April 2023 - 25

TECHNOLOGY
Building Your List
Promotion is important when it comes to building a text
club subscriber list - and consistency is key.
" It's easy to grow as long as you put it in front of people, "
Castillo says. " Some of the things that I recommend
businesses do is put a flyer at every single cash register.
We give all of our clients an opt-in QR code, and it's cool
because when you scan it, it'll auto-fill the phone number
and the keyword, so that they just have to hit 'Send' - it's
a really easy way to get people opted in. "
She also suggests having flyers throughout the store.
" The back of bathroom doors is a really good place to put a
flyer because, come on, we all know we take our phones in
the bathroom with us.
" Put a pop-up on your website. We provide our clients a
pop-up widget, so they can put it on their website, collect
phone numbers from website traffic and also collect email
addresses on that same screen - so they can build your
email database at the same time as your text database. "
Contests and special offers are another effective way to
build a list.
" We have a client that does contests usually four times a
year around holidays - they partnered with a local jewelry
store to do a Valentine's giveaway with jewelry and flowers,
and then they'll do a Mother's Day package, a fall porch
package, and a Christmas package giveaway, " she says.
Contests are not only a really good way to get new opt-ins
but also to get people who are currently opted-in engaged,
entering the contest and sharing it with their friends.
" We offer $5 off a purchase just for joining, so it's pretty
easy to convince people to sign up, " Terrell says. She also
says it's important to have in-store Wi-Fi so customers can
easily connect to the internet when they're in your store
and redeem the offers they receive.
Terrell says even if you have a marketing platform
that's working for you, use that " to introduce your loyal
customers to the newest and best way to hear from you. "
More Isn't Always More
While it's great to be able to repurpose content for a text
club, sometimes more isn't more.
" I believe you have to be disciplined with it and not
send too many texts, " Lewis says, " but the platform allows
you to stress several things that you want to highlight
when you send one out. TapOnIt makes it where we
can use pictures in our texts, which is a big plus for our
business in particular. We plan on growing [our list] as
fast as possible and use it in addition to email for constant
communications with our customers. "
Castillo likens it to an email newsletter - it can contain
multiple pieces of info, and incorporating those multiple
pieces of content in a single text message has a better
chance of piquing someone's interest.
" Maybe I'm interested in the sale, but you're interested
in the fact that they're hiring for the summer, and so now
we both are going to take the next step in conversion of
that text message, but for different reasons. A business can
get more info across without having to send multiple text
messages about it.
" One of the reasons that I absolutely love working with
Meadows Farms
offers a special
discount for text
club members.
garden centers is because what they sell is so beautiful - it's
visual, so it makes so much more sense to send out pictures
of the products, as opposed to just words. You can either
say, 'Roses are in bloom' or you can send a picture of the
blooming roses; it's game changing for this industry. We
work with all sorts of different industries, but we've got a
lot of clients in [the green] industry, and when I'm able to
show them our platform, they're on the same page as me -
'Pictures for our industry is vital.' "
" I went with TapOnIt mainly because they were working
with other nurseries, and I felt like they were in tune with
what we needed as a nursery, " Lewis says. " The owner's
daughter worked at a nursery and they seem very aware of
the nursery business. "
" TapOnIt was our first foray into text marketing, " Terrell
says. " They brought the idea to us and it seemed to solve
all the issues I had with more traditional print/television
media (expensive, hard to track ROI and reach).
" As someone who has listened to countless pitch
meetings with television reps and print media reps
touting frequency and reach, etc., I would recommend
actually listening to a demo on text message marketing, "
she says. " It is very different and makes a lot more sense.
One of the keys is to get your staff on board with signing
people up and understanding the redemption process. It's
supposed to be easy for the customer, so all staff should
be able to help people sign up, view their offers and
redeem them easily. "
April 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of April 2023
