How To Build An Opt-In SMS List

How To Build An Opt-In SMS List If you’ve been into internet marketing for any period of time, you have probably heard someone saying the mantra, “the money is in the list.” This old adage has been used in direct response marketing for ages, and it has never stopped being true. The money is definitely in the list, but not just any list.

The best list to have is a list where people have willingly identified themselves as wanting to receive your marketing materials. This is called an opt-in list. You should never just purchase a list of phone numbers and start blasting SMS messages to them. This is spam, and it will undermine your business and reduce consumer trust in the SMS medium as a whole, so do not go this route. Make sure you have their permission, this will add to your bottom line and trust factors.

With traditional email marketing, you use a lead capture form and usually some form of an incentive to get leads to opt-in. The same thing applies to SMS marketing.

The Best Ways to Get People to Join Your List

Since SMS marketing lists are permission based you’re going to want to have some type of bribe in place to get people to join yours. Without an incentive you’ll discover that most people simply won’t bother giving you their personal contact information. Here is a short list of the most effective ways to get people to join your mobile marketing SMS contact list.

Desirable Information Given Away For Free

The good old free report or free video is still a powerful incentive to get people to join your opt-in list. If you’re doing this make sure that you send them to a mobile friendly site where they can download the files. If you’re using a free report, make sure to use the PDF format, and if you’re doing a video it is best to use YouTube. With these formats you will find that 95% of your mobile users have no problem accessing your content. This is very important here, if they cannot access the video, then you will have lost that visitor.

Sign Up Sheets

If you are promoting an event or have a place where lots of people will enter or gather, you can request for their information at the door or at a kiosk. The idea is to give them an incentive to join your mobile list. Offer them a chance to get a prize, discount, or be entered into a raffle. The key here is to make sure they are fully aware that they are giving their information for you to use. Remember, permission is imperative!

It is also important to use the idea of gift cards, or other smaller denomination prizes as a front end attention grabber. You may also of course utilize the discount offer for your services; you can even make it a too or one time offer of a larger discount for opting in today with the offer expiring if they navigate elsewhere.

Rocky Pooh is a University Lecturer and content writer for Health Related News. She loves to write on technical topics like The World News. He is writing from last three years.