There are 2 main ways to collect mobile numbers for your SMS marketing list under TCPA (🇺🇸) & GDPR (🇪🇺 & 🇬🇧). Consumers can either explicitly opt-in via a tick-box or embedded field:
Or they can message your brand directly:
Once you've got a method of collecting numbers set up on your marketing site, you need to maximise the sign ups you receive. Here are ten top tactics on how to collect mobile numbers for SMS:
1) At checkout
Much like email marketing opt-in at checkout, you can edit your checkout field wording to enable explicit consent for SMS. Once confirmed, customers can then receive order confirmations, dispatch notifications, feedback and review messages, and much more.
2) Pop-ups
A slick-pop up on site can build your SMS subscribers extremely quickly. Whether this is joining a VIP club or an offer for free shipping, they are great for building your core community of customers.
You can use an external pop-up supplier (like Privy), or use build in custom pop-ups through Blueprint.
Top-tip: Use Blueprint’s click-to-SMS link that pre-loads a message for a customer to send, removing the friction of customers entering their number into the pop-up field.
3) Email campaigns
If you’ve already built your email audience, they’re 1-step away from being part of your SMS or WhatsApp community too. Either sending out a specific campaign driving subscribers to your SMS, or adding a link to the bottom of every email campaign that customers can click to message are both great ways to acquire more numbers and build awareness.
4) Embedded Forms
When acquiring numbers on mobile in an embedded form (like a newsletter sign up), you can use Blueprint to allow for a seamless click-to-SMS experience. Customers click once, open up a pre-loaded message, and hit send. They’re then automatically sent a compliance message back and opted-in to chat to your brand.
5) Packaging
As speaking 1:1 with a brand becomes the standard experience for a customer, adding your number to your packaging is a no-brainer. You can either add as a full number (like Taika), or add a simple QR code for customers to scan and message your brand directly. This also blurs the lines between offline activations and online acquisition.
Top-tip: Add your number or QR code to your external eCommerce packaging too, not just the product itself. This can help to build your audience from external sources, like Amazon, by offering a way for a customer to join your owned SMS community.
6) Buttons on-site
Much like live-chat, you can add a button for 1:1 chat on SMS. Unlike live-chat however, you can then build that experience with the customer through their entire customer journey - from the point they messaged right through to asking for feedback on their order or dropping them new products.
7) Banners
Banners on-site usually communicate a new-release or offer, but largely miss the opportunity to build an audience and acquire numbers. By enabling an easy opt-in experience through a Blueprint click-to-SMS link, you could offer customers a free shipping or discount code and build your audience at the same time as driving revenue.
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Top-tip: Much like Ghia, animate the banner to build more awareness and drive conversion.
8) Instagram Stories
Making your Instagram stories interactive with a “swipe up to chat” link is a great way to build your SMS subscribers and drive audiences to your site at the same time.
This could be part of a campaign to directly build your subscriber or VIP community, or an exclusive offer or sale that is only accessible through SMS.
9) Contact pages
When customers want to chat with your brand, they want it to be quick, easy and 1:1. Adding your number to your Contact page or footer is a great way to build this conversation, and your SMS audience at the same time.
10) Social media profiles
Much like adding your number as part of your Contact page, social media profiles should be treated in the same way. Your audience is viewing your profile everyday, and is a great opportunity to offer an easy way to chat 1:1 with your brand and build your SMS subscribers at the same time.
You can add your number directly into your bio on Twitter, or embed a button with Instagram.
Blueprint is the SMS & WhatsApp platform powering CX and retention for eCommerce brands. To find out how to revolutionize your customer journey and keep buyers coming back for more, book a demo today. For a breakdown of What SMS marketing is, and how it's being used for eCommerce, take a look at our guide.
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