“Text me” is an often-overlooked tool in the business marketers kit to increase subscribers who wish to receive company promotions and other content. With text-to-join features, major email marketing solutions like Constant Contact allow interested consumers to join a mailing list without waiting until they have access to a computer.
Here are a few simple steps to add this feature into your marketing mix:
Check to see if your email marketing provider offers this feature. If they don’t consider switching to one that does. It isn’t terribly difficult to switch. Set-up the text-to-join feature. This typically involves choosing a keyword which will be sent to a short code phone number. Create signage for your store, trade show booth, or other area where customers will see it. Provide the keyword and short code number and let your email system handle the rest.
Let’s consider an example to help illustrate the power of this little feature. Assume that an ice cream store wishes to increase its subscribers who are interested in receiving a weekly coupon by email. They set up the text-to-join feature with the keyword COOLDEAL. They then create some simple signage to display by the cash register offering interested customers a way to get the weekly coupons and call to action “Just text COOLDEAL to 999999.” When the customer does this, the email system responds with a customized message asking the customer to reply with her email address. When she does this, she receives a thank you text that is also customized. That’s it. She is now subscribed and will begin receiving emails from the store.
A short, simple text message is all it takes for someone to join your mailing list right at the time they are most interested in your product. Take advantage of this tool and add it to your plans to increase your opt-in subscribers.