Getting Email Addresses Via Text Message Marketing

In today’s Internet marketing world, email addresses are both the currency that fuels ad campaigns and the ultimate measure of the campaign’s success. Is it any wonder that email lists are held in such high regard, and consequently end up being exploited as much as they are?

Your future marketing campaigns depend on email addresses, and by using text messaging you can avail yourself of an instant audience, just ready to respond to your requests. How is this done, you ask? Take a look and see …

The Biggest Advantage Of Text Message Marketing

In order for you to prompt people for their email addresses via text messaging, you clearly must have a list of subscribers to your text messages already in place. That means that, within your grasp, you already have access to an entire database worth of people who are interested in what you have to say and what you’re offering. Granted, they may not all have the same level of interest, but the simple fact remains that at some point in time, they gave you their mobile contact information. They like you already; now you have to make them love you!

Convenience Is Key

The article “How SMS Marketing Helps You Capture Email Addresses” emphasizes the point that you have to make the process convenient for the customer. And thanks to the fact that smart phones and wireless Internet have reduced the average user’s attention span to slightly above that of a fruit fly, the bar for the definition of””convenience” has been radically raised.

In this particular instance, convenience means that they need to have a call to action that requires only a minimal effort. What’s more, the benefits of acting must clearly far outweigh the effort it takes to respond. More on that later.

Incidentally, the convenience concept goes both ways. Have you ever tried to secure people’s email addresses by having them write it down? Some folks’ handwriting is so illegible that you’d swear that you’re dealing with the largest concentration of doctors on the planet.

Then there are the hours required for someone in your company to manually enter those email addresses (once attempts are made to decipher them!). This adds up. No, text message marketing benefits both the company and the would-be customer.

Be Direct And Straightforward

So how do you approach people? This is where Occam’s Razor needs to be employed. The simplest answer is the correct one, and in this case, we mean by simply sending out a text message to your subscriber list that instructs people to text you if they would like to know more about your special promotions, customer loyalty clubs, upcoming events, or special deals.

You can make it either a two-tiered operation, in which they reply to your initial text using a code that you provide, which in turn sends them a second text that asks for their email address. Or, if you want to opt for a simple one-shot, just ask for their email address as a reply to the initial message.

But there needs to be incentive …

Make It Worth Their While

There is a special breed of mobile device users that have a love-hate relationship with their smart phones. On one hand, they appreciate the convenience of the device, the ability to pull up any kind of information they need or to make a call, or to check out things like the weather, movie times, or sports scores. On the other hand, it drives them crazy because, by carrying a phone, they are able to be reached at practically any time of the day or night, anywhere, for any reason. You can easily spot these people: they’re the ones who, when their phone goes off, roll their eyes and say something like “What fresh Hell is this?” or words to that effect.

There are more of them out there than you think, and here you are, trying to get them to commit to a deeper relationship with your business. Sounds like quite a challenge, doesn’t it? But that’s where perks come in handy, something that can win over even the most recalcitrant user.

If your initial text says something like “Exclusive happy hour savings. Interested? Text BOOZE!, and join our club!” , then you provide an incentive right off the bat, you will get their attention. After all, as observed before, they already made the initial effort of signing up for your text messages.

Avoid being too coy and cute. It may work sometimes, depending on the sort of business you have, but you don’t want to give people the impression that the initial message is just the first in a long chain of tasks they need to do in order to get the promised perk. A message like “We have something nice for you if you text NICE!” may serve to irritate more than anything else. If you don’t give people at least some idea of what they’re getting into, they’ll just ignore you. For instance, instead of NICE, what if they text FREETACOS instead? There are two things right there that everyone loves: free, and tacos.

In Closing …

Bear in mind that you’re dealing with skeptical customers as well as competing businesses who are also vying for their attention. Make it a short, sweet message that tells people up front that they will get something awesome, and you’ll see results. Good luck!