Growing Your SMS Marketing List

Growing your list is key to SMS marketing success. Without an audience, your marketing efforts are wasted. The more people reading your message, the better. Because almost every text that you send is read by your customers, there's a direct relationship between the size of your list and the number of customers who walk through your door. Statistics show that only 10% of your Facebook friends see what you post in their news feeds. Compare that to the 99% that read your text messages. Keep in mind, your SMS marketing efforts will be 10 times more effective and powerful as any Facebook post that you create.

How to Advertise Your List.

As stated previously, the size of your list has a direct effect on your ROI. That's why you should be doing everything you can to grow/advertise your list. Here's a list of all the different ways/places you can advertise.

Verbal requests
Flyers
Facebook & Other Social Media
Table Tents
Business Cards
Pamphlets
Direct Mail
Website Signup Widgets
Radio
Newspaper
Customer Receipts
Billboards
Blogs
Emails & Email Signatures
Menus
Magazines
Yard Signs
T Shirts
Window Stickers
TV Screens

What to Put on Your SMS Marketing Advertisements

When advertising your program, familiarize customers with what you're doing and how it works. No matter where you're advertising, touch on the following points.

Include a description of your program. Let your customers know what you're doing and what they're signing up for. For example, "Join our weekly VIP text club."
Provide a resource for help. On your marketing flyers, for example, simply include somewhere that they can reply "HELP" for more information on the service, or give them a website address they can go to consume more information on your SMS marketing program.
Provide the frequency of your text messages. Just as mentioned in the previous section on auto-replies, let them know how many times per month your customers will be hearing from you. This puts them at ease with a number of texts to expect from your business or organization. For example, "Up to 4 msgs/month.
Provide opt-out instructions. Letting your customers know they can opt out of your texts at any time gives them peace of mind. Don't make them feel cornered into receiving your marketing messages.

Any great mass texting service will not only provide you with guidance on where and how to grow your list but also give you the tools to do so. The places outlined above all make use of text to join which is one of the best ways to grow your list. Most services also offer it. With that said, there are other great ways of collecting opt ins as well. Some of these include SMS surveys, web forms and text to win sweepstakes. Each SMS marketing provider is different and it's important to understand your options before getting started.

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