Facebook-to-text marketing if you take the right approach. 

Engage with your potential subscribers through personalised interactions and then make them sign up for your texting list.   

You can do this by teasing product launches and developing eagerness among your customers. Get your followers to share their phone numbers with you to be the first to know about your new product launches. 

Use your social media posts to direct the customers to your website’s SMS sign-up landing page. 

See the example below: 

3. Use pop-up with a discount offer on your website

Pop-ups are another excellent way for growing your SMS marketing list through website visitors. 

You place these pop-ups or on-click ads on your website. Jason K Williamson, the founder of E2 Agency, shares a killer pop-up formula – “The Trojan Horse.” 

Williamson suggests adding a beautiful pop-up design on your website. The pop-up can offer new customers a mystery discount in exchange for their email.

See the example below: 

Once your customers subscribe with their email address, then comes the second pop-up. This one with a more significant discount. Here you ask them to subscribe with their phone numbers. 

See the example below: 

We know what you are wondering. Why collect email addresses if the goal is to collect phone numbers?

Claus Lauter, the Conversion Optimizer Expert at idube Pte Ltd, calls this step-by-step process a ‘softer approach’. 

“Customers giving you a phone number is a big ask. That’s because customers nowadays have privacy concerns more than ever,” Lauter says.

That’s why you need to think of softer approaches.  

So Lauter suggests that the SMS marketing list is always grown in steps, as mentioned above..

Also Read: KPIs For Promotional SMS: How to Optimise Your Next SMS Campaign

4. Use your email subscribers

You can use your existing email marketing list to encourage your subscribers to also sign up for SMS. 

Don’t get confused. It’s really simple. 

Here’s what you need to do. 

Greg Zakowicz, Senior Ecommerce Expert at Omnisend, suggests emailing your customers a keyword and asking them to SMS it to your business short code to receive their discount code. Zakowicz says this is the most effective way to grow your SMS marketing list. 

Look at this example. Ask customers by email to SMS “HAPPY30” (the keyword) to 60085 (short code or number dedicated to your business) for a 30% discount to use it on their next checkout. 

Zakowicz explains, “Both the channels [email and SMS] are opt-in channels – meaning only customers who want marketing updates [will sign up for your] marketing SMS. Email opt-ins give customers the option to subscribe [for SMS] when their interest [in your business] is already high.”

5. Provide checkout bonuses

Taggart says, “Consent at check out is the robust and easiest way to grow your text message list. There is nothing your customers need to do except check the consent box.” 

“It’s natural for customers to provide their phone number since they already do it anyway. They provide their email, address, and phone number [to complete the shipping]. As a result, this opt-in method is more effective,” Taggart says. 

Here’s how you can pull this one off. 

Just when your customers are about to checkout, offer them a one-time discount. With their shopping cart full at this point, they will love to get a discount in exchange for anything. 

So use this opportunity to ask your customer to sign up for your SMS so your business can send them the discount on their mobile number. This is a great way to quickly grow your SMS list.

But of course, remember to take their consent. 

Also Read: How to Skyrocket Your Sales With Promotional SMS

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Grow and leverage your SMS marketing list with SMSCountry 

All these expert-recommended methods are bound to rapidly grow your SMS marketing list. With so many customers opting-in to receive messages from your business, you will need a scalable bulk SMS platform to fulfil your messaging needs. 

For this you need to pick one of the top bulk SMS providers to make your SMS marketing a breeze. 

Here’s our recommendation – the trusty old SMSCountry. 

SMSCountry is one of the best bulk SMS providers in the market. It is a simple, fast, and integrable bulk SMS platform that also provides 24/7 customer support to its customers. 

So don’t wait anymore. Schedule a demo now or sign up for free with SMSCountry.