Text subscription service: Everything you need to know

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Modern consumers want to have more direct interactions with brands. They also want the engagement to be more personal. 72% of consumers say they respond only to marketing messages tailored to their interests.

Building a more detailed picture of your customers while also communicating more directly with them can be a challenge, but creating an SMS subscriber list can answer both demands.

So, what is a text subscription service, and how can you use one to improve your communication with leads and customers?

What is a text subscription service?

A text subscription service enables you to build a list of customers’ and leads’ mobile numbers to text, individually or as a group.

Most services let you create multiple lists so you can send different texts to each group of contacts. They can send marketing messages, updates, and more to new leads and existing customers who subscribe.

There are several ways to add contacts to an SMS subscriber list. However, an online subscribe form is ideal. Adding a subscribe form to your site pages ensures leads always know how to opt-in and the benefits.

Subscribe forms also make it easy to ask for extra details from contacts when they sign up. As a result, you can send more relevant marketing messages to each subscriber.

Textmagic offers a wide range of features to manage and interact with subscribers, including an easy-to-use subscribe form builder.

Why create a text subscription service?

There is a growing demand from consumers for SMS marketing.

• 75% of people want to receive texts with special offers.
• and 64% say businesses should text them more often.

Creating a text subscriber list doesn’t just meet this demand; it also opens the door to a range of marketing and customer service opportunities.

What can you do with an SMS subscriber list?

Setting up a text subscription service is the first step to using SMS to improve your marketing and customer service. These are just a few examples of what you can do with an SMS subscriber list:

Share news and updates

Keeping subscribers updated with your latest product or service launches or other news relevant to customers helps maintain their engagement with your business, as well as letting them know about changes and new products that might interest them.

Non-profit organization SAWA-Australia uses their text subscriber list to keep supporters informed of upcoming events more reliably than using email, which often went unread until it was too late to act.

Distribute special offers

Offering exclusive discounts via SMS to subscribers is a great way to reward their loyalty.

It also encourages more people to sign up and benefit from the discounts. The immediacy of texting enables limited-time offers that encourage users to act quickly.

Furthermore, SMS discount codes are easy to share. Subscribers can forward your offer to their friends, creating word-of-mouth marketing for your business.

SMS surveys

SMS surveys are a great way to get feedback from subscribers and customers about your service. Simple multiple-choice questions can generate valuable feedback quickly.

Lead qualification

Quick SMS questionnaires let you automate the early stage of lead qualification. With their answers, you can group subscribers into more specific mailing lists based on their responses. This enables you to send marketing messages that are more relevant to each lead.

Bookings and appointments

An SMS subscriber list makes it easy to fill last-minute openings in your schedule by texting out vacant time slots. This can cut losses because of cancellations and no-shows while also reducing them with text reminders.

For example, West Yorkshire electricians ElectricBlu Contractors reduced wasted time because of missed appointments by almost 80% with SMS reminders.

Text subscription service best practices

SMS marketing regulations protect consumers from spam and annoying text practices.

It is vital to understand and follow the rules that apply in each of your operating regions, as these can differ from country to country. Breaking these rules doesn’t just result in fines; it also damages your relationship with your subscribers.

While the rules change from one region to the next, there are some best practices you can follow to respect consumer privacy. These will help you stay on the right side of most SMS marketing regulations and get the best results from your text subscription service:

Only send messages users opted into

You should always outline the type of messages subscribers will receive. You need user consent for each type of message you send. If a visitor to your online store subscribes to text alerts when an item is in stock, they haven’t permitted to send marketing about anything else.

Always ask users for consent before texting them about anything unrelated to their original opt-in.

Only text during working hours

In most areas, restrictions prevent you from texting subscribers early in the morning or late at night. Even where there aren’t, this is a bad idea. People don’t want to receive marketing texts during these times. They are also more likely to be asleep or too busy getting ready for work to read your message.

Make it easy to opt-in

You won’t get many subscribers if opting in is tedious. Try to keep the number of required fields in your subscribe form to a minimum. This reduces friction for less motivated leads to sign up.

Remember that you can qualify leads using SMS surveys later down the line. This means asking for less effort upfront from subscribers. If you need to use more than 3-5 form fields, breaking the form down into a multi-step process avoids presenting users with a page-long form to fill out.

Make it easy to opt-out

Every marketing text you send should contain simple instructions on how to stop messages, and this process should be simple. Always include a keyword to remove users from the mailing list, such as STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE.

You should also provide this information during the opt-in process so subscribers know upfront that they can unsubscribe easily.

SMS subscriber lists can benefit businesses of any kind

The versatility of text subscription services means they offer benefits to any B2C or B2B business. Building an SMS subscriber list enables everything from lead generation and follow up to customer support and sales.

Textmagic offers a complete suite of text subscription service features for every purpose from marketing, customer support, feedback, and more.