Text List: Securing Marketing Contacts

In the world of marketing, a text list is the best tool in your toolbox. This is a long list of contactable people who all consent to you pinging their marketing content. How great is that? You have a list of people you know you can hit “send” and reach at any time or day.

Having a text mailing list is a valuable way to boost your marketing prospects. Running your own business is an excellent way to get marketing, no matter your business size. SMS marketing is one of the most effective methods, with excellent open rates and minimal copywriting necessary.

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to the basics of having a text list. You’ll soon finetune a list of your dreams by solidifying your understanding through list types and benefits. Text lists don’t have to be complex, so let’s clear up the hassle and get you started.

What Is a Text List?

A text list is just a list of contacts you can reach by SMS for marketing purposes. Text message marketing lists can be dozens of numbers long when you first start. Or later on, it can be thousands long once you establish a big list. Think of it as a handy contacts list.

A text marketing list is a necessary component of any SMS marketing campaign. The glue holds the whole campaign together, offering the contacts you need. You’ll have no chance of running a successful SMS marketing campaign without a good list.

It is exactly the same premise as collecting email subscribers; you get regular people to contact. After all, you don’t want to craft incredible marketing text messages only to receive crickets when you ping them out. Having a list of numbers gives you a clear path forward.

The days of manual records are mostly gone. It now consists of a massive database in the software of your choice. This database is on various software types, including marketing-specific databases.

It’s worth knowing that you can effectively link it to things like captive portal software if you wish. We’ll mention this later for the customer data collection stage.

What Is an SMS Text Blast?

An SMS text blast is just a method of sending texts en masse. For instance, rather than sending a promotion individually, you send it to a few hundred recipients simultaneously.

This is a useful term to have under your belt before we progress. While it isn’t just something used in SMS marketing, it is definitely a big part of SMS campaigns.

SMS lists function based on the premise that you can send texts en masse. Blasting texts to all your contacts is the leading benefit of SMS lists.

Top 5 Types of SMS List Messages

Let’s get into all the different SMS list messages you can send. It’s a surprisingly versatile tool. While people mainly associate it with a simple promotional message or two, many options exist.

In this section, we’ll look at the top five types of SMS messages you can use to target potential customers.

1. Promotional

The major type of SMS marketing is through promotional texts. These are texts that direct your recipients towards purchases. Think of discount codes and alerts for products. This could look like:

• 50% off all meals for two this week to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
• Happy birthday! To celebrate, here’s your personalized discount code for 40% off an item of your choice.
• Our supersonic coffee grinder is back in stock with a steal of a 20% discount.

2. Transactional

Transactional texts are more practical. These are reassuring and are the first point of contact post-sales. Because of this, they need to be concise, friendly, and timely. You can automate these so that you don’t have to worry about times when manually sending messages.

A few examples include:

• Thanks for your order! The team at Blue Ducks is hard at work processing your order.
• Thanks for your order! Orders take 24 hours to process, and we’ll send you a tracking link once your item/s are with delivery.
• Keep your eye on the post! We’ve received your order, and your item will be with you within 72 hours.

3. Feedback Messages

A great way to utilize SMS marketing is through feedback messages. You can automate feedback messages to run after purchases. This is a fantastic way to direct unhappy customers towards a venting channel before they leave a bad review. It’s also an excellent way to collect good reviews for testimonials and improve your business overall.

A few examples include:

• We’d love your feedback. Click here to fill out a 3-minute survey.
• How did we do? Let us know your experience with Blue Ducks in this short survey.
• Your experience is our priority. Click this link to fill out a quick feedback form.
• Could we have improved this service? Let us know how in this feedback form.

4. Text To Win

Text-to-win competitions are fun and use the temptation of prizes to increase engagement. In return, you can ask for a short survey or desirable engagement, like social media.

Then, you just ask customers to text a certain code or answer to win. It’s a great way to take control of engagement and build your SMS list.

Here are a few ideas:

• Follow Blueducks on Instagram for a chance to win a luxury hamper worth £1,000.
• What year was Blue Ducks founded? Text us the answer to be in with a chance of winning an overnight spa break.

5. Revival Texts

Revival texts are a smart way to get the attention back of customers who’ve pulled a disappearing act. You can time texts to go after a period of inaction, sending discounts to entice them to make another purchase. It’s a smart way to improve customer retention, and businesses of all sizes can use it.

Here are a few ideas:

• We’ve missed you! Here’s a 50% discount code to use on a product/service of your choice.
• Hey, stranger! Are you due another insert product or service? Here’s a 40% discount on your next order.

The Top 3 Benefits of Having SMS Lists

Lists are some of the most beneficial things you can use in business. Why? Because they are just gold dust on tap. That is, you have hundreds, if not thousands, of contacts you can contact at the drop of a hat.

You can use your pre-collected contacts rather than finding new contacts every time you send marketing content. We’ll take an in-depth look at the benefits of that and the rest of the benefits of SMS lists.

1. Cost-Efficient

Having a list is cost-efficient, so you don’t have to outsource and buy contacts. Incidentally, buying contacts is where most people go wrong in getting email subscribers for email marketing. Instead, you use consenting, real people (most pre-collected lists are scams with fake contacts anyway).

You create your list through passive means, such as captive portal collection. And through that, you build a really cost-efficient way of managing your SMS marketing.

2. Speed Through Batch Sending

When you have an SMS list, you can send it in batches. Believe us when we tell you this is a heaven-sent way to contact potential customers. Just prepare your promotional message and click send once to reach everyone on your list.

This speed means you have more hours to spend on other types of marketing. This is great, as the best campaigns are those with diverse approaches. You don’t want to put all your eggs in a single basket. And with batch-sending SMS messages, you don’t have to.

3. Warm Leads

Having a list of people who consent to regular contact is a great way to build a network of warm leads. Warm leads are those with whom you have a pre-existing relationship, so they are more likely to respond positively to contact.

This is better than going in cold and texting complete strangers. You are less likely to get a positive reaction from strangers and cold pitching. In fact, you’re more likely to get suspicions and people wondering whether you’re after their credit card details. So, having those regulars on marketing lists is a better way forward.

How To Send a “Please Subscribe” Text Message

To remain compliant with your SMS campaign, you must ensure that recipients opt-in with a please subscribe message. What’s definitely not on is bombarding poor people with non-consensual message after message. The best option is to send a message prompting people to subscribe, even after volunteering their number. This is an essential stage of explicit consent.

You could send an SMS like:

• Text OUT if you wish to opt out of receiving text messages.
• Text STOP to be immediately removed from our SMS list.

Or you could run a double opt-in style system:

• Text MORE to receive more deals and exclusive updates.
• Text ENTER if you’d like to subscribe and enter our competition.

The latter is important in text-to-subscribe campaigns, which typically use enticing rewards like competitions.

Beambox: Building Text Lists With WiFi

Now, we are on to the final stage. You must focus on moving forward and putting all this knowledge to good use. The best way to do this is by utilizing WiFi’s power for data collection. Sit tight because this is a major strategy.

When you run an in-person business, chances are you offer guest WiFi. 70% of guests in restaurants alone prefer venues with WiFi; it’s clear-cut that you’ll get better guest satisfaction. When collecting valuable SMS numbers and customer details, guest WiFi comes in the clutch.

You can quickly set up a captive portal system to collect SMS numbers for your list. Captive portals capture details from guests as they try to join your WiFi network but in a completely ethical way. A web page pops up when they click to join, barring further entry with a form.

In this form, you can request specific details, like SMS numbers. Once guests comply, they get full access to your WiFi, and you get valuable marketing details. It’s a win-win.

At Beambox, we can help you. We offer all-in-one WiFi marketing software with a captive portal system you can rely on. Start your Beambox free trial today, and we’ll help you build that text list.

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