Creating Lists and Building Your Database
All successful email and SMS marketing campaigns start with building messaging lists. Your should strive for healthy and engaged lists. This starts with successfully building and maintaining lists. Lists are a group of contacts that are interested in receiving your email or text messages.
The Spectrum Messaging platform makes it easy:
- To gather, store, organize, and edit your messaging contacts
- Sort contacts by email address, phone number, or both
- Group and segment contacts
- Add first name and last name, and any other data point to your contacts
What does a healthy and engaged sending list look like?
A healthy list is one that grows, and one that sees an overall increase. Your contacts will naturally unsubscribe. Unless you see high numbers with each message you send, this isn’t something to stress about, especially if your list is growing. Seeing an overall contact increase on your list is what you want.
An engaged sending list can also be defined as one with few unsubscribes, but more importantly, an engaged list will interact with your message. Engaged lists have consistent action with opens and clicks.
Total opens and open rates show how many contacts, and what percentage of them, are opening your emails. Clicks and click rate reporting shows who is clicking, and what is being clicked on. Measuring clicks is more important than measuring opens as clicks result in action being taken. Your marketing message becomes successful when action is taken.
How do you build and maintain lists?
Building a list and getting people to voluntarily provide their email and phone number can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. Keep things simple and be patient.
Here are some simple suggestions:
- Invite contacts to sign up in multiple places:
- Have forms on your website and social media
- Ask in person and post QR codes
- Offer incentives and introduce rewards programs
- Make the invitation clear and simple:
- Tell contacts what they are signing up for
- Make it easy to sign up
- Create keywords for easy opt-in:
- Contacts can join your list by texting one word
- Be sure to include a double opt-in when necessary:
- Sending text messages requires a double opt-in
- Make sure you are compliant
These simple suggestions, some with very little effort, will make your contact list grow. Despite your best efforts and effective strategy, some may still choose not to sign up. Don’t be discouraged. Remain optimistic and be patient. With time, your contact list will grow, and you’ll soon be sending lots of messages.
Building databases also requires some testing and measuring just like all other marketing. If you are not seeing your desired results, change things up. Not seeing enough subscribers? Change your strategy. Seeing too many unsubscribes? Change your message.
Opting In
Per the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), unsolicited text messages are prohibited. Before sending any marketing text messages, explicit permission must be received from your contacts. This can be performed with a simple double opt-in.
Being TCPA compliant also requires a transparent explanation of what they are signing up for. What will the messages include? How many will they receive? Who will they come from? These questions should be answered and explained before your contacts agree to receive your text messages.
Include a business name at the start of every text. State that message and data rates will apply and how many messages that can expect to receive each month. Always include an option and instructions to opt-out and unsubscribe.
Contact us to start building your lists and sending messages to your contacts.